My method was go fast and hard to 70. When my Pali hit 58 I immediately dropped all old world quests and went to outland where I ground mobs, quests, and dungeons, on my way to 70. I had some regret over this afterwards, but that is for another time. My wife; however, took her time, she would run stuff she wanted to and spent plenty of time experiencing the journey to 70, both the good and bad. Last night was no different. Our set up for our computers is almost right next to each other, which allows me to stop and help her (or yell, unfortunately at times......we are all human). Even before the group began to run, she stated she did not like the fact that I was not there to hold the guild members in line and make sure things remained as smooth as possible. I reassured her things would be fine. She had one of our best tanks in the guild, who has much experience and has been playing WoW much longer than I have, a geared rogue with good experience, a veteran player who rolled a new ret pali (which she is working on learning to play effectively), and a prot pali who was there for gear and the experience of the run. They started off fairly good and while they had trouble at certain times (and who wouldn't with taking to prot specs on a heroic run), but they managed to complete the run. When the final boss dropped, my wife had a look of accomplishment, happiness, and relief on her face. It was one of the first times she has ran something as the main healer without me being in a group. It was amazing to see the confidence that one simple run gave her, and also the since of accomplishment that she felt. It was a great thing to see, and in some ways, it is ashame that more of us "veteran" players do not get to experience the newness of these moments.
This post was originally published on November 8, 2008, on the original Holy Shock blog site.