Midsummer 2010, or "More Pets, Less Waiting"

For refreshing your Midsummer memories, feel free to look at my 2009 and 2008 festival posts.

Confirmed:

You can get a bag of goodies off the boss once a day.

You can run the boss for cloaks as much as you want.

A Blue says that the Scorchling is no longer available, though some players claim to have gotten it in their bag this year and the phrase "does not appear to be available" is pretty wishy-washy. New info tells us the Scorchling is not out of the game, it's just not on Ahune anymore. It will be available from a different source in the future, along with other elemental pets. No further info on what that source is or when we'll see it.

The following definitely drop from the bag:

• Ice elemental pet.
• Frostscythe.

Tips on using this holiday to gain experience faster than normal:

Use the poles at ANY town to get a (60 minute) 10% xp buff on killing monsters (not on quests). This stacks with heirlooms.

Tested XP on LVL 30 Mobs:

• Base XP: 112 xp
• Holiday Buffed: 123 xp
• 2 Heirlooms: 134 xp
• Shoulders & Buffed: 134 xp
• Chest & Buffed: 134 xp
• 2 Heirlooms & Buffed: 146 xp

Wear your heirlooms. The chest and shoulders give you 20% faster leveling. If you have the ring from the Fishing Derby, you can have up to a 25% experience increase just from the items.

Do instances. My only lowbie alt left is a tank. I don't even quest anymore. I just tank. If you're dps, queue while you quest for some fast xp. Healers and tanks insta-queue.

Use a questing guide. People underestimate the usefulness of guides, especially if you're using heirlooms to speed your way through the sections. I have personally leveled every character by James' horde and alliance guides and saved a ton of time. I even got to skip entire sections due to the xp boosts.

Do the bonfire quests. Every little bit of extra xp helps, right?

Get rested whenever possible.

On a 36 mob:

• Heirlooms + Buffed + Rested: 442 xp
• Heirlooms + Buffed: 234 xp