14 DAY TRIAL // Doubleagent the Insane is a fitting title for the only player in the world to have ever hit level 90 without ever choosing a faction in Blizzard Entertainment's massively multiplayer online role-playing game, World of Warcraft.
The Pandaren Shaman is far from your average player, as he has yet to choose between the Alliance and the Horde, resulting in him still being neutral, in spite of the fact that he has just dinged 90.
Being stuck on his native land, an island on the back of a giant tortoise, meant that the only way he could level his toon was through gathering, so he became the most dedicated herbalist and miner in the entire Azeroth.
Doubleagent's daring feat is complete, after 4164 hours of logged-in time, but this isn't the end of the journey, as the player has said that he intends to level to 100 when Warlords of Draenor, the upcoming expansion coming out later this year, raises the level cap.
The challenge started in September 2012, after a friend of Doubleagent proposed a bet. After completely exhausting all the available quests on the island and all the other practical ways of earning xp for his Shaman, like mob grinding, he had to resort to extreme measures.
"Thought about doing this when I heard about Pandaren being neutral until level 10. Knowing that herbalism and mining nodes gave experience, I figured if the zone had any of them it would probably be possible to level higher than intended. And when I did finally start, one of my friends thought I'd reach some kind of cap on the isle and that I wouldn't reach 90... So it kind of encouraged me to continue even more so than before," Doubleagent explains.
"Starting at around level 29 or so the experience for these nodes stay the same all the way to 90. Peacebloom, Silverleaf, Copper - 20 experience, Earthroot - 30 experience. Of course if you're not rested the experience value is half of that. But once I got to the higher levels, running out of rested experience wasn't an issue," the player points out.
As later levels require millions upon millions of experience points for a single level up, the amount of time and dedication it took to reach this colossal feat is astounding – over 170 full days of in-game time.
Of course, he wasn't alone in his adventure, as many players stopped by to encourage him and show their support. Doubleagent has said that he doesn't intend to pick a faction for his Pandaren, and that if after the next expansion hits he isn't able to go past 90, he'll just park his character at that level forever, as the only occupant of the Wandering Isle to reach 90 without joining the intruders' war.
