If you’ve read the “About the Author?” page on this blog you know by now, that the characters I currently play are not the ones I started out with.
I used to play Alliance. *gasp* I know.
I used to play a healer, not dps. *gasp* Yeah, I know.
I used to raid five days a week, be a class leader and be in charge of all healing during raids, not sit around Shattrath transmuting Primal Earth into Primal Air and get bored. *doublegasp* Yeah, I know…
When my family and I (there’s four of us) decided to leave our guild and realm and start over, we were presented with two choices: Rename and transfer our characters and pick up where we left off somewhere else, or start over from scratch.
The reasons we decided to leave were many fold. Too many people in the leadership of the guild were pulling in too many different directions. Too many different opinions on how things should be handled and too much indecisiveness. Too much weight on too few peoples shoulders. The result was that we lost our flame, could no longer see the fun in the game and towards the end even dreaded turning on the computer and facing the log-in screen. To get to the point: it was simply time for a change.
Being the optimist that I am, I felt that starting over from scratch would be equivalent to a second chance. I’d get to do everything over again, only better this time. It’s kind of like taking the code of an old website and changing it, versus writing new code from scratch. Starting fresh is cleaner and has more potential.
Being the sentimentalist that I am, I did not feel right taking my old main from her home. Forcing her to leave her past and the name she had made for herself behind, only to start over somewhere new, where none of her hard work would matter.
So the choice for me was simple, I wanted to start fresh. Fortunately (I don’t know if for the same reasons) my family wanted to make the same choice and so we decided to start over from scratch and build something new together.
Starting over meant we could (and had to) choose what opportunities and limitations we would have once we got to 70 and eventually on in Wrath to 80. We all voted for endless hours of raiding and epics raining from the skies! Well at least some raiding…
Since there’s four of us and we all love PvE the most, we figured we’d be able to do all instances up to heroics together (without really needing a fifth member), if only we were smart with creating the characters so that they would complement each other. Four characters designed together would also be a decent start for building a 10-man group for Karazhan and maybe even for Wrath of the Lich King, since all raiding-content will be doable on 10-man level. Maybe not as mighty as 25-man, but it has it’s appeals.
Four characters designed together to complement each other is almost half way to seeing all the content the next expantion has to offer. This is no small thing.
Now I know not everyone is in the same situation as us, not everyone decides to start new somewhere else, but I think a lot of us are looking over our choice of main at the moment, since the introduction of the Wrath of the Lich King means we all get a fresh start in a way.
So how to choose what to play?
To PewPew or not to PewPew
Once we decided we wanted to play Horde and found a server we liked, we still had to decide what to play. We had already decided that we wanted our characters to match, i.e. someone had to roll a tank and someone a healer, the other two some sort of dps classes.
Here’s where I think we made the wrong choice. I used to be a healer and Masque used to be a tank. Idara and Malignant used to play dps classes. And we were all really really good at what we did, but given the chance to start fresh, we wanted to try out something different. Idara wanted to try out tanking and Malignant agreed to heal, which left me and Masque with the PewPew. I chose a Mage since I’ve always loved playing casters and I’ve always had a weak spot for Mages in particular. Masque chose to play a shadowpriest.
The reason I say that this is where I think we made the wrong choice is that even though we all did really well in our new roles, it eventually turned out that not everyone was happy. There’s a good reason we used to play the roles we used to play, and it turned out that switching around was not as grand an idea as we first thought it would be. So now we find ourselves in the situation, where (because one person was not happy with their role) we all need to rethink what we will play. Which to some extent means leveling new characters… again.
The Lesson
Now here comes the greatest advice I wish to give to anyone who is considering re-rolling and the main reason I decided to write this post:
What you choose to play should be influenced by two main things (1) what part of the game are you interested in and (2) what are the people around you playing.
1.) what part of the game are you interested in: If your main goal is to become champion over the arena, you should choose a class that performs well in the arena. To find out which class is best suited for this you can look at the top arena teams and see what classes they have to help you decide.
If your main goal is to PvE (and here is where (2) also plays in) you should consider what you are good at. Not everyone has the right mindset to be a tank. Consider what you enjoy doing and ask yourself what is more important: what role/class you play or what part of the game you play. If you plan on raiding on a serious level, you’ll most probably be stuck with the first character you level to 80 so make sure you choose what you really wanted. You should think twice before choosing a healer, even if you’re really good at healing, if you find healing boring, since you otherwise risk to loose your raiding spot while you level a new character.
2.) what are the people around you playing: If you are in the same situation as me, that you play with other people, or if you already are in a raiding guild where most raiders are regular attendants, you’ll have to consider where there might be room for you. For the four of us, one tank was enough. Having two tanks or even three would have spoiled our entire leveling experience when it comes to doing instances. In a guild, it could be that there are too many dps. Choosing to re-roll to a dps class if you are one of the few healers in this guild, might cost you the spot in the guild/raid.
And if your main goal is to see new content and you don’t have a guild to play with, you should scout your server to see what roles are most needed. In general, tank is the role there is most demand for at the moment, but this does not apply to end-game raiding, since 25-mans require fewer tanks-per-capita then 5-mans. This could also change once the expantion goes live, since Death Knights will be able to tank, though this is not certain, since many might choose to play as dps.
In conclusion
When choosing what to play, you should first decide what part of the game you are interested in and then make a choice:
Do you want to experience that part of the game at the cost of playing exactly what you want? I love raiding, a team of people working together towards a common goal. I love to explore new content. As much as I like dps, I can be very much content and even happy with being a healer or tank, if this will get me into raids.
Or do you want to play exatly what you love at the cost of seeing certain parts of the game? I have a friend who chose to be a Moonkin and never ever anything else, but he has accepted the fact that there is not always room for him because of this.
I myself want to experience the social part of the game and to see as much content as possible. So as much as I love playing my Mage, I will be switching over to play a druid instead, since I feel the hybrid classes best fit my goals in the game. By choosing a hybril, I am flexible and will be able to play whatever part needed, thus hopefully always ensuring myself a spot in a group.
Others might prioritize differently.
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The reason I wrote this post is that I find it very important that we reflect over our actions and that we are aware of the consequences of our choices beforehand, so that we have a greater chance to choose right from the start. I hope this was helpful.
Regards,
Aendi
Voodoo Ventures 