It's an exciting time to be playing WoW, what with the WoTLK alpha information leaking out (Thanks for risking your eternal soul to break the NDA, anonymous screenshotter!) and 2.4 being pretty much a roaring success. By now, I'm sure everyone has settled in and is making plans for WoTLK, figuring out which zone they'll go to first, maybe setting aside a bit of money from all those dailies to powerlevel a trade skill.

So, I was thinking the other day of one more thing I was planning: switching mains. We've discussed the art of switching mains a bit before, but there's always a lot of hassles to it: there's the concern that you'll fall behind your friends, the concern that your gear won't be good enough, the concern that you'll have to grind your reputation up for certain keys and essential reputation rewards all over again.

A new expansion is just the ticket for getting rid of most of those problems. As long as your character is max level at the start of WoTLK, they can catch up on gear pretty quickly just from level 71 greens and quest rewards. Everyone's starting out grinding all the new WoTLK reputation grinds, so no worries that you're behind on those either. Despite being on a relatively "new" character, you'll be able to join your friends in Utgarde Keep right away.

So the reasons not to switch mains mostly manage to resolve themselves when a new expansion hits, and the question becomes, do you want to switch mains, and why?

For me, I still love my Druid. I enjoy Druid tanking, and I have a back story for him that's offered up some great roleplay. I'll feel sort of guilty to leave him on mothballs for a while. But there's two truths I've come to realize - or rather, two truths I've known for a while, really.

Firstly, of my current level 70 characters, I probably like my Hunter more. Working with a shot rotation is bringing out a theorycrafting side I never knew I had, and I genuinely enjoy working with traps and kiting and having a pet and all the other stuff that comes with hunterdom. Beyond that, I have always wanted to play a Death Knight. It was the class I originally planned to play when I first heard that Warcraft was going to have an MMORPG, and now that that class will actually be implemented, I feel like it's my duty to at least try one out. If I find I like Death Knights to any degree, I'll have a new main. If not, my Hunter will probably get my main love. My Druid... well, he'll enjoy a nice semi-retirement in the Grizzly Hills for a while, most likely.

There's other reasons to change your main too. I even know some people who plan to switch their priest from one race to another come WoTLK just for certain racial spells. Our own Matthew Rossi is already making plans to switch from his Human Warrior to his Draenei Warrior once the expansion hits (he figures his guild wouldn't be happy with the 8000 point drop in HP if he switched beforehand).

Are you in a similar boat? Do you plan to switch mains in WoTLK for a new class or a new race? Are there any other reasons to switch mains?

Tags: alts, backstory, character-switching, characters, gear-reset, level-71-greens, main-switching, mains, new-character, racial-abilities, reputation-grind, switching-your-main, symbol-of-hope, wotlk

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast Topics, Expansions, Leveling, Classes, Alts, Wrath of the Lich King