Breakfast Topic: My paladin turned out to be a ninja
by Brian Farrell 
May 27th 2010 at 8:00AM
Back around the time faction changes came out, my old guild decided en masse to change over to the Horde. I logged on one morning after a week's vacation, saw nobody in the guild, and when I popped into Vent, I found out where everyone had gone. I transferred over my main, we wrecked ToC and then later ICC and For the Horde, and all was good. A few weeks ago, I realized I was bored and wanted to transfer over my level 80 draenei pally for another alt to play and to farm frost badges with. My choices were obviously limited to blood elf. I didn't particularly like either character model or their animations, and after 15 minutes of staring at the character recustomization screen, I flipped a coin and it came down to blood elf female.
I absolutely hated it at first. The animations were silly looking, and she ran funny. I was broke after that, so I decided to grin and bear it. A few days passed, and I tanked my way from one end of the dungeon finder to the other. It was in a heroic Drak'tharon Keep, after I had pulled the entirety of the room before Trollgore and was facing down 13 or 14 Scourge trying desperately to kill my overgeared self, that I watched my paladin dodge, parry and block at a rapid pace. She wasn't just mitigating damage; it honestly looked like she was dancing. I was reminded of gun-fu scenes like from The Matrix where characters duck, dodge and dash their way around dangers. My paladin was a ninja.
From then on, I loved my blood elf female pally and all her silly animations (except for the casting ones ... still not too keen on them). What similar situations have you been in, when something you thought would be awful turned out to be absolutely amazing?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
ZakuDoom May 27th 2010 8:06AM
I was always fond of the blood elf female polearm ( no need for crude jokes I'm aware of how that sounds) animations, after a strike they twirl it around their back and pass it to the other hand.
Hal May 27th 2010 8:33AM
Actually, I felt the same way about Draenei and polearms. I love the way they twirl it, toss it in the air, then take a big ol' swing with it.
Not sure why I never went Ret because of it. Tanking just appealed to me too much. That, and the utter lack of polearms throughout the game; the few that you find here and there seem to be hunter weapons.
Pat May 27th 2010 9:53AM
Draenei and Crossbows. The first time I seen the reload animation I was hooked. There is a real lack of crossbows in WoW though.
thegatherer May 27th 2010 10:20AM
That also happens with two handed staves with draenei,
Draenei do the same thing with their guns, the twirlly bit
Arturis May 27th 2010 11:50AM
If you ever are in the mood for an instantaneous self-induced cringe, watch the Blood Elf Female's dagger stabbing animation from the side - it looks like her wrist is snapping completely off.
*shudder*
Padre May 27th 2010 12:01PM
my gnome rogue engineer has had 2 transporter accidents that turned her into other races for an hour. one turned her into a belf female, and i hated the animations, arms flailing about everywhere
The other one turned her into a male tauren. For an hour, I was a tauren rogue. I can't complain about that.
Dave May 27th 2010 3:22PM
Tauren rogue FTW! I love that debuff! Hands down my favorite debuff in the game. And it persists through death! Going into BG's as a Tauren rogue is absolute win.
Thel May 27th 2010 8:10AM
Your paladin looks more like a pirate in that photo. Arrr!
Ogri May 27th 2010 8:10AM
Healing! After playing wow for almost three years I decided to do something else than dps or tanking. So I created a shaman and started to level as a healer in random dungeons. Now I can't stop LFR. I haven't logged on to my hunter main or warrior and DK alts in several days, even my banker toon gets less love now that I found out how fun healing is. While I didn't expect it to be awful to heal, I never thought it would be so fun :)
Evelinda May 28th 2010 8:45PM
ah, i did the same thing! was levelling a druid during bc, got her to 70 about two weeks before wotlk launched... server transferred her coz of the queues, and ended up abandoning all my other chars for almost a year, because i discovered the joy of healing. I ended up reuniting her, along with a priest i'd levelled to 80, with my original toons.. and then i levelled two more healing alts from there, a pally and shammy i'd pretty much abandoned. I've got one of each healing class to 80 now, because its SO MUCH FUN
seamus May 27th 2010 8:16AM
You were broke after spending $25 on a faction change? Dude....I don't know where to begin with that. Uhm, priorities much?
Trandom Kaggus May 27th 2010 8:20AM
Don't take everything so literally. I'm sure he meant "I just spent money on a faction change and spending more on WoW in the same week would be silly because I do have other things to pay for".
But that's so long winded!
zubbiefish May 27th 2010 8:22AM
Hey now, you're not considdering that maybe that $25 was all the "fun money" he's allowing himself this week. Or maybe sudden unemployment. Or even alowance money...
You don't know.
Choosing to even spend the $25 in the first place isn't an easy thing for some folks.
As for "Uhm, priorities much?", I don't even know where to begin with that.
Hiwa May 27th 2010 8:46AM
Yah dude, you ever heard of a 'budget'? Ya know, where mom and dad don't pay for everything and, like, you gotta stretch your money from paycheck to paycheck? I know it's a bummer and all, but that's the real world for you.
Swifteye May 27th 2010 10:31AM
You know why I'm addicted to WoW? Because $15 a month is FAR less to spend on an entertainment budget than the price of going to the movies these days, or one dinner out for my boyfriend and I, or going bowling, or CERTAINLY going out drinking, or, or, or......
I do grow weary of people who say "If you can afford to pay for internet, if you can afford to pay for WoW, surely you can also afford _________". Because it's simply not true sometimes.
So why are *you* playing WoW when you should be out sailing? Because obviously you're alive, which means you can afford to eat, and if you can afford to eat that means you can also afford to buy a yacht, right?
Vangelis May 27th 2010 12:22PM
I know what you mean swifteye. I pay for WoW using a 60 day gamecard or failing that a 3 month sub which works out at £8.00 or so...
When Avatar came out i went to see that in 3d at 10am and it cost me £25.00 for two tickets.
30 days Wow or 2/3rds of a film/3 pints of beer/30 cigarettes.
I love wow because it is a bargain for the amount of stuff there is to do
Seamus May 27th 2010 1:13PM
Oh my. I seem to have struck a nerve.
The author didn't mention "fun money" or a "budget" or limits on spending or anything of the sort. He said he was broke. That's a fairly clear term and I took him at his word. I'm well aware of living paycheck to paycheck. I have a family of four myself to think about.
My only point was that if I ever find myself spending my last $25 (or anywhere close to that, really) on WoW of all things, I'm going to quit the game and seriously re-assess my priorities. Maybe I'll decide it was money well-spent and continue playing. But I don't think so. I think that's a clear danger sign and anyone who thinks differently is fooling themselves.
Cyanea May 27th 2010 5:40PM
I knew the first "reads too deeply into this" comment would be on the first page. I just didn't think it would be so high up!
Of course 25$ didn't leave me destitute on the street corner selling handjobs to feed myself. I have plenty of money in my bank account to continue to eat. I said "broke" because it was simpler than saying "I'm a college student with no income at the moment, so spending another 25$ just to change the sex of my character when I'm not likely to enjoy the male's animations any more than the female's after spending 25$ for a faction change AND 15$ a month just to play is a bit big for my budget".
See? It's called economy of words when you write. Of course I'm not BROKE. But I'm also convinced that you people don't want to know every detail of my boring little life.
Cleverly disguised as normal May 27th 2010 8:18AM
I had kinda had the reverse with my male Draenei Shammy, completely loved the huge blue Russian goat monster from space at first but after years of getting stuck in doorways, stairs and under low hanging tree branches, etc. I beginning to hate the big lunk. Plus because he is so big he feels incredibly slow when running and has a tendency to fall to his death off edges because you can't see through his thick girth. I do love (love, hate? it's all the same right?) him though; he has some great animations and emotes, I love his jokes and his model is way better than vanilla races. I will however race swap to a dwarf when it becomes available due to their smaller size, awesome beards, love of booze and shear awesome-sauce-ness!!! But I'll all ways have a spot for the azure colossal in my heart!
Zuckerdachs May 27th 2010 9:40AM
Once you go blue, you'll never want to be anything but. Just sayin'. You'll be back.