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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: Is your main a former alt?
by Vincent Brodbeck 
Oct 26th 2010 at 8:00AM
My love of WoW started pretty slowly. Off and on since probably vanilla, I'd sign up for the 10-day free trials. Though the game was interesting and enjoyable, I never cared enough to actually buy a subscription -- that is, until I started my lovely undead female rogue. There was just something about sneaking through the shadows, baiting my targets and emerging in a flurry of blows to dispatch my adversaries before retreating to the darkness from whence I came. I loved it. I couldn't get enough of it. So I bought the expansions and signed up. I had become a full-fledged WoW player. I dinged 80, joined a guild, raided Naxx and Ulduar and even became one of our best DPSers. Life as a rogue was good.
At some point, I decided it would be fun to start leveling a shaman. I'm not going to lie; it was awful at first. Going from the quick-moving, quick-killing, quick-thinking rogue to a troll who just dopily stood there slowly casting Lightning Bolt as his enemy wailed on him was not even almost fun. But everything changed once I got a few BoAs for him and started leveling as enhancement. I had found a new love. Everything about enhancement was just so much better than being a rogue: pretty colors, flashy spells and much more variety in rotation -- not to mention the ability to heal if I ever get bored of beating the snot out of every monster I see.
Now, my shaman is geared in four pieces of tier 10 with all the top-end enchants and gems, and even my resto off spec isn't far behind. Meanwhile, my rogue languishes at the top of character select screen in welfare epics, never having seen the inside of ToC or ICC -- and she probably never will. And honestly, I don't know if I feel guilty for abandoning her.
Has anyone else had this experience? Have you ever leveled an alt for fun, only to discover it was more enjoyable than your main? Has leveling an alt ever given you a newfound love and appreciation for the game?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 9)
Lorendi Oct 26th 2010 8:10AM
After playing my lock in vanilla, bc, and mid wrath, I got bored of him so I rolled a dk. I had always pvpd on my lock never did any raids, and after leveling my dk, I started doing my first raids and needless to say I loved it.
I missed all of ulduar when it was top tier, but jumped right into toc and had a blast tanking my first raids. Now my dk is my main with all 264s and 8/12 heroic icc, but I didn't forget about my lock. I raid with him every now and then but the lfg has made me impatient with 10 minute queues so I just end up doing low end arena with buds of mine.
Caine Oct 26th 2010 8:18AM
I started playing in 05, had a warlock.
raided through to WotLK, where I made a DK my main.
My guild then needed healers so I offered to make a paladin, now it has the ICC10 mount
Steve Oct 26th 2010 8:10AM
I started raiding with an Undead Warlock in BC and he was my main all the way through Trial of the Crusader. I became burned-out on DPS and switched to healing with a Blood-Elf Priest I had been leveling as an alt. She is now my main and I don't think I'll ever look back on DPS; healing is now my passion.
Kurly Oct 26th 2010 8:11AM
Same story here. My first toon was a hunter. I loved my hunter. My wolf could tank toons for me while I dispatched them from afar. But this all happened before I discovered raiding, so after I hit level cap (70 at the time) I decided to try something completely different.
I leveled my priest as shadow to 70 then respecced to Holy and started healing Kara. I loved it and my poor hunter got pushed to the side. I have since leveled a mage, warlock, rogue, and 2 druids to 80 but my priest is my main and the poor hunter rarely sees daylight.
veil Oct 26th 2010 9:18AM
oh look...fellow hunter turned priest. former hunter as well since launch (night elf too...ha), then when it became sadly apparent everybody and their sister was a night elf hunter, rerolled a priest to actually feel useful. priest as main until bc when i wanted to be a hunter again (everybody was getting their shaman/pally on) and was a hunter until lk was released, when the dk became my main. the priest is my other "main", but sadly the hunter has been sitting in the timeout chair for a number of years. the pets are probably all skeletons at this point in the stable...
Neytiri Oct 26th 2010 8:16AM
I played my hunter when I first started playing wow, and it was always my main up until patch 4.0.1. I leveled a mage, pally, and shammy to 80 and I'm really glad I did because now my resto shammy is my main, and I have Kingslayer on my hunter and shaman. I think my hunter is going to be retired because everything I loved about playing hunter was destroyed when they took away mana and replaced it with focus. She just doesn't feel right anymore...
Andostre Oct 26th 2010 8:16AM
Started a Dwarf Warrior, whom I still love. However, I started a Human Priest to play with my wife's Human Rogue, and there's so many cool things to do with a Priest (not to mention I'm always in demand as a healer), so he's my main, now.
fernando Oct 26th 2010 8:16AM
moved from hunter to rogue
The Pirate Oct 26th 2010 8:17AM
My first character was a Warrior. I got him to 65 then i decided i wanted a change of pace. I thought about becoming a Hunter. Needless to say, in my guild, im now known as the Hunter Master. I know everything there is to know about them and i live/breathe them. So yeah, im glad i decided on a change of pace :P
Aaron Oct 26th 2010 8:17AM
I stay confused about who is my main. I have 5 80s and I like certain things about all of them, but trying to get them all equal play time is impossible. It really just comes down to which ever I feel like playing at the time. My hunter has gone the farthest in raiding and is decked out in the all ICC 25 man gear, my pally has the most mounts, vanity pets, achievements, exalted reps, titles, quests completed, etc. My lock was the first toon I ever rolled so he's been with me the longest and I try to hop on him daily. My druid has been seeing a ton of battlegrounds recently and my rogue wins all the rare mounts, vanity pets, etc. My little good luck charm. x-D It's like trying to pick a favorite child and I just can't do that. ;-)
jacksworth Oct 26th 2010 8:18AM
the first character i ever made was an orc warrior, just after BC launched. i played him for 2 years as my main.
i abandoned him for a rogue just before wotlk came out. for a while the only reason i would log on him was to use his professions.
for cata i think i will main my priest (who was actually my second 70 and second 80).
some people can play the same character year in, year out. but i cant. i get bored, so i move on.
Josin Oct 26th 2010 8:18AM
About a year into Burning Crusade, my guild was butting it's head against Karazhan. One of our tanks was an Arms warrior who went to tanking because we were in dire need of a second tank. He tried, but he wasn't very good. I decided to level a Prot warrior to fill that spot, so that he could go back to DPS.
I fell in love with it. I really enjoy the playstyle of Protection Warriors, and the deep toolbox makes it great for soloing, especially through Wrath content, where anything that required a group smaller than 5 was solo content, due to my higher survivability.
I can't want to get into Cataclysm with her.
mechabahamut Oct 26th 2010 8:19AM
Ah yes, this has happened to me. I played a balance druid for almost four years. I loved being a moonkin (in the later part of those years, of course). I loved leveling alts as well, but always went back to my druid when I parked those toons. However, in December of last year, I leveled my Death Knight. I loved Frost. Loved it so much. I never played a tank before, and I always thought it was amazing how my fiance, a prot paladin, shouldered so much responsibility as a tank in instances and raids.
The combination of these two things really kept me playing my DK. I never tanked with her ( a pink haired Gnome DK - courtesy of my fiance's suggestion, I do love her though), until I hit 80. Then I started gearing up as fast as I could.
I was fully geared in ... gosh, was it two weeks, in tier 9 gear. Now we can do it so much faster, of course, but for me to be playing this "hardcore" was unheard of at the time. I was almost casual then.
Then I started tanking in earnest. I ended up taking my Gnome DK to more and more raids and my Moonkin to less and less. I became a darned good tank (not nearly the best, but pretty good, I think), and I LOVE it. I love those little grunts my little Gnome makes as she stabs so many things with her axe. SO CUTE!
Anyway, my DK is my main. My Moonkin is now a parked alt. She has most t10 though, I think only two or three pieces under 251, but still... I almost feel as though part of me has... died a bit. (not a dk pun, promise).
DK tanking made WoW FUN for me. I mean not just fun, but OMFG THIS IS FUN. To start off with, Frost tanking was /hard/. It was NOT ranged dps, which was a lot easier for me to do. And now, after all this time, it seems like dps is hard for me to do. :blinks: It's weird.
But anyway, yeah. There's my story.
Good morning! :D
coraldayton Oct 26th 2010 8:20AM
I've played off and on since 2006 when I first bought Vanilla. I was thoroughly engrossed in it. I started a Human Paladin on a RP server with a friend and got him all the way to level 45 in 4 months before I stopped playing due to issues that occurred. From that point on, I would buy a gamecard every 6 months or so and play for like 20 days before going back into inactivity. During all of this time, I had leveled about 3 or 4 characters from level 1-40, so I knew the beginning content fairly well.
Fast forward from 2007 to 2009 and I got pulled back in - I bought WotLK, got a gamecard and started playing again. I ended up rolling another Paladin Hordside to play with a friend and got him up to a whopping level 22. I disappeared into inactivity again when I moved back home with my parents due to health issues. The same friend that got me back at the end of 2009 suckered me back into WoW in July of this year, and instead of only buying 1 gamecard, I bought 2. Since I wanted to raid and I had already done the 1-40 grind multiple times... I decided to bust out my original character and level him up to 55 so I could unlock a Death Knight. Once I did that, my former main became my alt and I took up the DK as my main character.
Needless to say, I still login once in a while on my Pally, but I won't level him until Cata... at which time I will level my DK first, level my Blood Elf Rogue I just rolled in preparation for Cata... then flip a coin to see if I level the Pally or switch to my Tauren Druid named Picknickbskt to experience being a caster for the first time...
stephenpaulwebb Oct 26th 2010 8:21AM
I have 7 80s because I believe that playing multiple classes helps you understand the role of your main a lot more. I intend to level one of every class before I stop playing this crazy game.
That said, once I get a toon to 80, I'll get him geared up in welfare epics and he tends to become a welfare mule.
I always go back to my Balance Druid main that I started back in 07.
Dillioney Oct 26th 2010 8:22AM
I can't seem to get on with alts and everytime I work towards getting one to L80 I lose interest. I find that the Hunter fits me and my style of play and I keep going back to him.
I am planning a Worgan warrior for the Cataclysm so maybe he will click.
Tuxmelv Oct 26th 2010 8:23AM
Lock in TBC/Wrath, ding 80, run naxx, start a pally. Ding 80, run ulduar, start quite a few toons, nothing sticks. Start a war, ding 80, run icc. Start a enh sham, ding 80, run icc. On to a rogue now, following the trend.
KB Oct 26th 2010 8:23AM
I used to have a Mage for a main, but I started leveling a Shaman with a friend. A few months later, I found myself maining my Shaman so that I could heal and haven't really looked back since
Vinicius Oct 26th 2010 8:25AM
My main was a rogue but now it's a priest but I changed looong ago... like 4 years so it feels like my priest was always my main.
Hasselhoff Oct 26th 2010 8:25AM
I had a paladin. He was a healer in Karazhan. But I decided I wanted to tank, and to have professions that befitted a tank best. And I wanted that tank to be a paladin...but I didn't want to have to respec every time I changed roles. So I made a second paladin. This was before you little whippersnappers had your dual spec GODMODE. Back in my day, we had one of every spec and we liked it.
Seriously though. Now one paladin's gathering dust while the other one's only just becoming dusty, as during BC, I also leveled an enhancement shaman. Let's face facts here. Enhancement is better than everything else (save warlocks and sub rogues) when it comes to gameplay fun. So now I've got an enhancy main. And a rogue main. And like 5 alts.