Breakfast Topic: Initiate epic character reboot procedure in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...
by Jacob Helton 
Jun 27th 2011 at 8:00AM
Standing outside the Caverns of Time, ready to go forth and disrupt your past. What would you do if you could do it all over again? Looking back with what you know now about the game compared to what you knew then, would you make the same choices? I started playing during The Burning Crusade but before a lot of the experience cutting from 0 to 60. I started with a druid on a normal realm because, being a newb, I thought "normal" meant you could get away with doing a little bit of everything, PVP or RP, whenever the mood struck.
Boy, was I wrong.
Personally, then, I would keep my character choices as they were (yay, druids!), but I would roll on a different server type (changing from normal to RP). Why not just reroll or pay to move now to a RP server? Because I'd have to spend $250 to move my entire crafter's network or cave in and finally rely on the AH with only one toon -- and then I'd miss my gadget-wielding maniac warlock gnome, and the rest of my army of alts would sit abandoned, collecting dust. Lonely. Not to mention the friends and family I'd leave behind.
What about your faction of choice? Horde vs. Alliance was a practical choice for me, since that's where my friend was who introduced me to the game.
So if you had that giant reset button and could slap your past self on the back of the head before doing something you regretted, what would you do? Or would you do nothing?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Roy Jun 27th 2011 8:08AM
Like you, I rolled my first character on a PvE server which I enjoyed until late TBC. Curious about what was going on on RP servers, I was surprised by the maturity and helpful attitude of the community.
I faction-changed my three most important characters over the span of a few months and am really glad I did. I just wish I would have spent the entirety of Vanilla on there too!
Argent Dawn-EU, I salute you!
thegr81mikal Jun 27th 2011 8:12AM
I would have picked an East Coast Server, not the West coast server my army currently resides in.
Cheb Jun 27th 2011 9:32AM
Same. My girls are all on a West Coast server, and it was an absolute nightmare trying to find a raid guild that started raid at a decent ET hour for me. I didn't start seriously raiding until late WotLK, and by then I had 4 80's that I played regularly and a bunch of lower level crafting alts and bank alts. Wish I had done some kind of research beforehand about the servers.
WoWie Zowie Jun 27th 2011 10:26AM
same here. when i first signed up it recommended a west coast server. i didn't know there was a difference until mid wrath.
i'm too entrenched in my server to move en masse so i'm stuck =\
blancester Jun 27th 2011 8:12AM
I would have liked to hit 70 before WotLK.
Sarah Jun 28th 2011 12:28PM
Also my biggest regret
Scomparsa Jun 27th 2011 8:30AM
I originated on a PvP server...I'd, um...Well yeah, I'd change that :|
Revnah Jun 27th 2011 8:42AM
I would definitely not have made my druid a tailor and my mage a leatherworker, lol! When I started out, I had no idea what "soulbound" meant so I thought they could just supply each other. It works to a certain extent of course, but it would just have been easier the other way around.
Although, having said that, having extra crit from skinning is kinda handy for a fire mage :-)
Swifteye Jun 27th 2011 10:05AM
Haha, high-five for a fellow profession-class-combo screwball! :D
My first toon was a Hunter, and my first profession choice was Tailor/Enchanter (Tailor because I was enthralled with the ability to make bags, and Enchanter just because that's what everyone said was "supposed" to go with Tailoring).
My Priest is a Miner/Blacksmith... I leveled her super-fast doing nothing but dungeon healing, and thus I never bothered working on professions for her first 50 or so levels. By then I didn't know what I wanted to do with her, but my guild was super-short on Blacksmiths, so I made her one simply to help plug that particular hole.
Both of these toons are 85 now, and I've never changed their professions. I'm downright tickled with the sheer novelty of a mail-wearer who makes clothie gear and a clothie who makes plate gear... I am sorely, SORELY tempted at this point to make my DK farmer (currently Skinning/Herbalism) drop Herbalism and take up Leatherworking, for no other reason than to complete my perfect trifecta of toons whose professions are completely bloomin' ridiculous for their armor class! :p
Revnah Jun 27th 2011 10:12AM
Haha, go on, do it! You know you want to...
I'm glad I'm not the only one :-D
Although in my defence, I got the blacksmithing "right" (these were my first three characters, I have more or less abandoned all of them now in favour of my priest Revnah), because I made the Pally a blacksmith. Boring, huh?
Noyou Jun 27th 2011 10:56AM
I'm with you guys there. Or was. My paladin who was my 3rd alt at the time got tabbed to be a JC/Tailor. Problem is he became my main and my first toon to 80. Needless to say I had about 500g when I hit 80 and still didn't have tailoring maxed out. Looking back I wouldn't have changed it though. It was fun. Kind of. Having the flying carpet was pretty cool too. After I got my lock up to an acceptable level in tailoring (much easier the second time around) I switched my pally to mining and once cata came out mined all the way thru the leveling experience. After that it was engineering to go with JC on my pally. The good thing is if I want to make a run at 100 mounts I have the extra 3 from tailoring. So like I said, I wouldn't have changed a thing. I take all my goof ups with a grain of salt and use my experiences to help others avoid them :P
Necromann Jun 27th 2011 10:59AM
When i created my Mage, the only prof I didn't have was blacksmithing, so my Mage is mining/bs.
RavenJet Jun 27th 2011 8:44AM
I would just change one thing.. not vendor my soul harvester when I got too high level to use it. Now I can never get it back ( GM confirmed it can't be restored as the item and quest were removed in cats) took me 2 years to get the only other scythe a lock can wield for my "town" outfit.
AudreyR Jun 27th 2011 9:36AM
Ah, luckily there is a new low-level weapon quest for warlocks that rewards a scythe. I just had to add the fiery weapon enchant for looks.
RavenJet Jun 27th 2011 9:43AM
Wait... what ?
Since the old Soul Harvester doesn't exist anymore - and Ahune's scythe is not exactly unique (even if it took me two fire festivals to get a drop) - I'd be quite happy to go back and do the old one - where is it ? Same place in fellwood that Soul Harvester used to be ?
AudreyR Jun 27th 2011 10:28PM
Nope. You get it from your warlock trainer around level 20. :)
RavenJet Jun 28th 2011 3:28AM
Yep, after your first post I started googling and digging and finally found it. You want some irony - the quest in question was mentioned by the GM in a first response, that he withdrew when he realized I was talking about the older one - I only saw it later when I checked my mail and thought he'd just made a mistake.
Doh - he could have told me "but if you don't get lucky on Ahune - you can go do this low-level quest for a scythe since it's just for looks".
I am still using Ahune for now, although sadly enchants don't show on it (and of course the available enchants for a level 20 weapon will be limited too) but I will go do that one - easy to do now, and I think that scythe looks better in many ways. Ahune's is a bit over the top... there's something grim about that wooden handle and perfectly ordinary scythe blade.
My town outfit is now nearly complete. Black cowl, kitted out in full black mageweave otherwise. All that remains is the other scythe - and a black cloak. There's an awesome one you can get with JP's though - but I don't feel like farming those - I'll have enough after patch conversion anyway.
Defoe Jun 28th 2011 7:52AM
Have you considered some pieces from the Level 70 warlock Season 2 (or 3? I cant remember) PvP set?
Amazing looking Warlock outfit.
RavenJet Jun 28th 2011 8:20AM
My current set looks like this: http://silentcoder.co.za/2011/06/a-lock-about-town/
I like that it's entirely made of custom chosen items- nothing that comes from a pre-designed warlock set, which makes it a bit more unusual - and I find the black mageweave items fitted my idea well.
However, after your suggestion I looked those sets up - to see if perhaps one or two pieces may be nice.. Season two's items I didn't like at all... all those spikes. That seems suited to a melee class, warlocks are dark wizards, we shouldn't need to look like porcupines. Season 3 with those demon wings are awesome looking - but they are too big, looks horrible on a gnome since they will be hanging below ground-level mostly :( really sad that. None of them are quite what I am looking for in this outfit- but I must admit they are nice sets. The skulls on the spikes in the season 2 shoulders are a lovely effect. Between the two, I like season 2 better and if I was going to do a set item thing that's what I would get.
In fact... I may just swap the robe out for that one, the black-with-fire-lines look may actually be nicer than the plain black I got going.
Nathanael Jun 27th 2011 8:44AM
I had a full set of 9 level 85's on Earthen Ring when I came back for Cataclysm. I spent a month or so trying to get a "Fresh start" on other realms, rolling different classes and leveling them into their 20-30s, then changing my mind and trying another, and another, etc. - going back to some of the 85s, and so on, and was beginning to HATE the game again, for not being able to pick a class.
I so badly got sick of it that I deleted all of them: all the 85s, all the indecisive lowbies, and rolled a female (NEVER done before), Alliance (played Horde before), Holy Priest (I've never played a healer).
Now I have a fresh start, a REAL fresh start - she is my ONLY toon. And it feels wonderful. No distractions, clean character creation screen, and that sense of "just starting out" is back.
I don't miss the 85's. I missed the feeling I had when I first started WoW over 4 years ago, and now, as close as is possible, I have that feeling back again!
So to all the readers, I whole-heartedly recommend cleaning house from time-to-time!