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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: How did you create your first character?
by Jason Christ 
Dec 8th 2011 at 8:00AM
When a buddy asked me to consider coming back to Warcraft after a failed attempt shortly after the original release, I reluctantly decided to create a new account. When he asked me what faction and class I wanted to play, I settled on an Alliance paladin after researching classes online. I wasn't entirely sure what exactly a tank, healer and DPS meant in practice, but the paladin could do all three, so that's what I'd be. Plus, they sounded like defenders of all that was right and true.
It turns out, that was the easy part of creating my character. Next, I spent time agonizing over the name. I'd look for ones I liked from the randomly generated suggestions. Then I'd try combining elements of one name with another. I tried using simple words from foreign languages. Finally, I found the perfect name that would define my character for life, a Greek word representing one of the core values of a paladin: Truth.
Having picked a class and name, it was finally time to tinker with the races that could be paladins and see which ones fit the new name. After probably about 100 permutations across classes, from random appearances to manually matching features, I settled on a human, and my journey began.
How did you create your first character? Did someone recommend a class for you? Did the flavor text on the creation screen influence you? Or have you always known what you'd be?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 5 of 5)
HugPhantom Dec 8th 2011 2:41PM
Blood elves couldn't be warriors, so I made a paladin with a name I used from another game.
RiderGeshtar Dec 8th 2011 2:46PM
First character I ever rolled: B'elf rogue. It turns out I am just bad at sneaking.
Second character I ever rolled: B'elf mage.
Why the elfz? I loved the race's story in WC3 and the racial Arcane Torrent is bloody marvellous. Two second silence? Yes pls.
As for the names, I farted around with the names of various fantasy-lit-nerd prog rock bands and song titles until I came up with chimaeric oddball names that sounded sufficiently Thalassian. :D
dragunlaw Dec 8th 2011 3:39PM
I hit warlock made him have spikey hair and named him a sort of changed version of my usual screen name Dragonlaw the lock was born (screen name normally is Dragunlaw)
Stfulolzwtf Dec 8th 2011 3:49PM
I knew what I wanted to be. :PI started wow with my cousin who begged me to come play with her and her brother(we were 9 at the time and my mom had given birth to my younger brotheronly way I know when i startedxD). I joined right away made a Priest, I heard from my older cousin that he saidpriest can be shadow. So Unknown came to mind, Then I look towards my gender and the gender of my toon and decided to add Girl to unknown.Thus creating my Priest nightelf Unknowngirl :3. I loved that toon XP.
Utakata Dec 8th 2011 3:51PM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uta_Kata
...I can't think of the life of me though why I chose pink pigtails over green (which is what one of the main characters had)...other than perhaps they looked cooler and funkier on Gnomes.
Though at the time, it was my friends account who was shadowing me while I was trying out this new game she was playing. I was so intrigued with the game that I asked her to keep my character on her account until I was able to purchase my own copy of WoW. And have her delete it and rerolled it for my account, which I did. And thus my entire 6 years in WoW before I left has been one big "fragmented poem"...but I never tired of my first character. Even today, who her current version exists on City of Heroes as a Fire/Frost Blaster...pink, pigtails and all.
..and yes, I enjoyed the original anime from which her name sake came from. But I can't tell why I did either. /shrug
Brett Porter Dec 8th 2011 5:19PM
I am a certified altoholic, just created my latest, an orc warlock. I probably spent about 30 or so minutes deciding the look and picking a name.
My very first toon was an undead warlock? Why I have no idea, other than the fact I thought it looked completely bad ass. And it still does! My problem was I couldn't for the life of me progress past level 12 or 13 (I forget what it was) due to those damn family tombs the classic WoW would take you.
I ended up deleting him and making my first main, a human paladin, after reading the book that came with the game to figure out what type of class I would like to be. I played him for about 6 months prior to hitting 55 to switch to a DK as my main. I obviously don't play him anymore, but I won't delete him.
Naming-wise, I have used the random name generator for all but maybe 2 or 3 of my characters, since they usually work so well.
Daco Dec 8th 2011 6:49PM
My first character was a Blood elf hunter (lol) because my friend had started with a Night elf hunter and I wondered what horde was like. His name was Bink from the Star Wars parody comic "Tag & Bink"
hollister86 Dec 8th 2011 6:57PM
My main was simple--although when I told my friend I was making a rogue when I had almost no understanding of the class she laughed and said she couldn't see my playing aything else...
My DK alt however was named Vice--in the RP sense that before she switches sides, she chose that name (as deathknights were prone to do in game) to mirror her soul. However, once she switches over to the alliance (she was a spacegoat), she decides to change it to "Veiss (pronouced the same way)," which is the german word for white--and symblic of her decision to fight for good.
And I chose my troll druids name just b/c its fun to say. Makktokumaza!
hovediah Dec 8th 2011 7:22PM
I previously played Guild Wars (we wont go into that, i didnt know any better) and there was a lvl 6 called Garfazz Bloodfang and he was a Char (bipedal hampster thing) they are the closet thing to a tauren) Thus. Garfazz came to be. he's still my main on Muradin to this day.
goldeneye Dec 9th 2011 11:02AM
Watched cinematic:
Coolest was the UD Warlock, but the zone didn't jibe with me, so I went second coolest: Shapeshifting into animals --> Druid.
- Was feral/balance (horrible talent phail) throughout vanilla.
- Feral cat/bear in TBC (up to tanking Karazhan)
- Boomkin/Resto in Wrath
- Feral bear/cat in Cata
I try to keep him switched every xpack, so MoP will probably be resto/boomkin.
The name (Wintrow) was picked out of the same book (The Living Ships) where my wife had gotten the name for her Hunter Aubren as they were meant to be leveling together.
She stopped playing since then, but the name stuck and we named our daughter Aubren :). I didn't name my son Wintrow though :).
After server transferring to play alongside my brother I had to rename my druid. I picked Wintrawr.
goldeneye Dec 9th 2011 11:04AM
Note that resto/boomkin is NOT the same as boomkin/resto :)
Olathe Grimhoof Dec 9th 2011 4:57PM
Back when Shadow Council was still a pretty new server, I had a human mage but I was inspired by the tales of Equinox; Defender of the Horde and wanted to make a tauren warrior of my own too but I can't play male characters at all so I made a lady tauren. I already adopted the practice of naming characters using real world names from cultures I thought were similar to each race so picking a name meaning "Beautiful" in a Native American language, Olathe was born!
Over time I added more back story to her, explaining why she's a Grimtotem orphan in the Bloodhoof caravan and why she has cow print (children splashed bleach-like substance on her) and now she's Olathe; Bloodhoof outcast, reformed privateer, retired veteran, Garrosh dissenter and now muscle for goblin mobsters.
Nik101 Dec 16th 2011 1:49PM
OH OH i have a interesting one. But i remember it like it was something from a dream. So I started the first day vanilla launched and I decided on something quick, a Night Elf Hunter, Named him Nisidio and logged into the game. But i don't consider this toon my first character. After a few weeks of trying to figure the game out, I decided to leave Teldrassil and travel to Darkshore. Moments later on the sand of the beach I saw a strike of lighting across the sea and into one of the gaurds. There in the mist, on the water, stood a Tuaren murderlizing the guards with his mighty frost shocks and lightning bolts. It was at that moment that I logged out, deleted my Night Elf Hunter Nisidio, grabbed a soda, and started my Tuaren Shaman, Billiepanda, who is still, 7 years later, my main. And that friends is why I am for the horde.