Monday, November 3, 2008

Switching Mains

One of the frequent questions players have to face is what to do when you discover you like one of your alts better than your main.

I've been playing Korathnord since Day One. He was the very first toon I rolled in WoW. That, in of itself, is a bit unusual. But the time has come for me to consider switching to someone else.

This has been building for sometime. When TBC came out, Nord was an arms DPS/off-tank warrior. He did okay in that form, but after the first round of druid nerfs it became clear that Ordo needed Nord as a full tank. Then the problems became apparent. I just wasn't very good at tanking. I got better with practice, but was never comfortable playing that role.

Then came endgame and the desire of several Ordo folks to move their mains into raiding guilds (for most of us, it was Que Sera Sera). I became the odd-man out. Most raiding guilds don't need tanks and don't want DPS warriors, and, unsurprisingly, QSS didn't really need either. I specced fury and held my own for a time, but as the raiding content got more complex and difficult, I got left behind for rogues a lot. I spent a lot of time on the guild wait-list for raids. Eventually, I gave up and requested that I become what QSS calls "F&F," friends and family who are members of the guild, but not raiders.

And Nord went into the dustbin for a time as I leveled alt after alt. I got my mage to 70, then my hunter, then my warlock, and now just last week, my paladin, Stofnar.

So I have a broad list to choose from, and somewhat interestingly enough, it is the last of these that is most likely to become my new main: the paladin.

Part of that is, of course, the fact that post 3.0 patch, retribution paladins are way overpowered. It's fun slaughtering my way through hordes of mobs even as badly undergeared as I am. But even with nerf after nerf, I'm finding my enthusiasm holding fast.

Here's a big part of the reason. Before, both with Ordo and with QSS, I was locked in as melee DPS. Stofnar is not so limited. Even as ret, I can spot heal. I can tank. I can DPS. I can fill multiple roles and be useful. I've got versatility I lacked with Nord.

This is particularly handy in small guild gaming like we do here in Ordo. When you've got an eight person guild, and when it's anyone's guess who is going to be online on a given night, it's real handy to be able to fill any role.

That doesn't just apply to five-man content either. LRNs has been lauding our efforts in Kara and ZA this past week. Stofnar was along for much of the Kara run and it did help that I could swap to healing or tank gear depending on the pull.

In Wrath, I intend to level all my toons to 80 eventually, even Nord. But odds are good Stofnar will be my first to do so and will be my main toon for most 5-man and raiding content in the future.

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