The Triumphant Return...

Everyone goes into a new expansion with certain expectations. Oh, I'm going to focus on this character and this character, work up my professions, play in these zones, etc.

In many ways, I've not deviated from my intended path all that much. Stofnar is now officially my main toon. He's hit Uthgardt Keep and the Nexus. He's just a smidge short of level 71. I'm getting compliments about how my DPS is competitive in a way it never was when I was playing Nord.

It's a nice payoff. Stofnar was one of the very first toons I rolled and he's been a labor of love ever since. Emphasis on "labor." Prior to the 3.0.2 patch, paladins were a chore to play. I kept at him out of stubbornness more than anything.

But the one toon that's been missing from my retinue all this time is my usual namesake, Avouz. WoW is probably the first game in ages where my central character has not been someone based off of my iconic D&D toon from back in the day.

It's not that I haven't tried. I rolled an Avouz around the same time as Stofnar and Nord, a night elf rogue. Got him to the early 40s, but hated rogue. Deleted him. Rolled him again as a warrior. Got him into the 20s before I realized he was just not going to be different enough from Nord to be interesting. Deleted him again. Horde night on Malfurion gave me another incarnation, this time as a blood elf paladin. Here, I ran into a lot of the same trouble as I had with Stofnar and eventually we abandoned our toons on Malf to focus on Garona.

Enter the death knight. I wasn't sure this was going to work, since the roleplayer in me wasn't sure that Avouz would work as an undead monster turned good again. But I rolled him anyway.

Wow. Not only is the death knight starting zone some of the best storytelling WoW has offered yet, but the class is a lot of fun to play. I'm still trying to figure out what to do next, since I hardly use half my abilities. I don't need to. I feel way overpowered and I'm just kicking ass wherever I go. Having a blast doing it.

So, odds are good my #2 toon in Wrath is going to be Avouz. Typhia's pretty keen that we stick to our guns in terms of leveling our mains all at once, rather than split our group time between all our alts. He's got a good point, so Stofnar will be my group toon. But my solo toon, the toon I play when everyone else is either offline or otherwise occupied, is going to be Avouz for a while.

Forces of evil, beware. He's back.