And now for something completely different

I was talking with a good friend yesterday about things to do while we wait for the expansion to arrive. One thing she has mentioned more than a few times is broadening my horizons a bit. Trying different character classes on for size so to speak. I figured it couldn’t hurt to go play around a bit. If nothing else I would have a better handle on how the other classes worked when grouping with them.

My first character ever was a rogue. I managed to make it to level 6 or 8 before getting really frustrated with the combo points system. I remade a druid, making it to the mid 30’s (and not liking cat form much) before we moved servers. At this point I rolled my first hunter, he made it as far as Shade of Aran before my next reroll. Later we went alliance where I rolled and leveled both a priest and another hunter to 70. When I started leveling yet another hunter, she suggested I take a look at things from a different perspective.

So thinking back on my various failed and abandoned alts (they prefer to be called “higher level bank toons”) I realised the one class I had never tried to play was the warrior. I think I was simply worried that I would get forced into a tanking role if I did level the character, and I am not sure I would like that. Well, I was worried about getting pigeon holed as a healer with my priest too, but that another story. A stared at the character screen for a while, fussed with it, and then A shiny new warrior alt was born.

First impressions are good, I managed to make it to level 7 with no deaths, clearing the starter zone in a little under an hour. I then remembered the character my daughter was leveling on our linked accounts. At level 12 she had 5 free levels she could dump on me before I was to high for them to work. A quick friend summons to Darnassas later I was level 12, trained the new skills, picked up a pair of professions (Mining and Jewelcrafting) and headed back over to do me some questing in the area around bloodmyst isle.

I promptly realised that taking on equal level mobs while using gear meant for half my level led to several trips to the graveyard. I also found that if I got in over my head it was much harder to disengage than it was with either the hunter or the priest. Where I rarely used health pots on either of them, I found myself going through quite a few now. I find myself glad that I have Gift of the Naaru to put a HoT on myself when I pull more than one or two.

I suppose a trip to the auction house for some level 11 – 13 “of the bear” or “of the monkey” mail might be in order. I also just realised I have 3 talent points sitting there unspent, after I figure out where to put them those might help out as well. (leveling spec advice appreciated)

All in all I found that by doing something new without doing endless research first went a long way towards a fun evening. I ran around discovering new things without knowing what I was doing. It was an absolute riot, I spent my evening laughing at myself and shaking my head, looking once again through the eyes of a noob.