It's the Endorphins!The Endorphins, I tell you!!

There are people who play primarily a single toon or a single class/style/archetype of toon.  There are also those who may have a main yet tinker around, never feeling truly satisfied.

And then there are the altoholics.

I used to boggle at the people who had no qualms about leveling one of each toon all the way to max level.  I knew how long it took me to level one toon, never mind a dozen, so for the average altoholic I used to take that and multiply it by 8-9-10.  All I could do was simply shake my head.

How could someone actually level so many alts?  What about exploring other things in-game?  What about raiding or PvP?

Well, I figured there was no way I'd ever find myself bitten by the altoholic bug when I was staring at the grind from L1-L90.  For me, there simply weren't enough hours in a day to level a full stable of toons to max level before the next expac came out.  Besides, the WoW story is pretty much the same with all toons on a faction; with the exception of the two weapons quests, Blizzard has removed the old class quests from WoW.  If you want to see pretty much everything outside of the intro zones these days, all you have to do is level a toon on each faction.  That's it.

While I was confident that altoholism wasn't going to afflict me in WoW, I hadn't counted on the bug in another MMO.

LOTRO and Age of Conan also suffer from the overly long leveling process (L85 and L80, respectively), but TOR has a much lower level cap at L50.  TOR also has something that the other games don't have:  an actual class quest chain.  I presume companion romances are a bonus, but I'm sure that there's a significant portion of the playerbase out there that doesn't care about that sort of thing.

The TOR class quests are something that keep the game interesting.  Just like there are only so many times you can enter the Amani Tombs before wanting to claw your eyeballs out, there's only a limited number of trips into the Chemworks Factory in Taris before you start throwing in the towel.  But when you throw in a class quest chain into the mix, you find yourself wondering what might come next.

I'll never forget when I leveled Quintalan and received the class quest chain that ended in the Thalassian Charger and the Blood Knight tabard.  Sure, due to changes in the game I was able to get the Charger "officially" at L40, it was only when I finished all of the side quests, accumulated all the mats, and showed the Scourge, the Scarlet Crusade, and the Argent Dawn who was boss that I finally earned my place as a Blood Knight.  I'll also never forget the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach when Lord Bloodvalor chuckled maniacally as he gave me my tabard; it was then that I realized just how far the Blood Knights had truly strayed from the Light.  Although not part of the class quest itself, Lady Liadrin's appearance before the Sha'tar was intensely personal, signaling the beginning of the end of the old Blood Knights.

Likewise, I'll never forget when I leveled my Gunslinger and he finally got his starship back.  "Where... Is... My... Ship?!!" he demanded of the flunkies that Skavak had thrown in his path.  And then, when he finally boarded the ship only to find someone else inside...

While the Blood Knight class quests were great, for some reason I never had the urge to try out other WoW classes.  Other TOR classes, however, beckoned.

So I've found myself with a complete stable of classes on both factions, slowly leveling them all.  Given my rate of gameplay, I'll probably finish them sometime by the end of next year at the earliest.  But you know what?  I don't mind.  I'm just along for the ride.  Perhaps that's the enduring legacy of the altoholic:  the desire to learn everything about a game, manifesting in an urge to just follow the story to the end.  ALL of them.


EtA:  Got bit by the editing bug and replaced a "while" at the beginning of the seventh paragraph.  That's what I get for being in NaNo mode and skipping editing.

This Fence is Pretty Darned Comfortable, That's Why

I suppose that it was only a matter of time before we got a hard date on Mists.  Whether that hard date will hold (or slip like Diablo III did) remains to be seen, but for the moment we have September 25th as the drop date.

Given the way things work out, I guess we're looking at late August for the pre-release patch.

The guild Soul and I are in is on hiatus and has been since earlier this year, so I presume that people will start trickling back in over the next month or two.  What I'm not sure of is a) how many will return and b) how long people will stay.

As for me, I think I'm going to adopt a wait-and-see attitude toward Mists.

This isn't exactly a new position, as I've been on the fence ever since Mists was announced, but I'm going to follow through on my idea to retire my current two mains and have them join Quintalan relaxing by the Dal Fountain.  However, I'm not going to promote my Lock, Adelwulf, to main status.  In fact, I may get him to L84 and make him a twink for the time being.

So, if not a toon I've got right now, what have I got in mind?

Having leveled an Affliction Warlock through BGs  (and their graveyards), I sure do have ideas.  And the best way to study the biggest enemy that a Lock has is to create one.

Yes, I'm going Rogue.

By my estimations, if I created a Rogue in the next few weeks and leveled that toon via BGs, I'd probably reach L85 sometime in December.  That's a long time before I'd actually need the Mists expac, which should work fine for my finances.  By the time I'd be ready to set sail to Pandaria, the new zones will already be devoid of life, just like Cata's were by the time Neve and Tom got there a few months after release.

Will I miss out on the chaos and insanity of everyone getting to the new zones?  Oh, I'm sure I will, but that also means that my older PC won't feel the strain of too many toons nearby.  It also means avoiding the fights over resources.  And, for this ex-PvP server player, it means fewer flashbacks of the inn at Tarren Mill.

One thing that will happen, however, will be a huge wave of Pandarens entering BGs, all of which will have Asian ripoffs for names.  ("Mr. Tauren Bullburgers, meet Mr. Pandaren Chopupyoursuey".)

And I'm absolutely certain I'll be on when the release drops with a big bowl of popcorn, because I sure wouldn't want to miss the collective angst of the Trade Chat crazies.

So Many items to craft, so few toons to do the dirty work...

There are days when I feel like two toons are one toon too many.  Then there are days when I look at the AH prices and grumble that I don't have enough toons.

I've been spending some of my recent time leveling Enchanting and Tailoring on Neve, and as I watch my gold disappear into the WoWified ether, I'm reminded of the old maxim:  The questgiver giveth, and the Auction House taketh away.  But at least she can craft her own high level gear; Quintalan and Tomakan don't have such a luxury.

Sure, Jewelcrafting and Engineering have their perks, but in terms of the majority of gear I'd need a blacksmith to do the dirty work.  Since there are some decent Cata items you can craft via Blacksmithing, I really really really would like to level an alt to get access to that stuff.

But I'm also conflicted on leveling another alt.

I mean, it is a grind leveling again.  With Cata zones the way they are, you kind of have to go through them to finish all of the phasing.  The XP you get from BGs and instances got nerfed with Cata's release, so I don't have the option of pugging my way to riches like I did with Tom and Neve.  (Okay, the option is still there, but not as good as before.)

At the same time, there are races and classes I've thought about trying that I haven't had too much of a chance to experiment with before.  The concept of a NE Mage is appealing --hey look, an outsider group in the Alliance!-- but also tinkering with a Worgen or Orc Lock could be good.  (Shadow Council?  What Shadow Council?  I don't know what you're talking about!)

***

After being oh-for-January and most of February, I finally started getting on the winning side of BG runs.  I still can't win Warsong Gulch to save my life, but I finally got into some winning AV, AB, and BoG battlegrounds.  Considering I'm starting over with building up my PvP gear, I'll take whatever badges/points/whatever I can get.

Even after all this time of playing my three toons, I still have this annoying --and often fatal-- habit of charging into the heart of the enemy side while on Neve.  I get this "I have to close to really do some damage!" mentality going, and all I can think of is Crusader Strike, Templar's Verdict, Inquisition, and other Paladin abilities.  I'm sure that my wife wonders who the hell I'm talking to when I constantly say "No no no!  Stay back, dammit!  Stay back!" to the computer screen.

***

I've posted before about what happens when my kids watch me play WoW, but it had been a while since any of them had done so.  I guess I'd kind of forgotten exactly what it was like having extra pairs of eyes watching me play, when I'd gotten into an Arathi Basin run last week on Neve.

A Hunter and I took the Gold Mine and we kept beating off persistent attempts by a Rogue to ninja us and steal the Mine.  After the Hunter pursued the Rogue up toward the Alliance base, I pulled back to see a Pally coming down the other way.  In the ensuing duel, I died once but ran back and rezzed to finish the job.  Just as I let out a big sigh of relief, I got one-shotted from behind.

"Stupid assed Rogues," I grumbled as I sat by the Spirit Healer, fuming, as I watched the Hunter chase after our persistent pest.

"You died again, Dad!" a small voice piped up at my elbow.

I must have jumped a good foot in the air because my youngest got the giggles.  "Scared ya!"

"Hey!" I protested, turning my head in her direction.

She pointed at the screen.  "Oh look, you died again."

Paladin Sends Mage Alt Into Shadowfang Keep! Film at Eleven!

So what are you looking at?  Can't a guy send an alt into a 5-man without commentary?  Sometimes, you just want to stop playing your main for a little while.

Oh, right.  Most of my alts are Paladins too.

Well, I was up way late last night with sleep nowhere in sight*, so I got on WoW.  Instead of clicking straight through to Quintalan when I selected the Area 52 server, I paused.  My mage was staring back at me, with her Blood Elf snarky attitude, daring me to pick her instead.

Why not?  And why not actually try her on an instance?  At L26, she's ready to go, and I think I know enough about instances to handle ranged DPS.  ('Just keep yer threat down, willya?')  A place like Shadowfang, which is a straight shot without lots of trash coming at you from behind, seemed the perfect first instance.  Well that and that it's fairly short, and at L26 Neve is right at the maximum level for the dungeon.

I queued her up, and proceeded to wait about 1/2 hour for a group to assemble.  In that copious time, I

• Conjured up about 100 Food and 100 Water, ready for when people needed it.
• Cruised through the Barrens and Mulgore, working on the Exploration achievements for each.  After months of riding the Thalassian Mount and Charger, a hawkstrider just doesn't look right.  (Neither would a raptor, for that matter.  A worg?  Now that'd be interesting.)
• Practiced on sacrificial raptors in the Barrens.  It had been months since I'd done anything with her other than level Tailoring and Enchanting, and I needed to get back into the swing of it.
• Danced with the Flight Master in Camp Taurajo.  Hey, if you're gonna go, go out with a bang, right?

When the LFD tool finally assembled a group and we ported in, the instance was very nearly over before it began. 

I started buffing people with INT, and asked if anyone needed food.

"Do I look like a Mexican?" the warrior DPS snapped.

I'm still not exactly sure how, but I resisted my almost immediate urge to /drop group or /smack him for that crack.  "You look like an orc to me," I finally responded.  I made a mental note of the timer left on vote kick, because I wasn't screwing around with this guy.

At last the Warrior tank moved forward, and we got going.  He pulled the first group of trash, and I mentally counted out the time where I felt comfortable with his aggro lock, ran forward, and....

HOLY CRAP!  WHAT THE HELL AM I THINKING??!!

I immediately burst Frost Nova and skittered back to the edge of the group, where I remained.  Every chance I got, I found a corner to cast from, watching my threat the entire time.

Because I'd never run Neve through an instance before, I was pleasantly surprised when Healbot came in handy for her.  You'd not expect a healing add-on to give any extra boost to a decidedly non-healer, but when you right click on a member of your group on the Healbot bar, it's the same as using a macro to assist whatever they're attacking.  Very handy indeed, and saves me a key binding.  Decursive saves me another slot, because Remove Curse is used very heavily in Shadowfang Keep.

For the most part, I managed threat well; in fact, the only time I pulled threat was when the tank died, and being the one dishing out the most damage, I was the one that the mob aggroed on.  Scratch one squishy Mage.  The rest of the group finished off the mob, so it wasn't a total wipe, and the Tree was nice enough to raise me once the fight was over.  Not that I can't run back in Shadowfang, but let's face it:  a Mage is armored with glorified tissue paper, and wandering mobs are not soloable by a Mage.

The fight with Arugal, however, was a bit of a problem.  The tank left him on his spot at the top of the steps, and I couldn't get a good line of sight to cast at him without getting far too close for comfort.  Looking around for somewhere, anywhere to go, I saw the top of the steps that you entered with.  I ran over and up the steps, and I was in range for casting.  That was very considerate of Blizz to set that up for ranged DPS that way.

My only regret?  The mouthy DPS dropped before the kick timer expired.  He was earning a vote kick throughout the instance, but I never got the chance to initiate one because he dropped after the the tank death incident.

So, what did I think of something decidedly non-Paladin?  Not bad at all.  Once I got over my initial urge to go in there and mix it up in melee, I learned the joys of staying to the rear and keeping an eye over your shoulder.  You have to manage Blizzard --even if it is off cooldown-- because of the mana bite it takes.  You also have to stock up on mana potions, because you might just end up with a tank that won't listen to anyone and will just keep pulling.

I do have big issues with being so squishy, but I guess that's something I'll have to live with.  At least I won't feel guilty when I see her in the startup screen.

*The allergy medicine I was taking left me wired to the point where I couldn't sit still and read.  Not fun.