Welcome to my new WoW blog; allow me to introduce myself.  I have been an avid online gamer since I began playing MUDs in 1995.  I started my move from text-based games to MMOs after Ruins of Kunark came out for EQ.  A bit later Mythic launched DaoC in all its unprepared glory and that became my game of choice for years until WoW went live.

I’ve been playing WoW since release, sometimes very hardcore, sometimes very casual.  I have leveled 4 different classes to 70; an alliance rogue, a horde paladin, a horde druid and a horde priest (my first character.)  The priest has and likely always will be my main, but I’m in a position now where I’m considering leveling yet another alt.  Why not work on the 70s I already have?  Let me explain…

My rogue and druid are specifically PvP characters, one for each realm.  The family and friends I play with prefer to do PvP almost exclusively and in fact the alliance rogue has never even been inside an instance, leveling only through quests and gearing through PvP.  I do some arenas each week and continue to grind a bit of honor here and there on my characters, but it is no longer enough entertainment/progress to maintain my interest.  The complaints about the current state of WoW PvP are abundant, but I will leave a post on that topic until a later date.  The only thing I will say is that I am bored with BG PvP at this point and have never really gotten hardcore into the arena system, so I need something else to do!

The paladin belongs to my brother now (and he plays it brilliantly), so that just leaves the priest.  I am currently spec’d shadow, so PvP in S3 has been less than stellar and S4 is not looking any better with the scaling problems shadow priests are experiencing (again.)  However, I’ve invested far too many honor and arena points in gear to effectively switch my spec and with WotLK coming before much longer, I’m exactly where I need to be for leveling in the new content.

That means I don’t have much drive to work on the priest.  Grinding money and faction gets old quick and all my trade skills are maxed. In PvP gear I’m capable of doing heroics and some raiding, but I have a very small network of friends and cannot commit to a raiding schedule for a bigger guild at this time.

My situation puts me in a weird sort of limbo.  I enjoy my priest, but working hard to gear up through raiding seems silly when I have a full set of PvP gear that will easily carry me through the early leveling of WotLK.  The problem is that logic doesn’t sate my incessant need to progress, to continually improve a character.  I recognize the treadmill, but embrace it anyway.

That is why I actually enjoy leveling, the number of different and readily attainable goals brings great satisfaction, even after doing it a few times through.  So why not have another level 70 available when WotLK comes out to broaden my options?  It seems more productive and enjoyable than spending time working on advancements with my other characters that will be irrelevant after the xpac, right?

While asking myself these types of questions I began thinking about the other opportunities leveling a new character would present and decided that I could utilize this as the catalyst to write more frequently.  It will be good material for ongoing posts in this, my new WoW themed blog.

I have plenty of PvP characters so I decided to make a PvE oriented tank.  Since I’ve already leveled a paladin and a druid, I rolled up a warrior.  I plan to be prot-speced but will of course use a different spec for leveling.  My tank is a Tauren female and is now level 13.  Posts about my experiences leveling and general WoW commentary are forthcoming.