From Pieces:
If you had the chance to start all over again in WoW, but your char is already level 80, or level 1 depending on if you like to level or not. What class would you pick? What race? What faction? Why would you pick that class/race/faction? And most of all what would you plan to do with it? Raid, PvP or just hang out in Dalaran?
About a year ago, my husband and I were just about to leave the UK to travel on the adventure of a lifetime, home to Australia.
We said a sad goodbye to our guildies on Eonar-EU, and my Priesty ate some chocolate cake so she could log out very happy, sitting on her favourite bench in the south bank of Dalaran.
The journey home took us across the world for 5 months, during which time I desperately missed the game. It didn't help that we kept hearing about the great progress our guild was making in Ulduar, and later ToC. I hate to miss out on things! The WotLK soundtrack was a great comfort, especially the Dalaran music.
Once we finally got home moved into our place and got connected, we made the difficult decision to reroll on an Oceanic server and start again from scratch - we started over in the most complete sense - no realm/faction transfers, no heirlooms or money - completely from nothing. I had fired up my UK account and played a little, getting a few upgrades for my Naxx gear and getting to see a couple of the raids I'd missed, but I couldn't really play with my old guildies anymore and the latency was dreadful.
The second character I ever made in the game was my nelf Druid, but I didn't get her to max level until early 2009. My Priest was my main, and I didn't get to play my Druid that much, but I loved healing on her. I wanted my new main to be a healer, and I liked Druid healing more than Priest healing, so Druid it was. Besides, shape changers are awesome :)
Why Horde?
My husband had briefly had a max level hordie before switching to Alliance to join me many moons ago, but I'd never had a hordie past level 40. He says the horde are more cool but I'd play either faction to be honest! I'm so glad we decided to see the other side of things - Northrend especially is such a different experience for each faction.
Why Tauren?
I really like playing a Tauren as their lore is really interesting. Plus, they have a really chilled out dance! There's something about being a big beautiful cow-lady that brings out my motherly side I think - perfect for a healer wouldn't you say?
Why Nagrand?
We wanted a server with a decent-size horde population. Originally we were going to roll on a PvP server, but when my chosen name wasn't available I chickened out of PvP and we ended up on Nagrand.
What do I plan to do with it?
Raid when I can. I've recently discovered that I quite like healing in PvP although once someone targets me I'm not much good at keeping myself alive. I'd be rubbish in an arena but I do alright in Wintergrasp, throwing out the heals in big battles. I haven't done much in the way of Battlegrounds yet but perhaps I'll give it another go sometime. The hanging around in Dalaran part is a given :)
The leveling process
Our three months of Refer-a-Friend time has just run out in the last few days. We didn't use it as much as we could have, but after three months I have a level 80 Druid, 72 Mage and 41 Shaman. My husband has a (just dinged today!) 80 Shaman, 60-odd Mage, 60-odd Druid, 41 Warrior and a smattering of other lowbie alts. My husband's mage was gifted 60 levels from my characters as a refer-a-friend perk, and he then had to go buy a tonne of cloth to level up tailoring so he didn't have to wear level 10 gear to start Outlands in! He still hasn't got his Zhevra mount - I think we'll be getting in touch with Blizz after this weekend since that's why my next subscription is due.
In all it was a crazy-fast way to get back up to the end-game, but it served our purpose perfectly. Money was a problem - we often didn't have enough money for training, in fact my druid still hasn't trained any of the feral talents past level 40 or so... I really should get that sorted one of these days! We didn't buy any gear because we grew out of it too quickly, so by the time we made it to Outlands and the GOGG I was still wearing some level 30-ish gear.
The tourguide addon for RAF was a godsend, but by the third time through we almost knew where to go without looking at it. I'll be interested to see where the normal tourguide takes me on my Shaman, now that I won't be skipping every other quest.
If you ever or find a need to re-roll and start from scratch, the hardest part is probably the leveling. These days, once you hit 80 the emblems and then gear flow like water and you will be in top content before you know it.
The part that I'm finding difficult now, is that I miss the things I had on my old characters. When we left the UK I had two level 80s, both of which had epic flying, plus a few alts in their 70s. I had a load of bits and pieces in the bank collected along the way - the Urn from Kara, Direbrew remote, a Frozen Shadoweave set and other random junk that nevertheless meant something to me. I left behind my Onyxia whelpling, Vampiric Batling, Baby Blizzard Bear and my beloved Nether Drake. Most pets, mounts and achievements can be acquired again, but I'm missing them for the moment. At least I still have Mr Frosty, even if his cuteness looks vaguely evil.
