Alts in the Bullpen

You know you're dragging your feet leveling when you'd rather think about the next character you're going to play before you even get the current one to 80. I spoke with Azu in game yesterday and she's been leveling an alt with her s.o. and some friends and has taken a break from the druid, she stopped at 70. I thought about possibly taking a break and letting my rogue earn some rested state* for a while.

*(For you non-WarCraft players, 'rested state' is earned by logging out and not adventuring. When your character is rested they get twice as much experience for killing monsters as normal. If you log out in a city or at an inn, you earn rested state much faster than if you log out in the wild. You can earn up to a level and a half of rested state before it caps out - accumulating that much takes around 7-10 days.)

I would probably be doing more random alts than I am right now, but I'm trying to hold back a little bit because I want to have the energy and enthusiasm for the next expansion. In Cataclysm (due sometime this summer) we'll get two new playable races, the Worgen and the Goblins. The Worgen (who will join the Alliance) are awesome-looking furry werewolf people, and the Goblins (joining the Horde) are short, nasty-looking green things.

I was definitely set on rolling a Worgen because they're cool and I'm really enjoying the Alliance community right now, but I think everyone and their sister is going to roll a Worgen asap and the starting zones are going to be flooded with new wolf pups. But there are going to be new classes available for the old races in Cataclysm too, so there are lots of unique combinations that were never available before. Still more people will be taking their current 80s to level 85 and exploring the new content and clearing raids and stuff because they don't want to play 'catch up' with the raid content.

Anyway, given all of the current and future combinations, here's my list of things that I want to roll, either immediately or in the future.

1. Tauren Shadow Priest. First of all, there's nothing better than being called a 'holy cow.' It should make finding groups a little easier than being DPS, and with dual spec I can level shadow and switch to holy for healing in groups. And can you imagine this giant shadow cow lumbering at you in a battleground? That image alone is priceless. I haven't played a priest for a long time, and there's a good reason why - they suck solo. Really bad. Yes it's possible to get into a groove and being able to heal is helpful, but those are people apologizing for how bad it is - every other class is faster.
   
   
2. Tauren Paladin. This is where the paralysis sets in. Taurens get to be priests, but they also get to be the new Paladin race for the Horde. I would probably be playing a Horde Paladin already, but I cannot stand the Blood Elf race. I hate their laugh, their model, their animations, everything about them says "I'm a spoiled, greedy, whiny, underdeveloped energy addict" and I find it repulsive. I wanted to be a Horde Paladin bad enough that I actually got a Blood Elf to L68. I've tried to log in and play him again, but it takes about 30 seconds to remember why I abandoned him and I log out again. But Tauren - an awesome race, for an awesome class.
   
   
3. Worgen - anything. The key here is finding a good name for a Worgen to go with the classes available (Druid, Hunter, Mage, Priest, Rogue, Warlock, Warrior). I'm a big believer in having a fun name for my character. If it's stupid or bland, I just can't ever get enthusiastic about the character and it gets abandoned. So for example if I could get the name Dogshift for a Worgen Druid, it would be awesome. Joanofbark for a Warrior. A mage named Sheep would be a double entendre; being a wolf in sheep's clothing, and being a mage that sheeps (polymorphs) enemies. Wolferine for a Rogue, Howloterrier for a Warlock, etc.
   
   
4. Goblin Warrior. Back in vanilla the Goblin Bruisers were famous for being the #1 cause of all player deaths because of the world PvP that would break out in towns like Gadgetzan. If the name were available - highly unlikely - it would be fun as hell to be a Goblin Warrior named Bruiser.
   
   
5. Gnome Priest. As above - only if the name Pockethealer were available.
   
   
6. Hunter, any race. Haven't played this class in a while.