Tuesday, September 11, 2012

New Toons with New Expansions

The Beta is one enormous spoiler, but it's also like a giant spoiler that tells the story in a crappy, half-finished way.

The Mists Beta is the first I ever participated in. I had attempted to get into the Cataclysm beta, but never got the invite, and it hadn't even occurred to me to try to get into the Wrath one.

I came to a realization recently regarding my future Pandaren Monk (no name figured out for him yet. Something vaguely Chinese-sounding, presumably.) When Wrath of the Lich King came out, I was absurdly excited for Death Knights. Oterro (who was Blood DPS at the time - perhaps the single most awesome soloing spec there's ever been) shot up through Outland, and even though I was focusing on getting Jarsus to 80, very soon Oterro came to the same level. Ultimately, while soloing on him (remember that this was before dual-specs, and I was cheap when it came to re-specs, so Jarsus was leveling as Protection,) I half-unexpectedly hit 80 on Oterro when Jarsus was about four bars away. Feeling this was somehow ethically wrong, I quickly switched over to Jarsus and within less than an hour had my main at the level cap as well. Very suddenly, I had two level 80s.

When Cataclysm came out, I was incredibly excited about Worgen. The first week of the expansion, I alternated between Jarsus and Ardten. (Arms was, and I hope still is, a fantastic leveling spec, especially with the Cataclysm-era Victory Rush, which, like Wrath-era Blood, meant that you were constantly healing as you fought.) After that week, Jarsus was 85, and Ardten was on his way to Outland.

With Mists on the horizon, I expect something will happen that hasn't really happened with any other expansion. I'm going to make my Monk, get him through the starting zone, and then probably let him chill out while I get other characters through Pandaria. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited to play a Monk, especially a Brewmaster, and I'm... well, I have nothing against Pandaren. But there are two factors at play.

One is the Beta. I have played two Monks in the Beta - a Pandaren Brewmaster and a female Human Windwalker (all my toons on live are male. Seemed like a good place to try something new.) The two have reached 37 and 47 respectively (my mission statement on the Brewmaster was to stick to dungeons, which made leveling slow, given that most people rushed their monks through the levels or just made a pre-made at 85.) Anyway, having already seen Monks, there's somewhat less to discover. I had never touched a Death Knight before Wrath came out, so there was something serious to get excited about (it also didn't hurt that DKs are a very fun class with a freaking awesome introductory quest chain.)

The other thing is that I'm not a huge martial arts guy. Don't get me wrong, if you're a kung fu master kicking ass, I'll watch (and hope I'm not caught in the fray) but I'm slightly less excited about the idea of "Perfect pacifist people who have no flaws and are there to teach the Horde and Alliance about harmony" than, say, fallen heroes who wish to redeem themselves, or former humans who must struggle to keep their inner beast in check, or amoral crackpots who are probably going to get us all blown up.

There's a lot of potential for character in some of the previous "new toon incentives" (new classes or races.) While I can appreciate a peaceful people who love eating and drinking to huge degrees (though I will never concede that Pandaren are better drinkers than Dwarves, whatever the Lore people say,) I personally am less interested in playing them.

It's not going to stop me from doing so, mind you. (Check the name of this blog.)

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