Friday 22 May 2009

Meet The Family

For those who are curious about the motley crew of my characters, this post is for you both.  (Presented in no particular order, with the possible exception of ‘Chronological’)

Even an stealthy, murderous assassin-for-hire needs a hobby.  (It was this or knitting)

First up is Pringlerouse the rogue.  When I finally decided to settle on this server (my highest level character previously was an undead rogue who managed to get all the way up to the dizzying heights of level 46 pre-TBC), I rolled a dwarf rogue to have something more aesthetically pleasing to play that I could use my existing knowledge with.  Needless to say, I was an utter nub when I started playing Pringle.  (Some mean-spirited yet accurate individuals may claim that not much has changed, and who am I to argue?)  After losing his status as my main to Ringle, it was entertaining to refer to him as my bankrogue or my level 70 bank alt.

Because nothing says "Mighty Hunter" like a big gun and a pink ostrich.

Kringlelouse the hunter was the next to be created, as I was curious about the rumour that hunters were incredibly easy to level.  70 levels later, I had to agree.  Having just reached 80 on him, I think they’re still easy to level, but it is easier when your pet is the same level as your hunter.  On the subject of pets, all of his pets are called Tanstaafl; it’s a literary reference, and it’s easier than remembering multiple names.  (Note to self: level Kringle’s pets)

The downside of being a dwarf is being unable to see over the gas tank.  Gnomes are not only unable to see over the gas tank, but are also frequently mistaken for footstools.  Gnomes are also the only race (other than goblins) that dwarves can look down on.

Dinglemouse the protection warrior followed, as I was intent on doing my part to relieve the great tank shortage at the time.  After hitting 70, and running Mechanar with guildmates, I realised that a newly leveled (and undergeared) warrior had no chance of tanking for dps classes wearing T6 at the time.  But I kept her around, and she was my second character to reach 80.  She was also my first female dwarf character, in reaction to all the references I heard about how rare they were.

Fear this red-headed angel of sneaky death!  (And hide your chocolates!)

Ringleprouse the rogue was next, as I wanted to play a rogue with all the nifty crafted epics that TBC gave us.  However, Pringle had a lot of enchanting and jewelcrafting recipes that I didn’t want to lose.  The logical decision (for someone with way too much time on his hands) was to level a second rogue.  This I did, and this character was my raider for all of the T5 and T6 content in TBC.  She was also my first to reach 80.

lf24m Ulduar, kthxbai

Mingledouse the priest came next, with the idea (at the time, during TBC) to level her as a healer to help out with guildmates needing to do heroics.  However, after Wrath launched, it was suggested that we needed a shadow priest to fill out our 25-man raid group, so I finished bringing her up to 80, geared her up in the best crafted gear I could managed, and the rest as they say is history.

All she needs is a "Will level 4 food" sign, and she'll be set for the next few months.

Binglerouse sort of snuck in while I wasn’t looking, basically because a paladin was the single dwarf class I didn’t have at the time.  She was fairly easy to level, but I’ve yet to get around to bringing her to Northrend.  (I’ve no idea what spec I’d make her – she leveled as prot, which felt painfully slow yet was my fastest to reach 70)

Is there really anything funny about night elves?

Tingleflouse the druid was my solitary, token non-dwarf (it’s hard to get more opposite to a dwarf than a night elf), and was created with the tentative idea of making her my primary gatherer (as flight form works very well with mining and herbalism).  However, I was distracted around the time she hit 30.  She’s still 30, and still sitting in Ashenvale, waiting for me to regain some degree of enthusiasm.  (Maybe when Blizz finally brings out those mythical new druid forms)

Does this bubble make my bum look big?

Finglethouse the priest was that distraction, mainly due to someone on Vent (who obviously didn’t know me that well) making the comment “You’d have to be insane to level another priest.”  8 days, 17 hours and 19 minutes /played later, my second priest dinged 80.  (She was leveled 100% disc spec, which felt a lot slower and mana hungry than Mingle did leveling as shadow, but she got there)

I'm pretty sure her big hair has doubled her weight.

The last character on the selection screen is someone quite new (and a bit out of character for me, not being a dwarf and all).  Meet Snowfall, the blood elf hunter.  This is something of an experiment to see how easy it is to level a character without the resources that I’ve been able to give my dwarves as they leveled (such as gold and gear), relying solely upon herbalism and enchanting for additional income.  It’s off to a good start; she has over 9G already at level 11.  I’ve no idea how long or how often I’ll play her, or even if she’ll get out of the blood elf starting zones, but she’s something different to do on those many occasions where I’m bored.  (As an aside, Blizz have really improved their animating skills since vanilla WoW – blood elves move beautifully.  It’s a pity they look like anorexic matchsticks.)

I did briefly try leveling a death knight, but the runic power thing just didn’t make any sense to me.  It was tempting to level one to 80 just to say I’d done it, but “bankdk” doesn’t have the same ring to it as “bankrogue”.

And that’s my extended family of characters.  It’s nice to meet you.

/wave