Toward the end of Burning Crusade I stopped playing my main. No reason. She just lost the appeal. I spent forever gearing her up through Karazhan and later the new badge gear and then I figured I was happy with her and went off to play my druid and Lunapike.
Well, it appears that the same thing is happening again. Here we are in what is supposedly the last major patch of WotLK and I’ve stopped playing my main. Haven’t touched her since last year (quite literally, which I suppose isn’t saying much right now, but hey.) I think the gear reset sort of bugs me. I spent months getting Tawyn up to a really good ToC-era level of gear, and now knowing I have to do it all over again just doesn’t appeal to me. I get bored of endgame much more easily than most people do, I think. All it takes is five or six solid weeks of raiding and then I’m done for months. I am quite certain I’m the World’s Worst Raider.
Anyways…
I’ve actually been logging on to random lowbie alts who I haven’t played in years and are covered in a thick layer of dust, and chucking them into LFG. Because it’s insanely fun. I digress, though.
I’ve found myself wondering if there are other people who temporarily shelve their main at the end of an expansion, too. I know a lot of people switch mains at the beginning of an expansion, but that seems to be when I rediscover my initial main. What say you?
…and as an aside, I also find myself wondering if I should actually start random-dungeoning with Tawyn because then there’s a chance I might wind up in a group with any of you lovely readers who happen to play Bloodlust Alliance, and that would be awesome. (I mean, I suppose you folks on Nightfall Horde could also potentially random-dungeon with Lunapike, but she’s in sort of a weird state of gear-limbo right now and I’m not sure how many of you would be matched up with her.)
I’ve been playing wow on and off since launch and I have never once set foot in a raid dungeon (with the exception of battlegrounds). When I dinged 60 (then 70, then 80) with my main I went straight to farming mats for my LW to make the epics I wanted. *MAKING* my own epics I find much more appealing and satisfying than nicking some dead bosses clothes! 🙂
That said I just got my first piece of raid gear ever as some friends pulled me through a bunch of heroics so I could buy my first badge raid gear…
But running lowlie alts through LFG is just so much more fun than grinding your main 😀
Since TBC I’ve switched mains every gear-reset.
I do not have the time to keep 3 toons raid-viable, and I really can’t be bothered either. So at the moment I am tanking
My hunter is a sad story though. I leveled him to 80 when TOC hit, spent a few days farming gear and had him ready for raids – Then I picked up Inscription and parked him at the SW AH :/ … A well geared AH alt.
I get some of that end-of-patch/pre-expansion bordom as well. I stopped playing my main (mage) for quite a bit and worked hard on leveling my druid. I also took the time to help level up with my GF on her first toon.
As far as the gear situation goes, the reset can be frustrating… but I think of it as the chance to allow me to get into some of the new content. I don’t get many opportunities to raid, so it’s a luxury to see the content. The re-gearing is just a means to the end.
I have only one level 80 toon, my Dwarven hunter. I tend to feel the opposite way. I hate doing leveling quests that i did before and rarely get an alt past level 30. I have a weird enjoyment around doing dailies and like to go to Wintergrasp a few times a week ( I have no dedicated PVP gear but I and my pig are feared amongst the Horde “clothies”). I enjoy getting that next bit of epic gear and watching my dps slowly creep up the scale. I DREAD the thought of leveling from 80 to 85 once Cataclysm hits.
I leave my mains for low level alts all the time, but it has nothing to do with gear resets. I just like playing the game from so many different angles and with so many different classes that I don’t bother sticking with one toon for too long. Sure, I can focus on one with most of my time and level them pretty quick, but I’ll still drop them at any time to go jump on a lowb.
End game gear grinds, rep grinds, mat farming for specific gear – it’s all boring to me. Raiding turns the game into a job rather than a pass time, so forget that too.
I’ll stick to rotating through my toons on a consistent basis and let everyone else worry about their gear score.
I’m glad to hear that someone else has the same problem as me. Right around 3.0’s release, I dropped my hunter main for a druid. She’s been my main for a little over a year, and now I definitely feel myself being more and more interested in the tanking warrior I’m leveling up through the Dungeon Finder.
I’m never quite sure how to answer when people ask me my main.
I get bored of raiding very easily these days. In the end I decided I’d quit guild raiding and go casual to save the annoyance but then a friend took over the guild they were in made some other friends officers, including my bf, who both asked if I’d come back.
I said I’d go back for a 2 week trial, see how much I hated/enjoyed it. Turned out it was fine so I stuck around. Problem was I had other things I wanted to do as well, and the people in that guild’s attitudes pissed me off so much I lost interest in it. I feel bad purely because I was enjoying it, but yep, few weeks and bam, I quit. This time not because I was bored, like all the other times.
Usually when I’m bored I reroll though. I just don’t want to this time. I focus on my hunter’s achievements/gear the most, but I have alts I want to play, series I want to watch, books I want to read. So.. sod the stress :>
A trend in data is often described by a line. The mathematical definition of a line requires only two points, one being a start point and the other being an end point. You have two points, and therefore a line, and Yep, you have a trend.
The gear reset always hurts. PVPers are especially exposed to it. PVEers have to confront the gear up, but for raiders there’s only so much you can do about showing up in 10s or 25s weekly.
Nothing wrong with dropping the raid thing. We see a lot of people do the same thing. Honestly, I think a good 25% of our guild’s raiding population exists in a revolving door of here today gone tomorrow be back next week/month. They are not guaranteed spots, but if we have room we will often welcome them back. Some just don’t return.
This seems to have happened to me as well. My resto Shaman is 2/4 T8, 2/4T9 with some TOC and other emblem gear. I don’t really see myself doing much of ICC because I’m not much of a raider. TOC was kind of an exception because it wasn’t too hard, and was fairly quick. At this point my best source of upgrades is emblems, and the upgrades are not significant to justify the effort. So instead I’ve been levelling my hunter with a little bit of dungeon running on my rogue to gear her up. Actually right now though, I’ve decided to park the hunter for a week at 66 to work up some rested XP, so my main has actually gotten a bit of action the last couple of days.
As a confessed altoholic, I run into the same thing from time to time. Vellaen has been my main from day one, but I’ve also gone through some long stretches where I’ve played other characters. Before 3.3 and the LFG system, he sat almost unplayed for two months, in which time I got a pair of alts (including my hunter) to 80 and found I enjoyed DPSing a fair bit.
The reason I’ve played this game for so long and so regularly is the ability to keep it fresh by going back and seeing all it has to offer, instead of investing all my energy in keeping one character at the bleeding edge. I run the randoms and collect my badges, but I also look forward to returning to places like Duskwood, Loch Modan and Un’goro, doing the Tirion Fordring line in EPL, and running DM and SM and other old school dungeons. It serves as a reminder of the journey, instead of a repeat of the grind.
I’ve never really stopped playing my main at the end of BC, but I did start running Naxx on my healadin instead at the time. This time I’ve been raiding exclusively on my hunter, while doing some quick gearing up of my chain heal bot.
However, I am contemplating stepping back from raiding once Cataclysm comes out and focusing on my original goal: playing each and every class and spec to see the game from their perspectives.
I shelved my main because I only had BC and don’t have the cash for the WoTLK expansion yet. Once that one hit 70 seemed like a waste of time. Not a good reason I know but I am enjoying levelling up my Alts. If the timing works I’ll have at least three at 70 by the time I get to Northrend.
yes to random dungeons 😀
with any luck I’ll see you – though depends on play time – I’m in NZ ( GMT + 12)
I’m normally doing 2 or 3 random runs a day – On Khaz’goroth – So would be fun to tank for you 😀
I haven”t had a big change of main this time around. Though I lost my way with hunters after the expansion. Just nothing to compare to shockwave for me I guess. And huntering changed dramatically when they changed MM around.
Anyway – here’s hoping I get Tawyn in a random some time
I know what you meant about gearing up again – my main (hunter) was neglected in the last gearing round (when conquest was all the rage!) but my druid’s healing set got really really nice. Now she has to do it again? No thanks.
I think a part of it, at least a small part, is the new features. I noticed that they bring out a lot of the really awesome new ideas towards the end of the expansions (or really, the beginning of the next) and they pull you away. Before Wrath, I was out exploring, fighting, rep grinding, whatever! for achievements. Now I’m running every single character I can think of through LFG. My hunter isn’t seeing a lot of love, though she’s definitely not being completely ignored. Sometimes it’s just more fun to heal. Or melee. Or even tank! ;o)
As long as it keeps the game fresh and fun, I say BRING IT ON BLIZZ! xD
I’ve been playing for about two years now, and in that time I’ve had my one Hunter. That’s it. Nothing else. It’s been mostly enough for me. But I’m not raiding these days (for a few reasons I won’t bore you with here), and even the more “unusual” stuff I had been doing; like grinding old BC reputations for the heck of it, seems a bit more monotonous than it used to.
So I’ve been toying with the idea of making an alt or two for the first time since I started playing, just for something different to mess around with. I’m trying to decide between a Death Knight and a Paladin, though I’ll probably end up making both.
The only thing stopping me right now is coming up with good character names that aren’t already taken… >.<
I do that all of the time. Most of my main characters sit in cities and snooze while I level another alt.
This problem has declined slightly ever since I discovered RP, but I still find myself on alts instead of mains.
I have two Alliance toons on Bloodlust. Two level 80’s, shaman and hunter. Names are Boozjha and Boozjah.
Yeah I spent all this time getting my hunter and warrior really geared up….they drop ony on my rear and my gear seemed somehow cheaper….I work harder and they drop ICC 5 mans and triumph is so plentiful I convert it to gems to sell on the ah- I’m tired of being behind the power-curve or being at least “at” it then the moment I accomplish something it gets handed out to everyone else cheaper. When I do 6k+ on heroic bosses and my gm doesn’t even seem to mind if I can’t make it to raids then something is off imo. I like it when if I put effort and time into something that it shows- as things seem to be going it seems like someone like me who has a hard enough time making friends irl gets left out for raiding spots for people who raid leaders prefer because they enjoy bsing with them more. If I spent 2+ hours theorycrafting gear and specs 2 or more nights a week I think that amount of work should show more then the people who just get on to blow off steam. I overall enjoy accomplishing things but when those things will be commonplace in a short while, what’s the point?
Thankfully I don’t get that too often, mainly because I don’t get the chance to raid as often as I’d like, except on Oceanic servers where I have my hunter, Trinia on Aman’thul (Ally – Bloodlust! ;3). Yet, I can’t bring myself to gear her up to be able to do the stuff I really want to, so in a way, my one alt got shelved even after pushing her to 80 over the past summer.
Really hope you get into doing ICC and such, no matter what character! <3
Would be awesome to meet Tawyn in a PuG. 🙂
It would also be awesome to meet you in a PUG, but I play on Kargath (and am thus fail).
And yes, towards the end of an expansion I do tend to get tired of the same things that I have been doing for the last year or so. Lacerate x5 (with Maul constantly, of course) then Mangle, Demoralizing Roar, and Faerie Fire, gets awfully boring after a while. I tend to go achievement hunting with my mage to relieve the tedium.
Of course, right nwo I’m mostly playing my truly amazing enchancement shammy with two heirlooms dagger, casting windfury on both, and then slaughtering everyone in a whirlwind of procs.
Would be nice to see you sometime!
My 3 primary toons are all on Bloodlust.
Ellifain – Khaz’Goroth – Pallytank
Shanria – Khaz’Goroth – Resto Tree
Thelandira – Khaz’Goroth – Huntard extroadinare (BM of course)
Say hi if you ever see me!
Elli @ Khaz.
Actually, I recently shelved my main kinda… I only log on for the weekly ICC tries. I’ve largely shelved WoW for my motorcycle hobby.
I feel the same way about the gear grind. My old main was a warrior (Onebyone – The Forgotten Coast) did the gear grind for kara/gruul/mag.. tk/ssc…. bt… never did sunwell, our server kinda sucks. Then same in LK Naxx, then Ulduar i take a 3 month break after 2 years of hard raiding come back and my tank who has 37k full ulduar gear is being out geared by tanks who have been playing for less than a month at 80.
Actually did the dusting of an alt and got on my 60 hunter (Ordinaryhero – The Forgotten Coast) who has been on the shelf since classic and taking a break from the raid grind. Why i’m here actually to learn more about the class. Like the site and the blog. I will be checking out this place more often. Looking forward to the next post.
If I was a betting man, I bet you will find many players who are now switching their mains are individuals who do not put much priority on gear.
To me, the 15-25 minutes it takes to blow away trivial content are not worth 2 emblems of Frost. My time is precious (to me) and I would rather spend it pursuing goals which are challenging to me.
I raided with a regular group until two weeks ago but I stopped because the majority of the raiders wanted to skip content. The latest content offers better gear and the older (unconquered) content somehow became “boring” and “meaningless”.
Their point of view is as valid as mine but the difference in perception makes it impossible for me to continue raiding with them. My mains will go into semi-retirement until Cata is released.
Not a big, it’s 2.4 and, shudder, 3.0, all over again.
I am enjoying the LFG tool with lower level toons (and how do I wish they had an undermaned option to try dungeons with 2 DPS only) and may play an alt again to help a very casual leveling guild start raiding Naxx once a week. It’s always a good thing to listen to players who have practically no raid experience after they kill a boss for the first time.
I had the same feeling at the end of Burning Crusade. I was so psyched I finally reached level 70 and then… boom, I got tired of her for some reason. The sad thing is – in stead of just leaving her be for a little while – I deleted her. A choice I regret terribly.
I’ve cycled through characters quite often. In the early part of BC, I leveled my druid from 60 to 70, raided on her for a bit as a feral MT on raid progression. After I took a break from the game, I couldn’t turn back to her.
The whole concept of Death Knights just gripped me because the runes and runic power system seemed so cool. I blitzed through BC content and then into northrend on my death knight. For quite some time, she was my main, but I got frustrated because I couldn’t progress in current raid content on her. That caused me to quit for some time.
After coming back /yet/ again, I swapped my shammy’s spec from enhancement to elemental and leveled her from 60ish to 80 for a refreshing play style. After getting her reasonably geared, I quit again… >.>
Then 3.3 came out and I was back hook line and sinker after my friends started a raid group. Even if it was casual, I was able to raid with my irl friends and that made it rather nice. Still on the shammy, still on the DK… but that 74 druid looks at me with her feathery butt saying ‘Level me!’
I tend to get tired of echo every so often.
But then again only really one character tends to be my focus – then when its geared to the limits of progression I can attain with it – I can’t really be bothered to play it anymore.
When ICC launched I was playing my shaman(ele) lots, then I decided to bring my DK up to date and now they can tank ICC25 and are gaining a dps offset (DW frost). I still play my warrior(arms) and I’ve got a paladin alt I level when I can be bothered, and a druid alt I’ve started playing with my gf and her friends once a week.
Simply put, its too much so only 1 or 2 gets my attention in any 1 week. Echo tends not get played outside of 25man progress runs except for dailies or achievements if I’m feeling Grindy (200 points off of 9000!)
Hunter will always be my main I love the class too much but I think with a lot players gearing up is simply a lot of fun and when that feeling of constantly improving disappears its not as fun to play anymore.