Yesterday I rolled a tauren druid on The Venture Co., named Songlark (the actual naming process took about 45 minutes, because I’m a dork).

In character, she’s bright and cheerful and more outgoing than the hunter Lunapike.

Out of character she is my highest-level druid in WoW, at level 7.

Rejuvenation is one of my favorite things ever. It’s like a Mend Pet, only for yourself. As such, my current typical super-intense and clearly very experienced *cough* druid strategy goes something like this:

Pull with a Wrath or two. Rejuvenation. Moonfire. Moonfire again. …hit with stick until my mana comes back. Rejuvenation, Moonfire, Moonfire, hitting with stick…
Like that. Sometimes I’ll throw in a Healing Touch for good measure.

I dig it. I’m like a mage that can heal. Except I go OOM a lot faster than my mage does (and that’s saying a lot). But that’s because my mage has a bunch of Intellect gear and this druid, well, doesn’t yet.

So I got about halfway through level 7 and was having this great fun time and I was aiming for level 10 before the night was out, and then suddenly I felt it.

It.

“Piiiike… come back to us… you know you want to…”

“No! I’m leveling a druid!!”

“Piiiiiiike… we have cookies… and Kibler’s Bits…”

“…”

I logged out of Songlark and logged into Tawyn and spent the next two hours in Alterac Valley pewpew’ing stuff.

/blush

It’s a drug, I tell ya.

Currently I’m waffling over whether I should get the druid to 10 today or give another class a whirl. I suppose I’ll think it over while I’m at work.

First of all I want to say thanks to everybody for your input on my previous post regarding “The Alt Project”. I read all your ideas and comments and took everything into consideration. I wanted to post a few things though, to perhaps set peoples’ minds at ease:

1.) I am well aware of the fact that level 20 is not going to give me a sufficient overview of a class. The main goal here is to actually get some non-hunter classes higher than level 10 and get just a very, very basic, minimal idea of other classes. After The Alt Project is done, there might be an Alt Project II, where I try to get to level 30 or 40. And then maybe an Alt Project III. Etc. But I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself when I haven’t started yet. Level 20 is an attainable and tangible goal that I can work on without feeling burnt out. And getting to level 20 on a class is better than not getting there at all. That’s why the initial goal is set at 20. I do realize this puts some of the slower-to-ignite classes (such as druid) at a disadvantage. But the whole point is to take things slowly and then go from there. I don’t want to set my sights too high at first.

I myself would say that somebody who played a hunter to level 20 should (hopefully) at least have a basic idea of the class mechanics. Oh it’s true they don’t get Feign Death or improved traps or Steady Shot or Scattershot/Intimidation or a lot of other very important stuff yet… but they will have spent ten levels with a pet and thus should have the very basic, “1+1” idea (or what I often like to call “Hunter 101”) down . That to me is the important part.

2.) Regarding specs: the reason why I want to spec into what sounds the most unusual or fun rather than what most people swear by, is because that is how I did my hunter and I am very glad that I did it that way. I was deep enough into Marksman for Silencing Shot before I respec’d BM. I am so, so glad I had that experience as a Marksman hunter. It really helped me a lot in regards to my playing experience I think. Now granted, hunters are maybe unusual; all three specs are considered to be fairly solid specs if you know what you are doing. And admittedly the gear-stat focus for each of the three hunter trees, is not nearly as varied as the three trees on a druid or on a shaman. But the point is, I know hunters who would never dream of leaving the Marksman tree or the Survival tree, not even for the much-hailed DPS machine that is 41/20/0. Just as I know druids who would never be anything but a Moonkin. And mages who will never be anything but Arcane. That is why I want to spec what initially “sounds fun”. If it turns out that it’s not fun, or it’s too gear-dependent, then no big deal– it’s super easy to respec to something cookie-cutter. I just want to have that experimentation option open at first.

3.) “Aspect of the Alt” is the best name ever. Thanks Lazz!

4.) Most of the characters are already rolled, on my main server (Silver Hand) for the most part. I imagine I might make a few characters on The Venture Co. as well. While trying out other servers might be fun I think I’d like to stay “home” for now, while I’m trying things out.

Once again thanks for all the comments and suggestions and constructive criticism. I really appreciate all of it and please do keep them coming =) Oh, and this blog will always be a hunter blog first and foremost, even if I do start sharing some alt stories every now and again. With Elune as my witness, the day another class takes over hunter as my favorite class, is the day I kiss a murloc.

…Murky doesn’t count. Because he’s adorable.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to put my laundry in the washing machine and then roll a druid!

A lot of my guildies and the people I normally instance with haven’t been on WoW quite so much for various legitimate and very understandable reasons, such as school, work, and just-plain-needing-a-break. This has inspired me to sort of “stable” Tawyn for the time being; I haven’t been logging into her quite as much so she can take a little break too. Playing one character for a while does make me kind of antsy, anyway.

But I like WoW.

So I have decided to officially jumpstart an idea that has been running around in my brain for a little while now: The Alt Project.

Basically, I want to get at least one character of every class, at least to level 20.

“But Pike, you said you could only play hunters!” Oh that’s true, I won’t deny it. That’s why all my non-hunter alts have eventually wound up going from the “alt” pile to the “collecting-dust” pile. But I dunno, I’ve been thinking lately that it’s kind of sad how little I know about the other classes. I could probably tell you all the hunter talents backwards and forwards and play my hunter with my eyes closed (actually, once I did kill a mob with my eyes closed; it was strangely relaxing to simply listen and time my shots based on the sounds they made… but I digress *coughs*).

But I couldn’t begin to tell you squat about any of the other classes. I maybe know a little bit about warlocks because my boyfriend is one, and I know about a few mysterious moves that other classes have (like the mythical “Last Stand” that our tank will announce he’s using in Ventrilo, usually when things aren’t going so well), but I couldn’t tell you how to properly play or spec any other class but hunter.

And on top of that, I can’t tell you how to defeat any other class in PvP, except for what I’ve learned from experience.

This is where The Alt Project comes into play. If I learn to play the other classes, even just a little bit… it will expand my knowledge and my play experience, and maybe help me out a little in PvP situations.

So here are the rules:

1.) Get one of each class to at least level 20
2.) It’s okay to use existing characters unless they haven’t really been touched in a while
3.) Spec the way that sounds the most fun, hopefully to help keep the “I-must-go-back-to-my-hunters-NOW” bug at bay.
4.) It’s okay to jump between characters (i.e., I don’t have to sit down at get one to 20 before I move on to the next one, etc.)

Here’s my basic itinerary:

Druid:

Character:The highest level I’ve gotten a druid to is level 6, and that was on some random server I don’t play on anymore, so I think I’m going to ditch that one and start anew. I am definitely going to be a tauren druid– don’t get me wrong, I really like night elves. But see… ya know how you can really love kittens but not want to breed anymore because there’s already too many in the world? That’s sorta like me and night elves. So… yeah. Gonna make a hordie druid.
Spec: I’m torn here. Moonkin looks ridiculously fun. Bear tanking is something I’d like to try (I’d like to give tanking a shot in general, and bear-tanking sounds the most appealing so far.) Tree healing sounds fun for similar reasons; namely I want to try healing and the tree looks fun. Kitty actually doesn’t appeal to me too much simply because as I’ve said before, I have a hard time with melee classes. So if you give me a hybrid class I’m going to pick the caster spec over the melee spec. To be honest if I’m just getting to level 20 it’s not like I’m going to be able to mess with many forms anyway so it maybe doesn’t matter, but I think I’m going to wind up going Balance/Resto.

Mage:

Character: I happen to have a human mage at level 19. Now, because that’s so close to 20 already, I’m going to go above and beyond the call of duty on this character and aim for 25. There was a time when I was actually playing and enjoying this character a lot and I was thinking she would probably be my second level-70, but eventually the Call of the Wild was too much for me and I headed back to my hunters. Still, I’m looking forward to spending some quality time with my mage; and I still maintain that if I’m ever going to get a non-hunter to level 70, this is gonna be the character that does it.
Spec: I really have no idea what I’m doing in terms of a mage spec though I’m sorta basing myself on a “leveling spec” I saw once on WoWWiki or something. I’m going mostly fire. I like blowing things up. And casting the spells that make the peoples fall down.

Paladin:

Character: A blood elf paladin was one of the very first alts I ever made. I actually leveled her to level 16 before I realized that I was going into fits of jealousy anytime that I saw a hunter running by with their pet, breezing through mobs while I was sitting there using these confusing seals and judgments and dying all the time (yes I was a horrible paladin. It was like… my third ever character, okay? =P) So I basically gave up on her. Several months later I decided to give the paladin class another try, inspired primarily by the Tales of the Past III machinima which depicted paladins as being a lot more awesome than I recalled them being the first time I tried one. So I now have a draenei paladin who is currently at level 6, and I think this is the pally I’m going to focus on. I still find the playstyle to be a bit confusing but I’m having a lot more fun this time around.
Spec: “Ret for leveling” has kind of been my way of thinking but at the same time I really do want to give healing a try so Holy is calling to me. I’ll have to think this one over a bit.

Priest:

Character: I have a woefully neglected level 8 undead priest. I say “woefully neglected” because every time I’ve played this character so far I’ve had an absolute blast. I dunno why she’s so fun, she just is. Not hunter-fun, of course, but “DoT-Smite-Heal-Win” fun. I can’t wait to resurrect her (no undead-related pun intended…)
Spec: For a while I was waffling between Holy (so I can try out healing) and Shadow (for easier leveling); at this point I think I’m gonna throw both those ideas out the window and go Discipline. I like the odd specs.

Rogue:

Character: At first I thought this was going to be the class I would have the hardest time with… it’s purely a melee DPS class and I simply don’t have as much fun with melee as I do with other stuff. However, I have an adorable level 8 gnome rogue who I’ve been playing on and off lately, and enjoying a lot. Why? Roleplaying. I came up with the best backstory ever for this guy. How can you not love a gnome whose only wish is to be a Draenei? I took him to the Draenei starting area and he’s doing all his questing there; a bit hard because Draenei can’t be rogues so he’s gotta run to Darnassus to hit up the trainer, but it’s oh so fun. I love this character, melee or not.
Spec: I’ve no idea. Probably combat because I’ve heard it’s easy to level. But I’m probably going to put at least a few points in Subtlety, because the whole sneaking-around th

ing is one of the things I like best about this class so far.

Shaman:

Character: I have a draenei shaman who started out as a bank character, wound up getting power-leveled to 9 in a bored afternoon, and then promptly turned back into the bank character. I can’t decide if I want to pick this character up again or make a fresh start on a new character. Still thinkin’ about that one.
Spec: Elemental. Casting ftw.

Warlock:

Character: I believe I will be picking up my long-neglected level 5 gnome warlock for this one. I recall getting frustrated and giving up early with this character because my imp was failing horribly as a stand-in for a hunter pet. On top of that, I wanted to roleplay this character as “evil” and I just have trouble doing that. I think I want to modify her story and personality a little to give her some more quirks and interesting personality traits. She won’t be quite so purely evil. That will be more fun.
Spec: I’m totally thinking Demonology. It’s the closest to Beast Mastery that you can get!

Warrior:

Character: I’m going to have to make an all-new character for this one I think; I’ve tried warrior a few times in the past but never gotten very far (7 or 8 is the farthest I think) and those characters are all on servers I don’t play on anymore. I’m not sure what faction or race the new warrior is gonna be yet, though.
Spec: I have a lot of respect for tanks and I don’t know if I could ever play one properly; still, I find myself intrigued and I’d love to give Prot a try. But I think that might be rather difficult to level. In which case I’d probably go Arms or Fury or whatever the “good” warrior leveling spec is (I have no idea.)

Well, there ya have it. Can she do it? Can her little huntery heart manage playing *gasp* other classes?

We’re about to find out!