Shandax (aka: Fenryn)

I currently have 2 level 80 hunters.  This post will mostly be about the more progressed and commonly used toon.

Fenryn (yes, I recycle names) is the less/non played horde hunter.  He was briefly used during 3.1 to play with some horde friends.  He currently sits idle and will likely remain that way in the foreseeable future.

Shandax is my current main.  He has also been on the roster for more than 5 years.  He was the second toon to hit 60 (during vanilla), the first to 70 (during TBC), and the second to 80 (during Wrath).  His original name (on Argent Dawn) was Fenryn.  After many server transfers, he lost his name to my druid, and has landed in a great guild on Terenas.  We’re currently pushing through ICC10 HMs (took down BQL and healed up Valithria [HM] for the first time last night ~8 July~).

Volador

Volador is another one of those characters that has been around for a while.  I created him in vanilla and rarely played him.  He was Arms or Fury for almost all of his first 60 levels.  I did tank with him ONE time during that trek (SM-Library), and I failed miserably.  Shortly before TBC was announced, I focused him on PvP with the intent of getting The Unstoppable Force.  Of course, TBC was announced, and that pursuit was put to an end (~2 AVs short of the goal).

I really didn’t enjoy levelling him to 60.  After TBC was released, I levelled him SLOWLY to 63-4.  Again, there was no joy in pursuing the end goal, this character just wasn’t fun.  I died, a lot.  After Wrath was announced, but before the actual release, something amazing happened.  I changed his spec to protection and had a wonderful level 70 priest heal me through the remaining levels.

I don’t know if it was the changes 3.0 brought, or a shift in perspective for me, but I realized I had no reason to be timid about tanking (I had been up to this point).  After some initially successful instance/raid tanking, I started to pursue all the information I could find about tanking.  Tankspot constantly came up as the go to resource.  I registered, read, donated, etc there.  I taught myself to tank (through TS’ guides/videos/etc), and it was good.

Now it’s time for (more of) my ego.  I’m a great tank.  I have never had a complaint, not a single one.  More times than not, I get compliments from PUGs, guildies, friends, and (of course) my fiancee (she’s that wonderful priest I talked about earlier).  I’m the tank that positions mobs for melee DPS to ensure the least amount of running for them (more for me).  I’m also the tank that positions myself so I never LOS my healers.  I pop cooldowns to lower mana reqs on my healers.  I am calm and confident.  I fill the role of leader, both in game and on vent, that is required of being a great tank.  Women want me and men want to be me*.

I didn’t raid on Volador in vanilla or TBC (short of one Kara run after 3.0 was released).  I was the raid leader and main tank for my guild for all of Naxx (10).  The guild promptly fell apart after fully clearing Naxx every week for a few months.  I completely missed any opportunity to tank Ulduar, got a brief call to tank ToC25, and have only tanked a rep run or two in ICC.

Volador will be levelling exclusively with Magrethea in Cata.  He will not likely be my main, nor will he be my first 85.  The unfortunate reality is tanks are not in short supply, and our schedule dictates difficulty in raiding.  You can count on seeing Volador in instances/heroics if you’re on the Ruin battlegroup, though.  He will likely be the go to toon for earning emblems for purchasing heirlooms and the like.

*Austin Powers reference, if you didn’t catch it.*

Twytch

Twytch has been my most played character for years.  He was not the first, but he is definitely the most loved of my toons.  He’s been the rule breaker and was how I was known for all of vanilla and is still my “name” to many people.  I had my first raid experience(s) on him (*shudder* MC) and has been (one of) my main raiding characters as recently as 3.3 content.  He has been the only toon I have attempted any roleplaying on, and oh yeah, he’s a gnome.

He started his career on Argent Dawn and has never left.  When I first created him, I didn’t spin the character model around, so he had a pink/red mullet for a VERY long time (show helm was ALWAYS turned on).  He was my first character to 60, second to 70, and third to 80.

My raiding career started with him and he provided the catalyst to my raiding ego.  There has never been a raid with Twytch (unless I fell asleep) that the #1 damage/dps spot didn’t belong to him.

In case it isn’t painfully obvious, I love Twytch.  If every toon I had were to be deleted and non-recoverable, he is the one that would cause me the most grief.  He is the reason I quit WoW before TBC was released (changes to mechanics took away a lot of what I enjoyed about him), and he will be one of the first 85s I have come Cataclysm.

TL:DR – Twytch rocks!

Fenryn (aka: Shandax)

Fenryn was created towards the beginning of 2006.  He started on AD with the name Shandax.  His levelling process took quite a while.  1 through 40 took two and a half years, 40 to 60 was done with RAF level granting, and the rest were earned in a short period in order to make him raid ready.

The final ten levels of this characters levelling process were done on Terenas with the name Fenryn.  The guild I was looking to join needed a Boomkin at the time, and I was happy to oblige.  Almost as soon as I hit 80 with him, I started raiding ToC25.  Of course being undergeared in an underperfoming spec, I did poorly.  I guess the upside is I didn’t die in fire, and I managed to provide some buffs/debuffs for our raid.  I have since gotten better with the spec and still sporadically raid ICC10 with an alt group.

In Cataclysm, the druid will be on the back burner temporarily.  I do expect to keep boomkin and one of the feral specs for my permanent dual specs.  Resto will definitely get tested, but I don’t expect it to keep a permanent spot in my active specs.

Rathyn

Rathyn was my first character.  Short of being the first, he doesn’t have much of a claim to fame.  I have only raided on him once or twice, and that was VoA.  I don’t even think that counts as a raid, does it?  He was not one of the privileged few to make it to 60 in vanilla or 70 in TBC.  He is my last toon to 80 (#8 for those keeping score). 

Why did he take so long to level?  Why was he the first created and the last to 80?  I think it has a lot to do with playstyle.  First and foremost, I’m not much of a fan of casters.  There’s also the monotony of a frost mage.  [Hey look, a mob!  Frostbolt, Frostbolt, Frostbolt, …]  Add that to the arsenal of max level toons I already had, and you get a case of slow levelling.

When I finally did hit max level on him, I started something that I normally don’t do.  I focused all my efforts on him.  He went from quest greens/blues to full heroic gear (except those boots!) in no time.  I planned his gear out, and went at it.  I had epics crafted for him (the first since Volador) and fully gemmed/enchanted everything.  He is raid ready!  Except, well, I hate PUGs.

So, after I geared him to that point, what could I do?  I felt wrong for spending that much time and not seeing anything from it.  I did what any sane man would.  I started killing people!  Or rather, I died a lot in PvP while I worked on a gearset.  It’s not complete, nowhere close honestly, but it is the start of one.  I believe the count was at 5 or 6 pieces before I stopped focusing on that.

In Cataclysm, Rathyn will probably remain an alt.  He will see 85 eventually, but not for a while.  I don’t know if I’ll keep him (or any other toon) to PvP.  He will definitely be used to gather herbs to fund my way through Cataclysm, or at least add to my nest egg.

Vytriol

I created my first death knight as soon as I fully installed Wrath on my computer.  It wasn’t Vytriol.  Or rather, it wasn’t this Vytriol.  I have recycled the name time and again on multiple servers.  If you do a search for the name, every one of the DKs will be me (and quite a few of them will be the same toon). 

This Vytriol levelled as Blood (dps) on the Garrosh server.  Being an experienced player with an overpowered character made levelling easy.  Group quests were not an issue with the self-heals, even the Group-5 level 80 quests (completed in quest greens/blues).  25 easy levels went by quick and Vytriol became another 80 on the roster.

Interestingly enough, Vytriol is one of my most transferred toons.  He was created on Garrosh and has transferred to AD, Terenas, and back to AD.  He manages to make me a little richer (in game) every time he moves.  His tradeskills are (were?  I haven’t checked recently.) pretty valuable for gold making.

He’s another one of those non-raiding toons.  He’s been through Naxx once and VoA twice.  He has tanked and DPSd heroics repeatedly.  The only spec that he hasn’t held is an Unholy tank spec.  Currently both of his specs are DPS (which will be changed shortly, as I didn’t realize that was the case).

I am looking forward to Cataclysm with Vytriol.  He won’t be top 3 for hitting 85, but he’ll definitely be in the next group.  The new tanking tree is full of awesome, and will be my spec/role of choice.

Azoril

Azoril is one of the newer alts.  I created him late in 2007.  I wasn’t playing much back then, real life saw to that.  I started off moving him between starting zones (1-20) to ensure he got more than his fair share of reputation with each race.  It didn’t take long before I got bored of rep farming (and playing him in general).  He sat unplayed for quite a while.  When I did finally start levelling him again (early ’09), it was with RAF.  From 60-80 took roughly a year of on and off playing (mostly off) between raiding and levelling of other toons.

I don’t know why it took so long to level him.  He wasn’t horrible to level.  I think he got left behind mostly because of his late creation.  It didn’t help that paladins’ melee style was uninteresting and required little thought (hey look, spam 5 buttons when they come off cooldown).

When he did hit 80, I started working his gear and spec into something resembling a healer.  I took him into heroics, tossed my beacons, holy lights, and flash of lights, and got myself some gear.  Like a few other characters, I attempted to do one raid with him (VoA).  I didn’t perform up to my own standards.  At that point, the shine had worn from healing and he has mostly sat abandoned since then.  I’ll still run an occasional heroic (as Ret) with him and friends, but he has not rated much attention.

In Cataclysm I expect Azoril will be one of the last to 85.  I’m not excited about him currently, and nothing paladin related in Cata is particularly awe inspiring either.  I’m sure he’ll hit 85 at some point as I’m one of those goal oriented people and 85 on 10 classes is a goal.

Tsuvo

Tsuvo is the only character to get his own post while not being level 80.  The reason for that is the expectation of him getting to that point before Cataclysm.  I created him shortly after TBC’s release.  I chose to make him a draenei for fear ward and symbol of hope.  I also chose to level him shadow for a similiar reason.  He was meant to be a mana battery.  The choice became irrelevant with Wrath as all racials were removed or given to all priests and multiple classes now carry the same mana battery buff (replenishment).

Since he isn’t 80 (yet), there has not been any heroics or raids with him.  I considered pushing him to level cap before Rathyn, but since I previously decided against healing on Azoril I didn’t see the need for another healing alt.  I do intend to have him to cap before Cataclysm is released.

I don’t have any additional reason (besides completionism) pushing me to hit 85 on him in Cataclysm.  Unless something changes drastically between now and then, Tsuvo will be one of the last (of current characters) to hit 85.

The Forgotten

Forgotten might be too strong of a word to describe these toons.  These are the toons that will probably never make it to 80 (or 85, yay for Cataclysm). 

The current roster includes:

Another Hunter: Yep, that’s right, I do NEED 3 hunters. 

Another Druid:  His main purpose in life is to make red bars go up.  This is the first toon I have ever devoted to that role at a low level with the intent to follow through until 80/85.

A Warlock:  If you look closely, this toon’s gear (*cough* cloak *cough*) will give away some important information.  He was pushed to 60 through RAF levelling and has been used mostly as a mule.

A Shaman:  I procrastinated long enough on this toon that the decision was made to wait until Cataclysm and make him a dwarf.  I cleared off and deleted the level 65 version, and will create my dorf when the time comes.

Death Knight(s):  I’ve created more than my fair share of DKs.  I don’t think I’ll finish levelling another to 80/85.

There are, of course, several alts that didn’t make the list.  I suppose they’re even lower than those in this list.  Most are collecting dust on other servers that I no longer play on.