FOR THE.....HORDE!!

My guild leader took the announcement of the new expansion to make a major announcement of his own.

I know it's still early and the xpac will not be out for awhile but it's safe to assume that we will be switching to Horde for it. With this in mind I was curious as to how people felt about all aspects of this.

I don't expect people to know what class they will want to play right now but I figure some already know what role they would like ( DPS, Tank, healer ) and some might know the class they want.

As always, I try to accommodate people as I want them to be happy in what they play. Obviously though we can't end up having all tanks or all DPS .

So far it looks like lots of people interested in tanks and melee. Warriors, Druids, and Death Knights seem to be very popular choices. Not a lot of healers or Ranged DPS.

I responded that I just don't know what I want to do yet, largely because I don't.

I've always preferred Alliance to Horde, but once faction transfers are available, AoS Alliance will become even more of a ghost town than it already is.

I really like my current guild. It's a fantastic group of guys and gals. We get stuff done, bosses die, and we have fun doing it. Most of us are what I call O.T.A (over traditional age). We are mostly adults with lives, families and stuff in 'real life' going on outside of WoW.

This is a group of guys I'd jump ship to stay with, without a question. I’m continuing to level up my Tauren Druid to get a feel for the Hordeside and to learn my way around their flight points and cities.

But I’m really unsure as to what I’m going to do in Cataclysm.

The idea of being a Tauren Paladin is very appealing to me. The Tauren are my favorite Hordeside race. I'd keep all the achievements, pets, and reputation I've built up on Honorshammer. Having those beautiful shields and offset two handers scale up to the Tauren model would make them look all the more impressive. The Tauern health bonus is really cool and Warstomp is a bonus. It's a much better option than having to be a Blood Elf.

But there are times that I wonder if I want to stay in the tanking business. I will have been tanking for two full expansions when Cataclysm drops. The responsibility on a tank starts to weigh on you after a while. One mistake and you can wipe the entire raid. I’ve felt this especially on the Thorim fight. I was too slow in the hallway, but I always got people killed when I did Arena.

Maybe this time around, I'll be Retribution first with a Protection off spec. I could still tank in a pinch, or for a 5 man group, but I wouldn't have to tank in Raids. There are many nights that I’m the only Paladin in our little raid group, so we could keep the Blessings buff.

The problem is once you get off the tanking gig, it's hard to get back on it. Guilds tend to keep the same tanks for years. If I gave up tanking, it would also mean more nights where I sat out raids instead of getting an invite.

And seeing the Ret Paladin at Blizzcon basically get booed off the stage reminded me that Paladins, and especially Ret Paladins, are probably the most hated class in all of World of Warcraft. Ret seems to go through a buff-nerf-nerf-buff-nerf-nerf roller coaster every expansion. But I don’t know, maybe every class feels that way.

I've never liked the concept of a huge, plated Holy warrior standing in the back and healing. It's never made sense to me. Then you add in the fact that Paladin healing wasn't very fun or exciting (especially when I was a mainspec Holy Paladin in Vanilla WoW). I think you can see why Holy has never held much appeal to me.

Perhaps with WoW getting a reboot in Cataclysm, I need one as well. Honorshammer kills Arthas and rides off into the sunset. I would get a new name, a new race, a new role, a new class.

I've never changed mains in the 3 plus years I've been playing WoW. I'm not sure if I could pull the trigger and do it in Cataclysm.

What if that old tanking bug hits me again, I'd like the option to pursue it. I'd love the option to try out healing on something that isn't a Paladin, and to do some ranged DPS.

There's really only one class that pull that off, and that's a Druid. I know at least 2 of our team are thinking they will be Druids in the Xpac, one of which has been a Boomkin almost as long as I've been a Paladin. If I went Druid as well, it would mean we'd be pretty Druid heavy. Two Boomkins in a Raid? Probably not the best idea.

DKs aren't an option for me. I just don't personally enjoy the class. If you do, that's great, more power to you. I don't.

The only other Tanking class is the Warrior. I've got a level 80 Warrior and he's fun. I've pretty much dropped him because I absolutely hate the Heroic Strike mechanic. We've got at least two people in my raid group wanting to do the Warrior thing next Xpac. A third just isn't practical.

My other Level 80 is a Hunter. Again he's a lot of fun, but I've experienced trying to get groups as DPS. It's a lot harder than as a Tank. Sometimes, as a Tank, I feel like the only girl at a nightclub at 1:30am.

"You got Deeps to the left, Deeps to the right, and you're the only tank online..." (Think Fins by Jimmy Buffet)

Groups seek me out and I like that. I hate having to try to put together my own group. Plus, Hunters are undergoing a huge rewrite moving from mana to focus. That probably means some big balancing changes throughout Cataclysm.

The other idea I've had bouncing around in my head is a true restart, a Goblin. I start a Level 1 Goblin Shaman and take him all the way to level cap where I join my friends. I'll be at least a month or two behind them, but I'll get to see all the new content that the redone zones have to offer. To my knowledge, no one in our group is planning to play a Shaman. They can do ranged DPS or heal, and I can bring the Heroism buff.

My biggest concern is that one of my friends just did a main switch from his Shaman to his Warrior. This guy is a lot like me, and I'm concerned that whatever turned him off to the shaman will turn me off as well.

So yeah, I responded that I have no clue what I want to do for Cataclysm. My guild leader thinks it'll be here around May 2010, around 9 months from now. I'm thinking closer to the Christmas 2010, which would be almost 16 months away. Either way it's plenty of time to figure out what I want to do.