No April Fools Joke

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve likely heard about a small event happening on December 7,2010. It’s actually a rather large event. One could say it is right down cataclysmic.
Someone reminded me on Twitter that I never blogged about what I was going to make my main toon in Cataclysm. My last blog was about how I decided that the Druid would not be the one to get to 85 first. The next toon that I eliminated was the Hunter. I still plan on taking him to 85 at some point, but not first. Hunters have undergone too many changes in Cataclysm, and I’m not looking for a roller coaster of buffs and nerfs while they rebalance what is in essence a new class. For the same reason, I’m retiring my venerable Paladin. The Paladin has once again undergone a dramatic redesign. While I appreciate the Developers efforts to bring the class closer to their vision, I’m not excited about relearning my class. If I was going to do that, I would really want to take a toon from level 1 on up.
I know I risk getting lumped in with the group of people who abandoned their Paladins once they required  ‘skillz’, but I think anyone who has known me would know that was not a motivation.
There are still issues with the Paladin that have been left unaddressed as we move to the end of the Cataclysm Beta. Prot Paladins are still in need of a short cooldown, off the global, interrupt. But most concerning to me is that even at this late stage, the Developers are still monkeying around with something as basic as the Prot Paladin rotation. I still have concerns based on the previous times the game has expanded. I was around for the launch of Burning Crusade, and Wrath of the Lich King. In both cases, Paladins were nerfed heavily because of balance issue in the x.0 (2.0, 3.0) patch. This mainly effected Retribution, but invariably, Protection got caught in the collateral damage. In the past two expansions, Paladins have come into the release somewhere between broken and barely functional, and its only the x.3 patch that finally fixes them. I’ve seen this movie twice, I won’t be going for the trifecta.
So it is the odd choice of my Warrior who will be the first to Level 85. I have really enjoyed playing the DPS Warrior, and I also enjoy getting to Tank from time to time. As burnt out as I got on tanking towards the middle to end of Wrath, I’ve realized I miss it. With the Warrior, I can be our melee DPS (which my Guild Leader tells me we are very light on at the moment), and I can also be our fill in tank. In addition, I’ll have those Tank insta-ques for Randoms which is always nice.
I’ve also decided to make my Goblin a Shaman. I tried the mage, but man, are they squishy. How did you people level up like that?  I like that the Shaman has the ability to take a couple of hits if the mob gets in close, plus a nice melee strike come Cataclysm that all Shamans, even Resto/Elemental get. I still don’t get why the Mage who is all magical, gets a permanent Water ELEMENTAL pet, but Shamans, the MASTERS of the ELEMENTS, don’t get a permanent ELEMENTAL.
I’ve actually debated making the Shaman my main, but I would want more play time before I was comfortable committing to that as a main. I really like the idea of an Enhance/Elemental Shaman and both playstyle look like a lot of fun. But would it be fair to my guild to be a Ele/Enh Shaman. Would there be pressure at some point to break out the Resto? But probably the biggest reason I’m not going to pick the Shaman is that would put me way, way behind the rest of the guild. I probably wouldn’t hit 85 until Tier 12 was out , and I’d miss the first Tier of raids in Cataclysm. I’m going to be one of the slower levelers to begin with, so starting at 1 would just put me that much father behind.
This, in some part, is because I’ve changed the way I approach the game. I have a fairly large life change planned for the first of the year, which will throw my schedule into chaos. But, in addition to that, I’ve changed how I spend my time with the game.
I’ve always maintained that the time I choose to devote to Warcraft would be devoted to something equally unproductive would I not be playing. It might be another video game, like Civ or SWTOR when that comes out. It might be TV like Castle, Mythbusters, or NFL Football (good gravy, do my beloved Panthers stink this year).
But recently, I’ve decided to try to pick up a new skill, and I want to devote some of my gaming time to learning that new skill. There isn’t room in my life for the major life change, the new skill, and everything else I’ve been doing. I’m going to have to break the balance I have now, and establish some new boundaries. I feel really fortunate to be in a guild where we can only raid 3 hours a night, and where we are free to choose to raid only 1 to 2 times per week. Hopefully, the guys won’t mind me leveling a little slower than the rest and I will be able to catch up once I’m 85.
So I’m trading Blue Bars for Red in Cataclysm. I am the Warrior.