I have a problem...

I have a new alt. Yes. It's true.

My leveling addiction has branched to new heights.

I have a level 15 shadow priest in another server. (Sorry Alleria, your character list isn't big enough for me... I need more. But you're still my main squeeze baby. I'll be home for dinner.)

I was leveling Kiljara and I thought to myself... I've just leveled 4 characters through this content. And I'm enjoying the HELL out of leveling my reset hunter. I can't level my mage because she's linked to some characters. I can't level my hunter because she's also linked to some characters. I need another lowbie to break the Northrend Leveling Routine. And I just can't do another reset, I don't think my heart could take the strain.

I had a level 6 draenei shaman on Malygos, a character I made with the intention of writing a leveling guide. Hahahahaha. Oh, how silly I was. A large undertaking like that, for a person who procrastinates as much as I do? HAHAHAHAHA. *wipes away tears of mirth*

Anyway, I logged her in and ran around as her and was fulfilled. And then when I got my first talent point, I said to myself... I've never been shadow.

I play her at work, when I know I'm going to be interrupted periodically with various things to do, because playing one of my higher alts in Northrend with periodic unavoidable interruptions leads to high repair bills.

I play her when I log into Alleria and there's no one on in my guild or I have no desire to spend an hour trying to find a group for Heroic Drak'Tharon Keep or Heroic Gundrak with Keiji.

The other nice thing is that since she's on a server with no high level alts to help her out, I'm starting over. I have to skrimp and save my coppers to buy skills. I have to debate whether I can afford to upgrade to the 8 slot bag. (That's 2 more slots than the 6 slot bag, would that be worth it?... Yes.)

I have to get the mats to level my alchemy and cooking and first aid myself. I can't run to the AH and buy the best cheap greens that gold can buy for my level. I can't have an alt make me gear.

And it is REFRESHING.

I do have a problem. But it's a problem I can live with.

So, anyone out there with tips for a nub shadowpriest? :)

Shaladruilock

So, in the vein of K being oblivious about appropriate versus inappropriate commentary (This is no shock to anyone, I do it all the time! Open mouth, insert foot.), I hereby erase from your memories anything about my previous post! It did not exist. It was all a bad dream. *waggles fingers*

But I still ask... What do we classify as a main? It's a running joke with many people about altitis and altisms and altaholics. Some of them have a main, a very distinct person they prefer to run as.

Others (and I include myself in this), don't have a favorite character as much as a favorite TYPE of character.

I call it a shaladruilock!

No, seriously.

For healing, right now I prefer my shaman.

For melee DPS, I prefer my paladin.

For caster DPS, I'm still a warlock, though if my mage was high enough, that may change.

And for tanky stuff, I still like being a fuzzybutt bear.

So, honestly, I consider it that I have four mains. Granted, only two of them are 80 right now, but I can only do so much! I don't have unlimited time, y'know.

Who I bring to a given situation depends on the situation... not to mention right now level! But that will change. And soon ... yes soon... I shall have 10 level 80s.

Don't roll your eyes. It will happen.

The idea of being confined into one skin makes me twitch. There are people who do it, and are happy with it, and I applaud them for that! But I think I'd wind up leaving WoW if I had to just be one person, one thing, all the time.

One of the things that keeps me coming back to WoW, that we haven't left it for some other game... is just that. It's endless variety in what you can do, with what character you can do it with. The challenges of doing something to see if you can.

Such fun. :)

Heroics and Altisms

Of no surprise to anyone, I've rediscovered the joy of Heroics. Yesterday I ran three or four Heroics with a very nice trio of people, we kept switching out our last DPS with another of their guild members every run for some reason, from the Mighty Froggers on Alleria.

Their website by the way... it's in French. I'm linking it because it's also cool with the little buttons. (I'm easily amused)

I was worried when I first got in the group because they were speaking French, but they switched to English (at least in party chat) and invited me from one run to another.

So Zhiara the Bear, Frostdude the Mage and Gazou the Holy Pally -- Thanks guys!

And then of course, my 'usual group' formed and we waltzed through Utgard Pinnacle. We even got the My Girl Loves to Skadi All the Time achievement.

Then our TANK (Posolutely) decided he'd rather go OUT and stare at drunk girls for a while. Pfft. Where's his sense of loyalty?!

So we had to hunt for another tank and just by luck picked up a lovely prot pally named Gamling. And then we ran Utgard Keep and Nexus.

Of course the belt didn't drop for me.

On a side note, I only have 5 more world drop JC recipes to go for Northrend. One is in regular Oculus, one is a drop off of mammoths in Storm Peaks and three are in Heroic VH, Heroic OK and Heroic HoS. Fun fun!

On a side side note, having my altisms linked to my husband (I can only play something linked with one of his characters) is helping reduce the sheer amount of ... leveling I'd be doing otherwise. If not for him, I'd have 7 level 73 people, 1 level 76 and 2 level 80's.

DAMN YOU BOON, DAMN YOU!

Changes, changes, changes...

Some of this post is venting, some of it is explaining and some of it is soundboarding. Read or don't read, contribute or don't contribute, as you see fit.

As you may have noted, of late my warlock blog has become a little less warlock themed and a little more alt-themed, with my posts ranging from random game minutia to paladins to shaman to priest to warlock to bear to quests to trivia to etc.

As such, I'm contemplating changing the title of my blog. Still at kdots since, why not, but a different title page than 'More dots!'.

I just don't know what I'd change it to! More alts! More alts! just doesn't have the same ring to it, imnsho.

Other changes that may be in the air is I'm contemplating retiring as an officer in my guild. Right now, I'm basically just a guild-invite program. And that doesn't seem fair to the other officers. I have given to my guild, ideas, time, effort, and I'm contemplating taking some time to just be me and play the game, without worrying about leveling this character for the guild, but instead leveling my character for me.

I already feel very guilty that my retribution paladin is level 79 and my next highest is my restoration shaman at 73. My tank(s) hasn't(haven't) been touched. My 'main stream' DPS classes haven't really been touched either. Yet I can't find it in myself to level them right now. And I hate feeling guilty for it. I'm not the only officer, nor am I the only officer leveling a DPS as opposed to a tank or healer, but me being me... being raised Roman Catholic with a heavy dose of Italian Grandma... I can't help but wince and wonder when people are going to pounce on me and say, "Why are you leveling THAT? You're going to go prot/holy with her, right? You surely aren't staying RET, right?!" and that is exactly what I am going to do - stay retribution with my paladin.

I'm having too much fun enjoying the game with Kvasira, and then I feel guilty for it. That isn't how I want to play, y'know? My paladin started ret. Has been ret. And will stay ret.

And I want to stop feeling guilty about who I play and who I take to instances and who I sign up to go on raids with.

I started Guild Event Days for the guild and organized several of them, but then people stopped showing up and I lost interest in trying to organize something for people who didn't show up. Another officer has taken over running GED's, and I'm glad because they are an awesome idea for a friend-oriented guild and I'd hate for my apathy for anything officer-related to kill a great idea.

I used to help organize raids, but I stopped that a while back, for a variety of reasons, and haven't started it yet again. Granted, the only raids we could do would be the old 10-mans in BC and Classic, but I still have no interest in trying to organize it. Figuring out who to take, why to take them, why to have someone go as someone else, trying to balance raid utility and classes and this and that and blah blah blah. I don't want to do it anymore.

I tend to be a bossy person, especially in something I feel I do well. I think I have a good handle on people and their abilities and I put out an expectation and I find that usually people live up to that expectation. And I feel that given those things, how well I do things, the effort I put into things, that my opinion should count for something.

The downside to my personality is that when I have my face rubbed in the fact that I'm a bossy person, I get horrified. I wasn't raised to be a bossy person. I was raised to be a good little Catholic Italian girl and wash the dishes and do the laundry and keep my mouth shut when other people are talking so I don't hurt their feelings with my own inconsequential thoughts. Now, I say that and I tell you that my parents did not realize they were raising me that way, and undoubtedly would be horrified if they realized that I equated my upbringing with that outcome, and then they'd laugh at the mere thought that I came out that way (because I didn't), but I still know that's the way I should be.

So I get horrified, my opinion made to be less than I thought it was worth, and I go crawl into a hole made of my own shattered self-esteem, pride and emotions. It's a vicious cycle. And instead of scaling back my behavior, I go 180 to what I was, so instead of being bossy and authoritative about what I'm doing, I go to not participating much at all.

Such is me.

Such happened to me not too long ago. I did what my bossy opinion told me was the right thing to do, based on what I knew about the game, the mechanics involved, etc, etc, and it blew up in my face.

So poof, I go to not organizing anything.

So, I don't organize, I don't participate except to say 'I'll go as whatever' and I do nothing except feel guilty about shirking my self-imposed leveling duties.

So I ask myself, "Why am I an officer? Is it a rank thing? So I can say 'I'm an officer!'"

What is power without responsibility? I'm not abusing my power, but I'm not doing anything with it either. Is it still then appropriate for me to be an officer? Or worse, am I an officer for no other reason than time spent in the guild and the sheer amount of alts that I have?

I'm not saying anyone did this, but my paranoia can't help but say...

"Make K an officer, so this way we can tap any of her alts we want to have come, rather than waiting for her to offer it herself."

In other news, my warlock has not moved much in the last little bit, and I've fallen far behind the raiding guild requirement of level 80 by December 1st. I don't think they CARE that she isn't level 80, but I don't feel comfortable keeping her in a raiding guild if I'm not planning on raiding with her anytime really soon. Yet more of the 'if I'm sitting in there taking up a spot (not that a virtual spot takes much room anyway), I should be doing what is expected. So if I'm not doing what is expected, maybe I should not be there.'

We're going on vacation for the holidays starting the 22nd until New Years Eve. Honestly, I can't wait for the break. Not that I'm not enjoying the heck out of the expac, but I think I need to take some time and evaluate where I want to go with the game, where I find myself going and what I want to do next.

And damnit, I need an epic flying mount on my paladin. Boon spends most of our in-flight time zooming circles around me and making train noises.

To Northrend I will go...

To Northrend I will go! Ho-ho the merry-o to Northrend I will go!

That's right, with a little over 1 weeks worth of blitz-leveling in Outlands (while working, no week off for me.), my DeathKnight dinged 68 yesterday and I hopped on the boat to Borean Tundra.

Why the Tundra? Because Seraphelia, my husband's DK, started there first and said there were a lot of nice upgrades right away.

I went ahead and respecced slightly. While leveling WITH Seraphelia (Blood DK), I didn't die much. She did the single-target burndown while I kept the massive amounts of mobs hitting me. She healed with Rune-Tap and I tried to stay alive with Bone Shield, Icy Fortitude and Death Strike.

When she left me *sob sob sob*, I discovered I'm a little more squishy than someone in plate should be, at least compared to how I was when I had someone else single-target killing things one by one.

So I went ahead and respecced with some points in blood for some single-target DPS goodness, and Rune Tap.

I don't have the Rage of Rivendare anymore or Unholy Blight. I will likely get them back, but I deemed it more important to have an 'eek, need health!' button and 'do more DPS with my big two hander' ability than those.

And I'm enjoying it. My Death Strike's heal for far more than they were doing, which is very nice.

I still have Beetlecrunch or Eyedrinker or Tombbreaker or ... oh, they change so frequently, who can keep up with their names other than to eagerly wait for them to spawn so you can laugh.

I... like... shiny.

Anyway... I also find myself at a quandry. People expect me to level fast. Hench the stable of 70's. But in reality, the first time through, I'm slower than expected. Because I read the quests and I have to discover where to go for the first time. Second time 'round, much much faster. No quest reading, go straight there, know what quests to have active all at the same time to increase the quest complete/time/area faster.

Not SLOW, but not as fast as I am the third, or even second, time around. The more times I do it, the faster I get.

But here I am, with 9 classes out in Northrend (I can't say 9 level 70s, not just yet. And my poor mage is still in Zangarmarsh. She's so much fun to play, I need to get her leveled up. I can do it, I just need the time.) and I can't settle on which one to level except for the DK. Because my goodness is she fun.

Boon says, "Just pick your main."

Yeah, that's an easy one. Resolve, the raiding guild that Kikidas is actually in, wants their members to be 80 by December 1st. Kikidas is only level 71. Why? Because I'm either leveling with Seraphelia and Keiji, or Boon and Kvasira.

Maybe I should level Kikidas with Boon.

But Kvasira is so much damn fun. Though honestly, sad though it may be, Kvasira solo's better than Kikidas. Which is not to say that Kikidas doesn't hose through things just fine, but she's a teensy bit squishy, and can't heal herself as fast as Kvasira can, and doesn't have a bubble...

And then there are my other 'mains', namely the priest and the druid. I haven't done anything with them, other than to get Kiljara out to Howling Fjord.

I feel like I'm letting both my guilds down by having fun with my new character. I'm not leveling Kikidas. I'm not leveling Kathe. I'm not leveling Kiljara.

I am leveling my Retribution Paladin and my Unholy/Blood Deathknight. Because the game is short on Ret Pallies and DK's. Really, very rare classes.

Yet as much as I feel like I'm letting down my guild... I also sit there and say, 'Damnit, it's my game too. I should be able to play what I want to play, instead of having to play what I feel I SHOULD play.'.

The evil giggle inside says, "Play your DK and laugh and laugh and laugh." -- besides which, Death Knight has so many neat party buffs and mob debuffs that they will be a nice addition to a raid/party group. Unholy mainly debuffs the mob so that everyone does more DPS to it, and Blood mainly buffs the party so that they do more DPS to the mob, as well as Blood Presence which heals people and their Rune Tap/Blood Tap?/Heal-Party abilities. Why can't this be my new 'main DPS'? Soooo much fun.

The contrary elitist inside says, "Play your Ret Pally because you were good BEFORE we were buffed/nerfed/buffed/nerfed. And it's fun to irritate people by being a good Ret Pally and snub your nose at the people saying, "go holy nub", by outDPSing them.

The good-little-guildie says, "You really need to focus on leveling Kikidas and Kathe, because Resolve needs their DPS and KoU needs their tank."

Now, some of this is also 'teh new', when I hit 70 with Kvasira, she's all I wanted to play. Because it was something 'new'. It tested my abilities and skills. It was so wonderful.

Now the DK is 'teh new', and now it's all I want to play, with Kvasira a middling second and my others a far third.

Arrrgh, rampant Altisms really IS bad for your health!

Downside to Altisms

Really? There's a downside to having 7 level 70s? Surely I am jesting! But no, I speak truth!

There is a downside.

I've touched on it in the past: where because I have a tank, healer and top-DPS character... I feel compelled to be one of the three. Even if I don't necessarily want to be said person. I do it because I don't mind terribly and also because if I don't be that person, said group or raid is either searching for a replacement for a long while or just gets cancelled. And how is that any fun for anyone involved? And then there's all this horrible feeling. I've heard it's called guilt.

Because I didn't take my (insert class here), the run got cancelled. Wow. That's 9 (or 24? or 4? Does it matter?) other people who were inconvenienced by my preference to be something other than what they need and I have.

It's something a few people I know have run into. They have a tank and a healer and a DPS... and they, and my, question whenever someone says 'Hey, let's do...' isn't 'Sure, I'm in!'... it's 'Who do you need me to come as?'.

And really... sometimes we don't care, because the fun is in doing with friends. But othertimes... it would be nice to say, 'I'm coming as...', as opposed to, 'Who do I need to come as?'.

I've gotten a bit better in that regards... where I say, "I need to bring K*". Now, though I say that, I do still occasionally have to come as someone else to make the group actually go. Ever try to find a tank or a healer? And there's none on? ... but there's a plethora of DPS? Yeah...

Now, my friends are awesome and they let me come as whatever I want to come as when I'm not MTing or MHing. Which is how my ret paladin got into Karazhan and typical of Karazhan whimsy, not a single piece of DPS plate dropped.

The Brew Boss is another example of how having multiple alts is bad for the one afflicted with altisms. You're in a group of friends. And the 5-insults are given. And then someone says, "Who has an alt?"... while they look right at you. You, the queen of the alt-brigade.

So, one of your characters gets 5 shots at whatever you're after, but then after that... each alt only gets one shot at the boss and his drops. Not very fair, but how do you tell the group... 'No. I want my full chance at getting the kodo!'... instead, its ... 'Sure, let me run out there. 7 times.'

*whimper*

Now, everyone is entitled to play whatever class they want. No one is ever going to force someone to roll a class just because our guild needs it. At least, no one in our guild is going to do that. Yet it's so frustrating when one of our DPSers rolls.... another DPSer. *sigh*

Sometimes, alts bite you in the foot. If I only had one character... I'd go as that character. Since I have so many... I have to go with what is needed sometimes, rather than what I'd want.

So saying, I wouldn't trade my 7-70's for anything!

By the way... my goal that I said once a while ago? To have 9 level 70's by the time WotLK comes out? Almost there... so close, I can almost taste it. I just have to convince the people that I level with to level with me. That and I need to stop PvPing with my paladin. Especially with the news just released about honor points.