Toon Experimentation

I have been suffering from indecision regarding which toon is my “main” and who I want to invest the most time and effort in.  Well, that’s not exactly true:  For the past few weeks, most of my free time and effort has been devoted to Kheylar, my Blood Elf Hunter.  I have leveled her to 70 and started working on some old “Burning Crusade” end game content.  Don’t laugh.  I had skipped all of that stuff and went straight to Northrend at level 68 with all of my other toons.  Since I didn’t start playing World of Warcraft until Wrath came out, I never really experienced Shadowmoon Valley, Netherstorm, or the numerous dailies for Shattered Sun rep.  All this has been a pleasant change of pace for me, and with Kheylar’s “Bind on Account” gear the lost XP hasn’t bothered me much.

So that leaves my three level 85s sitting idle.  My druid, Redrosie, had fair gear from the Raid Finder and valor points.  Her heals are still not up to “elite” status, so I’m only invited to the first few bosses when my guild does the Dragon Soul Raid.  Our raid leader keeps recruiting and auditioning new healers to take what used to be my place.  He hasn’t had much luck, though.  They either don’t like being rotated out, they don’t want to do their homework and know the fights, or they aren’t as great a healer as they have portrayed themselves to be.  So, my raid night routine lately has been:

• Log on at least a quarter till 7pm, because that’s when the first invites go out
• Do the first two/three bosses in Dragon Soul, have a great time with my guldies
• Leave group, log off Rosie, and log onto Kheylar
• Play Kheylar and listen to the Raid’s progress (or lack thereof) with this’ week’s new healer through Hubby’s vent on speakers.

I do not think that if I continued working on my healing skills, I’d ever be invited to be a full-time member of the raid group.  And, I am not sure that I want to be.  I know that our Raid Leader is not on a personal vendetta against me.  The group seems to like me as a whole and miss me when I’m not there.  I am invited to every dungeon, LFR, and “Transmog” run that we do.  Tonight, for example, we are running Ulduar for the achievement, and I will be healing.  No, I don’t think I am unwelcome.  I just think that my raid leader lost confidence in my ability to deliver expert heals in the top-notch dungeons.  This has frustrated me as well, and after four months of trying to get better HPS, I think I’ve given up.  As much as I love Rosie, there comes a time when your best is just not “the best” with something, and you have to look at other options.

            Which brings me to my other two 85s, Rezina the Paladin and Naughtia the Warlock?  Rezina was my first toon.  She’s been parked for the better part of a year after she reached 85s.  Tanking the Heroic Dungeons was hard for me to master, and so I gave up on her to devote my time to “growing up” Rosie.  Lately, I respecced and geared her for healing, to see if I could be more effective on her than I am on Rosie.  Paladin healing is very different from the AoE and massive heal-over-time affects that Druids use.  Reading about the art of Pally Healing on forums and blogs is helpful but by no means the best way to learn how to do it.  Random groups are not patient with a “noob” healer, and the only know two Holy Pallies to ask for help.  One is my Raid Leader.  I can just see it now, “Hey, I just took my old tank that was collecting moth balls, and respecced her to heal. . .I know you think I suck healing with my Druid, but maybe you can give me some pointers on how to not suck on the Pally?  That way, I can come to more raids, and maybe roll against you for gear?”  Yeah, I don’t think he’d really welcome that.  My other Holly Pally buddy is on another server, and is a (gasp) Alliance!  Yeah, as much as I’d love to run with her and get her to teach me the ropes, this whole Alliance/Horde War thing won’t let me. 

            That just leaves Naughtia.  Naughtia is my tailor and enchanter.  I leveled her to make money.  She is geared just enough to run heroics, but her DPS is bad.  I’m a little ashamed to take her out, actually.  So, she stands in her pretty white robes (A warlock wearing priestly-looking robes, thank you Transmogging!) and she sews bags for the auction house, and disenchants greens for the materials, and she looks pretty.  That’s about all she’s good for.  

            So, I play “BC” content on a hunter that could do much more, and I have three level 85s going to waste.  It seems strange, I know, but I’m actually enjoying playing the hunter.  I think that as long as I devote my time splitting between several different classes, I will continue to be a mediocre player.  I am becoming a “jack of all trades and master of none.”  I am learning Kheylar gradually.  I will keep practicing my rotation, running dungeons to see how to work with a group, and keep questing.  I would like to see her earn the “Shattered Sun” achievements and title.  There’s no real use for that anymore—it’s just something that I haven’t done in the game yet. 

            I’ll keep you posted on how things go with Kheylar as she grows, and how things go with Rosie and Rezina, too.  I know me.  I know that I will get bored with Kheylar soon and want to, say, take Rosie out to get the highest item level gear possible on her; or take Rezzie out on a dungeon binge with some guildies and decide I like healing with her.  That’s just not this week.  This week has been all about low-stress fun with my hunter.  I’ll try to stick to those three main ones for now.

            But then again, there is my baby-priest, Toshina. . . I sure do like playing a Shadow Priest with her. 

            To be continued. . .