Glory of the Reroll

I think I've earned a personal achievement - Glory of the Reroll. In the four and a half consecutive years I've been playing WoW, I haven't stuck to a single toon for a period of more than about 18 months.

But Vectivus, why reroll?

I get this one a lot - especially when I was 'rerolling' from one Alliance toon to another. Why wouldn't I have just levelled an alt before the next expansion, and switched at that opportune time? Why would I totally abandon a previous character to focus entirely on a new one?

Rerolling is a fantastic opportunity at any time.

When WoW came out, I started playing as a Human Priest. It took me almost five months of limited game play (I was travelling a lot at the time) to ding 60 and start raiding. I only really spent a few months on this toon, clearing MC, before I made my first switch.

I rerolled fully to a Gnome Rogue for BWL through Naxx 1.0, and it was a fantastic experience. Rogues were competitive DPS, and a class that was very enjoyable at the time (at least, by comparison to working out healer rotations!). I never touched my Priest again.

But why? You had two perfectly good level 60 characters!

Part of playing the game well, in my mind, has always been committing yourself to improving your character to the best of your ability. That can mean huge numbers of man-hours, a lot of work, and it requires dedication. Alts are a competing interest, and a distraction - they divert time away from your primary character, which is where 100% of your focus should be if you are serious about being competitive in whatever area of the game you're exploring (PvE, PvP, etc.).

Doesn't rerolling fly in the face of that logic?

Yes and no. Rerolling takes the time investment that you have put into a character and makes it effectively worthless, less any transferable assets you might move to your new character - so in that sense, you absolutely do lose the fruits of your previous efforts. On the other hand, if you 100% commit to switching to a new character - new race, class, faction, server, or any combination thereof - you're not load-balancing betwen multiple characters, so you are still going to be fully dedicated to a single character.

This doesn't make any sense. I've got X gear, Y reputations, and Z achievements on my old character!

When Burning Crusade came out, I gave up my T2+ geared Gnome Rogue to play a Draenei Warrior. I made that decision for a variety of reasons - to change servers, try the new starting zone content, play a new class, explore a new role (tanking), and others. Your choice to reroll could be motivated by any of those kinds of factors, or many others - switching factions, playing with friends, meeting new people, and the list goes on.

It's very liberating to walk away from the expectations that come with being tied to a well-progressed character. I rolled a Human Mage when I resubscribed for Wrath, despite everyone expecting me to simply quickly level my Warrior. It freed me of the role that people had ascribed to me, and it let me focus on learning new skills, talents, mechanics, and gain a better understanding of the game.

But at what cost?

In my mind, very little. I had (have, even) fantastic level 70 gear on my Warrior - with the exception of a handful of late Sunwell drops, my Warrior was using best-in-slot tanking gear, had a perfect pre-Sunwell DPS set, and the full range of S3/S4 Arena gear. I could have used that gear straight into Naxx 2.0, but I didn't want to.

I gave up some leveling perks, some old reputations, and some little vanity items (Amani Warbear, TCG turtle mount, etc.); I gained a host of opportunities.

I've since given up the Mage, too, to play a Blood Elf Paladin. I'm playing my first Horde character, a new class, enjoying my first true hybrid toon, and playing with lots of familiar names/faces from the EJ boards.

This doesn't sound like it's for me.

And it may well not be! Rerolling has always opened doors for me and let me experiment, meet new people, and advance my knowledge of and skill at the game. Maybe I just haven't found the perfect class; maybe I'm a wanderer, and I can't be tied down. Regardless, rerolling always gave me a renewed interest in the game, and I can see myself getting another solid year or two out of WoW because I moved on and found a new niche.

Then again, maybe it will turn out that Paladins suck.