Rerolling

Dendory · 03/15/07, 11:52 AM

I've been playing a mage for a long time now as my main, yet since TBC came and guilds saw huge changes and reconstructions, I've found myself constantly struggling to find a place in a group, a raid or a raiding guild. Just to give you an idea, my last guild had 3 priests, 7 warlocks and 12 mages. After weeks of low successes in Karazhan, where I still spend most of the evenings wiping to Maiden and Moroes or waiting outside karazhan for a spot because the only guild recruiting mages is full of casual raiders, going into raids in greens freshly dinged 70, and wiping from common mistakes and being undergeared. Right now on our server forum there are tons of recruitment posts. And the server has at least 30 alliance guilds in Karazhan, no joke. But all of them want healers, and a few need tanks. No one wants DPS classes.

So last week after talking with a hunter friend from another guild who was telling me that not only are they full on mages but half their healers have a mage or lock alt they would like to switch to as a main, I decided to reroll. I have fun playing my mage, but at this point the only thing I have left to do is wipe in karazhan, sit outside karazhan waiting for more wiping, or stand around in IF. I decided to go dreanei priest, because they are the most wanted class and I never played a healer before.

I personally know 2 other mages who rerolled, one to a shaman and one to a warrior, 1 rogue who rerolled to a shaman, and one warlock who's almost ready to. DPS classes are just so much more crowded than tanks and healers. So now to the point of this thread, who else rerolled since TBC came and why? Is there a lot of people from your guild who did? For me it gives me 3 benefits: give blizz time to retune the raids, the chance to experience a new role, and an increased chance to get into high end raids. We'll see how it goes.

Cannings · 03/15/07, 12:02 PM

We had, 1 Hunter reroll to Rogue he is now topping our dmg meters, 1 hunter, 2 mages, 1rogue reroll paladin all doing really well, I personally had wanted to reroll to my lock but i got told i'm not allowed. I think thats the only people that actually did reroll and we did have a excess of mages like i'm sure a lot of people did, but they've filtered out to a reasonable 5 or 6

Vodrin · 03/15/07, 12:07 PM

changes from server to server, guild to guild i guess. we spent a lot of naxxramas with 1-3 rogues, and 6-8 priests.

we were then very low on mages for gruul, but thankfully due to the 'gear reset' its easier to recruit decent geared people who perhaps started late pre-tbc and never could catch up to a raiding guild but had the ability for it. either way we've always had a high amount of healers.

we had one rogue reroll to his warrior, and two mages to shaman and a returning priest to shaman. thats all though and they caught up gear wise fine after getting in kara raids.

Vhex · 03/15/07, 12:08 PM

I feel it's modestly ironic that the majority of people who rerolled paladins in our guild were healers prior to rerolling. 3 priests, 1 shaman, 2 warriors. 1 warrior rerolled warlock. That was about it.

We try to rotate DPS as fairly as we can but it's pretty obvious on new encounters that we end up taking the DPS who are more willing to pot up in order to push the dps even further. Hunters who don't use agility pots, mages without supreme power flasks, etc....are the ones who usually find themselves sitting out.

Honestly though, make sure you enjoy playing a healer. I'd -much- rather play a DPS class I enjoy and raid once a week then play a healer I don't enjoy and raid every night.

However, I'm that rare stupid breed that loves support classes so I guess I lucked out.

Dendory · 03/15/07, 12:12 PM

In reality it seems most paladins I meet want to tank instead of heal. Some also want to DPS... for some reason.

As for enjoying a class in raid obviously that's key and it can't be known until you try it, but the reality is most people want to play DPS, and as fun as that may be, it leads many of us excluded simply because of the number issue, at which point there is nothing else to do.

Symbul · 03/15/07, 12:13 PM

Your Paladins have been healing for 2 years and want shiny new roles like the other hybrids.

Northerner · 03/15/07, 12:16 PM

All of our mages re-rolled or converted to alts at some point in TBC effectively. (I've really considered switching mains to my hunter or shadow spriest but frankly, I am the only mage that shows consistantly as it is.) I don't know if my guild(s) are just hard on mages or if it is just a Horde phenomenon but we've never had a steady supply of competant ones. I do know a lot of us were a little frustrated with the changes to the class lately though. No matter.

Obviously though the ratio of dps to tanks to healers when fielding three ten-mans is different than fielding one 25-man though and the ratio was even stranger when doing lots and lots of heroic 5-mans and the like. I think Blizzard has tried hard to address this with encounter design but I don't have much confidence that it will work well to be honest. Designing around X tanks and then a mix of healing/dps was not terribly bad but forcing X to be a number divisible by five is a trainwreck waiting to happen.

pvthudson01 · 03/15/07, 12:17 PM

Originally Posted by Dendory

DPS classes are just so much more crowded than tanks and healers. .

DPS classes are easy mode, and require very little thinking to be played. That is why people like them. The great thing is all those hunters and mages end up on the short end of the stick come raid time and pay for their laziness when it comes to get raid spots (as in "how you like easy mode now?")

If you reroll, make sure to pick a class that is part of the holy duo, like priest or warrior. Everyone loves priests that is for sure. Either that or move servers. Funny thing is our guild is struggling to find rogues, good rogues that pay attention and know their class.

Dendory · 03/15/07, 12:26 PM

I played a war to 60 so I know the crucial classes are harder to play than pure DPS classes. I decided to go priest because I prefer casters, and never liked the rage mechanics. Level 33 now and another month or so I'll be almost back to where I was thanks to the TBC gear reset.

♦ Praetorian · 03/15/07, 12:35 PM

Originally Posted by pvthudson01

DPS classes are easy mode, and require very little thinking to be played. That is why people like them.

What a startling insight.

The great thing is all those hunters and mages end up on the short end of the stick come raid time and pay for their laziness when it comes to get raid spots (as in "how you like easy mode now?")

If you reroll, make sure to pick a class that is part of the holy duo, like priest or warrior. Everyone loves priests that is for sure. Either that or move servers. Funny thing is our guild is struggling to find rogues, good rogues that pay attention and know their class.

That's funny, given that you don't have a guild in your profile, given that you claim to be a rogue, and given that the rogue name you claim is yours does not exist on that realm in either the US or Europe. Oops!

Ayle · 03/15/07, 12:38 PM

I definately feel the same way as the OP. Being in a guild that had up to 8 mages available at most times - and being middle of the pack to hit 70 I found myself on the outside looking in. The cut down in raid size paired with "old cliques" = me not seeing Kara with my now defunct guild. I have pugged to Aran but sadly as a mage I find myself in low demand. (Not that I care too much because I would rather PvP anyways but I still would like to see some content.)

Uziel · 03/15/07, 12:42 PM

Originally Posted by pvthudson01

DPS classes are easy mode, and require very little thinking to be played. That is why people like them. The great thing is all those hunters and mages end up on the short end of the stick come raid time and pay for their laziness when it comes to get raid spots (as in "how you like easy mode now?")

If you reroll, make sure to pick a class that is part of the holy duo, like priest or warrior. Everyone loves priests that is for sure. Either that or move servers. Funny thing is our guild is struggling to find rogues, good rogues that pay attention and know their class.

Eh, no class is easy mode if you are playing that class to maximum potential.

Maybe what you meant is that DPS classes are so numerous simply because they can farm, PVE and PVP with generally the same spec/gear versus class that simply cannot do this, or cannot do this on the same level as said DPS classes.

subscience · 03/15/07, 12:48 PM

I agree. You can easily tell which members of the raid know how to fully utilize their DPS class with just a quick glance at the damage meters and I'm sure a lot of folks can tell you from experience that being a DPS force to be reckoned with is not as simple as "mashing two keys." In fact, maximizing DPS is probably the most mathematically intense role out of the holy trinity.

Also, for people who are rerolling, I found a very comprehensive free leveling guide: www.wow-pro.com

Edit- On the topic of rerolling: I quit my Warrior some time ago (I was the guild's MT) and left WoW for a few months. I came back last week and figured that my buddies would appreciate a Shaman for raiding and arenas. My very first character was a Tauren Shaman back when the servers first opened on Illidan and I ended up ditching him for an Undead Mage (which I played exclusively until I rerolled onto Mal'Ganis about a year later).

It should have been obvious since I ditched my first Shaman that maybe the Shaman class isn't cut out for me, but I'm really missing playing a Warrior.

Sigh- I might just shelf this Shaman and level up a Warrior again.

Bekah · 03/15/07, 12:49 PM

I can look at it form both sides, honestly. My very first reroll was from a 50 mage to a new priest. I wanted groups. I wanted in. I wanted a friends list a mile long and the secret to being everyones friend. I wanted to fill holes in a guild and be important.

I never really loved my priest from 1-60. I grew to love my priest at 60 when that mythical group power actually came through. I got a good raiding guild. I was in high demand. For the entirety of 60 play I enjoyed my priest and all the perks that went with her. What I finally realized about 6 months ago is that shadow wasn't going to be a phase for me- that I really crave the dps role in raids.

It wasn't for another several months before I realized that I'm simply not cut out for being a shadow priest full time. When people wistfully say "if we only had a holy priest..." I feel compelled to respec for them... and I spent a lot of my month at 70 bouncing back and forth between specs trying to single handedly manage a guild shortage of healers for 25 mans while still trying to convince myself I was going to be a shadow priest again "someday". The problem was that I didn't have the gold to put out a shadoweave set or consumables, and I certainly couldn't farm them holy- and there were priests who were actually willing to put their foots down and say "I will NOT respec to healing." who had the gold and farming ability to surpass my gearing.... so every day I spent being holy and trying to force progression was one day further behind I was in the rat race for a shadow priest spot- even after a *year* of being the guild's primary shadow priest.

So when the decision time came and I rerolled, I took one look at my options and made a mad dash towards mage.

Sure, I might not get as many groups. I might find it harder to get into a raiding guild I like (If I go back that direction). but it's worth all that, and more, for the ability to play the game the way I want- as caster dps without feeling the constant pressure to conform to whatever flavor of priest the guild needs to complete RaidX *this* week.

The grouping is great. The ease of finding a guild is nice. But I'd think long and hard about whether you'd actually be happy in the long run.

Dendory · 03/15/07, 12:56 PM

I'm shadow for leveling now but I fully intend to respec holy at 60 or 70. There's no sense to switch to a priest if you just want to DPS, I still have my mage to farm. It's nice to be #1 on the meter but it's nicer to raid and progress. And I always have the possibility to spec shadow at some point, my mage can't spec to heal.