Relax. Take a breath. I didn’t mean to scare you. I’m not making a personal announcement, but rather introducing a topic for discussion, I promise. And now that I’ve got your attention, take a minute to consider the idea.
I’ve got a poll going in the sidebar at the moment asking if people intend to switch mains when Wrath is released. When I began writing this article, the poll results are almost exactly tied between Yes, No and Maybe. What about you? Will you be switching mains when Wrath rolls around?
I’d be a liar if I said I hadn’t considered the idea myself. Don’t worry, though. Whatever the outcome of my own “soul searching” on the subject, THM won’t change. This will continue to be a place for me to share what wisdom I can about the Hunter class, interspersed with general game commentary such as this, just as it has always been. After all, I can always sublimate any desire I feel to discuss other classes I play through my work at the Azeroth Advisor and my fledgling Priest blog. But, I do think the subject bears at least cursory exploration.
What is a Main?
Your “main” is the character you place primary focus on, be that for raiding, farming, or whatever else you enjoy. It’s the character you play the most at a given point in time, and can be ever changing or static. This is the character you consider to be your “best” in terms of gear and your knowledge and skill with the class.
However you define it, whichever character you designate as your main will be the one you primarily use for various activities, and other people recognize this, and plan accordingly. Many guilds have loot rules that revolve around the definition of “mains” vs “alts”. As such, the designation of “main” can have long-reaching implications if group play is what you enjoy.
Why Would I Want to Switch?
Well, there are a myriad of reasons why people decide to switch mains, and I can only fathom a select few. If you’re planning on switching mains come Wrath, I’d love to hear your reasons for doing so. Here’s a few reasons why I think folks may want to switch mains come Wrath:
1. The Transition from TBC to Wrath Provides a Smooth Segue
Because every expansion is essentially a gear-reset, the release of a new expansion is a natural choice for a time to switch mains, because all your characters are essentially equal again in terms of the value of the gear they’re wearing, therefore you don’t have to worry about playing “catch-up” to make one of your alts a viable main for the content you’re doing. You can simply choose to level one of your alts instead of your main.
2. Change is Good
Maybe you switched mains when TBC was released, and now you want to switch mains once again. Playing the same character for four, or even two years straight gets tedious for some people, and they long to experience a different aspect of game-play. Maybe you were a caster before, and you want to give physical DPS a go. Maybe you were a tank before, and now you want to sit back and relax as a DPSer.
3. For the Good of the Team
Maybe you’ve discovered that with all the shuffling around that’s been going on lately, your guild could really use one of your alts on a more “full-time” basis, and you want to help out. This is often why raiders roll alts in the first place, to be able to fill gaps as needed, and now it looks like one of your bench-warmers might be called in for back up.
These are just a couple reasons why some folks might want to switch mains. For some, it may even be as simple as “Why the hell not?”.
The More Things Change
The more they stay the same. There are plenty of players out there that are hardcore supporters of their mains, and could never dream of playing anything else.
I won’t claim to be such a person now, though I was once. The adaptation from one status to the other was borne of necessity and grew from there. I began my Priest alt not so very long ago, leveling it because the group I ran with had need of a spare. As I leveled her, I discovered I did enjoy experiencing the game from a different perspective. Which is not to say this discovery led to a lessening of my love for playing my Hunter, but instead expanded my view to encompass more aspects of the game that I hadn’t considered previously.
Since then, I’ve gone on to level a Rogue, which I also love to play, and am currently working on a Druid and a Paladin to round out my crew before working on my Warrior, Mage and Warlock which have all been waiting patiently for some TLC. And don’t even get me started on my Death Knight (and I will have one).
In the end, I suspect my Hunter will remain my main, because it is truly what I enjoy playing. I like everything about my Hunter, and like exploring how my Hunter works. Enjoying my alts doesn’t need to detract from that experience, but instead can continue to add to the broad perspective I’ve been working to cultivate.
Will you be changing mains in Wrath?
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I am funny about mains – I don’t have one. When I feel like playing my mage, I play my mage. When I feel like playing my druid, I play my druid.
Mage (Pinskin – Whisperwind) – main raider (4/5 t5)
Warrior (Suranne – Sargeras) – main pvper dpser (350 resil – 4/5 set bonus)
Rogue (Lilpink – Sargeras) – main twink (full 39 twink – double mongoose)
Druid (Shifta – Sisters of Elune) – main pvp healer (393 resil – 4/5 set bonus) and main tank (42% dodge and 15.5k hp unbuffed)
Warlock (Robyn – Sisters of Elune) – main grinder/farmer (basically all greens…but fun as hell)
Priest (Verocia – Whisperwind) – probably the only 70 I would consider an alt (Full epic PvE w/ 1100 healing and 290 mp5 while casting and full epic PvP gear w/ 390 resil and 12.5k hp unbuffed, but just never found a niche to fill)
Not to mention my non-70s (shaman, hunter, paladin)
I think my next big project, which some may consider a ‘change of main’, is going to get a DK to 80. I can’t wait to pvp with those guys.
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Well I’m not going to be changing main toons, but I AM going to be changing main specs for raiding.
My priest, Inaara, is my main in every sense of the word. She sees the most playing, she’s seen all the way through BT/MH and a bit of Sunwell, and she’s the one I’m doing all my achievements on. She’s always been shadow… but I will be going holy for raiding at 80. Between the changes they’ve made to shadow DPS, and the fact that my GL/RL wants to go shadow at 80 (and only ever brings 1 shadowpriest to raid, and I don’t want to have to compete with him for raid time), I decided to go healy… and I’m really looking forward to it!
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I also found myself in a similar situation, as I was wondering if I should take my hunter (main) or my priest (second), but I found the perfect solution so now I can level both at the same time in an amazing hunter/priest grinding dream team. I transferred my priest to my son’s account and I’m now able to dualbox both on my way to 80!!
Gorilladin FTW
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I will definately not be changing from my hunter, after 5 70′s this is the first one I feel I can FINALLY be happy with.
And about a DK….OH YES there will be a DK alt on my acct lol
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I actually consider both my 70s to be “mains” – just with different roles – one plays with the guild, the other is a loner.
My 70 Resto Druid Kriyet is my raider – T4, Kara & Badge gear – and will continue to be my main raider because that’s where I have the raid experience and what my guild needs. And in a group, I love to heal and keep people going.
My 70 BM Hunter Kulat is my solo artist – T4 and crafted epics. I am not the best instance hunter in my guild by a long shot – I just don’t do it enough to smoothly handle the re-trapping and emergency MDs in panic situations. When we are raiding, I’m on my tree. But, Kulat was my first toon, and is still the money maker, and I feel I am very good as a solo player on her. I can often handle group quests by myself, can farm quickly with little downtime – which also means quest quickly with little downtime. She’s also where I get to just enjoy the content of the game – I take her to sneak into Horde towns, solo old world dungeons, and just explore. And I love my pets.
My plan for Wrath will be to take the hunter over first – move quickly through quests and levelling and scope out the territory. I might respecc her from BM to Survival for levelling and because I’ve never tried that talent tree.
The druid I will level first just by continuing to run BC instances and Kara to help gear players as they come up to 70, and doing our regular guild runs of ZA and Gruul’s/Mag’s. After a few weeks as the guild starts to level, I will respecc my tree to part-boomkin for levelling and follow in my hunter’s footsteps.
Kriyet/Kulat
Dancing Divas
Bladefist
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I’m a priest trapped in a hunter’s body…or something. Osprey is the Priest CL; Kestrel is my favorite character, and the one I spent all weekend playing, tweaking, enjoying. (He even got in on a ZA clear on Saturday!)
When I hit 80, I could probably declare my hunter as my main, but I know I wouldn’t be raiding as much because we have so many hunters (I’m still one of the top 3 or 4, though). However, I joined The Oroborus with Osprey as my raider. On the other hand, the prospect of 10-man instances throughout Northrend gives me hope that I can “double-main.” We’ll see…
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I started with a Hunter as my main, but rerolled a Priest first when I switched factions. I have since leveled another hunter to raid with as well. I will also likely level a Death Knight once WotLK hits.
However with my limited availibility for raiding I plan to try and have all three geared and ready to go, to fill in wherever needed in the event I am able to run.
The funny thing with that is, by the definition of “where I spend the most time” my main would likely be my second hunter…. The farmer that will support my raid crew.
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Back in Classic I was a rogue. He was the first I leveled to 70 when BC hit. Sadly to say, the presence of Kara ultimately forced a chaotic exodus in my guild and I felt it best to give BC a fresh start in the form of a Paladin (new to Horde, my faction).
I raided on the paladin for several months until a major breakdown occurred, which led me guildless. At this point I looked around the Horde and saw that there wasn’t really a home for me since most of the guilds either disbanded or barely go past Kara. As a result, I decided to check out the Alliance’s zones in the form of a Shaman.
The shaman allowed me to see things from a fresh perspective, and it was quite nice. However, with me being a little burned out of the raiding scene I took a break from WoW to focus on other things in life.
I have been following the Death Knight’s development rather closely and am planning to make a dwarf DK. I like to think I will try my hand at raiding again. I miss it, but I also like a full night’s sleep. We’ll see what the future holds.
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I’m in the same boat as Karla/Inaara. Raiding as a hunter in TBC, I could never quite find a spec that felt Just Right. I raided as all of them for a considerable amount of time and something always just felt kind of Off to me. Something about the rotations, maybe… I don’t know. If I had to pick a favorite for TBC raiding, it would be 5/20/36 survival, Guywired be damned! For WOTLK, however, I have found my spec. Marksmanship has been buffed to the point of viability, and I’ve been raiding as 5/56/0 since 3.0 came out, and that is how I shall stay; when WOTLK drops in 11 days I shall be slowly inching my way toward a 7/57/7 build for 25-man content.
And I have a hell of a time leveling alts that aren’t hunters, so it’s not like I can really switch mains anyway.
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I’m going to be putting more effort into my main: Bumpo, a Hunter. While Bumpo has been the closest thing I have to a “main”, I have an extensive list of alts that have gotten a lot of play. I’ve been mainly a solo player, but am doing more grouping, and that seems to mean more commitment to a single character (especially for later dungeons). So, Bumpo will get my “main” focus for WOTLK.
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I think the thing I’ll be most apt to do in the end will be to level my characters simultaneously. Which is to say, I’ll work on all of them and swap to whichever is rested at the time, while the others re-acquire rest.
Lass will still be my “main”, if we’re talking semantics, and my army of alts will play supporting roles as always.
It always interests me to hear people’s stories, and have them explain the choices they’ve made. I like understanding broader perspectives, and hearing these stories allows me a brief glimpse into someone else’s perspective, which is invaluable.
I had rather thought some “I’m definitely changing mains!” folks would’ve come out of the woodwork to share their thoughts, but perhaps we’ve scared them all off with our main-loving ways?
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I started the game by playing a druid to the level cap. She has been my main (restoration) for all of the classic content. Shortly before BC was released I started a priestess on another server to play with some RL friends of mine. The priest (holy/disc) turned out to be my main char for BC.
However recently we all transfered back to our old server and I grow really fond of the tanking role with my old druidess. So I guess I will be switching back to her as a main for WotLK (in fact she already is). ^^
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I actually switched mains when TBC rolled around, going from warlock to warrior. I know a couple people who are thinking about switching, including my SO who seems to want to switch from warlock to feral druid.
Back then, I switched because affliction in TBC was no fun for me at all, but tanking was. It’s still my first love, always will be, can’t see myself switch. The only thing I am torn on is who my ‘main alt’ is going to be. My shaman freshly leveled to 70? My rogue? My druid? So many decisions to make.
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Staying the same here – my druid is too much a part of me to not take her through the content of Wrath first!
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I’ll put my hand up and say yes i was thinking about changing my Hunter main for my shammy but then i came to my senses. Love my shammy but not having a pet next to me i feel naked….now where did i put my y-fronts
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