What?
Leveling alts in World of Warcraft is not a new thing for me. Every so often, I get a hankering to level a new class I haven’t really played before, but after the last one, I swore I was done.
“No more alts,” I told my husband. “I promise, this is my absolute last one!”
I lied.
But Vidyala is a little bit different. She was created on December 11th, 2009. Mailed heirloom gear (some left over from my shaman, some left over from a warrior), I knew what I was going to do with her. As soon as she was high enough level, she was going to hit instances with the new Looking for Dungeon tool, and that’s all she was going to do.
But why?
I’ve leveled four characters to 80 now. I’ve seen the quests, in many cases multiple times. It’s monotonous. This is something different, I can do it when I feel like it. I’m not in any rush to level Vid, although my progress so far has been steady. She’ll get to 80 whenever it happens.
So far, it’s been a really fun experience. I’ve met some absolutely clueless players, and some fun ones. It’s always exciting and different to see what instance I’ll be going to, who I’ll be going with, and I’m learning to play the class at the same time in a group setting. Often times with my other characters, I would get them to the level cap and I’d have soloed almost the entire way. Soloing seldom taught me about what I was expected to do at end-game – almost all end-game content is a group endeavour. There’s no question that I’ll know what I’m doing as a holy paladin by the time I hit 80 (I hope!)
Whose crazy idea was this?
I’m married, in my late 20s. We have a big goofy Labrador who, incidentally, knows the sound of Ventrilo disconnecting. I play WoW in my spare time and my husband does too. We do ten-man hard mode raiding with an awesome group of folks, when I’m not leveling alts or doing other things. My main character is a mage, but I’ve also played (healed) as a priest, druid, shaman, and now a paladin. It might be a bit backwards that healing is a relaxing break from DPSing for me.
Questions, comments?
You can contact me at the following address.
Pugging Pally 
Heya! I’m curious what server you are playing your pugged pally on? Wondering if we’ll run into each other horde side one day with your troll girl too. Great writing – look forward to reading more.
Thanks Irmie. I’m based on Moonrunner, which is part of the Shadowburn battlegroup. I’d love to be able to run into anyone who has read the blog – but so far I haven’t met anyone sharing my battlegroup.
My troll is on Earthen Ring, of battlegroup Vindication. I’ve “met” so many great people through blogging, I only wish I could run into them pugging, too!
I have to tell you I am really enjoying this blog. Every day I open my email inbox and hope to see a notification of a new post by you and your experiences. I have myself a lowbie Warrior tank (amongst all my alts) and its so interesting to see the same kind of experiences I am having as you are, although I tend to meet more inept healers than you do … obviously 😛
Thanks Krun, I really appreciate the kind words. I never would’ve guessed when I started doing this how many awesome people I would meet. I’m sorry about your inept healers, I’d heal you anytime! WTB cross-server and battlegroup friends list and grouping options!
Hey I was really thrilled to find your blog – I’m doing a similar thing, but with a Patient Priest! Even more surprising is that I’m also currently level 63, but my blog is rather behind as I’ve had to move it to a new location. I like your description “look on the light side” as the main aim of my Pugging experiment is to show that the majority of WoW players are friendly, decent people. I think so far I’m winning… Looking forward to reading more of your adventures.
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I have to say that quite by accident, I found myself doing the same thing with my Paladin once she hit 15. 🙂 I rolled her back in May, I believe, or possibly April, and she’s only run dungeons since about level 18. (though she has, to be fair, had a few runs following around a friend’s level 80) She just hit 50 last night.
So, uh… go you!
Reminds me of my own revival in late 2009 to Gnomeregan. I think you beat me by a long shot though, I only dinged in June!