Dusting Off An Old Toon

[Vinicide]

Hi folks,

Not for the first time, I've recently come back from an extended hiatus from WoW. Every time I do this, however, I end up losing my high level toons. They don't go anywhere, but playing them feels strange and awkward. It's like putting on someone elses underwear. I use Bartender and a really weird keymapping, and I don't remember which skills I have or why they are mapped the way they are. I forget what I'm supposed to do, what I was doing when I stopped, etc. So inevitably I end up rolling a new toon.

So, do any of you have this problem, and how have you gotten past it? I have an 85 hunter that was just getting into heroics when I quit last time and I'd like to get him geared up and ready for when MoP comes out. Any advice on shaking out the rust and adapting back to an old toon I haven't played in a while?

[Rurumiki]

I'm the same way, I have an army of 85s I hardly touch because it seems easier just to roll a new toon. But then I get bored of those. My accounts are seriously filled with 29-70 characters that I don't have the heart to delete, or have so many memories on them, etc. I have yet to adapt... I guess what keeps me coming back are my spiffy achievements. I guess once you find a toon you like, get something super rare or some neat achievement that you don't want to have to go and get again? :P

[Asur]

Read up and changes and rotations and get into LFR/HoT instances.

[Skizzit]

I feel your pain with Bartender. I use that as well and love it, but every time I am gone for even a small amount of time, it changes everything back to default and then I have to rearrange and relearn it all.

Depending on how long it has been since I played that character, there are two ways I usually go. If it has not been very long I will just go work out rotations on a target dummy or on random mobs in a slightly lower level range. If it has been a long time, I will create a new character of the same class and quest through until i remember the basics and then go to the target dummy / random mob route.

[MoanaLisa]

Once I got past 3 85's, I started keeping some notes, limited to one page per toon with the critical stuff noted and some screenshots.

As well, I tend to arrange my action bars in a specific way across all of my toons...main bar with spells in order of priority, utility stuff all in the same place for each toon (as much as possible).

Usually only takes a few minutes to get back on top of things after a couple of months of ignoring them. It works for me.

[Vinicide]

Thanks for the input. I did end up playing him for a while today, and after about an hour or two of going through everything, a couple hours of farming, and one incredibly long and exhausting wipe-filled run of Heroic Deadmines (thank god I found a group of noobs, I felt right at home LOL), I am really starting to feel like he's "mine" again. It helped to read a hunter guide for my rotation, though it's still far from perfect, at least I kinda know what I should be doing

[Lt. Sand Wigger]

Heroic DM is definitely one of the more complex ones so don't feel bad about wiping in there. Just practice.

[Sentry]

pvp. This is the quickest way to get familiar with a new or old class. i'm sure it wouldnt take you more then one or two bg's to remember

[Seliora]

I agree with the pvp comment. I recently started playing my priest again and someone recommended pvp for getting back in the swing of things. I didn't want to risk healing a dungeon until i had the hang of it again! The pvp route worked brilliantly, I learned my rotation in a hurry as well as some great pvp skills.