How do you feel after changing mains?

[Rawfury]

I have changed mains a lot and I know the feeling. You change and then you realize you have to raise professions again and this was back when it was really expensive,you lose your exalted reps, you have to regear, etc. Its become less and less painful over the year but I can say that raising fishing and archaeology was a true pain in the ass ...oh and cooking. Now those I wish were account wide. They don't take long to cap but it feels like watching paint dry when there's so many more interactive things to do

[baatora]

I never changed main since the first time I reached the max level.
I've almost only raided with my lock, from Naxx to HFC.
I had to play Ele/Resto shaman during Ulduar and Rogue during Firelands, and I felt terribly bad and sorry for my lock.

[Deleted]

So I take it you started in Wrath or Cata then? In order to do any current content in Vanilla or BC you had to have a main especially with the attunement chains. So basically you played for like an expansion and a half...

No that's the problem. I look down on all people with mains since early vanilla. I boosted like 50+ people through BRD, LBRS and dire maul paladin/warlock stuff. Only to find out that some people didn't even have every class multiple times at max level at classic? How should I treat those people? They dictate the game and I feel only hatred and pity towards them.

[Perkunas]

Not in the slightest.
Seriously... WoD is as alt friendly as it gets, the legendary doesn't require alot of time either. You could go LFR with all your side-chicks to get the farming done. Even professions are easily doable in a single day... the only thing that is annoying is the Garrison, but if you have enough money, that's not a problem either and even if you have not, it requires about ~10-20 minutes/day per character.
Not sure about MoP, because I didn't play that myself.

I suppose people have different ideas of what tedious is. Some people prefer no gates at all to raiding current tier. I am not that type of person. I feel that mains should be encouraged over alts but not because of a boring grind quest to get annoying drops which take too long and drain the will to play. I much prefer basic attunements like "Kill the boss of the previous raid tier" or even the Eye of Eternity style where the drop lets everybody in.

[ZazuuPriest]

I float around from Disc Priest - Arms or Prot Warrior and Enh Shaman but i always start out an expac and first raid tier as Disc, if i dont like it ill switch to Arms or Enh but i always go back to disc.

The implementation of Holy Power made me give up on paladins long ago

[Perkunas]

No that's the problem. I look down on all people with mains since early vanilla. I boosted like 50+ people through BRD, LTRS and dire maul paladin/warlock stuff. Only to find out that some people didn't even have every class multiple times at max level at classic? How should I treat those people? They dictate the game and I feel only hatred and pity towards them.

You hate people that focus on a primary character because you want to do everything on every alt you have?

I long for the days when you actually identified with a single character and single spec on said character. I miss that sort of identity which has been lost to the convenience monster.

[vareck]

I long for the days when you actually identified with a single character and single spec on said character. I miss that sort of identity which has been lost to the convenience monster.

I definitely agree with you there. I strongly identify my time in WoW with my paladin and even associate those I play alongside with a single class, whether they play multiples or not.

[Shinrael]

Retri paladin main since 3.2 and I must say I LOVE the new retri pala. Best version of the spec since 3.3.5a IMO.

I enjoy my rotation a lot. As a blood elf I never have downtime. My dps is pretty good for my ilvl and thanks to all the utility I have I finally feel useful.

So many people say the new retri pala is bad and even got me to believe it, before I tried it myself. So maybe you too should give it a try (and if you already have, look deeper into it, maybe you will find a way to enjoy it).


What exactly is it that people dislike about retri? My only two problems are the new Judgment and that JV is too weak in raids (even without the Final Verdict talent TV does more damage than it in the long term). But that's minor and can be fixed in the future.

Sent from my HTC Desire 620 using Tapatalk

[Deleted]

nothing stops you from playing that ex-main. You can easily get rep, level up professions etc. while raiding on new main. Raiding achievements and titles are account wide so you don't lose anything really.

[Deleted]

Classic - Lock main, alt warrior
TBC - Warrior main, lock shelfed
Wotlk - Warrior main, lock shelfed - Quit because worst expansion to date
Cata - "I refuse to play that game"
MoP - "I miss that game" Lock main, warrior shelfed
WoD - Lock main, warrior shelfed
Legion - Lock main, warrior shelfed

Lately I have tried to play other classes, but I feel like I'm cheating on my lock everytime I log something else. Play for 30min~~ log lock "I will never betray u again". So even though lock is far from my favourite of the specs I've tried so far in legion, It'll still be the only char I will play during legion. :/

[gnarles]

Having played Holy Paladin since Naxx (60), I'm excited to main Mistweaver in Legion and, you know, be useful.

For those still on the fence about changing class and/or spec, I've come up with a handy flowchart to help you make a decision: i.imgur.com/uTAgj.jpg

[PenguinChan]

I stopped having a main when I didn't raid anymore, really. And mains haven't really been a concept since WotLK honestly, and even then you could have multiple max geared or near max with the end patch. Excluding raiding, you can have many mains in the game. WoD kind of stunted that with the garrison being per-character though, which we all know how that worked out.

I wish Blizzard gave more motivation to play your main, but also reward you for playing your main past its current 'limit'. Bind of Account gear is one way, but there is no other ability to increase the progress of your alts for playing your actual 'main'. It would be nice to see that happen in Legion, and as far as I know that is something that exists? Regardless, it doesn't feel that bad actually switching, it just feels bad because of the changes that make you switch.

[Deleted]

Retri paladin main since 3.2 and I must say I LOVE the new retri pala. Best version of the spec since 3.3.5a IMO.

I agree with you. I have been playing ret since Wrath and I disliked the new ret with passion, I didn't like it even on PTR. However, when pre-patch came and I started trying out talents, I loved it.

I miss being a spell-blade, but the gameplay is very good! We have very potent aoe now, on par with the windwalker monks I'd say, and combined with all our survivability tools and the new godly "Eye for an Eye" and "Shield of Vengeance" -that are basically Touch of Karma on steroids- it's so enjoyable to pull piles of mobs and tear them down. Classes like a rogue have the damage to down mobs quickly, but they aren't survivable enough, so that's their drawback. We don't have that problem
The Judgement gameplay is enjoyable imo. It's better than Colossus Smash, because we can have it up most of the time, but we can build up combos, which is nice. It's more enjoyable than having so many procs up you can't press them all, but none hitting hard.

Survivability and healing in general have been nerfed a lot for all classes, which is a good thing for us Rets (and maybe ferals too?). Ours is even better than it was, which is amazing because we are a hybrid class after all. It's amazing to be able to contribute to a group in dungeons and be the one that helped not to wipe or even survive when a healer or tank died. Our Greater Blessings, although not THAT strong, are desirable in groups and make you feel like a hybrid.

I feel like the class is thematically and gameplay-wise getting back on track with how it was in WotLK with the strong heals and defense and the counter attacks.

Our mobility is an issue, but hey what can you do, we have so many goodies I don't mind. I am very confident though that Divine Steed will become baseline at a later patch, with a higher CD or something, and there will be a passive talent in its place that reduces its CD.

[gnarles]

(snip)

How do you feel about spending talent points on utility other DPS specs have baseline? How do you feel about even single-target viability being tied to two of those talents? How do you feel being the only Ret brought into a raid group just so you can buff other people (lol vanilla) while being asked to stand quietly in the corner (lol vanilla)?

I have to think you're trolling, because this is all I could think while reading your post: i.imgur.com/RuOAB0Q.jpg

[lolwhatadumbthread]

generally i swap mains between each expansion, usually with the old main being an alt main, mop and wod were the first time where i mained the same class 2 expansions in a row for the most part being my monk who i played since day 1 mop lol. going to switch it up to boomy druid in legion though

[HappyCola]

I played the same main from my first day in vanilla to my last day in MoP. To me having a main is a fundamental part of RPGs (the R), so the whole idea of changing mains just feel completely wrong to me. It's one of the reasons why today's WoW, with its ability to easily have dozen end-game ready characters, does not appeal to me at all.

[Deleted]

I've played a paladin since 3.1~3.2 and a druid before then. With the changes to paladin with 7.0 it is the first time since 3.1 that I have considered changing mains, and with so many things being account-wide now there are less and less mental barriers to do it. But, there is just one hangup for me personally: My paladin has 74 exalted reps. I could still easily change mains I suppose, but it feels like such a colossal waste!

How have you felt after changing mains in the past?

Are there any things you regret about changing the character that you devote the most time to?

I'm on the same boat. I'm just going to get all the new reps on that "ex-main" now as well, just for the sake of it. Reputations are the only thing I always try to have maxed and so far, since I've played only one char as main for 12 years, i could easily do it. Now i'll have to keep it up as an addition to my main, huh. No biggie tho, I might roll back to it if I feel like it / new expansion release.

[FertsBlert]

I don't like it but I have come to terms with it since the only time I won't play my preferred class is when due to how they have been designed "this time" that class is intolerable to play so my secondary main has almost as much in the way of achieves oddities reps etc.

So basically I've swapped mains for Cata and WoD, and Legion will be another one since Blizz did a wonderful job of making my choice easy with just how badly they've fucked warlocks up.

[Deleted]

How do you feel about spending talent points on utility other DPS specs have baseline? How do you feel about even single-target viability being tied to two of those talents? How do you feel being the only Ret brought into a raid group just so you can buff other people (lol vanilla) while being asked to stand quietly in the corner (lol vanilla)?

I have to think you're trolling, because this is all I could think while reading your post: i.imgur.com/RuOAB0Q.jpg

No, really I'm not! I might be glorifying it a bit, but I'm just surprised I'm enjoying the spec. I was levelling up a new char to main in Legion, because I didn't like Rets on paper or videos. So was thinking about monks, I like them both lore and gameplay wise although they need work visually, but had decided to roll with frost DKs because I like frost as a theme and wielding swords is awesome.

Both specs can aoe mobs, which is very important for me. I enjoy killing multiple mobs thus I don't like single-target-only classes. And I was surprised to eventually find out I can kill multiple enemies as a ret too now, so I decided to not switch a main :P
Can't tell about raids or how things were in Vanilla, but I can see that I have a spot in 5 mans, which is basically the most enjoyable group content for me. And in 5 mans, there are lots of mob packs to kill

On switching mains though, I have an "emotional bond" with my chars, I like seeing them on selection screen or logging in from time to time just to remember stuff we did with RL friends back then. That being said, I don't hesitate to change a char if another class has nice theme and its gameplay feels good. My old chars are there, they have their reps and stuff that you can see and remember things you did, but the only real barrier was the mount collection.
Since that's not an issue, change chars freely and find out what you enjoy more.

[Marrilaife]

Its become less and less painful over the year but I can say that raising fishing and archaeology was a true pain in the ass ...oh and cooking. Now those I wish were account wide.

Cooking and first aid became absolutely welfare skills during WOD - you could buy cheap mats for healing tonics / draenor food from trading post in your garrison, set alt to craft all and alt tab to youtube or go walk the dog and they'll be done when you're back. Fishing again became welfare through handing fish in your garrison for 15 skill ups a day with way less effort than old fishing dailies that required you to go somewhere do something for measly 1-2 points. You could also buy Nat Pagle books if you had rep with him on 1 char and get a headstart (with garrison gold price wasn't prohibitive).

Primary professions became easy with garrisons handing you primal spirits and you could just use "primal spirit non cd craft" to skill up.

Herbing / mining / archeology got a boost from garrison herb garden and mine. Archeology had also the garrison missions for fragments. Still I didn't bother farming it on any char except my main and my alchemist (for vial recipe). Wish it never became a prof as Blizz said it would've been better as Cata feature (like garrisons being WOD feature and artifacts being Legion feature) than a profession that requires constant additions throughout expansions.

So generally the only profession you couldn't cheese was skinning.

Reps, well, I would welcome them being account wide, getting tired with first the toybox an now wardrobe having a lot of stuff my alts cannot use because they require obscure outdated reps. Just put some stopgap on powergrinding current reps through army of alts and just make them account wide.

On the original subject, I played a resto druid in tbc and wotlk and then switched to tank paladin. Yes I had some cool things on my druid, some of them no longer obtainable, many became account wide afterwards like the bat pet from Kara and tabard of Argent Dawn (pre-wotlk event) or veteran of the shifting sands achiev (achievs are mostly account wide, I don't care what my guild page shows, only what armory / in game tab shows). No regrets really. Healing became only worse and worse throughout the expansions, I cba with it any more.

Then I had times that I played ele shaman (mostly casually in MOP, did CM and brawlers guild on it because it was OP for that purpose, didn't raid however) and hunter in wod (because no one was recruiting tanks and everyone was recruiting ranged dps), and I tbh I hated being a huntard, I welcomed it with great relief to go back to my main, which is prot pala.

It's definitely different when you come to a conclusion like "I don't like x class anymore" or "I like y class more than my old main". For me first switching mains felt great because I didn't want to heal any more and I wanted to tank. The time with the hunter I hated it, because it didn't want to play a dps but I felt forced to. Therefore I think as long as you play what you like it's fine to switch mains and not look back. If you switch mains because you feel forced to (for example community believes x class is not viable any more and doesn't want to invite you for anything, or your raid leader demands you to reroll to fill a gap in the team comp) then obviously it feels frustrating.