Does your character have an actual "concept?"

[Omedon]

As I've stated in other threads, and have had recently had confirmed by the devs, it's clear that they are building shadowlands assuming everyone has a concept to their character, a sense of "who they are" meant to inform a choice like covenants, which are meant to be a conceptual choice. I can't help but wonder how much of a correct or incorrect assumption that is among the extreme minority that populate forums like this.

I'm not asking "do you RP," because that's a loaded, misunderstood question that I don't really wanna get deeply into the connotations of in this thread. One does not need to outwardly RP to see their character as "someone" named anything from Omedon to Bob as opposed to "something" named Lovestopwn. You don't need to speak in thees and thous in /say to sit at your desk and say "nah, Bob wouldn't do that, Bob would do this!"

For me, yes, my characters have a concept, and I knew their covenants long before I knew the powers. Heck I'm actually not spoiling most of the powers, so I don't know them, and I will discover them as I choose for my "4 mains" at launch. But of course not everyone thinks like that, thus the thread.

So how about you? Are your characters actual characters, or are they more "gaming avatars" without a defining persona that guides what they do or how they dress or whatever?

Note: I Intentionally left out a 3rd briefly considered option of "yes I have a concept but not enough to inform a covenant choice over power" because, respectfully... that character doesn't have a concept strong enough to matter (and that's not Blizzard's problem in designing covenants or other choices, to be honest). Indeed, a good concept can at least narrow yourself down in the choices, giving you preferences from which you can choose for power, but if your character's actual character doesn't even come into play... yeah, that doesn't count.

[Rootsbum]

Imagine the episode of Dexters laboratory whwre they play D&D; Thats how I make concept for my char, lol.

An azeroth caricature of myself.

So yes, I have a concept of sorts

[schwank05]

Nope, I just like to do dungeons and Raids I play Zoomed out to max with sound Muted so I can hear other people in Discord talk. I despise Leveling and have since Day one want to get to Max level ASAP so I can start doing Dungeons, I have the same Transmog on all my characters I have had since It was available which is for the most Part either T5-T6 on nearly every spec with the exception of DK at T10 and Pally at T8. I have a sense of investment into my Druid who has been my semi Main since Middle of BC and my Hunter who was my first character in 05. But beyond that I could honestly care less whatever lets me do my job on my preferred class better or easier Is the choice I will always make regardless of Lore or whatever.

I guess I will say that I think there are certain Race/ Class decisions I make based on Lore like I will never make anything other than a Human or Undead DK since they were all dead Orc Warlocks reanimated in Dead Human Soldiers Bodies. And wanting Undead to be able to be any spec that they were while they were alive I, cause it makes no sense that they magically forget how to do things when they die, No reason I cant be a Paladin as a Forsaken, you could want to punish others as well as yourself for your cursed form.

[Kyphael]

Yep, I don't RP as in like type up dialogue in-game and in-character, and I don't have backstories for any of them, but I conceptualize them as far as giving them a deep name that fits their class, specialization, and race, inspired by other fantasy literary, video game works, films, or anime I enjoy, or even fantasy spins on my own name.

[Neversage]

Definitely. My character likes to read the runes, so to speak. Like to figure out what it coming and see the bigger picture, but avoid deception. So that informs every choice that is relevant. Rejected the gift of N'Zoth, sided with Sylvanas, etc.

[Kyriani]

My characters nearly always have a concept. Sometimes they are just wish fulfillment/idealized versions of myself. Sometimes there's a specific type of character I want to convey.

My main mage is the former, a wish fulfillment/idealized self-insert. This mage will be Night Fae.
My alt mage is based on my first D&D character. This mage will be Venthyr.
My Hunter's concept is along the lines of the overused Legolas cliche (I know I know I should be ashamed... but I'm not!). Night Fae
My Warlock's concept is full on, as voidy voidy, Void Elf as he can be, affliction spec, tentacles and all. Maldraxxus
My Druid's concept is very "standard Warcraft Night Elf Druid", though if Kul Tirans ever get the option to use the standard Stormwind Human model, I would be sorely tempted to race change and change the concept to be more "cycle of life and death" themed. Night Fae regardless of concept... cause Druid.


I could go on, but I have a lot of characters and I doubt anyone wants me to run through the list. In any case, yes my characters nearly always have a concept in whatever game I play that allows me the freedom to make the character what I envision them as.

[Maljinwo]

I cant create a character without thinking of a backstory
Even if kinda basic

For example. I created a DI Dwarf yesterday. As I was playing around in the character creation screen, I selected a piercing that looked like an engraved ring in his ear. Why would he wear that? Only because it looks cool? No... Maybe its actually his late wife ring. She was killed during Ragnaros' reign over the Dark Iron

Something like that

[ceall]

The only concept my priest has, is that it is a SHADOW priest, as i am too bad to heal (really, you'd rather have no healer than me).

That being said, throughput bigger than rp/style/anything.

[gamon500]

My main is Gamon, and he looks like Gamon, dresses like Gamon, and he feigns death a lot in Org. His title is Liberator of Orgrimmar. So he has a concept, but it's not my concept, it came pre-installed.

[Tyris Flare]

I play TTRPGs all the time and have for 20+ years, but I have never been able to treat wow that way. It has always been a raid/dungeon simulator to play with friends and that's about it.

(wish isn't to say that I don't like mog or anything - I do! - but I don't really have a "concept." I save that type of stuff for actual RPGs)

[Thalassian Bob]

My hunter is a Farstrider who is a strident Thalassian nationalist but he's come to respect the other races of the Horde (particularly the tauren) and counts many among them as his friends and comrades. He was one of Sylvanas' last holdouts. He idolised the Windrunner family growing up listening to stories of the exploits of Talanas and his descendants. He considered Sylvanas a hero, giving her life in defence of Quel'Thalas, and felt guilty for surviving the Third War when his commander did not. But, he finally saw what Sylvanas had become as the Fourth War unfolded.

My death knight was also a Farstrider before he fell the undead assault on Quel'Thalas. While he still fights for his homeland, he feels more at ease among the Forsaken than among his living kin.

My mage is a magister who cut ties with Quel'Thalas after Silvermoon threw their lot in with the orcish Horde and their Darkspear allies. He lost family to orcish and Amani raids during the Second War and would rather abandon his home than ally with old enemies as he perceives them. He's now aligned with the Silver Covenant and Kirin Tor.

[Pakheth]

My characters definitely do. But I have also tried to avoid knowing too much about the covenants so it will be a journey of discovery for me on my first playthrough. I will then choose covenants I feel fit each character best.

My hunter, who together with my shaman has been my mains since the beginning, are two tauren ladies who are quite different from each other. The hunter is laid back but always up for action. The shaman is stern and will more than like to throw a Lava Blast in your face than chill in a grove with the hunter.

My Belf Paladin is like most Belves an arrogant holier than thou asshole that cares for his friends and nothing more.

My Belf warlock is a bumbling fool who probably sets his robes on fire more than his enemies. He has a tendency to get himself into trouble with demons much larger than himself.

My Belf priest is friend with the warlock and the paladin against his will but keeps up with them because they are handy to have around.

My tauren female arms warrior is an incarnation of rage and if cows could get rabies she would be a prime candidate.

My deathknight is technically the undead version of my hunter just emo.

I haven't thought about a lot for my Belf demon hunter, but like the rest of the bunch he sacrificed everything...

[Ashiraya]

100% yes.

My warrior is set on Kyrian, for example, even though I prefer the ability of Venthyr mechanically - Kyrian just feels so right for my warrior.

Similar with my DK and Night Fae. I am going NF no matter what the vagaries of nerfs and buffs decree.

Having abilities to match is so cool as well. I love that they are all different.

[Knight Meta]

For me this is a split:

My 12 Horde Characters each have their Covenants set as they are simply Game Avatars and thus; The abilities and how cool / fun / interactive I found them made the decision.

My 12 Alliance Characters each have their Covenants set as they are Characters; They are all on a RP Server (I've had character(s) I've actively played on a or multiple RP servers since Classic) and thus what the Covenants stands for is what made the decision on that end.

[Kaver]

Character concept? Nope. I can go to the barber and change my gender 100 times a day if I want to. I can go from being 200 pounds to 100 pounds and back by the click of a button. Character identity in WoW is shit.

[Lanesra]

I subscribed to answer this one

My characters do have stories.

I play a tauren female dk, who used to be a druid, helping to bring life back to the cursed plaguelands.

With classic, i play a druid, which in my head is the same character. Just before the scourge took her.

My second charakter (current main) is a bloodelf monk. Her story is that she was in training to become a paladin during the time of mop.
She accompanied her master to the siege of orgrimmar, where both were hit with evil sha energy.

The master died while the student survived, her connection to the light severed / tainted.
Some pandaren (who know how to get rid of sha stuff) tried to help with her wounds, loss etc.

They took her back and taught her the ways of balance and how to not be controlled by the evil.
Thus she became the (mistweaver)monk of today.

She will most likely join ardenweald (which luckily seems to be a good monk choice) because of her story.

With the dk im not quite sure. Druid heritage would also point here. Maybe revendreth because dks do some bad stuff along the way.
Dont know, i guess ill see that when i play her

[Maxilian]

Well my character initial concept didn't go as far as to think "Hmmm, whenever my character meets his ultimate death, where would it go, assuming there are multiple afterlives?"

He was just a simple hunter of a magic kingdom, so a magic archer, nothing more special than that. (well and had the same problem as most BE with their addiction)

Though i'm interested in Venthyr, cause A) BLOOD elves and Venthyr have a lot to do with BLOOD-like anima. B)Kaelthas and the connection the BE storyline. C) Nice teleport ability

The other idea is NF, cause well... A) Is a giant magical forest, full of magical beasts, sound like a nice place for a magic archer. B) I can transform into stuff and give me mobility (YEAH FOR MOVING FAST!)

[Inukashi]

Everyone of my 50 characters got his name and story from one of my P&P characters. Each one has a folder on my NAS with drawings, stories and stuff like this. It's more than 5gb of *.doc files (without images).

[Sondrelk]

Yes, I play my hunter as a former Stormwind city guardsman originally from Kul Tiras. If there is any covenant that truly fits my main it is Necrolords where he gets to hang out with other similar old people who might share his love for moonshine, and his hidden kink for Tauren if he is lucky.

[idunnowatdo]

I kinda do for my 2 mains. As far as shadowlands goes my dk has been all about death and blood. Spreading disease and carnage everywhere I go. I’ve fought many, but now I want to explore life with the night fae. On my hunter I can see it joining the zombie army of Maldraxxus so there is that