Who Am I?! (Starting Fresh with a New WoW Character)

The time has finally come! In this post, we actually open the game! If you are one of the few people who read the previous posts, thank you for sticking with me. If you are just stumbling upon this, welcome! I am a middle-aged dad who is taking a trip down memory lane and trying to dive back into WoW after not seriously playing since Mists of Pandaria.

In the previous posts, I laid out the groundwork for who I am, what I am doing, and decided which expansion I will be playing through to start.

To recap, I will be starting a fresh character, and once I hit level 10 I will choose Warlords of Draenor as the expansion to level through up to 70, at which point I will then begin The War Within to see what current day WoW looks like.

So, without further ado, to the character creator!

As you can see, I have most of the Allied Races unlocked from my previous forays and attempts to get back into the game, but I have never actually used any aside from the Zandalari Troll. Spoiler alert: they run funny… and I hated it.

Allied Races as a concept are one big difference from the old days. I remember when Pandaren were added, and I had numerous Pandaren characters, both due to enjoying their derpy selves and being a contrarian with everyone bashing them as “Kung-fu Panda” characters. Additionally, the graphics have had quite the overhaul. According to Google, Allied Races began to be added in Legion, and the graphics update took place with Warlords of Draenor. Fitting that I will be starting with WoD then.

Ok, grandpa, enough stories about the good old days, get on with it!

Ok, ok, character creation time. Step 1, pick a Race. Sort of? Certain Classes can only be played by specific Races, and while that has opened up significantly since WoW launched, it is still something to take into consideration. Racial passives have always seemed to be purely flavor, outside of maybe being useful in PvP? Either way, they do not affect my decision. Unless! Some of these Races have bonuses to crafting. I do like crafting…

Anyways, my very first character back in 2005 was a Dwarf. A Dwarf Rogue to be specific. Eventually, I made the move to the correct faction, the Horde, and settled on a Tauren Shaman. While a large portion of the Horde tend to be very warlike (looking at you, Orcs and Undead), Tauren always came across as a more peaceful Race who are in the unfortunate position of looking like bulls. Over the years I have had characters of almost every Race, though I was never a fan of Goblins or Gnomes. Not a fan of being tiny, I guess. The logical choice strictly for “newness” would be Dracthyr, but I can’t say I am a fan. If you could be a ripped dragon, sure, but the lithe little draconids do not really appeal to me.

My first inclination was Mag’har Orc as I would be playing through WoD, and I believe they came from Draenor. I am far from a lore master, as you will soon realize. Upon further consideration, I realized that might be kind of odd as WoD would be the first place you meet the Mag’har from my understanding, and to then just show up with the people from Azeroth and have no one acknowledge it might be odd. Alternatively, these may be the orcs from Nagrand in TBC, but honestly, I don’t feel like looking it up.

After clicking through a little more and perusing the various options, I eventually settled on Highmountain Tauren. I know, reaaal unique for someone who predominately played Tauren before, but come on, they look like a Moose minotaur. A mooseotaur? Whatever, they have cool horns.

So, Race selected, on to Class. Right out of the gate, we can rule out any Class that is tied to a specific expansion, as it seems it would make the most sense to use that Class during their associated expansion. Of the existing Classes, that would be Demon Hunter (Legion), Evoker (Dragonflight), Monk (Mists of Pandaria), and Death Knight (Wrath of the Lich King).

Four down, nine to go. I typically do not enjoy playing pure caster cloth wearers, so that rules out Priest, Mage, and I guess Warlock, though I have enjoyed it in the past due to the pets. Despite starting as a Rogue back in the old days, I have never really enjoyed that Class either, though I did hear that it got a new spec in Legion or something where they get a gun, so that could be fun.

At this point, the potential options are Warrior, Hunter, Shaman, Paladin, and Druid. I mostly tend to lean towards hybrid Classes that can heal fairly well as I prefer to play solo and goof around in the overworld, and those hybrid Classes are more than capable of holding their own. This would push us towards Shaman, Druid, or Paladin. Of those, Shaman was my first love, Druid has always been enjoyable due to their flight form, and Paladin fits the big beefy boi in heavy armor part of my Class fantasy.

Honestly, I will likely end up leveling more than one character, as from what I understand Chromie Time levels you so quickly that you rarely get to experience a whole expansion, and I want to see multiple of the expansions. Not to mention I may want to see both the Horde and Alliance side as well depending on how things shake out. So, with three Classes lined up as potential prospects, it felt like a no brainer to just pull the trigger with the knowledge I would play the others fairly soon anyways.

Drumroll please! Meet Grizzlebeard, Highmountain Tauren Shaman, ready to strike out into Warlords of Draenor and experience the alternate reality where all of Outlands wasn’t turned into a demon tainted hellscape!

Next time: Through the Dark Portal… Again (First Quests in Warlords of Draenor WoW 2025)

Previous Entry: The Road Less Traveled (Choosing Which WoW Expansion to Play for a Fresh Start)