Snarl’s Rants: Changing Your Character

I am one of the few players who bought the game and basically rolled a toon and stayed with that toon. “Snarlstorm” on Winterhoof, a paladin, was my first toon that I rolled, and I have stayed loyal to him all through Wrath. He has downed every RAID Boss in the Wrath Content, killed thousands in PvP battlegrounds, and scored big achievements.

He originally was created as a RET Paladin for no other reason than I liked using two handers. By the time he hit level cap and our little guild formed its first raid team for Naxx, he had dual specced PROT so that he could be the off tank for our raids. However, I only really off tanked or main tanked in Ulduar and TOTC, but I kept him as dual spec PROT / RET. However, I rarely ever tanked once ICC came out.

When Cataclysm hit and all the talent trees were re-set, I found myself debating about whether or not I would continue on with PROT or switch to Holy. I had a lot of PROT gear, and I knew that tanks are more valued today more than ever, but for some reason I had a hard time making the leap.

I felt that I was almost betraying him, or re-inventing him in some ways. However, I also realized that he’s just a bunch of code so I should not get so emotional. I took the plunge. I re-trained and re-geared to HOLY and RET.

The reaction from my guild was fairly interesting. Some folks were really encouraging and told me the class / spec combo was one of the best healing classes in the game. Others kind of fell out of their chair at the thought of Snarlstorm becoming a healer.

But what is done is done, and I’m loving the change. In many ways, I’m not looking at the whole game different, and in some ways I’m even beginning to wonder if I like DPS as much as healing.

Have you experienced something similar? Ever changed your well loved main? What was you experience? Please, share.