Metamorphosis of Toons (and Player)

I used to think I have no "main". I started with a warrior and a
hunter. I then rolled a priest to lend my wife and friends some
support as they climbed through WoW. All 3 are 70 now.

The hunter was always the leader, she would lead the way running
through areas and farming for items, epic mount gold, primals, etc.
The priest was the main dungeon runner. The tank was ahead at first
but then he got to a point where he just kind of hung out.

I rolled a mage to fill in the spaces and a shaman to dot the i's and
cross the t's. They are lower and lend support to my wife's lower
toons.

I have a low paladin who I play with my 7 year old son's shadow
priest.

I had always considered all my characters to be my "mains". Now my
priest is in Gruul's Lair and SSC and farms Kara, ores and primal
earths and bombs in Skettis. My hunter is a bomber in Skettis. My
warrior bombs in Skettis and farms rare herbs for pots for all my
toons and transmutes Primal Earth to Primal Water for the family bank
account.

So without having a say in the matter my priest has literally become
my "main". I'm not complaining. It just sort of happened by default.
Things changed. My hunter is not the main farmer any more. It seems
like each toon farms for an equal amount of cash etc and my banker/
AHer gets fed items by all three to build the family funding.

There is no way I can farm as much as I used to but still it seems
that I can always farm enough so I truly feel bad for those who are
raiding full time and they pray for a day off where they can farm some
mats or gold. Sometimes I do feel burnt out from raiding and there are
nights where I have to help my 7 year son with his homework and might
get on late and miss a raid for that might but my guild does not bust
my balls about it and I then have a relaxing evening of questing or
farming and someone else gets to go on the raid and have some
excitement.

I am lucky I get time before work each morning to run three toons
through Skettis bombing with an average of 1 or 2 escorts a day thrown
in and pick up ore and motes of earth and flowers during the course of
the journey. An ocassional heroic gets thrown in each week every so
often and these days a heroic is a "casual" visit to a dungeon.

I am fortunate I actually get to play my lower level toons with my 7
year old son's toons and my wife's. My wife gets to join me on raids
sometimes and sometimes I get time off from raids to relax in the
World of Wow with my wife. I tanked her though the Sons of Gruul
quests the other day.

I am one of the most luckiest men on the face of this earth. There are
probably men who would literally sell their soul for some of the
things I am lucky enough to have and can do.

This game is so huge, there is so much one can do to have fun in it. I
used to play softball 6 days a week, 240 games a year and now I am so
immersed in the game of WoW like I was with softball. I played on many
good teams, won many championships and now I am playing in great raids
and feel like champions are here also.

Life's a Beach!

OH! OH! OH!

Orion

Yeah, once you start raiding you kinda have to pick a main. Raiding
requires that toons have gear, and as I'm sure you've noticed it takes
a lot of work and time to really gear out a toon for maximum
performance. I personally can only make that commitment to one char
(my mage - also have a druid and a hunter). I run the other toons in
heroics and Kara and such, so they're pretty decently geared, but they
don't have EVERY piece of gear enchanted. Some of the stuff that is
'chanted isn't the best I could get for that slot. Some of their gems
are green quality. The hunter even has ~3 pieces of green gear.
Their rep isn't maxed out (so for instance, my hunter can't use any of
the high-quality arrows available with rep). They don't carry in the
same level of consumables. It's just too much work to keep all of
them maintained at proper raiding level. You just end up having to
choose one and go for it, unless you're satisfied with none of them
being truly great, or unless you just have tons of time to farm stuff
for all of them.

As to farming, I hear you there. I have very little time for it. I
generally transmute every day with my druid, and every 4 days my mage
will make spellcloth and sell it. My priest makes shadowcloth as well
which will eventually turn into a revenue stream but for now she needs
it for a frozen shadowweave set. Overall by doing those I net ~20 to
25g per day with simple "quick" money making options. That's usually
enough to pay for my raiding activities but every now and then I just
have to bite the bullet and go out herbing or mining and grab a few
hundred gold to hold me over.

Occasionally I'll run the daily heroic which, with a good group, will
normally net a small profit. It has the potential to be a big loss
though if the group is bad and I have a big repair bill.

Mike