Lok'tar Ogar! Classic is coming.

I will go Horde

Hopefully on a RP-PVE server.

That was the first decision I made when I knew Classic was coming. Back in TBC I played Alliance two weeks, went Horde with Gowron for 4 years, and when cataclysm hit, I went full Alliance with Mardah. So I have been playing Alliance for almost 9 years now. I really think it is time to return to the Horde.

Next choice is of course, what to play....  a very hard question. This is a question I actually only starting to answer the last couple of weeks. And it took the effort to unlock allied races to get an answer.

A few weeks ago, I went full rep-hunting with Gowron/Gwaednerth, and because the Faire was up, I went there for the rep-buff.... which brings me through a City I really liked.

Back in TBC, playing a Blood Elf Paladin, my first big city was useless. Silvermoon was too big, and to empty. Luckily you get send to Undercity quite fast, which is where Gowron spend most of his time between quests.

But in the long summer after the fall of the Lich King, Gowron found a new home, he even defended it together with Cairne Bloodhoof against the invading elemental forces, and in RP-terms, I would think he became an honorary Bluffwatcher after that...

So Gwaednerth had to go through Thunder Bluff to get to the Darkmoon Faire... and the moment I landed... and jumped down for old times sake, and watched that pool with everything so nicely placed around it... I knew where my journey in Classic would start, I would play a Tauren.

So, now I know the Faction and the Race... next up is Class... luckily, I now only have 4 options left... and all looked nice, Warrior, Druid, Shaman and Hunter. All Classes which I would probably have no problem playing. So which one...

I will not Play a Tauren Hunter. Not that I don't like Hunters, but..well... in my mind a tauren Hunter is reserved for my Brother. I would rather play an Orc or Troll Hunter. Probably Orc so I am not limited to Bows.

So, three remaining. So I have to think about what I actually want to do in Classic, and if  I rather play that class on a different race. Shamans also can be played by Orcs and Trolls, and actually, Troll Shaman sounds much more fun to me. So no Tauren Shaman either.

And now it comes down to Druid and Warrior... Tauren Druid is a must ... no other Race can play Druid, and I would definitely make a Tauren Warrior. They Both have pros and cons. So now it comes down to what I want..  am I going to raid in 6 months in Classic, do I want to play a Tank or a Healer...

Also, again, what is my goal in Classic. Just Leveling/Dungeoning, or actually raiding? Both Classes are actually quite nice for raiding. Warriors are by far the best class in Classic, being the only viable tank in raids, and doing some nice damage, Druids are Healers, although it is said they are Innervate Bots... well... I also still will raid retail..so I don't think full-classic raiding is an option.

Not-so-big-a-secret: I actually hope to find a relaxed Raiding Guild that wants a Boomkin...  :P.

At the moment I will probably play Druid, because of its versatility while leveling. I will still make an alt-Tauren Warrior, even quit early in case zones are overpopulated. So, now I have a race/class, what professions?

For a Tauren Druid there are only three options IMHO.  Mining/Engineering, which I think is more a Hunters thing. Skinning/Leatherworking and Herbalism/Alchemy. I am leaning towards going full Hippy, Flowerpicking. But...that Wolfshead Helmet is Leatherworking....  so, Skinning/Leatherworking it is, it will also prevent me from following the yellow dots on the map to flowers.

So, probably main-character is set, time for ALTISM, luckily, with the story above I already have some combinations ready. Including their Logical Professions. So my Character-list will be something like:

Tauren Druid // Skinning & Leatherworking
Orc Hunter // Mining & Engineering
Troll Shaman // Herbalism & Alchemy
Tauren Warrior // Mining & Blacksmithing
Undead Priest // Enchanting & Tailoring
Orc Warlock
Undead Mage
Troll Rogue


This is also very optimistic I know, leveling will take a while.... but I now have a Plan.

Also... Specialization... that will take some more thinking....


Lok'Tar Ogar!

(of course, I may end up in a group where a certain role is required, or two skinners are useless...)

Project Heritage Armor

Starting at the end of Legion, Blizzard gave us something new to do, namely Heritage Armors. Which for new (allied) races basically meant leveling them up from 20 when you had the correct reputation, and for existing races having a max level of that race exalted with their home reputation.

Getting the reputation to start the allied races, you basically had to play the game. I remember having enough reputation to start all the allied races in Legion. When the Kul Tirans finally where released I was exalted with them for a while, it did take me about 2-3 weeks to get enough reputation Horde-side for the Zandalari though, haven't played that much Horde this expansion, so that was logical.

Getting to Zandalari I also picked up enough reputation for the Mag'Har, so that was nice. And the Dark Iron Dwarfs where easy enough to get, considering I play Alliance. Now leveling them up from 20, that is another thing....

I managed one so far, a Dark Iron Hunter called Stonetamer. I also have a Dark Iron Paladin at max, but that was my free boosted character. My Void Elf Warlock Stephanus is lvl93 at the moment. A Lightforged paladin made it to 60, but was changed into a warrior, getting to sixty is not that difficult. The rest is all under 60 at the moment.

Dark Iron Heritage armor... yes, I don't like the helmet.

Now the other category of heritage armors is for existing races, where having a max character with correct race-reputation is all you need. Which for most part is no problem for a long-time player like me. Blood Elves? Are you kidding, they could have named a town after my character by now. Stoneheart the Dwarf Warrior got me dwarf set without a problem. Tiramuria, my gnome rogue is set to do the gnome-stuff, and .... oh... Tauren.

For Tauren I had to some searching. Three I found. A long forgotten Tauren Boomkin on my starting server Ghostlands, A Death Knight... good luck with rep there... and Cloudcaller, my first ever character on Argent Dawn, back than when Single Abstract Noun was happening. Cloudcaller, now residing on the server Steamwheedle Cartel (server-linked with Moonglade and The Sha'tar) was level 101, and was halfway exalted with Thunder Bluff, time to get that sorted.

The Shaman with the Doomhammer

Luckily, Cloudcaller is a pre-Cataclysm character, so I flew him to the Tauren starter zone, and in no time he was exalted, even getting him to level 102.4, so doing old quests do give some xp.... and now I am slowly leveling him up. At the moment he is 105, and there are some Legion Assaults to do.

It did got me thinking about future Heritage Armors. Time for a Checklist.

Alliance

Humans, my Paladin Timicin is 110 and exalted.

Nightelves, no problem, Mardah is all set.

Draenai, Verulani is 120, and is 13.666/12k, might need some work

Worgen.... ow... I have no Worgens at all... time to think about making one I guess

Horde

Orcs, Luaran (my third max char ever back in TBC) is 101 and Exalted

Undead, Old Faithful Lurge is level 101 and only 4k into revered, but, pre-cata char.

Trolls, Morshando, boosted in Legion, which apparently makes you exalted? 103

Goblins... yeah, I made a new one, Gess, lvl20..  no way close to exalted

And than we have the Panda's, which is as hopeless for me as Worgens and Goblins are, also made a new one, Yekatarina...trying to get of of the Wandering Isles

So, I was a little bit surprised by the fact that Morshando is exalted, I guess I missed the memo that specifies that you boosted char also will be exalted, or wait, this was my free character actually, not boosted. So I guess that is a thing.

Time to level some stuff.