Disclaimer: I realize I haven't moved too far from book reviews and WoW posts on this site...I assure you I am capable of writing about other things. I will attempt to do so...someday.
I have a shaky relationship with the Alliance from World of Warcraft. My very first WoW character ever was a night elf warrior. She got up to 22 before I dropped her for some forgotten reason (possibly I got bored running around the bleak landscape of Darkshore but maybe I just decided to save myself some grief brought on by Rock's incessant nagging that I roll Horde). I'll admit, the starting landscape for the trolls is much prettier, all reds and oranges and bright sunshine and crystal blue waters and breakdancing trolls that greet you with "How ya doin, mon!" So I was quite happy with my Horde home. There was a brief stint where I leveled up a gnome mage to 20 or something just cause they're so darn cute and tiny, but I stuck with the Horde.
I stuck with the Horde, even despite their abysmal showing at certain battlegrounds, particularly Alterac Valley. My poor little troll shaman couldn't last 5 minutes without being viciously killed by the Alliance. It was during these particular moments that the grass looked way greener on the other side. But the Alliance races didn't appeal to me, the humans look boring, the night elves were boring, the gnomes are cute, I'll admit that, and the dwarves, well, just no. I know, there's no rhyme or reason as the saying goes, I just wasn't interested.
Until, that is, the Burning Crusade expansion introduced the draenei. Part of me really wished the Horde got the draenei instead of getting the annoying blood elves, but the side of me that looked longingly at all those battleground victories by the Alliance realized I had finally found an Alliance race I would like to play. And how could you not? The draenei are so weird, they have goat legs and cloven hoofs, a lizard tail, tentacles coming out of their jaws, and huge glowing eyes. And their skin ranges from purple to blue. And they're technically aliens that crash-landed from outer space. Awesome.
 Just look at those hoofs! And the horns! It's like the designers were drunk drawing this. |
I immediately leveled up a draenei paladin to 37, at which point I decided PvP servers were not for me and I switched to a non-PvP server. I was busy leveling up my new Horde character so I forgot about the draenei until a few weeks ago when I started leveling up a draenei shaman. She's currently 30. But now I am faced with a decision, one that has stumped many others before me, that has incited dozens of articles and webpages dedicated to sorting out that all-important question: shaman or paladin?
No other two classes are compared against each other so often, and with such zeal (I think....). Once upon a time, paladins were only available to the Alliance while shamans were only available to the Horde, so the two classes were intentionally pitted against each other by Blizzard. That changed with BC when the classes became available to both sides. So even though technically these two classes aren't supposed to stand against each other anymore, the debate is still there. I know I'm still wading through it.
I started a paladin because I had never played one before and they certainly seemed to have an easy time of it by getting into their little bubble that absorbs all damage, and healing to full health in an instant, and wearing plate armor. But I think I was getting bored with the paladin, there just didn't seem to be anything too interesting going on. When I started my second draenei, I decided to try a shaman because I just really like shamans. As I write this now, I realize there's no good reason why, I just do, so I did.
But now I've decided to really evaluate that decision. I mean, I already have a shaman, I already leveled up my troll shaman all the way to 72. Why bother leveling up a second one? Shouldn't I try something new? Was the paladin really that boring? Won't I get my butt kicked a lot less if I'm a paladin? Don't shamans get invited to less groups than paladins? Aren't shamans more fun? Do I really want to start a draenei for the third time?
On and on, believe me, I bore myself, it's not just you. In the end, I have no idea. I can barely decide if I would rather have a waffle or an english muffin with cheese when I go out to breakfast. I wish WoW people read this and I could get bullied into picking one. Or that more people read this and I could put it to a vote. As it is, I will probably agonize about it for a few more days until I finally settle with the path of most laziness and decide to not start a character over and be content to have my shaman and get my butt whooped by paladins and always think: "darn it, the grass looks greener on that paladin's lawn..."
1 comment:
Shamans are like that uncle in your family that nobody likes to have over for the holidays. The good news is that uncle is self supporting and rarely needs to visit the family anyhow.
Go with a Pally. Sure they tell the same stories over and over again every holiday, but at least they get the invite, and they give good gifts to everyone else...
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