World of Warcraft – the burning question…

A couple of weeks ago, the first expansion for World of Warcraft was released. The good news is that there’s lots of new things to do. The level cap has been bumped up to 70. There are two new races and two “new” classes (one for each faction). Of course, the “new” classes already existed, but they were unique to each faction (paladins for Alliance, shaman for Horde). Now, both sides have them, meaning there are no faction-unique classes. The new races have new starter areas, and there’s a new continent with new lands to explore, but only for those above level 58.
But, now comes the REAL question? What to do first? Do you roll one of the new classes and start over? Or, do you explore the new areas and start the grind to 70?
I had no idea what to do. I have some friends who are more casual players. For them, rolling a new character is an easy call because they haven’t really invested a lot of time in their existing characters. I have other guildmates who only play one or two characters, both are level 60, so for them the grind to 70 is the way to go.
No one was looking forward to grinding to 70, especially after Blizzard had told everyone long ago that leveling to 60-70 would take as long as it would to level a character from 1-60. But, fortunately, the reality is not nearly as bad. Within two days, someone had already reached 70, and now, a few weeks later, there are numerous players who are either or close to that level. Granted, the experience point totals look huge: 494,000 points to go from 60 to 61. 574,000 points to go from 61 to 62. But, Blizzard has put a lot of effort into making sure there are plenty of quests for players to do and that the experience rewards are scaled up.
So, back to the original question: What to do? For players like me, who have managed to acquire multiple 60s, and have more on the way, it’s a really tough call…
Some of us decided to roll new characters and test out the new races. That lasted about a week. By then, the reports started coming in from the new high level zones. “HOLY CRAP!!! Look at the stuff I just got!!!” Then, it was on. To contrast, in the first week when the expansion came out, my guild consisted of new alts all level 10 or under. By the weekend, 98% of the guild had their level 60s on and were in the new zones.
Ultimately, for me, it looks like I will do the same thing I’ve always done. Level multiple characters. After a year of simply running instances, I have had a chance to re-discover the power of my mage in killing non-elite monsters. I’ve also got a druid that I really want to finish out, but he’s not quite high enough to hit the new zones. Plus, I have had some old friends – the casual players – who have gotten re-hooked on the game. So, now I’m leveling a new character that will be set aside explicitly for grouping with them.
Oh, I’ve got other 60s I could level, and I may eventually when these are done. The hunter did pretty well in Outland, but the paladin was painfully slow compared to the dps of the mage.
Speaking of, it’s time to log on now… : )