I've logged a few months on WoW, but stopped once I got fed up with endgame raiding back in LK. I started playing again in Cata, but after I realized how raiding with good guilds on my server would basically kill my social life (3 hours every Friday and Saturday night? No thanks), I stopped again.
My main back in LK was a Holy paladin, before Cata nerfed FoL. Man, those were the days. Every guide and forum on the web said to gem pure int, forsake mp5 and just go for HL spam, but I found it much more enjoyable to stack as much mp5 and spell power as I possibly could. Throw a beacon on the main tank, sacred shield the OT and throw heals on the raid? I was an unstoppable healing machine. Oh, and I never dropped below 3/4 mana.
But then of course Cata came and blizz quadrupled FoL's mana cost and removed sp entirely, so I had to roll a new class, because fuck HoL spam. I decided to go with warlock and leveled one up to 85, got him some
gear, and played around with all the possible specs, finally deciding on destro. I could do 13.5k in heroics if I didn't fuck up a rotation or stand in a fire, but realized that A) horde raiding on my server was terrible and B) I wanted a social life. So I leveled a druid on a different server, got him some
gear as well, and tried the other side of dps. But ultimately I chose life. And StarCraft 2. And Mass Effect.
I'll share a few tips with you guys who're leveling. First,
check out Zygor guides. If you have an additional $40 to spend on WoW, this handy interactive guide will make the leveling process laughably easy. It will turn your 14-day journey to 85 into a 7-day one TOPS. Sadly it costs extra to get leveling guides for both factions, but I'm assuming that, like me, you intend to stick to one faction only, probably to add alts to your guilds.
Second, make a bank alt or two. If you don't know what that is, it's a character you keep in a major city for the sole purpose of receiving mail sent from your main. It keeps bag space on your main available and allows you to sell on the AH without having to hearth or fly back home.
Third, never spend any money ever on anything until level 60 and you can get your flying mount and skill in Outlands. Then never spend any money ever on anything until you get cold weather flying at 70 in Northrend. Finally, never spend any money ever on anything until you get Azeroth flying at 80 (or 60 if you have that much money at 60). Flying is the single most important thing you can have since it ups your travel speed but 60% on epic riding. Meaning that from level 60 on, you will level 60% faster, as WoW is mostly a game or transportation.
Finally, I don't mean to chastise anyone who wants to give their life to WoW. I've done it myself, and I had a lot of good times with my old guild on Ner'Zhul. But know that when you hit 85, you have to make a choice of what to do: PvP or PvE. PvP is much more accessible to individuals, because you can queue in random BGs or find a friend to play 2v2s. But PvE will eventually lead you to raiding, as heroic dungeons only give so much gear. Once you get to that point, know that, in order to see the end of the content, you'll have to devote a significant number of hours to raiding. It can be frustrating to spend hours wiping on the same boss, as well as seeing the gear you want given to someone else. If your ultimate goal is to see the end of the Cataclysm and you don't have hours to give to do it, I'd suggest stopping now.
tl;dr I have character armory pages to show off; look into zygor guides; make bank alts; save for flying skills; raiding takes time.
