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Playing Multiple Characters in BFA

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If playing WoW wasn't enough to blow some minds out there, then perhaps looking at the characters I'm playing (and how many) will.

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My Roster of Characters in Battle for Azeroth

120 Mistweaver Monk - Main character

120 Shadow Priest - Primary Alt

120 Protection Paladin - Secondary Alt

120 Assassination Rogue - Alt, semi-retired

120 Beast Master Hunter - Alt, semi-retired

120 Resto Druid - Alt, Retired

120 Arms Warrior - Alt, Retired

Even I'm a little shocked at my roster this expansion. Why? Because rarely do I ever even have a SECOND character. Somehow I've managed to seven characters to max level.

Now, not all of them were ever fully geared up and some of them are even retired to the point where I'll probably never play them this xpac. However, I've done a pretty good job.

I'll cover two of my characters for now in this post. I think I'll go into more detail in other posts.

Mistweaver Monk - My Passion

My Monk is my main. For whatever reason, I'm really, really good at it. I can do things with a Mistweaver Monk that I've never been able to do on any other healer. Somehow, I pulls numbers and contribute in ways no one else is able to do. I have achieved some kind of zen harmony with this spec. 

Mistweaver have a fantastic lineup of spells for both M+ and raiding. In M+, I can push insane throughput VERY fast onto a group. My healing feels instant. Single-target, my spells feel second to none. I can push a tank to full HP in 2-3 casts. Healing the entire group is easy because I spread a few heals over time and now whenever I heal someone, that heal also adds additional healing onto my other targets. I feel like I can flood the health bars with healing.

Utility on the Mistweaver isn't lacking, either. I have a strong CC to lock down a mob and I also have Ring of Peace which allows me to push to block. Strategically placed, this ring can stop a patrol from moving (and not aggro them) or bump enemies out of helpful mechanics. I can also use RoP to protect someone from being hit (or the entire group) during big waves of enemies.

Shadow Priest (and a little Holy) - Surprisingly Diverse

My Shadow Priest is actually the newest addition to my lineup. I've been 120 for about a week and a half now, and in that time I'm already floating into the ilvls where I won't need much from Heroic BoD. Playing this class has been a real treat because normally I do not like DPS.

Shadow Priest is so diverse, yet so simple to play. I decided to make one when I kept hearing the same line, "Shadow Priest are so boring; Just press a few buttons and win." Sounds good to me! I can't stand overly complicated rotations or having 3-5 hotbars full of keys. I like a very simple caster -- something that has stuck with me since EverQuest.

Shadow Priests remind me a lot of Legion's Affliction Warlock. You dot everything up, then channel. It's a little more complicated than that, but not by much. I like the aspect of dots and dumps. Dot'em all up, dump all the big spells, repeat.

I like how they feel really strong in aoe situations, though not completely bad in single-target. In BFA, it's pretty common to be good at one thing, but the Shadow Priest is strong all around.

Just these past two days I have dabbled into Holy. I did so because everyone said how simple it was, but I find it incredibly complex compared to the Monk. Having to focus on reducing cooldowns by using other abilities, and the number of abilities available were a detractor, but I like how the class feels. It's different, and I've been healing on my Monk now for so long that some change is good for me. More to come on this at another time.

Gearing up & Playing Multiple Characters - How Doable is it in BFA?

Playing multiple characters is much, much easier than it ever was in a comparable time in Legion. Azerite Power was a limiting factor at first, but the past two months it has become really, really easy to get your heart of azeroth leveled to a respectable 40+. You need only do a few of the story missions and run a couple world quests a day to hit that in less than a week. At that point, you're set for unlocking azerite traits on gear. Pushing to 50 is still a grind, but why bother? In a couple more weeks it'll also be easy.

Gearing up isn't so bad. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, you can gear up by doing M+ quite fast. Doing a 10 or higher gives a HUGE sum of Titan Residuum (I'll write about this tomorrrow) that you can save up for just three weeks and then buy a random 415 piece (which, if you're lucky, is enough to never replace until next season.). 

You can also run emissaries, which now scale with your level. As of this coming Tuesday, emissaries will scale up to ilvl 400 azerite gear. That's Heroic BoD level!

If you're like me and love to have a diverse portfolio of characters (to fend off boredom or hedge your bets against a patch ruining your main) then you have to agree that BFA has been quite alt friendly.

With that said, time is still the limiting factor. I've chosen to main just my Monk and primary alt my Priest now. The amount of content coming in 8.2 will make playing much more a big, big chore. Stay tuned for my explanation of that this week.

    • I’m glad you’re excited! It’s definitely not for me, though. I played that version of WoW before, and I didn’t like it as much. It was a race to the end to bash your head against raids for 5 hours a night. Those cats have been herded many times.

      When I go back to older MMOs launching new servers, I prefer those to be about the journey rather than the destination.

      • hmm.. that’s weird…that’s the exact opposite evaluation i have come to… the reason i dislike mythic + stuff and current WoW so much is that it’s all about the race. the challenge is in doing things as fast as you possibly can. no time to chat, no time to stop and smell the roses, just go go go…. no mana conservation or thoughts about efficiency, no wasted time with crowd control, no downtime to relax between pulls. if you’re not constantly going at breakneck speed to get that next little bump in ilvl then you’re doing it wrong.

        Classic to me is the less racey version of WoW. everything is slower, more methodical, more challenging, more chances to interact with fellow players, a more immersive world that you don’t just race through at blinding speed… you CAN race through it if you want to, but it’s not required. it’s actually a lot harder to race through classic wow, it sort of forces you to slow down and smell the roses and observe your surroundings even if you don’t want to… with retail they’ve made the race an integral part of the game. they’ve removed the CC, the difficult trash pulls, the whole concept of mana efficiency or threat, and instead replaced it with timers and spamming either an aoe or a single target rotation ad naseum as fast as you possibly can… not that classic combat was all that different i guess now that i think about it haha.