Who gets the Mammoth?

My current quandry. Or better known as "Is when I put my cards on the table for readers who are on either side to read, thus getting the anxiety-inducing feelings off my chest, and hopefully not burning the bridges on both sides simultaneously"

On the one hand : a guild, filled with lots of close virtual friends who I've spent nearly a year playing with, that I've worked very hard to forge into a raiding organization, where I have established strong credibility and reputation as a player and a leader. Playing Alliance, FTL. And a class that's a dime-a-dozen, but is well geared and very familiar for me to play. And is rich as hell.

On the other hand : a guild led by some real life friends. where I've never grouped with anybody besides those friends, and as such, have no idea what the style is like, how we gel together, both play style and personality. Playing Horde, FTW. Druid, which is generally in high demand, but is a class I'm not fully versed in, and doesn't seem like I can macro my job into spamming one key and excelling, which is largely what makes me a good Hunter.

I'm in a quandry over who to play in WotLK. One side is very well known and familiar, the other side is full of uncertainty and pushing outside of my comfort zone.

So, to start off, the leveling from 70-80 will probably not be too much of an issue. Although I've stated that I dislike leveling, that's not 100% true.

I dislike leveling while everybody else is deep (years and years) into end-game. While the rest of the people are leveling also, or maybe just recently hit 80 if they raced, I'm not as opposed to it. I don't plan to race to 80 on either toon. Not "smell the roses" kind of slow, because honestly, they're roses engineered by Blizzard to smell like the money going from my pocket into theirs, but at the same time, I'm not planning to kill myself to get just one more bubble of XP per hour.

So I can casually-ish level both toons.

Then it becomes time to prepare for raiding. I'll have to see how this goes. In TBC, before the days of alts among a team of OP mains, there was a steep curve between "I just dinged 70" and "I can solidly contribute to a team in Kara". If LK has that same discontinuity, I'll be interested in choosing one toon as the focus for raid prep, because that'll be the point where "smelling the roses" is no longer fun while I watch all the folks around me start raiding.

Did I mention that I hate gear and how it dictates SO F'ing much of how socialization in WoW works?

Also, when LK is new, there will be SOOOO much stuff to do. Right now, its pretty easy for me to split between Amava and Moody, since Amava has more or less completed everything that's accessible to her ('cept for Lower City and Keepers of Time, damn them, I spitefully choose not to ding Exalted. So there!) and has no need to grind out more gold.

Then there's the issue of play style. For 5-man stuff or general questing or BG, I'm largely fine with whatever approach the people around me take. For anything as time consuming as raiding, somewhat in 10-man, and absolutely in 25-man action, I choose to spend that time with people of a similar approach.

On my current guild, I've worked hard for nearly a year to imbue the team with a drive and spirit consistent with my own, and to recruit people of a similar approach. Walking into an existing guild, led by RL friends or not, comes with a huge amount of uncertainty, as there are dozens of other players involved besides just those friends.

In many situations through out life, my style has been known to rub off on the groups that I'm in, sort of a contagious energy, if you will. Do I rely upon that past history and hope it plays out with a new group of people? Its a big personal risk.

Its a quandry.

And the quandry becomes more intense with the introduction of the Mammoth Mount.

20,000 gold. I could care less what it does, and I barely understand how it works. Do other toons ride in there? Or NPC vendors? If its vendors, what kind? Repair guys? Reagents? Ammo? Pet food? Vials?

Who cares. I want one.

Soon.

And the Quandry then becomes who gets it?

Amava can buy one the day they become available (or after a reputation grind, if that's what's necessary).

To buy one any time soon on Moody would require paying Blizzard real life money to transfer an alt who is loaded with gold to Moody's server, and then launder the gold through the Neutral auction house from Alliance (booooo) to Horde (huzzah). Blizzard would take a portion in the process, but I'd be able to earn that back up pretty quick, what with being a dual gatherer and all.


The whole "which toon to raid on" is a challenging enough question, because it involves social dynamics and a huge difference between a comfort zone and a nearly completely unknown situation.

Before the Mammoth Mount was introduced, I felt a casual approach would work nicely between the two toons, and let it sort itself out over time.

But dropping 20k on a toon would more or less seal the deal of which is the main. For once in my WoW career, I'm hoping Blizz puts in a massive grind before the Mammoth is available, then that'll buy me enough time to procrastinate the decision and see which toon becomes my main squeeze.