Breakfast Topic: How do you decide which is your main?

When I talk to people about my gaming (which is 99% WoW and 1% other), if they play too and we get chatting about it -- or even if they simply have an understanding of how an MMORPG works -- the question they will inevitably ask is, "What do you play as?" Or if they play WoW too, they might ask, "What is your main?" My knee-jerk reaction to this is to say "paladin tank." My tankadin was my second-ever character on WoW, the first one that was on the right server where all my friends were, and my first to hit max level.

When Cata hit, she was my first 85, and for a short while she was my only 85. I've PvPed on her as retribution (and as protection for a while, but the less said about that the better!). But since then, as I've become ever more PvP-focused, the amount of time I spend tanking has dwindled considerably. I still do it, and I still enjoy it, especially when it's really challenging, which it seems to me is sadly less and less the case for tanks right now. But the thing is, PvE is just not as exciting to me as PvP. So the character that's getting the most play is my shaman, by a pretty long way. My priest and my warlock are next in line -- and heck, even my hunter gets more playtime than my paladin these days!

And yet when someone asks me what my main is, I'll still say "paladin tank." Maybe it's because I spent such a long time getting to know her. I was too nervous to level by tanking when I first started, so the leveling process took forever. Maybe it's because I like to surprise people by saying I play a tank (see a previous Breakfast Topic for why I think they might be surprised). Maybe it's just because she was my first.

But I think the idea of a main could be something quite significant in WoW. It's how you identify yourself. It's your positioning and your role in the big machine, and it's who you feel you are online. Possibly.

So how about you? What is your main? How do you decide? Do you simply tell people that it's the character you play the most right now? Has your main changed, and if so, why? What's your WoW identity?

My name's Olivia, and I'm a paladin tank. Honest.