One of the things that I have always wanted to do in game is have a jewelcrafter.  Anea started out as an alchemist to fill her role as helpful healer to the fullest and hasn't switched from that ever since she was just a baby priest.  But just about every alt I've made after that has had jewelcrafting, with varying rates of success.  Their level, mining skill and/or gold on the server that they call home really dictates how well they do or don't do.

However, since Anea is my only max level character, I have never gotten any character to max level with jewelcrafting.  I've always wanted to - mostly 'cause I've romanticized it.  I want to find gems in ore and make pretty jewelry!  Oh yeah, and I heard that special helpful gems are nice... but shineys!

I've been thinking more and more of picking Anea up, but she's... Old Anea.  She's "boring" because I haven't done anything new on her since I took her to the barbershop for the first time.  Friendly and comfortable is one thing (/hugs priest healing) but what else is there to make the game exciting and new and fun for me again?

I always tell other people that the game is, first and foremost, a game.  It ought to be fun!  Sometimes it's easy to get sucked into the grind of farming for X, gearing up, doing whatever it is that can be draining to us while we're in the game. 

However, a line from Aoirselvar's comment has been resonating in my head tonight:

I do think you have to look at what is really fun and do that. If its focusing on a RP story line, playing 100 different alts, or making up a game jumping on tiles in IronForge, you have to do what is fun.

...and it gave me a thought.

What if I switched Anea's professions?

This is a big decision, for several reasons.  For one, I've always been a flower picker and as much as I may groan about it, I do like seeing the new flowers that are around the world and I think it especially convenient that I can make my own potions and flasks.  (Plus the trinket that I am still using.)  It was helpful to the guild and especially useful for Lus since I would farm the herbs for all his damn potions.  /grumble

For another, herbalism and alchemy are smart professions to have - they're not labor intensive, they're always useful and can be used to make money if I would get off my butt and actually hawk my wares.  The way that I've been operating, they haven't really made me money, but they've sure saved me money.

If I had a jewelcrafter that was also Anea, the chances of it being leveled to max are very high, since I have the time to farm the mats and the resources to do level it fairly painlessly.  I don't have an active raiding schedule and may not for a while, so I could spend some time in game re-familiarizing myself with Anea as I mined ore and made some pretty baubles.  And also, if I did have Anea as a jewelcrafter, then I could scratch "have jewelcrafter!" off my silly little To Do list.  (I'll be damned if I know any other reason why I want one so bad besides it matches Draenei and because I just want one.)

But part of the reason that I don't want to is that sometimes you can't teach an old dog new tricks.  As I've mentioned before, when I roll a character, I have an image and an idea of who they are already in my mind - this includes what they do for their professions and it all meshes together to make the whole.  If I switch part of Anea's whole, will I "ruin" it?  Will I miss picking flowers and brewing potions too much?

I won't even mention engineering and the awesome looking goggles they have...