I'm getting ready to "graduate" into serious tripod territory: I've got a RRS TVC-34L in my shopping cart, with a variety of accessories that may or may not be necessary but I consider useful. I'm not ready to buy another ballhead now, but since RRS offers package discount pricing for head&legs, I'm debating the combo.

That said, I'm fully intending to get a leveling base for the tripod legs, so that I can clamp on a gimbal head and know that I'm panning atop a level plane. As I think about this for ballheads, I keep asking myself: if the ballhead is atop a leveled base and has a specific knob to control the panning base, do I really need a BALL head, or would it make more sense to put together a panning base and a monopod head, effectively creating a pan/tilt head or a true two-axis (not three-axis) head? (Note that I rarely do "artsy" tilted shots; my objective is near always to have a level shot.)