Thursday, November 8, 2007

027: The disease known as alts

Fair warning: guests are coming to stay this weekend and I might not have the time to blog each day. Will make a valiant try though.

I enjoy
these WoW music videos a lot, so I'm spreading the link for those who haven't seen them yet.

Alts! (It's TJ prompt time!) I'm sure you know someone or have someone in your guild or have heard of someone crazy enough to level one of each class. It's great, they say, it really teaches you how to play the classes better. But have you heard of the guy that took it one step further and set off to create not just one of each class, but one of each class in each race? Yeah, that's some quality batshit there. I can't remember where I read about him anymore, but apparantly he'd finished with priests (meaning he had leveled a priest of each race that can have a priest to 70 - both horde and alliance) and was on his second warlock. Or he'd finished with warlocks and had started priests. Either way. If he manages to finish one day, that's a lot of alts. At least Shamans and Druids won't take him too long.

I like this story, it makes people that settle for one of each class look a lot less crazy. Like me.

Currently I'm lacking a Shaman and a Paladin, but I'll get to them eventually. I've got a baby Druid and a baby Rogue, both around 11-12, and a Mage at 19. My Hunter (BM of course) is at level 22, my Warrior dinged 34 the other day and the Warlock is 41. Then there's my lvl 70 Shadow Priest of course. Some of these have banners at the bottom of the blog, but not all.

(Remember the Druid I mentioned starting back when my guild was lacking tanks? Yeah I'm not really feeling the Druid class, so I rolled a Warrior instead and it feels like coming home.)

There's nothing I love more than to be able to log out of my priest after a day of heavy raiding and heroic-ing and go wandering around Elwynn Forrest with my Rogue. No stress, just enjoying the game. Or log on my Warrior and hit up a guildie for yet antoher boost in Cathedral, in the hopes that the Scarlet chestpiece will drop (5/6 Scarlet set! Though she needs the tabard, too). Or log on my Hunter and let her wolf eat some mobs for breakfast. Sometimes it just gets old playing the same character for hours and hours. I even find myself avoiding my Warlock because she's just too similar to a Shadow Priest. When I'm tired of Tieryn I want something radically different. Usually I don't want to play a caster at all.

More than one person have told me that I'm spreading myself too thin. I disagree! The beautiful thing about alts is that there's no stress. You have a level 70 already so you can take your sweet time with the rest of your chars. Play them whenever you feel like it. Muck around at one level for months or speed through them every time you hit max rested.

I'm not saying it works for everyone. I have people in my guild who only have one character that they play (and they tend to be insanely good at it, too), and who never manage to get into this whole alt business. For me though, the variation is key to not getting tired of the game.

With 2.3, I expect we'll see a lot more alt-playing. In my guild there's several people who have rolled a different class and played them up to around 20ish and parked them there, waiting for the patch. Others have mentioned brushing off their old abandoned alts once the patch is here. Personally I have no patience to sit and wait like that, but I'm excited to see just how much of a difference the increased experience will make. If I dare bet on which one of my little ones that'll reach 70 first, I'll have to go with the Warrior. She's so much fun to play and I know she'll be needed. Dentarg is still a realm with only 1% tanks, after all.

I'll probably never get to the point where each of my alts are level 70, but that's not my goal either. I play them to learn the other classes. To do something other than face-melting for a while. To explore the zones I ignored with Tieryn. To try out the other races. Some people say they want to reach Black Temple to get their money's worth from this game. I feel they're underestimating the vast expanse of game that exist before level 60, or level 70. There's tons of fun to be had there, too.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm an altaholic and I agree with you 100%. My main is a tree druid, and while the guild I'm in is technically a casual raiding guild, because I'm a healer I do more runs that I really want to some days. I currently have a 70 lock as well which I leveled just to finance my main's repairs because farming on a resto druid is like running around naked in a field of spikey things.

I played ally for the first 2 years in the game but swapped over to horde, I had 3 60s then mage, priest, and hunter that I promptly deleted. I love leveling and figuring out different class talents and such, that's part of the fun in the game for me. I have a pally, shadow priest, and a little mage on the way. I may not play them often but it is a welcome break from the running in outland.

Grimmtooth said...

:: nod ::

Absolutely you learn about the other classes, the weaknesses and needs, and so forth. I really think it helps when playing your main to know exactly what the other members of the group are facing.

I've also got quite the ecosystem within my little alt family. No drops go unused, or at least unconsidered by one of my alts. The downside is that very little ends up making cash on the AH unless nobody has a use for it, and something like that is unlikely to sell.

But that's why I have an enchanter as one of my alts.

MeatShield said...

Alts make the game SO much fun! I can't understand why people need every class to 70, but I can understand wanting more than one seventy. My main is a tank and I OFTEN just want to go out killing. Once my mage hits 70 (which is only 4 level away thank GOD!) then I can simply jump characters and get my warrior whatever he needs. If I want to run something I can just hop on my tank and pretty much choose where I want to go. Alts still keep the game fun and leveling friends makes the game SO much more fun!

Ratshag said...

Alts is a bunch of lazy peckerheads what is always mooching off me. "Ratter, can I have 10g to buy mats to get me enchanting skill up? *bats eyelashes*" "Yo, Rats, my armor is getting worn out. Twink me up, there's a pal." "Rat, can you cook this food for me? And forge me a new sword. Great. Thanks. Bye." I'm telling'em they better get their butts in gear and get up to 70 once 2.3 comes out, so they can earn some money for me for a change. Hmmph.

Mana Battery Bitch said...

@Stepford, the new Tree in my guild told me that's why he's leveled fishing to 375. It's the only easy way for him to grind money for his repairs and enchants, etc. They ought to look at that, Blizzard.

@Grimtooth, yeah I've noticed that drawback myself :/ I try to keep my alts untwinked since I never do battlegrounds and my focus is more on leveling up than having lots of blues.

@Meatshield, playing something other than caster DPS is definitely a biiig relief, so I can understand why a tank would feel the need to play something else every now and then. I think it's healthy to have variation, but then my Healadin snorts at me and reminds me he's never played anything but a healbot and he'd never imagine playing anything else either. I guess there has to be exceptions to every rule, eh? ;)

@Ratshag, all I ever demand is boosts, the rest I pay for ;) And I give twice as many boosts as I receive, too! (but that's cause I love boosting guildies - running through all of an instance just dotting things and leaving a trail of dead is so. much. fun.)

Ratshag said...

Ackk! I realized I left out a key detail of me previous comment. Me guildies alts is all damn fine upstanding citizens and I's more than happy to lend'em a hand when they need one. It's just me own alts what's a buncha freeloaders who take advantage of me generous nature. Sorries fer the confusion.

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