Holidaying with another self
by Jennie Lees 
Jun 9th 2006 at 2:00PM
What do you do when the pressures of endgame all become too much? When the PvP grind gets you down, and raiding just isn't doing it for you any more?Spend some time away from it all, in an exotic location where everything's new again -- make an alt. Preferably a cross-faction alt.
It sounds idyllic, in principle. Start life from scratch again, in a town where nobody knows your name. Learn new skills! Have fantastic adventures! Spend four hours killing wolves and only regain a fraction of your former power! (Eh?)
Alts are great, in principle. However, if you're like me -- and you have over thirty of them -- then even a journey away from your main becomes tedious and repetitive. I've seen every nook and cranny of every newbie area, through lenses as diverse as RP-PvP and plain ol' PvE. I've done every newbie quest a thousand times, or at least it feels that way. If I have to collect Bristleback Belts or deal with Iverron and his spiders one more time, I'll go bonkers.
I recently decided to start levelling a priest (it must be heatstroke; the British summer's just begun). "Great," thought I. "I'm always healing anyway -- this time I can be a healbot from the start, and learn to do it well."
I got to level 6 and quit. Not because I hated healing -- let's face it, at the lowest levels most classes are similar -- but because I couldn't face the thought of fifty-four more levels ahead, levels of endless running and grinding and repeating quests for ingrates.
But I know I'll be back. When the tedium of life in the fast lane gets me down -- when I decide to make "learn2heal" another pet project of mine -- or just when I've nothing better to do. Even if I never play this priest again, I know I'll create another, some day. I have a feeling the expansion will cure some of my newbie-area-phobia, but it's a sad fact that what was once exciting and new has become tired and old, despite the variety of newbie areas and the novelty of switching faction.
Filed under: Virtual selves
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Varlynstroud Jun 9th 2006 2:42PM
after 10 months of getting my first char (druid) to raiding status, i've done exactly what you said and started a warrior on the horde side. it is awesome.
Burgdorn Jun 9th 2006 3:03PM
I think the hardest part I've had with making an alt that nobody knows is the ability to stick to the new community I'm involved with. As a raider, I've got some responsibilities to my guildies. I don't hate those responsibilities or look down towards them at all mind you. It just gets in the way with alts on another server. I once made a UD priest on Emerald Dream, well she is still there, but I had an awesome story design I wanted to explore with her. For teh first few weeks it was fine. Then request for Stonescale Eels ate up my time to play her, and when I finally came back the people I had been grouping with had moved up in level or quit do to their guilds drama issues.
Since then I've resorted to staying within the confines of my server and look for some PvE server for my hordie. Other ideas I would offer for keeping things interesting is to possibly make goals. For instance I've made a goal to get every trade skill to 300 on my server. To accomplish this I've rolled a rogue for farming Herbs, cloth, and leather; my priest is my tailor, and enchanter; my druid is my leatherworker, and my Warlock is my alchemist. On top of my blacksmith on my main I think I have everything covered. I plan to make my Warrior at expansion a weaponsmith, and jewelcrafter. It is fun to have silly little goals sometimes I think. Anyways take care.
UncleVinny Jun 9th 2006 5:16PM
All the characters I'm leveling on my main server are alliance cloth-wearers. When I get sick and tired of getting ganked, I mosey over to play my cool orc hunter toon on a non-pvp server. I've really enjoyed prowling around Orgrimmar and the Undercity, getting to know the Horde stories, etc. Now it cracks me up to occasionally let slip with an "Embrace the shadow!" in guild chat on my main. :-)
Developing alts has improved my PvP skills somewhat -- although I'm still pretty sketchy -- because now I have a slightly better sense of how rage works, what totems do, etc.
The real barrier is, as you mention, the mind-bending tedium of repeating the same ol' quests over and over, and the unbelievable pain of running everywhere after you're used to having a mount.
James Jun 9th 2006 10:23PM
After almost 4 months of playing, I have several alts, level 60 hunter main, level 44 priest, level 35 paladin, level 21 warlock, level 8 druid, and level 10 priest (dwarf -- darn fear ward). I've made some horde chars, mostly when my server goes down, just jump onto a PvP server (My current server is PvE), and I have some fun. Gotta love that undead male dance....