Alts and alts and alts, oh my!
by Dan Crislip 
May 10th 2007 at 4:00PM
I probably play World of Warcraft way too much. Admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery, right? My addiction stems from not being happy with one character, or two, or three... I have 7 characters leveling in the Outlands right now, two of which are raiding Karazhan. Why can't I stick with just one and work on it until it's the best of the best? Because I love my alts!
I created my first alt when my primary character, a Hunter, hit level 52. I'm not entirely sure why I did so, but it probably had something to do with having out-leveled my friends by about 20 levels and wanting to help them without hindering our playing experience. My first alt was a Warlock, who I took to 60 first, becoming my first instance grinding and raiding main character. The hunter stood on standby for a while, until my guild had Molten Core on farm-mode, upon which I took him to 60 and brought him in for our alt runs. He was one of the first to complete the Lok'delar/Rhok'delar/Lamina quest in our guild, which he still has (at least, until I dust him off and bring him out of retirement).
After a few months with them, I met other people who played on a different server, and they needed main tanks for their progression. So I was off and running with a Warrior, who was level 60 in a matter of a few weeks. I helped that guild progress through Blackwing Lair when I took my first burnout hiatus. It took a few months of enjoying other things, more real-life than virtual, when I was feeling the pangs of withdrawal and logged back in.
At this point, another friend of mine started a twink on a role-playing server, so I thought I'd join him in a little noob lowbie fun. With that, my Paladin was born, and then a Druid, both capping out at 60 rather quickly. And then I took a Mage and Rogue to the mid-30s before I was called back to raiding.
Now I've never lost ties to all the guilds I've been in. In fact, the guild that I raid with a few times a week was the first one I was ever in. I just keep taking breaks every now and then to level a new alt, or explore a new realm's social environment to get to know some new friends a little better.
Upon the release of The Burning Crusade, when I found out that Alliance was getting Shaman as a playable class, I immediately rolled a Draenei Shaman and took him to 70, being my new primary raiding class. I've been on him and the Paladin the most over the last few weeks, but lately I've felt the urge to go back to one of the other classes...especially with the Shaman and Paladin nerfs on the horizon.
Last night, I didn't feel much like running Karazhan, so what did I do? I'll bet you can guess... Sure enough, about 2 hours after I logged off my main, there's a level 15 alt Priest asking for a guild invite. It was the only class I hadn't tried yet, so I figured why not. What can I say, I love alts!
Tell us about your alt experience. How many do you have, and why did you choose what you did?
Filed under: Druid, Analysis / Opinion, Warrior, Warlock, Shaman, Rogue, Priest, Paladin, Mage, Hunter, Alts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Goof May 10th 2007 4:23PM
Is it a bad thing When you have a lvl 70 alt and a main in it's 30's?
Thallid May 10th 2007 4:25PM
I really never got into the whole "Alt addiction" scene. Other than my paladin, I've yet to get another character above level 10.
Mekias May 10th 2007 4:30PM
Hello, my name is Mekias and I'm an Altoholic.
There's something about a new class or a new persona that keeps me energized in this game. I think I'm trying to recapture the feeling of when I first started and everything was exciting and wonderful.
Then again, maybe I'm just addicted to the faster leveling and advancement.
Maedhras May 10th 2007 4:33PM
Amen to that Mekias. Nothing will beat my first incursion into Azeroth, 2 years ago. Altoholism is probably the main symptom of that.
But there is a light at the end of the tunnel:
Enters World of Starcraft!
Sylvina May 10th 2007 4:37PM
Alts are pretty much based around the enjoyment of solo play, questing, different server/factions/class, and in general a distaste for the end-game content. However, I think Dan takes it a bit further then I ever would, I have about maybe 5 characters in total I'd consider I was 'serious' about, and only 1 70 (a Blood Elf Paladin I took from 1 - 70 in a week or two). In general though, alts are fun, end of story. :O
Shiro May 10th 2007 4:43PM
I think that for me it was wanting to have classes that were useful for different things.
My priest was my first "raiding" character but I hated it. I was getting all this loot, and it was great, but it was really only helping me to raid/heal better. When I wanted to farm for mats/gold, I couldn't do it.
Alt-tastic time.
My warrior eased those pains a bit, but it was hard to get a foot in the door as freshly-60 warrior when you've got a geared out priest waiting that your guild knows about. :)
Paladin at 60 was too boring. Like my priest, but with plate....
Druid was next on the healing classes list, and I actually enjoy that one the most out of all my level 60+ alts. She's been the first to get to 70, and the gear that she got from raiding was actually useful while she leveled.
Rogue came after that, but grinding/farming wasn't as easy as I anticipated. Especially since she was geared/specced to be a raiding rogue (combat daggers was the rage at the time) so her farming got gimped.
Hunter was the final 60+ that got leveled up. Much more grind-tastic but he never got to raid so his gear is pretty awful. It's getting better now that he's in Outland though.
Of course, during the time between when raiding stopped, and BC started I realized I really loved PvP. Unfortunately in our BG the queues for alliance are horrible. 15-20 minutes for WSG, 30-45 minutes for AB, 1-2 hours for AV. I just couldn't take it and re-rolled horde.
My horde mage is around level 40 now, but I decided that I'd like to try the other two classes that I hadn't played yet.
My shaman is at 29 and is in the twink bracket while not being twinked. She's just there to get her rewards and then she'll move up.
My warlock is 24ish and is a ton of fun to PvP with.
I have a feeling that I'll get my mage to 70 (between playing my alliance alts all to 70) and then start work on the warlock or shaman.
I'm just hoping that I can get them *all* up there before the next expansion hits. Then I'll have one of each class at level cap.
Between the SO and myself, we've also got every single profession covered, and most of the specialties (only missing one blacksmithing WS specialty (hammersmith)). I think that her original reason for rolling the army o alts was for profession based reasons. :)
Sparkz May 10th 2007 6:44PM
I have tons of alts i cant make up my mind who to play...
#1 60 Warrior [dont play him anymore cause he is on an RP server] :(
#2 61 Hunter [1st char on PvP server - but alliance is boring]
#3 70 Priest [made primarily for mind-control at lvl 30 (but i never use it) and shadow-priests are fun and easy to lvl]
#4 68 Shaman [cause he kicks ass in PvP]
#5 45 Druid [dont play him cause i dont like his name]
#6 45 Mage [gnome :( ]
#7 39 Rogue [alliance :( ]
#8 29 Warlock [got bored]
#9 24 Paladin [too slow/boring]
Gitr May 10th 2007 4:56PM
I'm definitely suffering from altism. Here is my story...it's a tad awkward without the videos to leave as a comment:
Altism Must Be Related to ADD - http://www.gitrsblog.us/?p=637
Scruffy May 10th 2007 5:05PM
Ah, a priest you say, Dan?
Go shadow. No, that's not two other trees you see. Just... shadow. Hey! Don't you dare- that's right, third tab... 5/5 Spirit tap. Yeah, you'll do alright.
But seriously, shadow is the way to go. I did 1-47 or so Disc/holy but I had some regulars to do all the killing for me. Went shadow and loved it up to 57 when I tried healbot to help a friend thinking, "Hey, I'll just group for now." Didn't work, I respec'd again and am loving my priest once again.
Eldiablohijo May 10th 2007 5:06PM
I have an Alt addiction, well i wouldn't so much call it an addiction but it's something that keeps games fun for me.
I like the challenge of playing different classes and learning different styles. So much so that if my friends need help leveling i'll usally quickly volunteer to play for them for a bit and help them out.
I currently have only one level 70 of my own, with two toons close (within a few levels) and 4 other toons in the lower 60s.
I certainly say I enjoy mixxing it up from time to time.
Hornface May 10th 2007 5:17PM
How the heck can somebody go from level 1 to level 70 in "a week or two?" It took me a year of casual play to get from 1 to 45, and even when I was really grinding like crazy around 38 and 39 to get my mount, it was still impossible for me to level in less than a day and a half of hard-core play.
Am I missing out on some big secret?
Big Dan May 10th 2007 5:20PM
I definitely have Altism.
I currently have 8 characters in the 20s. one that is going to hit 40 this weekend (my main) and about 10 in their teens. I have been playing for almost a year now and I have yet to see endgame because I keep getting character ideas that I want to try out. I also deleted one of my characters around 30 just because I needed space on the server I wanted to play on. I was sad when I realized that I missed him so I'm trying to get back up there with everyone. Wish me luck!!
Guernia May 10th 2007 5:42PM
@10, consider that for most people, 10-12 days /played (or more) is a decent time to level up to 60.
Given that, it would seem impossible to get it done in a week. Over the course of two weeks, that's 12 days /played over 14 days realtime. Or 288 played out of 336, or a tad over 18 hours a day for two weeks.
Cartman: We stay in the forest... killing boars.
Kyle: boars?
Cartman: Yes. boars. There are literally millions of computer generated boars in world of warcraft, my plan is to stay in the forest killing them until we can fight that creep.
Stan: Dude. boars only give like 3xp a piece. Do you know how many we'd need to kill to gain that many levels?
Cartman: Yes. 3,546,785
Cartman: C'mon guys... you can just stay out here, throwing the ball around all day. Or you can sit at your computer... and do something that matters.
Guernia May 10th 2007 5:42PM
Make that "to level to 70", not 60.
Daedahl May 10th 2007 5:44PM
@10
It's much easier to level alts (at least if they are the same faction) as you can funnel a little gold to them from your max level. But the biggest factor to leveling alts faster is the fact that you know what to do. You know which quests to run. You don't necessarily stop to admire the scenery. The reason your first toons don't level fast is because it is all so new. A week or two to go from 1-70 is impressive, but if you played for 12-16 hours a day it would be possible.
I'm not an altaholic. Really I'm not. I only have 3 level 60+ characters, a level 51, a couple of level 20s. A couple of 14s and thats about it. I only really play 2 or 3 much these days. The others are waiting if I get nerfed to oblivion.
Brian
Sindral May 10th 2007 5:54PM
@ Hornface,
If you really want to level fast the key is running instances and racking up/combining quests in the same areas. Whenever I go to a new town, I always get every quest I can find, then look at where the quests are taking me, and try to complete them all before returning. It also helps to have a group with the same quests. Also, running instances with PUGs, or better, a dedicated group is a very quick way to level. I rolled a BE at the end of January with 4 friends. We play Mon/Weds and only run instances. Currently, ~ 3.5 months later, we're all nearing lvl 50. And that's only playing two days a week, and at about 30 sessions so far, that comes out to about 1.5 levels a night. I personally reccomend leveling in a group whenever possible, because not only do you learn how to play your class better, but you get used to how the other classes work too, and maybe you'll find a class that you'd enjoy more.
Fyrn May 10th 2007 7:05PM
I have many, many alts....It all started very innocently. And I think my true downfall was professions - which is my all time favorite part of WOW. My first toon was a Pally with mining/blacksmithing. Eventually she needed leather, so I made a hunter with skinning/leather working. Then along came the choice of armorsmith or weaponsmith. I could not pick and decided I needed another blacksmith. My rogue was born. By this time, I had become enamored with the versatility of playing different classes and learning different ways to accomplish the same tasks with new skills. I decided to try a caster and along came my warlock. After that it was all downhill.... I now have on the alliance side:
Mage level 70
Warlock level 65
Rogue level 63
Hunter level 61
Paladin level 61
Druid level 59
Warrior level 43
Priest level 38
Around about the time my warlock hit level 55, I fell in love with PVP - but I hated the alliance wait times to enter the battlegrounds. So, I have started two Horde alts:
Priest level 40
Warlock level 24
and am lovin' every minute of it!
Unregistered May 10th 2007 9:57PM
i blame wow for my proliferation of alts. cos you only get 2 professions per toon.
so first you create an enchanter and engineering priest toon. then you realise, you need pots and clothes. so you create an alt tailor/skinner and another alt herbalist/alchemist. obviously, they would be of different classes unless you have a penchant for different specs of priests.
so the tailor might be a lock (some tailor-made items are bop), the herbalist a rogue (can farm his own poisons mats)
now that you got a rogue, you gotta think of leather armor, so that gets you to another toon for skinning/leatherworking. and while you're at it, you might as well get a toon for mining/blacksmithing for the swords and mail armor.
and so the story goes.
basically, i have alts for every profession, except prostitution.
Rebekka May 11th 2007 2:40AM
To # 18: Is that because you prostitute yourself? Sorry, couldn't have had a better line served up on a more silvery platter! LOL!
My name is Rebekka and I am an Altaholic.
In fact, I am so much of an Altaholic that I got a warning from Blizzard around the time that Burning Crusades came out that I had reached the maximum number of characters per account when I just "had to create this wonderful Blood Elf Warlock"...
Basically, like most of the people, my fun comes in playing the game not trying to be in some type of uber Raiding Guild. My play time is limited to between the hours of 8am to 9am Eastern until about 1pm to 2pm Eastern. I also play sometimes to relax after work between 1 am and about 2am to 3am Eastern. Since I work Night Shift, my chances of getting a spot in that uber Raiding Guild is pratically nil as I am also a father and a husband so my weekend times are limited as I prefer to see my family rather than play WoW. Yes, I've tried to get the wife to play. I'd much rather try to move a mountain!
Enjoy the Alts, keep on making them, leveling them, etc. as, first and foremost, WoW is a game!
Deewee May 11th 2007 3:23AM
Wow, i am not alone i guess :P
70 Warrior
70 Druid
68 Rogue
65 Rogue
64 Hunter
60 Warlock
60 Priest
49 Paladin
22 Mage
60 Warrior (a second one, ive deleted pre BC)
And yes, i've got 2 high level Rogues, its not a typo^^