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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: Alt-o-holism bad for WotLK?
by V'Ming Chew 
Apr 17th 2008 at 8:00AM
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Players who like leveling alts - or alt-o-holics - may find leveling in the first few levels of the WotLK expansion difficult.
With the accessibility of epics from badges and Arenas, the average level 70 character is now a far cry from a freshly-minted 70. The gear bar has certainly been raised among level 70s, compared to pre-BC 60s. This has led some to proclaim that "epics are the new blue."
Despite the proliferation of "welfare epics", there are still level 70 characters who are in their leveling blues and greens. They typically belong to alt-o-holics or really casual players who simply do not invest enough time to gear them up in pace with the general populace.
Some alt-o-holics even put their characters, mains or otherwise, into cold storage as soon as they ding 70 and move on to leveling a new alt. No Arenas, no heroics and certainly no raids for them. There's nothing wrong with avoiding the "endgame" really, but the gear level of their toons will be unavoidably lower than someone who chooses to focus on just one or two characters. Of course, there are alt-o-holics who do a good job of gearing up multiple 70s; if you're one of them, more power to you.
If Blizzard tunes the difficulty of the inital WotLK game to the "average" 70 with epics, will undergeared 70s and alt-o-holics be left in the dust?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast Topics, Expansions, Leveling, Alts
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)
Suzaku Apr 17th 2008 10:38AM
I'm pretty sure they'll do the exact same thing they did with BC, and start out by equalizing gear. They say "blues are the new epics", but if Wrath is anything like BC, we know people will be saying "greens are the new epics" after they finish a few quests in Howling Fjord or Borean Tundra.
Of course, also consider all the new Death Knights. They likely won't be running BC raids or doing arenas. They'll probably coast through Outland until they hit level 68 and hop straight over to Northrend.
Hank Apr 17th 2008 9:29AM
I worry about the increase in the dead zone. I see a rapid decline in new players, who will not be able to complete a lot of things in the soon to be completely vacant old world. I am sure the expansion will bring with it an AH or two in Outland, as well as class trainers in places like Shattrath, making the old major cities the ghost towns that Silvermoon and Exodar are.
Silverrealm Apr 17th 2008 10:19AM
I don't worry about this at all. I have alts that I still casually level in the old world... in fact my leveling partner on my main yelled at me for loving the old world so much. I still go back and hang around with my main (who is not yet at lvl 70), I watch the channels for something to do in the old world. And I know there are enough players with alts that the old world will never be totally desolate. Afterall there is no AH in Outlands... and I doubt there will be one in Northrend either!
It is very smart of Blizzard to do this, it forces everyone back to the old world to remember their roots so to speak ;).
zappo Apr 17th 2008 10:55AM
As Silverrealm says, it's not that much to worry about. Log in and create an alt right now, and you'll see a fair number of alts running around the level 1 zone. Barrens chat will never die. People will always run SM. One place I do hang out at that is mostly abandoned are the Plaguelands. This is due to a few factors though, one being that the zones are tainted and depressing looking.. which leads you to believe that people just did not like these areas. And the gear is really junky around the 50s. The real gem in this is that if you get a good drop in the Plaguelands, bg twinks and other people that struggle through the 50s pay top gold for these items. I was farming leather and an epic level 50 ax dropped which sold for 200g. I've never sold any level 70 blues for close to that.
Jeni Apr 17th 2008 9:41AM
You have to remember that raids are ONLY to keep people that don't want to level busy until new content comes out. Rep grinds are for the same thing. The netherwing mounts were to hold people over to black temple. Sunwell is not only new raid content to hold people over to BC, but thre's a new faction grind. A new instance to master for the casuals. There's dailies to do. All of these are to keep
people that don't like to level any new characters busy. That's all. The heart of Blizzard's subscription base is the casual player. They released figures not long ago that some 25% of the player base raids and of that 25%, something like 5-6% of THAT raid BT/Sunwell/MH...though that's changing with the attunements gone. Point is, the high end raiders will have gear that will last them through their 70s. They'll have an easy time questing and go faster. But it will not be impossible to go from 70 to 71 in northrend with only questing greens. My two 70 alts (after my druid main) went from 59 to 60 in Winterspring, through the portal, and could do all of the early outlands quests with no issue at all. While it took my druid til level 64 or so to get rid of her last raid stuff, I replaced my gear right away with Outlands greens. It was easier to quest with my druid...but only just barely. For my alts, I already knew where the quests were and spent little downtime.
It'll be the same for them and my new hunter (just hit 50 and will be 70 long before Wrath!) to do just find in Northrend.
Theadrick Apr 17th 2008 9:47AM
Honestly I don't think it will make one bit of difference. Sure those in epics will fare better for the first 3 or 4 levels, but thats about the extent of it I think. I had replaced all of my raid epics from Ony, MC, etc. by 65 on my main.
Zhalseran Apr 17th 2008 9:56AM
The thing is the new zones aren't tuned for the person in full epics, because then it WOULD be overly difficult for new, or undergeared 70s. The new zones, as well as the quest items that come out of them, are tuned for the lowest common denominator.
Green Armadillo Apr 17th 2008 9:59AM
And this is why there's still going to be a gear reset. The reset just isn't going to be as big of a jump as the one for TBC.
p3ngu11 Apr 17th 2008 10:08AM
mob difficulty in the starting zones will most likely be on par with mobs found in netherstorm and shadowmoon valley...
i'm pretty sure you won't need BT and SW gear to kill a level 68-71 non-elite mob by yourself. hell, people have gone from 1-70 naked.
kunukia Apr 17th 2008 10:20AM
I have four seventies, and will have two or three more when WotLK drops. Only one of me raids at all, although that may change to two. I have no worries whatever. Of course the raider will test the waters first, but I expect that my two 'farmers' will do just fine in their guest blues and greens.
kunukia Apr 17th 2008 10:23AM
...quest* blues and greens, rather, heh...
Silverrealm Apr 17th 2008 10:24AM
Kinda off topic but does anyone know how it goes with lvl 66-70 mobs in BC... are all those mobs going to go back to giving XP for lvl 70 players?
I'm sorry if this is a noob question, as I wasn't around when BC first dropped.
Thanks
kunukia Apr 17th 2008 10:29AM
Yes, that is what happened when BC came out. One of my toons quested in EPL for a couple of levels before heading to Hellfire, meanwhile buying the new greens off the AH, specifically because she had just turned 60 and was very poorly geared. So your question actually did relate to the topic. :)
mattarin Apr 17th 2008 12:48PM
im a major altoholic. i have 9 horde alts and 3 alliance. i like the diffrent play styles but i go to the alliance to see the different quest lines. i realized on my horde i have 5 blood elfs (3 females are pally, rogue, priest and 2 males warlock and hunter), 2 tauren (my first and main character a tauren warrior and the other a druid), 1 orc shaman and 1 undead mage. they are too high to delete imo but i realized i have no troll so i will have to hope the death knight will be available to the troll race. so i made a lvl 1 troll shaman to reserve the name i want to name my troll death knight and use him as my bank character.
my main worry is on my lvl 70 tauren warrior i plan to get the rest of his epic pvp gear this summer and i hope they don't get replaced by some stupid quest greens that look like no creativity was put into them. if they look worse then my pvp gear i will just sell them for money and look for something else or keep my pvp gear until i find something better.
CyberThoth Apr 17th 2008 4:09PM
OK. There is WoW before 70. Life does not start after you reach level 70. And gear is not the only thing people play. Some people actually play for fun of the game. Leveling a new twink for me is more fun then dealing with all the group drama to do heroics or raid or competing with 100 people to kill the same mob for a daily quest.
Jamal Apr 17th 2008 5:25PM
lmao, this is where the game has truly no other purpose. You're thinking to yourself, "why in the hell did i spend months getting that gear, if it was going to get replaced in acouple months." There is no reason. Whats the purpose of this game? There really isnt.
The question is, why the hell is this game so fun than? The Story line? Or trying to be better than other players. I Honestly suggest everyone to play because the game is fun. Take your time leveling, 70-80 will be very quick, and once its over, the game isnt quite as fun imo.
Tyy Apr 17th 2008 11:15PM
I used some Tier 2 gear until lvl70 since I grinded to 70 without or hardly going into instances.
Even today the ZHC is in my trinket rotation :-)
I expect similar with WotLK
Juliah Apr 18th 2008 7:42AM
I'm definitely an alt-o-holic. I have one of every class, and I'm trying to get them leveled before the expansion. I hope Blizzard doesn't make the WotLK "gear check" too difficult -- Hellfire was awful for both my priest and my mage. Thank goodness for Zangarmarsh.