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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsWhy have a bank alt?
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Apr 24th 2008 at 8:00PM
So Zach posted one of my favorite recent articles about making sure your bank toon looks stylish while it's taking care of your business, and I was amazed when I read the comments to see that a few people were wondering what the whole point of a bank alt was at all. I have to admit that I was once like them. Why should I give up one of my precious character spaces for some dude who will just sit around Thunder Bluff or Ironforge and do nothing but store stuff that I should just be using or auctioning anyway? Of course, now that I have a bank alt, I'm pretty happy with the concept. If you're someone who hasn't made one yet, I'll tell you why I think you'd be happy with one too after the break.
1. You don't have time to teleport back to Azeroth and use the Auction House. Let's face it, you're a busy person. You're working on dailies, you're heading into Heroics, you're going this way and that, and you really can't afford to blow your Hearthstone cooldown on a side trip to a capital city. This is where a bank alt comes in. You just send all your stuff to them, switch over, and throw the stuff on the AH without missing a beat on your main. Also, If you have multiple stacks of some stuff (As I often do with Netherweave Cloth, Arcane Dust, and Greater Planar Essences), it's nice to be able to store them so you don't flood the AH and bring down prices.
2. You need more bank and bag space. If you're a raider, a hybrid, or a packrat, chances are you're pretty low on bank and bag space. You need multiple gear sets for DPS, Tanking, Shadow Resistance, and whatever other things pop up, plus, you'll want to keep around a few cool looking quest items or old gear sets just because they look awesome. If you're that type, chances are your bank and bags are both filled to bursting, you just don't have space for anything else. Being able to mail all your extra stuff to a bank alt can free up space quicker than you might think.
This even works in the middle of a play session. When you're loaded down with Motes of Mana, Arcane Tomes, Sunfury Signets, and various green items from doing the outland daily circle, just stop by the nearest mailbox, send them to your alt, and be ready to out for another round of farming. If you want to be a truly hardcore bank alter, you can even create a new guild specifically for your bank alt, and have full run of an extra guild bank tab to store more of your stuff.
3. It's nice to get a little more centralized. If you have 2 or 3 alts with different professions all using various cooldowns and combines to make stuff to sell and use, it can get a bit annoying to keep track of all of it. Yes, there are addons you can use for that stuff, but it's also nice to be able to know that you can go to one paticular character and always find what you need, and send it off to the character that needs it instantly.
I admit, sometimes I sort of get annoyed that I have to keep a slot in use for my bank alt when there's always that one extra alt I've been thinking of making, but in the long run, having a bank alt has been nothing but awesome for me. It's great little time and space management tool, and if you've been on the fence about making one, I'd recommend that you give it a try, especially if you're a busy 70 with bag space problems. You'll be glad you did.
Filed under: Items, Tips, Making money, Alts
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 3)
h8rain Apr 25th 2008 10:18AM
The storage space arguement on severs is *slightly* crap. I am not bashing you Byron, you just brought up a point that bugs me
The "stuff" you have have (in your bags or bank) is nothing more than records in a database that is mostly just numbers. Yes I am aware of millions of players, but records in a database take up nominal space. I will put out an example of why this is not a good arguement.
One item slot is 1 kilobyte (I EXTREMELY doubt it is that high, but for easy math, it will be). Lets also say an average server has 100,000 players. If they increased the "bank" slots by 100 (so 100 kilobytes/player), that will be an increase of storage space needed by 100,000,000 kilobytes (which in turn is 97656.25 megabytes, which again in turn is 95 gigabytes).
You can't tell me that Blizzard could not afford to add an extra hard drive to their raid array on the servers (no extra programming would have to be done, other than the interface screen, because I am betting the code is designed for "dymanic" amount of items). Now I know they would have to add extra hard drives to the backup servers and replication servers, but still it is doable if Blizzard wanted to.
(If I have messed up the math, please someone correct me)
And changing the stack amount will have *NO* affect on storage space on the servers (record ID=12314124, item number=3534623, stack_qty=20 (or 100 still is the same record and storage space is the same, its just changing a value).
mewyn Apr 25th 2008 11:30AM
h8rain:
It's not quite as simple as that. To prevent item duplication each item has it's own unique identification number. Stacks have to have the UID for each item in the stack. Not nearly as neat as having your little example at the end, and it does take up more space.
On the other hand, with the number of items and slots that can be made up in the game (amongst bank alts, guild vaults, etc), it's a very lame excuse to blame storage. Blizzard won't let you change your backpack on your character because it's hard-coded in, and most likely too difficult to gut at this point.
wyrd Apr 25th 2008 3:59PM
My understanding is that the problem is storing items on bags on the character, they have to be actively stored in ram or something. Bank storage can be much bigger, because its more of a passive storage.
frost Apr 24th 2008 8:57PM
Also, you forget that having a bank alt helps you wheal and deal. Lets say you buy a bunch of primals off someone and Shatt and want to sell them at a higher price. Well, if you post the primals on the AH with your main, the person who sold them to you might never sell you primals again (happened to me couple times). So I saw the light of getting an alt to post my items on the AH and voila! I'm back in business.
Lori Apr 25th 2008 1:05AM
However, increasing stack sizes would probably NOT require more memory.
gliterhammer Apr 25th 2008 5:35AM
I pull a similar stunt in reverse in the trade channel. If there's an item I really want, I negotiate the price down with 1 or 2 characters, relog then pick it up with a 3rd for a fraction of the price. Doesn't work everytime but I have saved hundreds of Gold doing this.
Unicron Apr 24th 2008 9:12PM
I've had a bank alt since before my first character hit 60 oh so long ago, and when guild vaults became available my friends and i created a bank guild with 2 tabs purchased in the vault. This has become necessary with the flow of items we create from gathering professions and dailies.
Tekkub Apr 24th 2008 9:19PM
I see valid reason for an AH alt, but not a bank alt. I'm not wanting for bank space on any of my toons.
But then again, I've fought the packrat urges for many years, in real life and online. This is the question I ask myself every time I think I'll saving a replaceable item (i.e. NOT BoP equipment):
"Will you use this item soon enough that you don't mind carrying on you at all times?"
For me, that usually means I plan on using the item within the next 2 weeks. If I answer "no" then the item is sold off. Not thrown in my bank, not mailed to a storage toon, SOLD. Gold is much MUCH easier to store, and it can be converted back into items I need with a simple trip to the AH. Besides that, cash is much more useful than an item sitting in the bank gathering dust.
Ahoni Apr 25th 2008 9:58AM
Tekkub said...
"I see valid reason for an AH alt, but not a bank alt. I'm not wanting for bank space on any of my toons."
None of them are a druid. My 70 feral has 3 1/2 sets of gear. One for tanking, his primary job. One for DPS, since not every fight needs 2 tanks. One for healing. Also buildling a DPS caster set ... useful for fight like Prince when you get a bad infernal and melee can't run in/out. Just carrying those sets of gear to an instance leaves me with about 6-10 empty spots in my bags, and that is with all 18-20 slot bags.
As for selling off things you are not using right away, I understand your point, but I AM a packrat, and it pays off in spades. Not in money, but in making someone else's day. Ever have someone in your guild leveling a profession, or need some rare drop for a quest? There are times you can't find an elemental this or essence of that on the AH, or if they are there, its only one, and its going for 10x its normal price because its the only one. I usually have a few in the bank, and don't mind giving or selling them dirt cheap to guild.
I could clean out my bank, and free up space, but I like having all these rare mats around. It just makes life easier when someone needs a stack of ironweb spider silk, and I am able to provide.
Silverrealm Apr 25th 2008 1:24PM
I see your point, but when leveling professions (Leatherworking in my case) you often have stacks and stacks of leather and mats you pick up along the way.
Sometimes those few G's you make today, translate into a piece of armor your guildie or friend needs to level up with blacksmithing tomorrow.
I see no problem holding onto mats... if it means that today I skip out on 50s to make 1G when someone needs a stack or two of medium leather. Just saying.
And with the way fluctuations on AH have been going, it's been too unstable to go from week to week and ensure that you aren't losing 50% of your proceeds by just 'dumping' off stuff.
But AH and professions are still the majority of my income, so for me your solution is costly.
Keysdawg Apr 24th 2008 9:34PM
Personally, I have had a bank alt forever. Then when they allowed the guild vault, I created a guild for my leveling alts who vary from 12 - 62 in lvl. 6 alts + 4 tab guild bank is extremely helpful for gearing them with drops, or first aid or crafting.
All that + 7k or more in the guild bank at all times is a good thing for repairs and such.
Starayo Apr 24th 2008 9:47PM
Hell, I just made a bank alt because it makes tracking my money across characters easier. I send money and items to be auctioned to my alt when I finish play for the day. Makes saving gold easier.
Finnicks Apr 25th 2008 3:15AM
Ditto there!
My bankalt's primary function is just that: a bank! I send all my excess money to it from all characters, maintaining only 20g on my level 70 main and only 10g on each of my active alts. That provides a good barrier to "impulse spending"; that is, if I'm unwilling to switch to my bank alt and transfer the gold I need for it, then I obviously don't need it very much.
It also helps to have a central hub for items and equipment between characters if you're an alt-a-holic like me.
And on another note, bankalts make for GREAT role-play. I play my bankalt, Rachion, like a black market mafia-style dealer who is paid well and thus very loyal to his "client", Master Finnicks. He also has two meager accounts (my alts ;]), one for a Tauren Druid named Surehoof and another for an initiate Blood Knight named Midasinorlon, but those accounts are small-frye (and he can frequently be found embezzling from them, although he wouldn't dare do that to Master Finnicks, who keeps excellent records).
Aaron Apr 24th 2008 9:49PM
With 5 toons of varying professions, I have 2 storage bank mules equipped with full bag slots in their banks (with imbued netherweave bags and the larger profession bags) I store quite a lot, primals, herbs you name it, and I don't sell because I will always need it at some point and it does happen. I'm not sure how a full time raider can make do without a storage alt.
naranjar Apr 24th 2008 10:02PM
I've got my main in a guild that i'm gearing up and raiding with.
I've got a bank alt I keep in Silvermoon City at the Bazaar. It's got a bank (and thus a guild vault), a mailbox, a repairs vendor (for selling greys, repairing gear to then vendor, etc) and an Auction House all in the same area.
My bank alt is in his own guild. I've added my other alts to my bank alt's guild so that I can quickly send items to my alts by simply placing the items in the guild vault.
Make your bank alt the guild leader. Make a guild rank that allows full access to each tab and withdraw 10000 stacks per day. Promote your alts to this new rank.
And now you're good to go.
Voriman Apr 24th 2008 11:17PM
well, i just created a bank alt the other day....fantastic thing to have if i might add :) i just have way to much stuff on my main (only main) and i don't wanna get rid of... mostly my motes and primals, spare gems and all sorts... :) it's great!
Trancet Apr 24th 2008 11:50PM
Ive given up the use of bank alts almost, now its bank-alt-guild. Leave a toon in every town, and all in the same guild and instantly xfer stuff around and have plenty of space after you buy the first 2 tabs. (which isnt that expensive afterall.)
Smokin Apr 24th 2008 11:51PM
As a self-described and admitted pack rat, I save a little bit of everything...the odd BOP crafting mat, librams for pre-BC shoulder enchants, gear I can't disenchant or don't have the heart to get rid of, and every trinket I've ever gotten. Things got so bad at one point that anything not soulbound stayed in the mail system between characters. So what took me so long to jump on the bank alt bandwagon? I have no idea, but I wish I'd done it sooner that's for sure. The bank guild is something that I'm gearing up to do, as soon as I recover from that damnably expensive epic flyer. Just as soon as I convince my guildies to quit our guild long enough to help me...
TheGraceberry Apr 25th 2008 12:03AM
I was collecting dresses, weapons, and forming outfits before they even had the dressing room to help you see what armor looked like. Its kind of a side thing I like to do, remembering color schemes and matching patterns and testing new combinations is something I find fun in.
That aside, having a centralized bank was fairly mandatory. It's also extremely practical. I just mail off anything I don't want in my bags, and write my bank alt mail-notes for things I need to send to my characters or other players from whom I have borrowed things...I even tell my guildmates to drop my bank a mail if they need anything from me that I owe them. I clean out and check the mail once every other day, and its quite a lovely setup. No forgetting materials that you wanted two days before, no having to log back and forth and back and forth because you forgot one reagent for something. Even if you're not wanting for bag space, if you have more than one character its just plain easier to lump all your assets into one place.
Toxicdust Apr 25th 2008 4:05AM
Mass problem for me with this. I get the concept and its awesome and i wish i could do this BUT i have 9 chars (Ye ... all 9 classes) leaving only 1 slot open on my server I'm currently playing on. This pose lots of problems for me cause witch one do i delete when i want to roll a DK in the expansion? Ye .. the bank alt... So Feasible yea deffinately ... Practical for me ... not at all
Anyone have the same problem i have?