The 10 Commandments of Altitis
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Apr 30th 2008 at 5:00PM
The Waaagh blog, despite technically being about some other dirty little game, keeps churning out some pretty good posts. The latest is Syp's 10 Commandments of Altitis. I'm a recent convert to altitis myself. I pretty much stuck with one character on all my previous MMOs, with maybe one extra alt I played once a month. However, on WoW, I've been bit hard. With 3 70s, 2 60s, and 61, and various random characters in the 20-60 range, I know how the alt game goes. A lot of the commandments are things that I myself have discovered and follow unknowingly in my day to day play, but Syp lays them out in an understandable and easy to follow format. Some of my favorite points, in no certain order:
- 6. Go Off the Beaten Path. Seriously, just because you really want to reach level 70 ASAP does not mean that doing the STV grind for the 7th time is the awesome thing to do. I mean, I guess if your only goal is to get to 70, that's doable, but for me, trying out new quests and new zones, or at least quests and zones I haven't done in a while, is one of the joys of an alt.
- 9. Alts can cause Burnout. This is definitely true if you think you can get away with doing dailies every day on all of your 70s. As much as you want the exalted SSO necklaces for your Hunter, your Warlock, and your Druid, don't try to grind up the rep for all of them all at once, every day. That way lies madness. I have found that focusing on one at a time, or at least alternating days, is a much better way to go about it.
- 3. Alts deserve real names too. Honestly, you aren't clever for naming your Druid Lolferal. Sorry.
But all of the points are nice and handy, so if you're a fellow altitis sufferer, or even if you just want to catch the bug, go check the article out. It's a fun read.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Leveling, Alts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
makishima Apr 30th 2008 5:08PM
I wish more people in the game would conform to #3, be it an alt or your main. But it is nice sometimes to help weed out people for PUG's.
jdkenada Apr 30th 2008 6:44PM
This is the most accurate thing I'll read all day.
Boom Apr 30th 2008 5:12PM
Great find. I've personally had to delete at least 4 level 40 or higher toons to make room for more on AD. 10 just isn't enough for an altaholic!
Boom
PeeWee May 1st 2008 1:39PM
Get another account or two. It's still dirt-cheap.
Charlie Apr 30th 2008 5:16PM
#6 is a Must! I have two level 70s, both alliance. Mage and Priest. Considering there are really only two ways to go about leveling (Go through STV, or don't go through STV), trying to level up that third character was an absolute pain.
So what did i do? Rolled Horde! Rolling the opposite faction for the first time makes it feel like your playing the game for the first time all over again. I rolled a shamman, now level 45ish. Plus, the new questing area in Dustwallow was AWSOME. Love that place. Makes the 35-45 grind alot eazier.I did follow a leveling guide, cause i simply hate wasting time, but I still had an absolute blast.
Of course this was untill I finished the Dustwallow quests. I realized I was doing almost the same quests I was doing as alliance, and would do that till 70. =(
Guess its time to roll another horde character =D. I think i'm gonna make an UD warlock, the UD starting zone is still the best out of the original 6.
Daryl Apr 30th 2008 5:19PM
Yeah,
I have a few alts. I recently decided to focus on the mage main and leave the alts and now he's exalted with most factions including SSO and has leveled his enchanting and raised his dps.
My biggest alt is a 70 warlock who has mostly blue gear but does have the Mindblade.
But I didn't want to dilute myself and haven't done anything about a 68 shammy who could potentially heal for the guild.
What deters me is the awful rep grind, I couldn't be bothered going through all the factions a third time around, so basically a main and a "main alt".
Rydo.
Soriel Angelfyre Apr 30th 2008 5:42PM
Hi, My name is Soriel, and I am an Altoholic.
seriously though, good article, one of the great things with having so many alts is that you can do whatever your in the mood for, someone needs a tank? oh look i can hop on my prot pally, someone need a healer, theres my healadin coming in, someone need some damage done....ok well my ret pally at least manages to do decent damage....(yes...i have 3 level 70 pallies on the same server)
the only drawback that i see to the way i play, is that i will never get into raids unless i choose one and play just that one. thanks to having so many characters able to do the SSO dailies i recently got my first epic flyer (built it myself ;) gotta love the engineering mounts)
because of my alt-o-holism lots of people refer to me when they need info on a quest, on how to gear thier character for thier spec, and where to level
BitterCupOJoe Apr 30th 2008 5:44PM
3 makes me want to stab people in the face. Your character name is not clever, even if your idiot friends think it is. I can think of a grand total of 10 joke names that I've actually thought were clever, over three years. If you want to make a joke character, go over to City of Heroes, where you can go the whole nine yards with it.
lewisd35 May 1st 2008 5:08AM
Stab people in the face? Over a toon name in a game? You need to get out more...a lot more.
BitterCupOJoe May 1st 2008 8:23AM
I've been outside. Out there, we have this thing called "hyperbole." Look it up.
Timothy W Apr 30th 2008 6:01PM
Yeah, about the name thing, I agree completely. If I had it to do over again, I'd love to reconsider my names, but can't afford the 25 dollars to change my name. Starbeast, Hunter, Starsmite, Paladin, Starpole, Shaman, Starzero, Horde Hunter, Starwealth, Bank dude!! I HAD a Starhealer, Priest. Fortunately, I figured out the bad naming thing.
Calybos Apr 30th 2008 8:38PM
Naming is CRUCIAL, people. You are judged for help, buffs, and pickup groups based largely on your name as a first impression.
You don't know for sure that someone named "Serapis" is a good teammate... but you can be 100% certain that a loser named "Slashyoazz" or "Leetrdenyu" isn't worth talking to.
Abraxxis Apr 30th 2008 6:12PM
Several of my alts started as bank alts. However, I vowed to give them sensible names and passable physiognomies in case I wanted to play them later. It served me well.
Parking is very good advice. When I started my paladin in 2004, there were a lot of limitations on the class and poor itemization. He remained parked or did duty as a bank alt for more than 2 years. Last month, I got him to 70, and he truly shines. I leveled him as prot and am still having a blast.
Manatank Apr 30th 2008 6:36PM
"This is definitely true if you think you can get away with doing dailies every day on all of your 70s."
-
I find that the monotony of doing my dailies is offset somewhat by doing them on three of my 70s at the same time. It works great for everything except the drop rate quests (which I skip entirely). It takes just as long except I'm getting 3x the rewards. It also makes it easy on my healer and my tank to have my DPSer cut through the quests for them.
Blackthorn Apr 30th 2008 6:43PM
I've only managed to do all the SSO dailys on all 9 of my 70s once. It was 103 daily quests that day and took 10 hours... Never again.
Marcus Apr 30th 2008 8:31PM
I'm not an altaholic, really. I have my 70 NE warrior(Byrthor), 70 hunter(Dyrthor), 34 NE druid(Ayrthor), and a 70 rogue that isn't named *yrthor. Seriously, I don't have a problem
Wiffleman Apr 30th 2008 8:17PM
I like the pick a name you'll like one. I've already got the best name for a death knight I could find, Thánátos, and if you don't know what that means I won't talk to you -.-
Weirderbeard Apr 30th 2008 8:35PM
Never install that recently mentioned mod, "Altaholic". Seeing your days played will make you physically sick.
Gulbrandt Apr 30th 2008 9:24PM
Or, perhaps people should. Sometimes getting away from the computer is a good thing. :)
Zakk Apr 30th 2008 9:21PM
Very cool list. I totally agree with #3. You might not think it when you see my highest alt/future main's name, but it's true. 44 levels of a Draenei Paladin named Goatadin, and I've never once regretted it ; )