Breakfast Topic: On alts and patch planning
by Adam Holisky 
Jul 24th 2009 at 8:00AM
So with that said, I've been wondering lately about my alts. In particular the four left between 60 and 70 who are sitting in Outland not doing anything in particular. I know that if I drop the gold on them and let them fly around I'll have much more incentive to play them through to 80, and perhaps even find a new class that I love (truth be told, I'm finding my 63 rogue quite a bit of fun to play lately).
As I'm thinking of finishing my army of level 80 alts, I have to plan a little bit. Why should I level right now if within the next couple weeks I'm going to be able to fly around and do it all much faster? Wouldn't my time be better spent playing Fallout 3 working on WoW.com projects?
The answer for me is yes, my time would be much better spent either playing other games or gearing up my level 80 Ret Paladin alt I'm having so much fun playing.
I do find it interesting that I'm basing decisions on what to play, in a game, off of what's to come in future content patches. In some ways it seems like a bit much for a game, but in other ways it makes sense to ration out my scarce commodity of time.
Is this something everyone does? What about you? Are you playing your alts based on future patch changes?
Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Martouf Jul 24th 2009 8:08AM
I decided to stop leveling my level 20 mage and get a priest to 20 so I can get them a mount.
Between the drinking and running it was just too much.
Robert M Jul 24th 2009 8:35AM
/second
I have some Northrend alts (77,77, 77, 76, 75) that have been abandon in addition to the low levels I have because of the mount changes. Having moved from Outland to Northrend after the expansion, I never bought the flying skill. Now, because I will be able to fly through Northrend and do it faster with the increased speed, it just seemed stupid to buy any of the flight training until after the patch and save all the gold I had saved for all of them to start flying at 77.
My only real playtime now is usually between 2-4 in the morning circling the rim of Wintergrasp mining up saronite and titanium.
Clevins Jul 24th 2009 1:29PM
I'm with robert M. My 72 rogue will get Cold Weather flying in 3.2 and I'll use hsi regular mount which more than doubles in speed. I've got a priest main in Ulduar and a DK who's newly 80. I'm even waiting for 3.2 to really push the DK's gearing since I can farm heroics with her and get a much bigger bump for the effort.
Nicallisaa Jul 25th 2009 12:41PM
I am trying to get 2 more (my mage, who hit yesterday, and my DK sitting at 77) to 80, so I can use the influx of everyne running heroics again to get them geared!
Laughtrey Jul 24th 2009 8:10AM
I have some alts down in the 1-60 range, but I have RaF going so it's not stopping me.
I decided a while ago that I wanted to finally level my Death Knight, I'm waiting for Outlands flying for that.
Besides that, I'm also waiting on buying Flying/Epic flying on my newest main since it was announced that it would be cheaper and faster. I don't want to have to spend more gold than I need to. It all feels odd though, waiting for a patch to change some things. I guess it's different when you know it's coming, but if we always waited for a patch to change things we'd be waiting forever.
Tinwhisker Jul 24th 2009 8:12AM
Honestly, I'll have my fourth 80 this weekend and a fifth shortly after. After getting four (eventually all five) epic flyers and exalted with Hodir/etc I don't know how much interest I'll have in another alt.
Patch 3.2 is bringing some nice features to those who are leveling but even for people who have lots of WoW time, there just isn't time to play more than a few characters. I know for a fact that one of them I haven't even checked its mail in over a week.
JB Jul 24th 2009 8:14AM
Yes, I'll either be playing Dark Messiah or working on gearing up my main who is at 80. I stopped playing my low level alts 22/24 because running to get places takes up so much of the play time. I wish they'd make flying between 2 points faster too. For eg flying from Darnassus to Gadgetzan takes something like 15 minutes!
Josin Jul 24th 2009 8:23AM
Most of my alts are currently on standby pending the mount changes. I don't see any point in dumping so much gold now on something I can get for much cheaper in a few weeks. Nor do I see a point in WALKING all over the place to level slowly when I can just focus on my max level toons for the time being.
mrluohua Jul 24th 2009 1:53PM
Yep, the patch has me waiting as well:
1) epic mounts at 40. My 41 warrior would be so much more fun on an epic land mount.
2) normal (but faster) flying at 60. My rogue is 61 and in outland, and flying would be so much nicer.
3) Cold weather flying at 68 for Northrend. I currently have 5 toons leveling in northrend, 70,71,73,73,74. Since I have 3x80s already, I'm not missing content by not running around on the ground.
4) New heirloom chest with stacking +10% xp. Same effort after patch and I'll have +20% xp for kills and quests. Nice.
5) And on my achievement toon - after the patch, the price of the faction mounts is going way down. As I'm getting exalted with all my home faction, I'm waiting for the patch to buy all the mounts available to save some gold.
So, yep, just doing dailies and casual raiding on my 80s.
Gothia Jul 25th 2009 4:00AM
Fail. If you have alts flying from Darn all the way to Gad? That is an epic fail on your part, set alt's hearth to Dal and take the portal to CoS. That said, yes, I hate flight times too and believe they should be instant, but you not making the most of your "experience" and using the resources available is on you not the devs.
Nicoma Jul 24th 2009 8:13AM
Play the Fallout DLC, come onnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn you know you want to.
And rogue is some of the most fun you can have leveling a toon, I mean is there anything cooler then ganking a monster with Ambush and then doing the same to his buddies?
Og Jul 24th 2009 8:16AM
Fallout 3 FTW!!!!!!!!!!
Malfural Jul 24th 2009 8:17AM
Right now I have a druid parked at level 16, waiting for the travel form in 3.2. I'm too lazy to do quests without it, but somehow one of my friends has persuaded me to level my mage who is now between 20 and 30. The only alt that I feel happy leveling is my warlock, which I had already got to 32 long before this patch was announced.
Unfortunately, out of those, only the druid is eligible for boa items. Also, the only alt I have ever leveled up properly (not including DKs) who is now level 72, I have no interest in leveling. That's probably because I have 2 warlocks now, and there's no point in leveling both (the reason I'm leveling another warlock on a different realm is for RP). So I doubt I'll get northrend flying for her.
And at the same time, I'm fervently gathering as many AT marks (can't remember what they're called) in preparation for the new heirlooms/bridle thingy/teleporting tabard etc.
And of course I'm still doing wintergrasp for maybe a weapon for my druid.
So in conclusion, it has definitely changed how I play, except for the mage, which is a bit weird (blink and teleport kind of makes up for it).
P.S. Sorry for the wall of text :)
Malfural Jul 24th 2009 8:20AM
And if you're wondering why I don't have many high level alts, it's because I'm an altoholic with commitment problems.
musicjunkie300 Jul 24th 2009 8:19AM
imo i've actually been spending more time lvling my alt (62 druid) in hopes that i can get him up o 80 when/around the patch hits. I'd much prefer level up right now at a somewhat slower pace than to wait and be leveling when i could be out there grabbing up those tasty tasty conquest/triumph emblem for doing merely 5 man content
Ard Jul 24th 2009 8:30AM
So, you're more likely to play your druid as soon as the patch comes out if he's a brand-new, undergeared 80 than if he's at 62? I don't think that's the case for me.
I'm holding off on leveling my low level toons, waiting for the new lowered mount requirements (and travel form). Better to spend time on other stuff.
musicjunkie300 Jul 24th 2009 8:58AM
well i suppose i should say i'd like to make this toon into my main a some point. I'm quite bored with my lvl 80 holy/ret pally that and my guild has like 80 billion pallies as is. So if i could get up him to 80 i could actually work on getting away from my pally
SonOfHogger Jul 24th 2009 8:21AM
Yeah, I am waiting for the patch, too, to save a cool 1K g on buying epic flying ... and buying tons of mounts for that 1K g for the achievements.
Markainion Jul 24th 2009 8:20AM
It strange with all the changes designed to make leveling easier, that I am looking forward mostly to be able to switch leveling off. I think the ability to choose which level to max out on; will change the game more than anything.
Natsumi Jul 24th 2009 8:22AM
I stoped playing my alts as soon as I heard that they were dropping the price and levels on riding skills, which is seriously irritating as I just had bought flying on my 70 hunter. Oh well, at least he still has the 1k gold to buy the Northrend flying book once it hits :)