Breakfast Topic: Is your main a former alt?
by Vincent Brodbeck 
Oct 26th 2010 at 8:00AM
My love of WoW started pretty slowly. Off and on since probably vanilla, I'd sign up for the 10-day free trials. Though the game was interesting and enjoyable, I never cared enough to actually buy a subscription -- that is, until I started my lovely undead female rogue. There was just something about sneaking through the shadows, baiting my targets and emerging in a flurry of blows to dispatch my adversaries before retreating to the darkness from whence I came. I loved it. I couldn't get enough of it. So I bought the expansions and signed up. I had become a full-fledged WoW player. I dinged 80, joined a guild, raided Naxx and Ulduar and even became one of our best DPSers. Life as a rogue was good.
At some point, I decided it would be fun to start leveling a shaman. I'm not going to lie; it was awful at first. Going from the quick-moving, quick-killing, quick-thinking rogue to a troll who just dopily stood there slowly casting Lightning Bolt as his enemy wailed on him was not even almost fun. But everything changed once I got a few BoAs for him and started leveling as enhancement. I had found a new love. Everything about enhancement was just so much better than being a rogue: pretty colors, flashy spells and much more variety in rotation -- not to mention the ability to heal if I ever get bored of beating the snot out of every monster I see.
Now, my shaman is geared in four pieces of tier 10 with all the top-end enchants and gems, and even my resto off spec isn't far behind. Meanwhile, my rogue languishes at the top of character select screen in welfare epics, never having seen the inside of ToC or ICC -- and she probably never will. And honestly, I don't know if I feel guilty for abandoning her.
Has anyone else had this experience? Have you ever leveled an alt for fun, only to discover it was more enjoyable than your main? Has leveling an alt ever given you a newfound love and appreciation for the game?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 9)
Noekh Oct 26th 2010 8:06AM
I started playing in 08, about 3 months before Wrath launched. I was playing a hunter, and stopped at 55 to level a DK tank (because it was the cool new thing to do). After that DK tank hit level 80, I started doing ToC--that's about as far as she ever got. I then swapped into a Resto Druid, who got all the way to the Lich King fight, though never downed him. After her came the hunter again, and they currently only have 2 pieces of T10. Right now, it's an Arms warrior at level 47. My name is Noey..and I am an Altoholic.
Tim Oct 26th 2010 8:52AM
Wow Noey. You sound almost like me. I've been playing about 4 years now. But had a Ally Hunter. only 72. Started DK first day of Wrath xpac. He's at 80 and my banker. Resto druid with a Refer a Friend account. At 80 almost all 264 gear. Too Lich King with no kill. And now I have my first Horde toon, Orc Warrior to 68. I swear I was just gonna see if I liked warrior for a few levels and delete him. I guess I like warriors.
Aalokor Oct 26th 2010 10:24AM
I've got that beat: I started playing in 2005. My warlock was my first character (and in my heart has always been my main), and was my 3rd character to ever reach level cap , about 4 months ago. It's worth mentioning that my first character at the level cap hit 80 in like march
FoxKelfonne Oct 26th 2010 10:56AM
I too, started as a Hunter, and ended up switching off. Managed to get my hunter to 80, went through Naxx a couple times, but our guild really started having issues with having enough healers to do anything, so I started leveling a Druid on the side. Made the push to get the druid to 80 once experience came to battlegrounds, and the dungeon finder made leveling easier, and haven't looked back since.
I am now a healing machine. :D
Fa110u7 Oct 26th 2010 11:44AM
*stands up* Hi Noey, I'm an altoholic as well. I started playing wow in the first Open beta so many years ago. I started with a dwarf pally got him to level 47 and found out that some RL friends were playing so I started a rogue on a different server quickly capped him out at 60 and started a priest who I also capped out pretty fast also. Those were the days..... Anyway I have a lvl 80 of every class now cept for a lock, I'm trying my hardest to level that one with my wife even tho she only plays like once a month, it's very painful. Most of em are geared out with the 5-man 232 heroic gear. I keep telling myself that I want to raid but I have a hard time wiping for 4 hours a night with nothing to show for it when randoms are so instantly gratifying. It's a very interesting dynamic having so many max lvl toons; 4 tanks, 3 healers, and 3 straight up dps, it takes me about an hour to do the headless horseman on them all. I love my alts even if it is hard to pick which one to play at time, Happy Alting everyone!
Richard Oct 26th 2010 1:29PM
I've played a Dwarf hunter as my main since WoW went retail. But shortly after ICC opened our guild's Holy Paladin took a break, so I converted my rarely used Ret Paladin to a healer (rarely used, as in my 3rd 80 and least liked). Now I raid exclusively with the H Paladin and it's definitely my main.
Turkish Oct 26th 2010 5:54PM
I've been playing WoW from day one the servers went live. Started out with a Hunter and Now have a total of 8 toons all 80s, none i really consiter Mains or Alts it just what i feel like play that day..:)
Joshua Wells Oct 26th 2010 6:02PM
I too am an Alt-aholic.
I started WoW playing an undead rouge on a 10 day trial, just didn't feel right. Then I created a Troll Mage and fell in love. Leveled to 70 and made it to BT, but when I was bored I played on my Paladin. Well Wrath hit and I but my mage on the back burner until a RL friend got to Northrend. So a played my pally, next thing I knew my pally was 80 and raiding naxx. Then I started a DK, got to 80, got bored and rolled a druid. Now that the druid is 80, I am FINALLY getting to the mage I abandoned 2 years ago lol.
But once cata comes out, it's back to square one with a goblin shaman.
Billos Oct 26th 2010 8:07AM
I had a troll rogue as my main. But now my undead warrior fills that slot.
william.cardinal Oct 26th 2010 11:42AM
I started WoW at release and created a Human Priest that I leveled completely as Holy/Disc, and it was the only character I played. While leveling like that sucked, I loved healing in instances and raids. Right at the end of BC I decided to make a paladin (because I wanted to learn about tanking) and also picked up a second account and made a shaman. Well my tankadin has been in ICC, my shaman went from enhancement MS with resto OS to the other way around, and the priest is still at 71 sitting in Borean Tundra collecting dust.
MusedMoose Oct 26th 2010 8:07AM
I'm an altaholic, so just being able to say I have two mains is kind of an accomplishment. *grin* Neither of them are the first character I started on my current server after switching over to join my best friend.
However, my DK main is literally a former alt - I had a name that I thought would be great for a shadow priest, and then, 17 levels later, I discovered I didn't like playing a priest. So when I decided to give life as a DK a try, I used that name. I'm a roleplayer at heart, so my quasi-story for her is that she made the mistake of heading to Northrend, got killed, got raised, and now works to atone for what she did as part of the Scourge. ^_^
Shamio Oct 26th 2010 8:08AM
I started with a tauren druid as feral, changed to balance and then to resto which I am now. Then I wanted to level more and made undead mage who was my main some months or so. I only went to my druid to gather herbs or to check if I have gotten Green Proto Drake reins this time. I also made human rogue and was mostly on her some time but then... I just started to miss my sweet druid. So I went back to her and she's still my main. My mage is in the UC AH and my rogue is somewhere... I even don't know where I left her.
When there comes Cataclysm, I will level a tank and hopefully I will gear her up but I think I'll never abandon my druid again.
Neyssa Oct 26th 2010 10:53AM
I feel that playing with a druid or a paladin makes you less likely to roll a new main, because its easier to just change roles.
My main in BC was a night elf feral druid, but I wanted to try out the shiny new blood elfs so I made a warlock on another server. I fell in love with the Horde, and I stayed with her for a long time.
Last year, when faction transfer became available, I transfered my night elf druid into a mighty big tauren guy, and now he is my main - again, with Kingslayer title and all.
I am still hesitating who I want to level in Cataclysm. Even if my druid will not be the first one I level, I am sure finally he will become my main (when they give me back the old treeform :)
Comito Oct 27th 2010 9:53AM
@Neyssa, indeed its like that for me on my Paladin, I've got MS of Ret, and did have Holy before 4.0.1 but now trying the new mechanics in Prot! Not played long, 1 year, so got one alt in the works for range DPS elemental style.....though I'm always reverting back to my pala, since there's other things always to do :)
bruce Oct 26th 2010 8:08AM
yeah, im sure this is a common experience. iv been playing since the middle of BC an its only now that i see how fun, really fun my Element / Resto shammy is. i have other toons an even a few 80's. but my shammy is pure fun.
Mordredis Oct 26th 2010 8:08AM
My priest had been my main since Vanilla, all the way up to just before Ulduar when I had to give the game a break cause we had our third child. I came back a few months before ICC to play with a few RL friends on another server and decided to level a shaman with them, and I have yet to really play my priest any at all since then. Don't really feel guilty all that much, and Resto healing seems to have a much better pacing and feel than priest healing did.
Immortalized Oct 26th 2010 8:11AM
Yeah, my Original main was an Undead Priest, then I went to Undead Warrior, then Tauren DK and now finally I am happily in love with Orc Shaman(Elemental).
WGSXFrank Oct 26th 2010 8:09AM
While leveling multiple alts to 80 has made me appreciate the game/balance even more than I already did (and that's saying a lot because I already appreciated the game), My original Main is still my Main.
All my in-game friends, as well as my fiance (who lives with me), know that If I'm not on my 80 Orc Rogue something is up.
My other 80's are an Undead Priest, Blood Elf Pally, Orc DK and a Gnome Mage (on another realm of course.) in case anyone was wondering.
WGSXFrank Oct 26th 2010 8:10AM
BTW: I've been playing since Vanilla launch. I forgot to mention that.
llaw_grimm Oct 26th 2010 8:09AM
Former Rogue Main here. started her back in late vanilla, early bc - I Still play her, still love her, but I also fell in love with the shorter queue's of my Priest.
Cant beat a slick spacegoat priestess who can get geared in a week, 2 weeks till her OS was geared too. my rogue still does her thing.
not to mention my Pally, Instant pops other than late nights/early mornings, gearing her in some of the best crafted from the Revenues gathered from my priest.
The still gets around, she's much more pvp oriented (as a rogue should be :3) and she gets her gear..... do feel abit off from the fact she's only seen lower spire trash.......