Breakfast Topic: How are you managing your alts?
by Josh Rose 
Apr 14th 2011 at 8:00AM
It is hard to focus entirely on a single character in WoW. Unless a person can PvP, raid, or dungeon crawl all the time or has an extremely limited play schedule, most players create an alt or two or 10. Wrath made alts easy -- hit 80, run a few dungeons, full epic gear in a day. Cataclysm may have eased the leveling process, but gearing and rep grinding on a single character is much slower than in Wrath. Also, there are not a lot of successful PUG raids to get an alt into. Most guilds haven't even killed all the content yet in normal, let alone in heroic. So the question remains: How to deal with alts?
I had seven 80s in Wrath, and all of them had at least full 251 gear before Cataclysm launched; heck, I had the ICC drakes on two different characters. Yet in Cataclysm, I find myself leveling them much more slowly and in fact didn't touch any until I had gotten my main through heroics until the point that justice points became useless and I had been exalted with every Cataclysm reputation except my guild. Even then, I concentrated on a single alt primarily hitting 85, then getting some gear.
But I found something interesting: Merely doing cooking and fishing dailies every day in Stormwind, my other alts are gaining experience much faster than I thought they would. I hit 81 on a few alts without ever having left Stormwind, except for the initial trips out to Hyjal and Vashj'ir in order to open the portals. One the other hand, I have a friend who leveled all his toons to 85 before deciding which one he was going to focus on.
So how are you dealing with your alts in Cataclysm? Are you leveling them all or letting some sit? Did you change your main?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Revnah Apr 14th 2011 8:06AM
These days, I have "two mains" - my Revnah, who's a troll priest and one of the raid healers in my guild, and a warrior (prot/arms). I am a confessed altoholic but I found that as long as I played all my alts, ALL my time was eaten up by WoW. It got too much and so I made some tough decisions.
I still play one of my original Alliance characters occasionally, for old time's (and my old guild's) sake but otherwise focus on my two mains - and now they are both geared, I am levelling 2 more alts. That's it, TWO. Still addictive but I'm going to take a lot of time with those two, and leave it at that :-)
doomhunter3 Apr 14th 2011 8:09AM
I think its impossible for me to play.. I'm an altaholic, so i almost neverp lay on one character too long. I havent even gotten a char to 70, and i have about 5 hovering at 55-65. I can't stop playing other chars, as soon as i hit outlands or another place with one race/class, i make another one. AGH! My friend is the same way, we both have played many months but can't seem to get close to max level! Whenever i make a new char i am obsessed with them for a couple days, saying there OP, then i get bored. You could say i dont handle alts well, if you know what i mean.
Noyou Apr 14th 2011 8:23AM
Kind of in the same boat. I am an altaholic as well :p Since a lot has changed in Cata I figured I would get all my 80s (6) to 85. I also had a 30something warrior and shaman. After the shattering I made my shaman and went back to the warrior. I liked the changes so much to the warrior that after I leveled my 80s to 85 he was next up. I played my shaman a little and tried to keep them close. I also rolled a druid but after the starter zone kind of lost interest in him. I rolled a priest so I could take my warrior and put it into my main guild. With light questing on both the druid and priest I made it to lvl 20. They put on about 1-2 levels a week just doing the dailies in SW. Not sure what I am going to do with them when the new dailies hit in IF and Darnassus. Some days I really wish I could settle on one and play it more...
Trilynne Apr 14th 2011 8:08AM
I have 10 alts(worgen on another server cause my Horde server is full :P). I have a random number generator on my iPod touch. That's how I level my alts. :P
Noyou Apr 14th 2011 8:28AM
LOL that's money. My second server has my growing stable of horde toons. I often sit at my log in screen and try to think of what toon needs what. I do usually hit my "main" first. JC daily. Cooking/Fishing if it's not gather 10 crabs or 12 apples (although apples isn't as bad as the crabs). I might have to go find my 10 sided die as I do not have anything to generate a random number ;)
Neyssa Apr 14th 2011 8:50AM
@noyou: try this out then, this is what we use for RP when we cant find the bag of dice. It looks cool :)
http://dicelog.com/dice
niko Apr 14th 2011 8:09AM
While many started out Cata with the rush to 85 via their lvl80 toons, I rerolled a shiny new goblin shammy main from scratch. I had 5 80's at the time, but decided it was best to wait on them til I could make this new toon the best it could be.
However like all good plans, I changed my mind at level 35 or so, and leveled the paladin thru the cata content. But somehow it didn't stick once I was at 85, and so back the shammy I went (way more fun being an enhancement shammy!).
This happened over and over - now I have 4 lvl85 toons, and the shammy and paladin are the best-looking. I have no idea how I will ever gear the other 85's though... maybe I should go back to leveling the rest of the clan to 85... choices, choices... (and so continues the life of an altoholic)
Aticus Apr 14th 2011 8:09AM
I'm doing pretty bad with my alts. My PVE and PVP mains are all geared but my other 85 are gearless. If heroics were faster to join, then my alts would have some 346.
Alex! Apr 14th 2011 8:13AM
The guild i am in is now level 22. I have had my personal guild for profession alts before ( i disliked cluttering the main guild with alts that never get played) . . . . but now with all the bonuses and helm / cloak. i have been able to transfer my alts over and basicaly just level them through their gathering and crafting quests.
HDPriest Apr 14th 2011 8:13AM
I, too, had a plethora of alts in Wrath that I actively played (what else was there to do really?) Since, Cata, I leveled and geared my main until raid-ready then leveled my "main alt" and have her almost ready. Other than trying out the new starter areas and starting a new Shaman on the server I'm transferring my main to, I've abandoned my other alts. It's sad, really, I loved them all and especially miss my Druid that's stuck in NR. I plan to get back to them when I'm in lulls on my main 2, but right now I have raiding, Archaology, and longer Hcs to compete with my lesser amount of playtime that's keeping them in their respective inns. Fear not, little ones...I shall return!
Aaron Apr 14th 2011 8:18AM
I have 6 (lock, druid, hunter, rogue, pally, priest) at 85 and 3 of those I play almost daily. All 6 have maxed profs, 4 with maxed cooking and all have maxed first aid. The 3 I play most often, hunter, pally, rogue are all ran weekly through arenas so they are covered in vicious gear. My druid is my gathering toon. So, you see her flying laps early in the morning on the weekends. My priest and lock (both in full bloodthirsty pvp gear) need more attention, but keeping up with my "top 3" is plenty for now. :D
Taino Apr 14th 2011 8:21AM
I main switched in mid BC and still run that one as my main. A protection paladin. My first toon ever, my warlock who was also my first raider is still around. I have 3 alts at 85, and one at 83. I leveled them in order or priority of their professions. I needed to level black smithing and jewel crafting on my main so my warrior was the first to start the alt trek to 85 as she is my miner. Next up my warlock for the enchanting. The lock is also an alchemist so I dusted off the deathknight and went about leveling her pretty much in tandem with the warlock. The DK is an herber/inscriptionist so I also wanted to make relics, and glyphs for my other toons. Prices for mats were ridiculous and I am cheap so I would spend my weekends gathering, and off raid nights with my warlock. I have started leveling my hunter alt, but she is a leatherworker/skinner and really I don't have as big a need for that.
Now that I am firmly raiding, I haven't been playing the alts much unless I need something for my main. I have however geared a few of them out of boredom. Warrior is exalted with everything cata, and has a 352 ilvl in her tanking spec without setting foot in a raid. Warlock and DK are both at 340. I am debating whether or not to finish gearing out my warlock. I can always use her as a fill in on nights when we need a ranged and have too many tanks. decisions decisions
jp Apr 14th 2011 8:29AM
I find it really a bit debilitating. I cannot settle on any sort of Main.
I have now 6 chars at 85 and none of them really interest me as sticking to, So I keep going back and trying more still looking for one to stick. I really don't think it is going to happen though and I will most likely wind up dropping out of the game once more only checking in here and there when I get the itch to re sub.
It is a pattern for me and one I wish I never started. While I have been able to buckle down and get stuff done on a Main before this expansion , at this time I am just not feeling it beyond leveling I just stop.
Sorcha Apr 14th 2011 8:32AM
My alts never get to the level cap, even though levelling them is pretty much all I do. The reason is that I'm a completionist, meaning that I get stuck in Outland grinding enchanting recipes or whatever trying to avoid Northrend. My alts, mostly rolled in TBC, hit 70 in WLK meaning I'll probably get them to 80 in Cata and 85 will have to wait for the expansion after ;)
Sorcha Apr 14th 2011 8:34AM
Also odd, I just got around to rolling a worgen (my second warrior.) I played her through to 13 and got her to Goldshire (I wanted her to do the human questing progression rather than night elf) and I can't muster up any enthusiasm for her whatsoever. Seriously thinking about deleting her and just rerolling human, cos the worgen form isn't doing anything for me.
Cyrus Apr 14th 2011 8:32AM
One alt, my DK, has been getting more attention than my main over the past couple weeks. He's my favorite alt, he was my first toon (not really of course, but sort of, long story), and he's almost geared enough by now to off-tank for my guild if they need it.
Other than him, nada. My only other 80+ toon on the same server as my main is a rogue. I've done some quests with him, and powerleveled his Inscription profession to make a relic for that DK, but he's still level 80. My only horde toon at 80 is still 80 as well; my main and his server come first. My gnome priest is level 39 and stuck in WPL - I'm interested in the new story of the zone and all that, but I don't want to level past anything interesting either, so I'm kind of playing her in bursts.
As for the SW cooking and fishing dailies, I couldn't stand doing them on alts. I know they're easy money and skillpoints, but cycling through my characters to do the same quest on each one sounds really boring. I've got all that I needed from them on my main and haven't bothered with them on my alts at all. (Three cooking quests on my DK so he could use the Goblin Barbeques he makes, but none other than that.)
dark_pyro_grl Apr 14th 2011 8:40AM
My mains a hunter, and towards the end of waith she was at 80 and was beginning tier 10 armor collecting.. Got burnt out and started to play a rogue until cataclysm came out and then went back and picked up my hunter again. The rogue is still 55.. Oh, and quite recently I made another alt (a priest) and have been playing her a lot.. Now she's 30..
Yes, I'm an altaholic..
Arithin Apr 14th 2011 8:42AM
Raced 1 to 85 to raid. And leveled profs on the other 7 pretty evenly. 5 more points in engi and bs and I'm done.
After that I just go down the list and level them until they tap out of rested xp. Works pretty well with my ultra casual schedule. 3 more combined levels and I'll have 8 85s.
For mods I use postal, power auras, auctionator(to help fund 85 epics and tradeskill mats) and altaholic.
Really wishing that faction epics were boa... Getting really tired of deepholm and all the required questing to unlock faction vendors.
gboyd Apr 14th 2011 8:42AM
I have my PvE/General Main, a Warlock. This is the guy that downs bosses, collects mounts and pets, and conquers achievements.
Then I have my PvP Main, a Rogue. this toon is for anything PvP related.
Then I have a second PvP alt, another Warlock. This guy is to experience the caster side of PvP.
Then I've got a DK Tank so that I can have fun tanking 5-man heroics for fun.
The rest of my alts are too low to have found their place in the world just yet.
Elwen Apr 14th 2011 8:42AM
So far I've managed to get 14 of my level 80s to level 85. On Alliance side is my main (druid, herb/alch), rogue (herb/inscription), shaman (enchanting/tailor), 2 priests (jc/mining), 2 warlocks (tailor/gathering), pally (BS/mining), hunter (LW/skinning), DK (gatherer) and mage (alch/herb) with another mage at 84, hunter at 81, DK at 65 or so still left to get there. The 85's on the Alliance are all maxed out on their professions with only my rogue and druid maxed in cooking and rogue maxed in fishing and the druid maxed in archaeology.
On the Horde side I have a mage (JC/mining), priest (tailor/enchant) and pally (BS/mining) have reach 85 with a warlock at 84 and some lower ones in the 70's and 60's that I level with certain people when they are on. None of my Horde characters are maxed in their professions yet.
Due to the fact that we are a small casual guild we don't raid but we do run regular and heroic instances some. We also all have different work schedules so I can fill in almost any role we need for the group.