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The latest patch 5.4 newsBreakfast 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 4 of 4)
Missk Apr 14th 2011 8:15PM
I'm an altoholic, in wotlk I had 11 lvl 80s scattered over 2 servers/factions. I'm slowly levelling all my alts and I've ended up changing my main to my shaman so I can raid casually with a guild I'm in. I woulda started gearing my existing 85s up but with all the negative talk I've heard about heroics I haven't really had the heart to.
Chetti Apr 14th 2011 8:32PM
I don't manage my alts, they manage me. :)
Anyway, I have a lot of alts. But some of them are only gonna get deleted.. some might get to see the upper levels.
Before the shattering, I had: Druid (main), a DK (71), Hunter (55), Priest (32), Shaman-troll (22), Mage-Blood Elf (42), and on a different realm a horde druid.
When the shattering patch came out, I went exploring on my main (to get the achievement.. and just to see the stuff that I knew was changing, especially some of my favorite zones. Then I rolled a night elf mage, because I've wanted one since I started playing. Got it to about 24 before Cataclysm came out.
When Cataclysm launched I leveled my main to 85 and made a Goblin (shaman, lvl 20) and a worgen (druid, level.. 28ish), and on my horde realm - a tauren paladin.
The pally took over. I've been leveling that one, just dinged 82 last week.
On the delete list is the hunter (dwarf), the shaman (troll), and maybe the priest. The only thing that saves the DK is that her profs are skinning and mining, not that I want to level her.. but I might just for the money making - eventually.
Oh and.. I added an undead priest to the horde realm. Yeah.. altoholism runs wild.
Comito Apr 14th 2011 9:26PM
So far got my Ret Main L85, followed with a Ele Sham L83 and finally a tiny Fury Warr L11 or something. I've been concentrating on finishing of the questing zones in cata remake world with my Main, so my alts haven't had much love so far :/
ruslana.karu Apr 15th 2011 3:18AM
I've 6s' 85, 1 x 78, 1 x 70, 1 x 65 and lots of 30 ups. I deliberately slow down the toons levelling progress for these month, otherwise, i will have 10x85s with 10 classes in same realm. Too many alts is a headache that i have to admit. The only benefit is thst i can have all professions capped. I only has 4 x 80's before cataclysm. I ran hundred of heroic with my ret pally. But cata kicked my ret to drain and the new heroics are too heavy for me in term of the time needed. Difficulty is not the main problem in comparing to the pug jerks. Time is also the main stressful fact to me (as a middle age).
samiamknot Apr 15th 2011 2:30PM
My five mains are all at 85 and other 10 alts across 2 servers are in various stages of progress. My Paly and Shammy are heals, my mage and lock burn and blow things up and my DK has people following him as he makes mobs try to kill him. It's all a mood thing I like healing the best and the RDF wait has not been kind to my dps guys. On top of that unless I'm with guildies DK tanking doesn't happen all that often. Below those guys is a lvl 41 hunter bank alt, a lvl 42 priest who is unsure if he wants to go shadow or heal and a tauren druid moon-kitty. My lvl 39 worgan mage and lvl 31 dwarf shockadin were suppose to sit in the alliance and goblin ah but the new stories have driven me from location to location
Evelinda Apr 18th 2011 4:45AM
I'm much more alt focused since cataclysm has landed. I'd gotten nine chars to 80 by the time wrath was over, but i definitely had chars i was more focused on; an alliance side druid, and a horde hunter, and they were both reasonably geared. I've got four 85s now, and another six chars over 80 (two of which are dks... i still have a hard time levelling that damn rogue), but none who are even slightly geared. I just don't want to play the "endgame" in cata, so i keep levelling alts.