On the subject of alts...

So when you have 11 80s on the same server...can you really have a main or alt character? I constantly have people ask me how many alts I have and they are amazed/disgusted/shocked when I respond that I have 11 80s. Yes...I am serious I have that many 80s, and no I didn't bot them to 80. People instantly respond that I have no life and spend all day on WoW farming something or other because there is no way a normal player could have that many high level characters. My typical response is that leveling has been nerfed so much since the original game came out that you cant help but level fast. I remember the horrible grind to 60 and even worse the horrible grind to get gear from 5mans back then. The game has also been out since 2008 and that is plenty of time to level more then one alt.

But which alt is my main ?


I gave this question a lot of thought when I decided to write about alts and came up with the answer of...it depends. What I mean by this is that it depends on what aspect of the game you are talking about. If you're talking about PvP, then my mage or rogue would be my mains as they are best suited for it in my mind, if we're talking PvE then my Paladin or Shaman would be my main as they are my best geared for it.

Why do I have so many alts? Well...I like to collect things. Whether its titles or vanity pets, I like to collect. I also like to switch out who I play so that I don't get bored or burned out on the game. I know a lot of people who only play one character who is uber geared and can run any endgame instance that they want...but they stop playing because they get tired of the same endgame grind after a while. If my interest starts to wane with one character I can easily log onto another character and play the game from a different viewpoint. With the introduction of dual spec, this has opened up even more different aspects of the game for me. If tanking on my pally starts to get boring(blasphemy!) I can switch to healing easily and still continue to get badges/rep/gear on him.

People also ask me how I manage to level so fast and honestly rested xp helps a lot and so does knowing which zones to quest in. After my second 80, I pretty much knew which quests were where and which were worth getting and which were too long and annoying and should be skipped. Addons like questhelper also help out as they can almost walk you through questing. New additions like the BoA heirloom pieces also help make leveling faster, although I have only used them on one alt so they didn't really make my leveling that much easier. On my last few 80s, the new dungeon finder helped leveling so much easier because I could queue for an instance and then just quest until it popped. This allowed me to get new dungeon gear while I was leveling and even after I ran out of rested xp, I was still getting group xp. I hit 80 and was decked out in nice dungeon blues instead of weak quest greens which totally helped when it came to pulling my weight in heroics and badge farming.

I also like to see how the other side lives. Since the second day of my server I have been guild and raid leader of my guild. Being in this position has led to people asking me to help them with their class, spec, gear choices. Instead of saying "I don't know go ask someone else," I like to be able to answer these questions. An informed raider is a good raider after all. So I read up on classes through sites like elitistjerks.com and various similar sites. I can also usually respond from my experience since I have played so many different roles in raids. Whether its tanking, dpsing, or healing, I've done it all in endgame so I can usually suggest helpful tips to people looking for assistance. I don't know if other guild/raid leaders are as knowledgeable or if I'm unusual in this way. I like to try new things and having so many alts allows me to do this.

But gearing so many characters detracts from being able to completely gear one alt, you may say. I don't find this to be true especially with the changes to badges and badge gear. About half of my 80s were dinged when Naxx was where you geared up for Ulduar and I had no problem running gearing them out. People who say that spending all your time on one character fail to realize that gear drops are random and you may spend weeks farming raids for one piece which may never drop. Running raids on several alts means that I can get into raids and have higher chances of getting gear. I save my paladin for my guilds progression run and I pug on my other alts. If my progression run is only missing a healer and has another geared tank available, I'll switch my pally to healing or get another of my healer alts and run on that character. To me being able to fill a raid and run something is more important then only staying on my tank and having to pug a healer or dps and run the risk of getting some complete noob. I don't ask anyone in my guild to switch to a spec that I personally wouldn't switch to myself. Again I don't know if this is unusual for guild/raid leaders to do.

Ultimately my first 60/70/80 was my mage and while I don't play him as much as I would like, I still consider him my main. I farm achievements on him, collect vanity pets, titles, mounts, and even honor on him. I even made my other human alts look like him lol. Will he be my first 85? You can bet on it! Will I level all my other alts to 85? Eventually.