Really? That’s interesting. I personally find it really overwhelming to try to learn a new spec at max level when you already have every ability so prefer to start a new character to learn as I level. Heck, even starting a DK, there were already far too many abilities and I just stared at my action bar and spell book in confusion for entirely too long… But to each their own! I fully accept that what works for me will not work for others. And I agree that having to gear two different characters is a pain compared to having a couple of pieces of gear to swap between on a single character.
I have 2 120 disc priests (one on each faction) and 3 120 druids (one alliance, two horde as one is feral and this one is resto/balance). Haven’t managed to get any other duplicates up to 120 yet - my hunters of various specs never make it very far! I want to like hunter, I just don’t…
As someone who almost has every single spec maxed to 110 and above.
I can say a love alts from the same class, for example frost mage and fire mage are really really different in my opinion!
And Arcane too of course!
I just want to experience every spec while leveling it, respecing your max lvl is bad in my opinion, you learn your spec the best when you spend lots of time with it.
I guess it’s just my 2p, but I’d rather sit with a spec guide for an hour and sort out abilities than level a new alt (and then engage in endgame grind with it)
With the whole toolkit available, I can start analysing for which skills act a bit like skills on other specs/characters, and putting them on the same keys. I can identify primary skills I’ll be hitting a lot, and make sure they’re on prominent buttons, while things that won’t be used much can be banished to further corners of the keyboard. If I’m feeling keen, I’ll take a couple of hours setting up weakauras to remind me of specific cooldowns and skills that I think I’m likely to forget.
It does take half a day, sometimes, to get to a place where I can even go do some world quests with the spec, but it does seem a lot more efficient than starting a fresh character. I’m primarily a group-content player, so this works for me
But if you enjoy levelling and it works for you, no reason to change just because of words like efficiency People should play the game the way they enjoy, whether that’s aiming to get to endgame as fast as possible, or taking time to work through the content a few times over.
It’s a game, and people can have fun whichever way they see fit. I personally have one of each at cap except a monk (languishing at 48), and even then only three are raid/M+ worthy.
Yes - whether you start and new character and level, or take the time to sit down and learn about the spec, it’s definitely worth investing time in getting to know what abilities you have and how they interact.
No idea why I find this so much more difficult once I have all abilities than when the majority of my toolkit is missing, but I guess everyone works in different ways!
And as for planning out the position of abilities… I do have a PowerPoint document where I drew out my keyboard and filled it out with pictures of the abilities I wanted on each key! I hold my hands weirdly on the keyboard so binds that other people find easy (e.g. shift modifiers) really don’t work for me. Wow, in threads like these I really realise how odd I am… maybe I should try harder to be like other people?
Nah, do what works for you - unless you find you’re underperforming badly, in which case consider change
People get twitchy when I say my primary spells are on RFVTGB. Why do I do this? Because that’s six keys I can press with index finger and thumb while still having some movement and strafing control. Admittedly it does make me favour strafing left over right, but it’s better than trying to reach for a skill bound to 5
On my case this Hunter was my main during vanilla.
My BE Hunter was the character I wanted to create, but never could, because High Elves were not available to be played in vanilla.
I created her when I returned in Legion.
My Orc Warrior was also created in vanilla as a low level BG character.
Based in this cinematic:
On the other hand my Legion BE warrior visual, followed a much different fantasy game that has nothing to do with WoW: Valeria from Suikoden 2
No.
On my case my two Hunters and my two Warriors are completely different in terms of visuals and fantasy style.
On the case of my Troll Hunter and Orc Warrior they are fully dedicated to Thrall’s Horde.
On the case of my Bes they are commited to fight for the best interest of their people.
considering how i have at least 3 if not 4 alts of same class on different servers - all of them at 110-120 (most 120 thx to old AV leveling last year ) … no its not strange
although the only 2 doubled which are geared up decently are my 2 DHs one is 464 and this is almost 460
eh this reminds me good old times of WoD with 40+ garrisons pumping me gold ;P:P:P imossible to recreate later on because you had to farm resources they didnt build up passively :P:P:P
My main is this Ally Ret, my first alt was a Horde Ret because I wanted to see the other side of the stories but couldn’t be bothered to learn a new set of mechanics / rotation.
My second alt is a Hunter who is stuck at 39 because I still need to get one of those mice with the extra buttons so I can control my pet properly.
I used to be a lot more into doing that but as the time investment kept adding up I’m quite happy to restrain myself to having class duplicates on either faction at the most.
I never cared for alts too much. But nowadays, I am becoming an altoholic… and I am thinking of having each class twice - one on alliance and one on horde… might be bit too much but there is nothing much to do for me until Shadowlands.
