I am looking for advice. I am an altoholic and I can’t stop making Alts and I feel like I’m wasting my time in game. I have played the game since vanilla and yet I have nothing to show for it because I keep deleting characters and making new ones.
Every time I make a character I think “this is the one! I’m going to focus on this character and nothing else” but then after the buzz of a fresh start wares off I get bored.
Today I was looking at a friend’s armory and he has had the same character since 2004 and you can see the adventures he has had just by his armory. Mine on the other hand is hollow and looks like I’ve only played the game a few months.
I almost feel like there is something wrong with me. I think the maximum /played time I’ve ever had on a single character is 10 days and yet I’ve probably got 1000’s total on my account
Has anyone else been able to overcome this? I don’t have a guild which I don’t think helps as I log on and I have no one to interact with, social skills aren’t one of my strengths, don’t get me wrong IRL I’m perfectly happy talking to pretty much anyone, but i think due to limited time in the game because of work and having children I feel I need to “maximise” my time and not get too involved with other people’s needs. I know that sounds very selfish and maybe that’s the cause of my issues.
Anyway, I rambling a bit now. Has anyone else had similar problems and managed to fix them?
I think what you feel are very common, and very related to many. As myself i have had the same situation but i havent played since Vanilla as you tho.
I think every way of playing the game is right as long as you enjoy it, noone else cares about your armory or how many hour you have played. People are focusing on their selves and content.
What do you like most of the game? Thats whats important! If you enjoy making alts and delete them then do so.!
If you keep looking for that ”one main” it will probably burn you out, its not an imortant choice, its ok just to change
. Its about your own adventure and not your characters, remember that.
Maybe try and keep just 10 characters that you make the pledge not to delete? Eventually you might find that one or two of them stick!
The nice thing about WoW is that you can have 50 characters per account so it would still leave you 40 slots to play and delete at will.
I love playing alts and both my accounts are pretty much a 50/50 split between characters Im keeping and leveled/leveling up when I feel like it and ones that get deleted and replaced just coz I want to try a new race/class combo.
Depends on your goals in-game but in all fairness you’re not. What matters is how much enjoyment you get from playing alts, and seeing how frequently you swap I guess it outweights playing a single character.
Timegating also incentify that gameplay to a degree, as playing multiple characters allows you to bypass some of it.
My advice would be to prioritize what you want to do in-game & at every turn ask yourself “is it worth my time, and am i enjoying it ?”
Typically I don’t bother run Torghast anymore because I got the legendaries I need and no longer feel like it’s worth my time, altho there are still tmogs i’m missing & the research may prove to be interesting later down the line.
I spend most of my time playing around with open world, professions and the economy because i find that enjoyable and playing for free definitely makes it worth my time.
What about you ? Why do you play ? Are alts improving your experience ? And would focusing on one character allow you to achieve it ?
Maybe you just haven’t found the class/spec that you would like enough to main this one character? I had way too many alts… until I got more into playing my mage and realised I don’t enjoy playing other classes as much as I do on my mage.
Your characters have no personality. It is up to you to give them a back story. Use your imagination and develop a basic story involving your character. Think of dislikes, likes, passions and interests. What is your characters attititudes to certain mobs, locations, activities. Think of the things you like and the things you don’t. Travel more and maybe tag a pet along with you and don’t be afraid to interact with it. You would be amazed at what your character uncovers and then build on a story and give your char a location of worth that has meaning. Transmog one style of outfit and never change it. Become the character in the game. Next up build a whole realm of chars and make them work together. Maybe develop different skills and professions and let one feed the other. So if you need materials mail your other char and request stuff. Treat the game as a story and your characters are the main players.
I’ve been playing this game probably as long as you and a few years ago the team here decided to turn my beloved human mage into an ‘UGGO’. So I had to systematically delete all my 50 female humans and start over with BloodElf on the Horde side. It was painful, but I just treated it as the first page of a new book. I made my home in Undercity and soon I familiarised mysefl with the patterns of behaviour of all the NPCs. I give them names and invent in my mind stories about their lives. It helps me travel thro the worlds when there is a depth to all I interact with. Sounds bonkers but if you read a book you would experience the same as the author painted the characters personalities for you. It takes a bit of practice but in time the whole world takes on another meaning… and you are the lead character. You are the hero. So be a hero and make your mark. Be proud of what you do and celebrate your achievements.
For me I care not about the stuff that most play for in game as I turn left whenever the game tells me to go right. From the very first quest I just ignored it and ventured off with my tabby cat and created my own story and it never fails to amuse. You really would be very surprised just what there is out there in the World of Warcraft, and it is all available to you. So do a bit of ‘sideways thinking’ , give your character a fresh look, a fresh personality and be the story. Take on the adventure and do the unthinkable. WoW of massive… seriously big. A bottomless pit of stuff to do. Just have fun with it. I know I do.
I suspect you’re not actually engaging with endgame…
If you’ve no urge to actually raid, do rated PvP, or M+, then fair enough. If you’ve simply not tried those things, then do bear in mind that those are the actual game that everyone else is playing. If you feel like you’re missing out - that’s why. You’re almost on the trial version.
Remember that having a social circle is a mutual thing. You can absolutely find casual dungeon communities that will be full of adults with responsibilities, but who use the group as a shortlist party finder. You do not have to commit to a schedule to have friends in game.
So if you want to change how you play; engage with that social side. Join some communities, see which ones are active, and which are best suited for your level of play.
If you enjoy leveling alts, maybe you shouldn’t stop ? It’s a relaxing, low- effort thing to take a breather from your main character without leaving Azeroth. During Legion I decided to have at least one character of each class, to get all the class mounts. Then the Allied Races came, with their shiny new armors, so obviously I had to level up a bunch of characters more…
“Alting” is a great passtime that can be relished.
Thats the nice thing with wow though, there is no “correct” way of playing it. If leveling alts is what you enjoy doing then just keep doing that?
I have had this char since tbc and i just cant imagine playing anything else. If i level alts i just dump them at max level and never do anything with them anyways.
Main reason for me. I thought about leveling my Warrior.
But then I remember, that I have to do the maw intro, convenant campaign I’ve already done 3 times, Korthia, and renown farming.
I would also have to do Torghast with him, just without the cube bonuses.
Even thought I like Torghast, running it with my main is enough for the week.
And for what? To hope that one of the few M+ dungeon teams would invite me?
In SL the activities I can do alone aren’t as much fun, and currently there isn’t too much activity in my guild aside from raid night every sunday.
So I just keep playing with my main.
I totally understand you and my enjoyment of the game really diminished cause i like playing different gameplay styles, but given it all passes through domination gear and gems atm and how rare loot drops are, there just isn’t a chance.
Thus why some characters like this warlock are still level 50. I just don’t have excitement for the game anymore.
Nothing wrong with alts, play what ever you get enjoyment from. I refused to “main” one charcter this patch. Soon as I saw domination sockets, korthia grind, gem upgrade, shard upgrades. Legendary weapons behind heavy range.I was just like nope not doing it, no chance.
Got 5 characters with KSM doing what I love. First raid tier I’ve not bothered with since mid legion. First chores I’ve not even attempted (think max korth reps at 4 on any of my charas). And I’ve had soooooo much more fun just not caring and doing loads of 15 keys as healer/tank/melee and range DpS with my mates.
Except now there is no chance of keeping up with all the various systems and grinds, so you are stuck with ‘fall behind on main whilst concentrating on alts’ or ‘forget about alts ever being remotely good enough and try and keep up on main’.
Probably the main reason I gave up on SL is that it is totally alt unfriendly and there is no way short of it being a full time job to maintain more than one or at most two mains. Dailies and weeklies alone can take up most of a week on two toons for people with normal play time.
Most days I wanna heal. On the days I don’t I can instead tank, or dps. I have three distinct specs to work on and gear and invest in to keep me entertained, resulting in my character being able to perform a variety of functions.
I find it hard to alt properly. I tend to “swap mains” instead. I focused on rogue until about a week ago, he’s at 243 ilevel atm but I just wanted to get my monk going so last week I began to do exactly that. Got about 12 ilevels and 750ish m+ Rating in that first week. But what a week to start (necrotic can kiss my beefy behind)
? It’s a relaxing, low- effort thing to take a breather from your main character without leaving Azeroth. During Legion I decided to have at least one character of each class, to get all the class mounts. Then the Allied Races came, with their shiny new armors, so obviously I had to level up a bunch of characters more…