Here’s how I’d handle account-wide progression:
- Character power is shared between characters through unlocked gear. You still need to play a character to find actual pieces of loot to equip, say a sword for example. But the potency of your weapon will scale up or down, based on your best-equipped character’s weapon. If Char A has found and equipped a sword with ilvl 385 and Char B has a Staff with ilvl 200, then both weapons will be as powerful (385). They could have tiers within this system, so you need a certain level to gain the full benefit of another character’s power. (It wouldn’t make sense if a level 1 had a super powerful weapon, for example.)
- Obviously, all Reputation and Renown (etc) will be shared in full.
- All transmog can be unlocked with any character, as long as you find the item.
- Story progress is also shared, however you should have the option to still play through quests that another character has played. They could be kept separate with a new colour exclamation mark.
- All features unlocked, including recipes, and so on.
What this would achieve is this: instead of looking at an alt like a cumbersome chore you need to suffer through, you’d love logging into your alts.
You might really feel in the mood to play as a Priest one day, and the next day you might specifically want to play as an Orc. But the next week, your guild requires a Mage. You catch my drift.
As long as you level up your alt (which should be a quick process, by the way), you should immediately be able to use it as your alternate main character.
If you have a roster of 10 characters, it doesn’t matter which one you play for the weekly reset. Play what you want to play. All that time went towards your progression.