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Picking Your Alt

World of Warcraft Character Creation ScreenIn light of all the downtime, alts have been a pretty hot topic lately. Just about everyone I play with is working on one, and now a few people I know are even thinking about switching mains. I know I’ve been working my alts pretty hard recently. I went through a number of different classes before I decided I want to make the rogue my “main alt.” It got me thinking about the role that your main plays in picking your alt.There are a few ways to approach it. At first I decided I wanted to do the complete opposite of my Protection Paladin. After a bit of thought I decided this would probably be the Warlock. Unlike my Pally he’s a DPS class, he’s squishy, he’s ranged, and he has a pet. It seemed difficult to find something much more different. It turns out that this was a little too different. My play style was that of a tank, I would always pull more than I could handle, and it ended up being a fairly unpleasant experience. I was disappointed, but I decided it was time to try something else.

I then started my rogue. This was much better. Leather armor meant she could take a little more of a beating, and she was a melee class, so as that was certainly in my comfort zone. Turned out I really enjoyed the class. Play style actually wasn’t far off from my Paladin. Combat was actually more similar than I would have thought, just much faster. Instead of pulling mobs and counting on being the one that dies last, I just had to count on being the one that kills the other one first.

Once I got her to 30 I decided to try some other classes on for size. I’ve played shaman, druid, warrior, and priest all past 30. After all that I ended up going back to the rogue. It was simply too much fun. In the end I found picking a class that compliments your play style is a win. My recommendation would be to find that common link between what you enjoy and what other classes have to offer. For me it was getting up in peoples faces with melee classes. Maybe you want to stick with pet classes, or keep it at range, or stick with mana users. Whatever it is, I think common ground is a good thing.

What about you, what made you pick your alt? Is it similar or completely different from your main? Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to grind out a level and a half to 70!

Reader Comments (54)

I was known as the Alt Master in my old guild, having leveled pretty much every class to max level (yes i know how sad taht makes me, but i was unemployed). But i always keep going back to my Mage "main", i just really like insta-cast pyroblast :)

October 9, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterMorbus

Yeah i had the same. i have 2 pally's a healer and a tank both 70 butt i enjoy my rogue alt a lot these days.

Starting to think if i should go on with my rogue when wotlk comes out.... mmmmm nah

October 9, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterOz

1st!

October 9, 2008 | Unregistered Commenterskowl

omg :b

October 9, 2008 | Unregistered Commenterskowl

no your not

October 9, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterOz

I am trying to still figure out what my alt will be. My mains a warrior so I want to find something thats a bit different then him. I am trying out a hunter and shaman right now.

October 9, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterKevin

Well,my class change was pretty big, I went from fire mage(prob the most squishy class/spec of all(w00t for -7k hp at 70) to a protection paladin.(12mobs solo?np) and I've loved playing on my paladin ever since, I even made it my main. To pass my time till expansion I'm prob going for a healer or melee class

October 9, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterReyson

I have played with every class, starting with a Hunter and moving to a Warrior. Lvled that one to 60 pre-BC and had her listed as my main. Then I started playing my Hunter again and I have realized that I am best suited to that class. They lvl fast, solo beautifully, and (if played right) can be damned rich and powerful in their mid-30s.

Hunters all the way.

I currently have ever race of Hunters on a seperate server from the one I play on, playing every talent tree ^_^

I know, I'm hopeless.

October 9, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterOmbrenoire

Well I have played several classes and found out that healer is the best for me. I love healing others in instance or raids. Only shitty about it is that when something goes wrong its always my fault. Just have to live with that.

October 9, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterSmaaru

I play only healers (my main's a priest), so with "recruit a multiboxer" I was able to level two more of different classes (shaman and druid) to 60 and a pally to 33. I might switch my shammy to my main in wrath cause she's tons of fun and has a cool accent, hehe.

I have tried other classes, got a mage to 13 :P but I really only enjoy healing.

October 9, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterJenna

When I pick an alt, it's almost always based on my personal playstyle first (love the PvP, love melee).

My main is a PvP/PvE Ret Pally because I used to raid Holy and it bored me to tears. Then I leveled a DW Enh Shaman because I love the class and alliance finally got them (plus my guild needed more healers so I respecced Resto at 70). Finally, I leveled a rogue because they are a totally fun class (everyone should have a rogue alt).

Sure, I've had tank alts and caster alts but I just don't find them as enjoyable to play so I end up bailing on them in their mid-50s.

October 9, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterPeter

My main is a Fury Warrior, so my alt will probably be a Rogue, not sure what spec. But I won't even begin working on the alt till either 70 (or 80 if that be the case) or I get bored at a higher level and want to build up some rest.

October 9, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterShaun

My main is a 70 mage and the like you bastosta i went through a couple of classes and realised i enjoyed the wrolock a lot, locks and mages are pretty similar i guess, also love my shadow priest and a play a rogue sometimes. But my mage will always be my number one :D

October 9, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterScott

I leveled a rogue to 70 first. When I got to the point where I couldn't get any more gear I started on my warlock. I enjoy switching between caster and melee classes.

I am 69 and a half with my paladin and I have to say that leveling him was a lot less fun than the other two classes. I enjoy healing instances since its a nice change of pace from doing dps.

There's nothing like running into a mob of creatures and killing them all slowly, but I still prefer killing stuff in 2 to 3 hits. Also Prot paladins are horrible at killing casters.

October 9, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterEnteri

my main for tbc was a hunter, then I lvled a fury warrior to 70 and now I am switch mains to my orc elemental shaman for lich king.

October 9, 2008 | Unregistered Commentertyki mikk

I made a warrior cuz thats the only class that killz me in pvp (im a warlock)

October 9, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterAck

Totally off-topic...

Can you help me understand how a prot pally should be using seals and judgements when tanking? I just respecced from holy and honestly didn't even worry about using seals due to playstyle.

I try to judge different mobs in a pull with different seals in a misguided attempt to recooup mana and some hp while trying to generate threat as well - I end up just using Crusader over and over - I think something is wrong in my approach... all I end up doing typically is burn a lot of mana.

I think I saw that the seal/judgement system is going to change a lot in Wrath as well...

Any thoughts and/or words of advice?
Thanks

October 9, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterRoger

My first 70 was a paladin, i healed with him through SSC when i found out that i didn't like healing.. just wanted to raid. I leveled a druid to 66, she is 70 now, tbut gave up and leveled a mage. I love my mage, more than any other of my character(bonus is that she is a gnome :D). The thing i realized is that i can do pretty much anything my heart decires, tank, heal or dps. I am currently leveling a shadow priest, still a caster but dots and burst is different. The main thing about alts is that they are different, even if they do the same thing, they can be different in many ways. Sorry for the long post -_-.

My mage pulls out 1.2k dps on bosses in heroics with crappy gear.. thats another reason why i love her :P

October 9, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterWeebie

My main is mage (best class i think and he is lvl 61) but the one thing i like about my class is that he crits for about 1.3k plus i have a lot of instant casts i do have my rogue alt but he bores me a lot what do u think i should have for an alt besides a tank or rogue and hunters r to hard for me
i talk to much x{

October 9, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterSteven

i started as Prot pally wich i really loved lvling to lvl 70 and aftertwards PvE'ing with, but i needed someone to make something out of the cloth i got, so i made a mage, wich i however havent lvled more than needed for tailoring to get high enough, and as i now got a lot of greens, i created a Hunter to DE everything, but the same hapened to her as to my mage.
"Deep Breath"
suppose i just cant live without being able to kill 4+ mobs at a time :D

to Roger:
the best tactic, if you have enough threath lead that is, is to judge wisdom on the maintarget, keeping Righteousnes up all the time, judging when it gets of CD, and continuing like this all the time.
and ofc your main prioryty is to have HS and concecration up all the time

Sorry for the long post

October 9, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterJondare

@Roger

I was considering writing a blog post about this, but I decided to scrap it considering how drastically things will be changing. I'll probably do something similar when I get the new mechanics figured out.

Anyways for the next 5 days, here is the quick and dirty version.

Seal of Crusader, Pull (Avenger's Shield), Judge Crusader, Seal of Righteousness, Judge Righteousness, then just reseal and Judge Righteousness every time the cool down comes up. Make sure you keep the seal up at all times.

Then just make sure you are doing your other tanking stuff, spamming Holy Shield and Consecrating when you have enough mana to burn.

If its a squishy mob that goes down fast skip Crusader and open with Righteousness, if your are in for a long fight and worried about going OOM open with Wisdom.

October 9, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterBastosa

Whats with the idiots and the 1st posts? Give me a break...

October 9, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterPZ

My first lvl 70 was a horde shadow priest, went into The Eye with her. When I made a load of new friends who all had Ally mains I rolled a Feral Druid, now my Druid is lvl 70 too and I'm playing her more than I play my Spriest. The problem is I miss my Shadow Priest too much so am currently levelling an Ally one so I can play her with my friends. hehehe

October 9, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterKrafla

My main is a hunter, and I've always been alured to the DPS class. So when I found out about the refer a friend thing going into action, me and some buddies refered each other and got working on some alts.

I had a hunter and a warlock already, so rather than make another DPS, I decided to make a tank and healer. My friend already had a healer, so he made a tank and a DPS. My third friend already had a tank, so he's going to make a healer and a DPS.

This way we can always raid with each other on whatever characters we need. Not only is this efficient, but it's a great way to explore the game and to understand the aspects of the other classes.

October 9, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterOvershot

Awesome - would love to see a post after the patch goes live - really haven't found as good an explanation about seal rotation and multiple mobs but this was excellent advice from both Bastosa and Jondare!

THANKS!

October 9, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterRoger

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