AA : Altaholic Anonymous

I received an email the other day from an old RL friend that I used to play MMOs with that I haven’t talked to in months. He wanted to know what I was up to and I just stated that I was back to playing WoW. This was his response:

WoW really? Let me guess you have 7 horde char on one server under lvl 70 and 3 random char on other servers lol.

… How dare you? How dare you assume that I am an Altaholic.. and be almost right.. you bastard! Actually I’ve been fairly good as far as alts go. At least, until yesterday. On my Alliance server I have my main a 74 Shadow Priest (Cath), a 70 Hunter (I miss her ; ;), a 41 Rogue, and about 5 other characters below level 40 (Druid, Shaman, War, Mage, DK@55). On my Horde server I’ve been very good! I just have Kireifu at 75, my DK at 73, my Pally at 63, and my baby Hunter at 15. Oh yes, and the Druid I just started at level 1 yesterday. It’s for a good reason.. I want the new skins they have for the different forms!

See, they aren’t all under level 70! What’s up now? *Does the manly chest hit*

There are of course pros and cons to having alts.

Pros

Of course the knowledge gained is definitely a pro. Knowing other classes spells and abilities will help you as a raid leader or even as a pvper. It certainly helps being talked to by a RL that has actually leveled your class. You are more likely to trust their opinion.

If you ever get burned out creating an alt allows you to experience the game from a whole new viewpoint. Start from scratch with a different faction. Enjoy the new viewpoints and the lore. Of course this may make you happy or have you run back to your main screaming.

Placing yourself in the healer’s shoes, in the melee dps’ shoes, in the caster dps’ shoes, or even the tank’s shoes may make you discover your true calling. You may have leveled your pally up to 80, but you’re not really happy about it. Having alts allow you to explore which class makes you want to log on to play.

You could be “The Man.” Meaning, you could be the person that could help and fill any slot needed. Need a healer? Just ask you. Need a tank? Got it. DPS? Your specialty.

Cons
You can’t have Pros without Cons.

You’re never on your main. The raid leader has been waiting for you, their tank, for 20 minutes only to find you leveling your level 10 rogue. The raid has been held up because of you. This may cause other members of your guild to look down on you and the time you spend with your alts.

You finally level your rogue up to 80 (an hour before raid btw) and expect to be invited as your rogue. So what if they need you to tank, you have a vastly under geared rogue you just worked on. You can’t expect raid invites on your alts when they aren’t geared.

You never truly become an expert on your main. After all, your head is filled with all your alts spells, abilities, and needs. The time you used to spend on looking up your main class changes have now been split between 3 other classes.

You find yourself always the last to show up when your raid moves to a different instance. Why? Because you’ve spent all your money on your alts that you still have yet to get epic flying on your main.

So what to do? Continue on your alt addiction or no? I think I have a healthy balance. So far. I also have my BF that I have given instructions to not allow me to play on my alts until I have leveled one of my shadow priests to 80. Of course… we addicts find ways to always go back to our drug. After all, my BF can’t keep tabs on me 24/7. I could always level my alt while he sleeps..

Help!