Friday 25 September 2009

Alts: A Love/Hate Story

After a string of hard-hitting, breaking-news posts regarding the changes that have been taking place recently I have decided to tone it down a little with a more casual discussion-y entry. I haven't heard from you guys in a while, and I know you are still reading (I have had recent spikes in readership numbers actually, so welcome to all you new readers!) so feel free to get back into posting comments and sending emails! It really helps me in shaping what to post and knowing what you guys are looking to read and discuss about.

Recently my guild has decided to allow members of the raiding core to start bringing along their alts to farm content such as the Ulduar 25 runs that we still integrate into our raiding schedule. It has been jumped on and a good portion of the raiders have signed up their alt to bring along for the WoW equivalent of Christmas where they can get a ton of free loot for not much effort. Sure, the guild has some conditions that say they will not gear fresh 80's from scratch (you have to have at least mostly epics from heroics and Naxx) but they are pretty forgiving from what I have seen so far.

I haven't signed up my alt, Tilc. I know I don't talk about him much; he is a Draenei Holy Pally that I started levelling for kicks back in The Burning Crusade because I was simply in awe of how good pally tanks were at the time. By the time I had levelled him Wrath was already in the swing of things and tanks were a lot easier to come by so I took to healing instead. I hardly ever play him, especially since my move to Bladestorm about 6 months back.

So I put it out to you guys. Do you agree with my guild allowing alts to come to farm raiding, or do you think it takes away from the raid schedule? Do you think I should sign up Tilc to join the farming frenzy, or stick to a one-character arrangement? What are your alt situations? Are you a lover or hater of them?

Also, I get it a lot and I am posting so everyone knows. I am more than willing to help people out with gearing situations or specific game questions (such as raiding things and alike). However, if the content is readily available and easy to find (i.e.: one wowwiki search away) then I am not going to spoon feed you answers. I will point you in the direction but you will have to take the initiative yourselves. There is a search function on the blog for a reason! Other than that, shoot me emails and I will try to get back asap.

Till next time,

-Puut (and Tilc?)

6 comments:

  1. Hi, I think its ok to bring ALTs as long as people that bring their mains get pri on the gear that they actually need. Even rookies in the guild should get gear over alts. And it should always bring a rookie over a person that wants to raid in a alt, like situations where there are more than 25 people assigned for the raid.

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  2. I think it's ok to open spots to alts as long as people that want to go on their main get priority on raid spots and loot.

    My guild currently struggles with being a bit too big for 10 mans, but not big enough for 25s, so bringing alts to anything other than Naxx or a "quick FL" run is a bit of a no-no.

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  3. I think once content becomes "old" to a guild, it should be opened to alts. I'm not sure if your guild ever has the need to do this, but I know in my guild we sometimes have to ask people to bring a different character so they can fill a role that is missing. Because of this we need to keep alts geared up almost as much as our mains.

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  4. I don't a problem with bringing alt to farm content. It's a good way to make sure the guild as a whole can cover all required slots for raids.

    Like Crofe said, sometimes the Tank (or whatever) can't make it so it's good to have a well geared alt come.

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  5. Not only is it ok, I think it is very helpful to the guild. Sometimes those alts step up and become mains to fill in holes in the guild. Also raiding as a different class type can give you useful insight on raiding as a whole. A DPS who has raids as a healer will understand that aspect of future raids better than one who hasn't.

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  6. My last guild used to be one similar to the situation a few of you are talking about. If we can't get the pally tank on for that night we have to pull in someone's alt who can step into the role. In those arrangements it is so clutch to have well geared alts.

    Luckily this guild is a little different and we have enough backups that it isn't usually the case, so bringing alts in is purely for gearing for fun. Maybe I should sign my alt up, I don't know.

    As a followup, should a regular raider's alt get gear over a non-regular raider stepping in for the night (like what Harrycane was saying)? Any thoughts?

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