A potential solution to "alts"

Athan1

I know most ESO players want alts, but I think this relates more to playing different classes (which are currently locked per character) or specs (e.g. have a stamina and a magicka version of the same class), rather than really needing to play another character. If anything, this adds much more work, grinding, farming, levelling up and questing (which you may or may not want). I really want to experience other classes, but frankly I can't get any alt over level 20, given how much stuff I need to do all over, how slow they move etc... Eventually I just lose all motivation so I delete them.

Now, I have found a strategy to overcome this issue and constant frustration, which basically removes the need for alts. This does not apply to people who want alts as mules/crafters etc., it only applies to those who get tired or bored of playing the same character over and over for years on end. A main prerequisite is that you are actually satisfied with your class and you want to keep playing that class, since this is the only thing you cannot change (otherwise you have to make an alt).

So if your main is already a class that you like, then you can change everything else about them! This is actually great. You can make your main/one character into several alts by having a complete makeover whenever you get sick of them. Here's a few tips:

1. You can buy a race change + name change token for only 3.5k crowns (less when discounted - always buy those two together). This is much much cheaper than spending thousands of crowns on riding lessons, skyshards, skill lines, etc. You will already have all those.
2. Change your race. It makes a huge impact on how you see and treat your character!
3. Change your appearance. Go for a different hairstyle, skin tone, body type, even gender.
4. Change your name, it really helps you get into the shoes of your new "alt", and creates a backstory. Think about the family name/ epithet. Where are these characters from?
5. Change your main residence, preferably into a new zone.
6. Change your alliance if you need to (though this will cost more crowns and impact your pvp guilds), but no need to stay in an alliance your character wouldn't logically join.
7. Change clothes and outfits
8. Change your personality, this makes a huge difference!
9. Change your character's title and role in Tamriel
10. Do a full respec, play stamina instead of magicka, or become a tank. This will make your new char feel more different. Heroes reforged is coming up I think, otherwise it doesn't cost much gold.
11. Change role (tank/healer/dd)
12. Use different skills, this makes another huge difference in how you feel in your character. Go ranged instead of melee for example, focus on skills you rarely use, grab a new weapon, or use more guild skills.
13. Obviously, change your gear, but you do this anyway.
14. Optionally, change your alignment. Become an outlaw if you weren't previously - or a law-abiding citizen if you were naughty.
15. Become a vampire/ werewolf or cure yourself from those afflictions.
16. Lastly, come up with a new story and background for this character.
17. If you're worried about redoing old quests, just take your time, farm achievements, and don't rush questlines, though obvs if you want to relive quests you have to make an alt.

If you do many or all of these things on your existing favourite class character, you will essentially have a brand new alt, that feels entirely different BUT will be fully levelled (you may need to level up your new skills), will have access to all necessary gear, will be ready to raid and do end-game content, ready for standard pvp, will have a fast horse, max level crafting writs, fully researched traits, fully upgraded inventory, (!) and many more! And more importantly?? This will cost you only about 3.5k crowns (just buying a new character slot costs more iirc) and less than 30k gold. It's great! If you ever regret your decisions, you can change back to your previous character.

I know there are other issues associated with this approach, but this is meant to alleviate the frustration of players who keep spending money on alts and keep getting bored with them, splitting time across underlevelled characters.

VaranisArano

I was wanting to roleplay an Imperial character. But none of the low level imperials I made were doing it for me.

Until I respecced my Breton Stam Sorc Silencer to magicka, handed her an Ice Staff, changed her hair and outfit and spent about a month roleplaying the Imperial character I had in mind.

Then I swapped her back, and Maria Montclair just doesn't talk about that month when she went undercover as some Imperial mage lady as part of a Dark Brotherhood assignment.

Athan1

VaranisArano wrote: »

I was wanting to roleplay an Imperial character. But none of the low level imperials I made were doing it for me.

Until I respecced my Breton Stam Sorc Silencer to magicka, handed her an Ice Staff, changed her hair and outfit and spent about a month roleplaying the Imperial character I had in mind.

Then I swapped her back, and Maria Montclair just doesn't talk about that month when she went undercover as some Imperial mage lady as part of a Dark Brotherhood assignment.

Haha, that's great, exactly what I'm talking about! I was playing a magicka Atlmer noble for months and eventually got sick of him. I had a full respec into a stamina Imperial ww paladin. Eventually I got tired of the constant grunting as well, so I changed back to a magicka Breton priest. Pretty sure I'll respec back to Imperial legionare when Blackwoods rolls

disintegr8

There must be something wrong with me - 16 characters and only the newest is not yet leveled up and level 50 in all crafting lines.

oddbasket

I know that surgery... I mean sorcery is pretty advanced right now, but I still prefer my character the day I've made him, though I dress him up from time to time.

DarcyMardin

Or you could just level an alt (says she who has 40).

LalMirchi

A good suggestion and very good guide. I have renewed an alt that was was not satisfied with and spent the 3500 crowns for an excellent result.

Lugaldu

This is of course a solution if you want to try something new and don't want to go through the hassle of leveling, but I would never do that to my main. How could I just wipe him out and suddenly turn my Bosmer sorcerer into, shall we say, Khajiit necromancer? I associate all adventures with exactly this character as he is, it would feel totally wrong to transform him into something else.

Danikat

I don't think I could do this either, it would be too weird for me to change everything about the character and just pretend they're a different person now, not to mention lacking an explanation for how the "new character" got to the point of having done all the stuff the previous character had done.

Having said that this is pretty much my approach to making new characters and I think it's a big part of why I enjoy levelling them up instead of seeing it as a chore to get done as quickly as possible. They're not just a bundle of stats and gear for me to run through content and compare numbers with my previous build, they've got a personality and a backstory and their own style and priorities so there's a lot of interesting things I can do right from the start of the game, and it's fun for me to see how they approach quests and things differently from my other characters and how they develop as a person (and yes, which skills they end up using) as a result of the experience.

Inaya

I'd rather have alts. More boxes to open during events, more dailies for chances at motifs and furnishing patterns, more mats from crafting dailies.

Mine have been leveled solely thru events and crafting lol. Now to farm some gear and skyshards.

Sevalaricgirl

Pfft, if you saw my imperial girls, you would know why I'm not changing them. I delete any alts that I don't like and level more, 1 of each class, except nightblade (have 2 of them, but one is my full time crafter).

Sylvermynx

I'm very happy with my mains (4 Redguard Wardens), and also very happy with all of my 56 alts. I have literally some of everything except orc and argonian races, and necro class. Each is an individual, and played as such, and I'm on nearly all of them at some time during each week to finish up quests, change look, explore, whatever.

Your guide may work for people who are one-trick ponies when it comes to characters though; I'd imagine those who are one character only or only a few alts for mules however are much more into pushing for class change tokens than doing all of that or even some of it. Those tend to be players who've been here "since release" (at least), chose a race and class at the time, and now that so many years have passed are discouraged with the class (because I think I've noticed in their posts here that most of them have changed race a time or so) and just want to play something else without losing all their "advancement".

Septimus_Magna

My new strategy for not leveling too many alts, every new char is either Khajiit or Dunmer (on occasion Altmer/Orc) so its easy to switch between magicka or stamina DD.

Once you've leveled all your relevant skills swap your skill bar with relevant skills of the other spec before turning in quests.
Now you only have to respec your skills and attributes if you feel like trying something different.

My old Orc stamcro is now a magcro, it was pretty easy to switch because I had already leveled up most magicka DD skills.

Watchdog

This one does not wish to become some furless human with no tail one day and a red eyed Dark Elf, with no tail either, the next day, just because ZOS decided to change some silly numbers.

This one has a distinctive character, yes?

Massacre_Wurm

I have no alts. All my 15 chars are mains.

CyberSkooma

This sounds way more complicated than just making an alt....

Athan1

CyberSkooma wrote: »

This sounds way more complicated than just making an alt....

You literally do all of these things when you make an alt plus level everything you need, plus repeat all relevant quests and grinds, are you serious? What I described in the OP takes 30 min tops

flavmad09

Nah, I prefer my alts. Leveling up it's not just about watching stats and numbers, for me. It's about creating a "living" thing. Each of my charcters have their own background, morals, motivation, etc..

amapola76

This might work for some people, but I think the majority of people who have lots of alts are attached to those particular characters, and don't want to delete them OR remake them.

RedMuse

So:

1) Pay ZOS some money.
2) Go level some skill lines you have never touched.
3) You can't do part of the reason to create a new character, which is to play a quest again, because lol why are you playing this game for the story? That's the wrong way. (Apparently.)
4) Pay ZOS some more money if you ever want to change back.

Did I get that right?

LalMirchi

amapola76 wrote: »

This might work for some people, but I think the majority of people who have lots of alts are attached to those particular characters, and don't want to delete them OR remake them.

Yes, but I did have one alt (race and class withheld) that I was most definitely not satisfied with. As I have a lot of Crowns saved up I decided to scratch that itch and the result was satisfying to me. Different strokes for different folks.

SilverBride

Athan1 wrote: »

I know most ESO players want alts

"I know most ESO players want alts"

We don't need a solution for something that is not a problem for most ESO players.

Anonx31st

Definitely not. ZOS has chosen to keep the Alik'r Dolmens up for many years now. I was able to level 5 new characters during this double xp event and each alt only took 10 hours each to lvl. It's not hard to level alts in this game.

Sylvermynx

Athan1 wrote: »

CyberSkooma wrote: »

This sounds way more complicated than just making an alt....

You literally do all of these things when you make an alt plus level everything you need, plus repeat all relevant quests and grinds, are you serious? What I described in the OP takes 30 min tops

Yes. I literally do all that on my alts over time. I never rush to 50 (didn't even on my mains - the PC NA account mains took me a couple of years; the PC EU ones most of three years). I love doing all the quests etc. on everyone - and I don't give a rat's patoot about achievements, titles and so on so that doesn't affect my characters (or me) at all.

[Edited for typos]

Imryll

For me each character has their story. It's not just about having access to a character with a particular build.

etchedpixels

Anonx31st wrote: »

Definitely not. ZOS has chosen to keep the Alik'r Dolmens up for many years now. I was able to level 5 new characters during this double xp event and each alt only took 10 hours each to lvl. It's not hard to level alts in this game.

The new update on the PTS cuts the maximum group size to 12 so that will make a right mess of the dolmens (and guild runs, and rp, and a load of other stuff).

Having 27 toons I use them for different things - different roles, crafters, even temporary ones for farming and because I like seeing how low level you can go doing content. I could actually do with about another 20, and one reason I've got 9 on US is the lack of more on EU.

Nastassiya

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redlink1979

Alt chars aren't really a "problem" so, they don't really need a "solution"...
I think well about my next chars before creating them.
And I create them because I want to, not because I'm forced to.

RedMuse

Honestly? This is a solution in need of an actual problem. Like I do 2, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 regularly on all my characters, because well, I feel like it.

As for 16, it's the whole reason I HAVE alts. I want to keep this character, with this background and history, and not pay money to ZOS every time I want to play this character. Idk why OP has alts or why anyone else does either, but this is mine. So I really fail to see what the problem to which this solution fits. It possibly helps that I'm one of those really weird people who like levelling characters, who like hunting skyshards and lore books and stuff. But *shrug*.

hexnotic

but what about my writsssss