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Why do you play alts?

ixthUA
ixthUA
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I started in 2017 and still don't have a single alt.
Sometimes i make a lowbie alt, but very quickly i realize how much of new "work" i made for myself this way, and delete it.
All quests and character management get multiplied with each alt. On top of that, all races and classes can do the same thing in PvE, outside of score pushing.

I've been thinking about an arcanist class alt.
Firstly, the best race for arcanists are orcs (stamina, weapon damage, health), despite being quite far from magic knowledge and spells. Also they are ugly.
Second, arcanists need daggers (melee weapons), which is bad during tough fights. Ranged survivability is better.
Third, heavy attack builds can do all that, while staying ranged and being any race. There is AOE nerf, but most of the time i am killing 1 target with heavy attacks.
Fourth, arcanists are likely to be nerfed in 1 year time.

So what makes you play alts, and how do you deal with associated problems?
Edited by ixthUA on August 12, 2023 8:53PM
  • Treeshka
    Treeshka
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    There is no class change tokens so the sole reason i have alts is that they can be other classes.
  • wilykcat
    wilykcat
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    Why not
  • Kirawolfe
    Kirawolfe
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    I make alts because I love trying new races and classes, but also love crafting stories for these people I'm putting out in the world of Tamriel.

    I've never done 100% of anything on any one toon, that helps to keep things interesting.
  • markulrich1966
    markulrich1966
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    18 daily worldbosses in Summerset = 18 Culanda Laquer for crafting furniture. Otherwise I had to buy it for 4000 gold each in guildstores. Similar for Blackwood/Elsweyr.
    Plus, I like some variety, so play all different kind of classes on my alts, though most are heavy staff attack based. But I also play some stamina ones.

    And in the end, with each nerf-cycle, there remains usually 1 class that is a little more advanced than the others, so I always have this fallback for the rare cases I do very hard content, like getting a monster helm from a vet DLC dungeon.

    I used the alts for some months for daily crafting writs, made tons of gold mats, but also got a burnout, so no longer do that.
    Edited by markulrich1966 on August 12, 2023 9:05PM
  • TaSheen
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    Kirawolfe wrote: »
    I make alts because I love trying new races and classes, but also love crafting stories for these people I'm putting out in the world of Tamriel.

    I've never done 100% of anything on any one toon, that helps to keep things interesting.

    For me, this is what it is. These people show up in my head, tell me who they are, where they came from, demand that I play them. Sometimes they insist on certain gear and mount, sometimes I give them what I have until I find something they like better.

    Each girl does quests that fit her backstory and her "self". No one does all of anything - not even my mains. There's enough game to cover as many alts as keep turning up....
    ______________________________________________________

    "But even in books, the heroes make mistakes, and there isn't always a happy ending." Mercedes Lackey, Into the West

    PC NA, PC EU (non steam)- four accounts, many alts....
  • Tandor
    Tandor
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    Variety is the spice of life.

    I've always found that having a single character in a game results in it quickly becoming a chore, all you think about is what that character is doing. Having multiple characters to play in different areas, doing different things, using different weapons and skills etc breaks the monotony and prevents burn-out.
  • OtarTheMad
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    At first I had alts because the guild I was in would need me to play different roles depends on who showed up for PvP. So I had a healer, a tank, a magicka dps, stam dps.

    However, now I just do it to play different builds and styles.
  • Mesite
    Mesite
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    I have a main crafter who is learning all the traits, a scyer, and a spare crafter who does all the deconstructing and therefore stores my materials in his inventory. I also have a main healer. The others are all different classes.
  • YffresTrill
    YffresTrill
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    I was focused on only one character for a few years, but I've recently made 12 alts. After going through all the story content with my main, knowing that most of what I have done on this character
    1. Does not at all suit what this character would do, based on personality and backstory and
    2. Is ludicrous for a single person to have reasonably done
    I wanted to create "headcanon" characters for all the story arcs in the game, and I will be going through only a few zones with each, with the only overlap being the original Planemeld storyline for my three Alliance heroes.

    From how you have described your view of the purpose of a character, I doubt any of this will be relatable to you, so speaking more generally: people play alts because playstyles vary.
    @ Yffre'sTrill - PC/EU (No Steam)
    -
    Naering (Bosmer WW Archer - Valenwood separatist, Hircine-agnostic, honoured affiliate of the Gang of Scroungers.)
    Alts: Kunali, Free-as-Wind, Gurzog gro-Kosh, Seldril, Hatiba, Kareemal, Gilfirion, Elorwe, Ludvikke, Tsetha-Vos, Loulou Villeau, Nilvani, Horvund, Maritia, and Treads-the-Aurbis.
  • Cazador
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    A mix of reasons. I want to play different classes and sometimes I just want to do a questline again.
  • LalMirchi
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    I stuck with just one character for some time. I must admit that that felt rather boring. Then I went to the other extreme and made the maximum amount of characters of wild and varied variety. AWA arrived and I had a serious look at my ludus and condemned most of my gladiators to deletion leaving only four on each server. Now five as Arcanist has come.

    Each and every character is unique on its server and everybody gets quality playtime as I tend to play a character in-depth for a week or two before switching. Having characters from different disciplines makes dailies & endeavours easier. All these alts follow different quest-lines keeping my gameplay feeling fresh.
    I have an ethereal crown of three spirit crows:
    - On top is Grandfather spouting words of wisdom.
    - On the left is Empathy who is rather naive.
    - On the right is Ego who is rather greedy.
    The incessant cackling is quite amusing.
  • Soarora
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    TaSheen wrote: »
    Kirawolfe wrote: »
    I make alts because I love trying new races and classes, but also love crafting stories for these people I'm putting out in the world of Tamriel.

    I've never done 100% of anything on any one toon, that helps to keep things interesting.

    For me, this is what it is. These people show up in my head, tell me who they are, where they came from, demand that I play them. Sometimes they insist on certain gear and mount, sometimes I give them what I have until I find something they like better.

    Each girl does quests that fit her backstory and her "self". No one does all of anything - not even my mains. There's enough game to cover as many alts as keep turning up....

    This. I have one of each class, ideally two of each so I can make all of the 4 specs (heal, mag dps, stam dps, tank) using armory if I so wish, but most importantly... because they haunt my brain until I make them.
    PC/NA Dungeoneer (Tank/DPS/Heal), Trialist (DPS/Tank/Heal), and amateur Battlegrounder (DPS) with a passion for The Elder Scrolls lore
    • CP 2000+
    • Warden Healer - Arcanist Healer - Warden Brittleden - Stamarc - Sorc Tank - Necro Tank - Templar Tank - Arcanist Tank
    • Trials: 9/12 HMs - 3/8 Tris
    • Dungeons: 30/30 HMs - 24/24 Tris
    • All Veterans completed!

      View my builds!
  • TaSheen
    TaSheen
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    Soarora wrote: »
    TaSheen wrote: »
    Kirawolfe wrote: »
    I make alts because I love trying new races and classes, but also love crafting stories for these people I'm putting out in the world of Tamriel.

    I've never done 100% of anything on any one toon, that helps to keep things interesting.

    For me, this is what it is. These people show up in my head, tell me who they are, where they came from, demand that I play them. Sometimes they insist on certain gear and mount, sometimes I give them what I have until I find something they like better.

    Each girl does quests that fit her backstory and her "self". No one does all of anything - not even my mains. There's enough game to cover as many alts as keep turning up....

    This. I have one of each class, ideally two of each so I can make all of the 4 specs (heal, mag dps, stam dps, tank) using armory if I so wish, but most importantly... because they haunt my brain until I make them.

    Yeah.... I write, so I'm used to it, but "haunt my brain" describes it EXACTLY! Husband is used to me jumping out of bed naked at 2am to go boot the machine before someone haunting my brain gets seriously annoyed. And then when I get back to bed, he's like, "another one huh?"

    Heh. We've been married nearly 50 years. He does know me very well by this time!
    ______________________________________________________

    "But even in books, the heroes make mistakes, and there isn't always a happy ending." Mercedes Lackey, Into the West

    PC NA, PC EU (non steam)- four accounts, many alts....
  • Jaimeh
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    I have characters in all classes and for all stam/mag specs, plus a few extras for different roles and for PvP. I love making alts and playing with them, and I never saw it as a lot of work--nowadays it's especially easy with all the buffs and ways to level things, and I'm not even counting the crown store shortcuts. I think it's a lot of fun to play with different classes, having different types of DDs or healers, and having dedicated toons for different playstyles (like justice activities for eg.), and I never worried about spreading achievements over many characters, even before AwA was introduced. Then there's also the customization part, and creating backstories, making outfits, etc., it's a way to get more out of the game (and before AwA alts were a reason to replay the quests, but that got problematic after achievements became account wide). Plus, imo, having knowledge of how other classes work and playing with different roles is awesome for becoming better at the game.
  • Kappachi
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    to play different classes + roleplay different characters + i usually keep 1 char to 1 spec, e.g. i have a healer nightblade and a dps nightblade, a tank arcanist, a dps necromancer, a dps sorcerer, a healer sorcerer, maybe in the future a healer arcanist/dps arcanist, etc.

    I enjoy redoing the story and picking different options, it's like alternate start live another life since you can start anywhere in the world nowadays, even go to any dungeon at any time at any level to test your mettle.
  • AcadianPaladin
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    My characters actually 'are' each other. I've been playing the same little wood elf since 2007 (Oblivion at that time), through Skyrim and into ESO. She mastered time travel long ago so chronology/era-hopping is of no concern to her. She wakes up in the morning and decides whether to grab her staves or bows and moves among the differing versions of herself (magplar, magsorc, stamsorc…) as easily as she changes hairstyles or costumes. Each version of her looks identical and has only minimal different modifiers to her base name (Buffy).

    The reason she manifests as numerous class/specs is twofold. Firstly, each class is too limited to do what she'd like to do with her skills. Secondly, this game goes through basically a circular cycle of overnerfing and overbuffing so when an 'update' trashes a class she can just play another instead of us rage quitting the game. Eventually whichever class gets trashed will come back into viability.
    PC NA(no Steam), PvE, mostly solo
  • tsaescishoeshiner
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    I don't usually hear people in ESO talk about alts. In games where it takes a lot of investment to make one character, you have a main and then alts. ESO has a low barrier to entry for a new character comparatively, and that barrier has only gotten lower through the years. Which is great! I like playing all the classes, multiple builds.

    It's especially helped for PvP to better understand how to play against other classes. For example, playing nightblade has really helped my sense of where they want to go when they use cloak.

    For PvE, it's helped the content be less repetitive. Doing vMA on magden was totally different than playing it on a melee magDK, which felt like much more of a glass cannon. It was sorta the same as playing on mag necromancer, surprisingly.
    PC-NA
    in-game: @tsaescishoeshiner
  • Kappachi
    Kappachi
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    I don't usually hear people in ESO talk about alts. In games where it takes a lot of investment to make one character, you have a main and then alts. ESO has a low barrier to entry for a new character comparatively, and that barrier has only gotten lower through the years. Which is great! I like playing all the classes, multiple builds.

    It's especially helped for PvP to better understand how to play against other classes. For example, playing nightblade has really helped my sense of where they want to go when they use cloak.

    For PvE, it's helped the content be less repetitive. Doing vMA on magden was totally different than playing it on a melee magDK, which felt like much more of a glass cannon. It was sorta the same as playing on mag necromancer, surprisingly.

    No use pretending that the barrier to entry is low; I know making alts is a huge time commitment, from maxing out stablemaster stats to getting them setup for daily writs & getting enough skyshards/extra skill pts to fully realize their build + scrying/excavating/vampire/werewolf/thieves guild/dark brotherhood/etc levels what have you. Having alts is a huge commitment in ESO, and they do very much exist, your main character might be one who maxes out all the skill trees and handles scrying and what not while the alts each may be able to specialize in 1-2 things while also having their own gameplay style.

    It actually has one of the highest barriers to entry for alts aside from Final Fantasy XIV. WoW, Guild Wars 2 and so on all transfer so much over to your alt characters that you'll have no problem having many max levels who can participate in all the content, ESO is not like that.
    Edited by Kappachi on August 12, 2023 10:27PM
  • AlterBlika
    AlterBlika
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    I'd like to try other classes, but making a new character from scratch takes time. If I want something, I want it now. Would gladly pay for class change tokens, but since they're not a thing, I just bought a few armory slots and have builds for dps/tanking/soloing/vamp (I guess I'll never need it) on my nb.
    Edited by AlterBlika on August 12, 2023 10:34PM
  • valenwood_vegan
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    I play alts because I came to ESO from a single player RPG background rather than from a MMO background, and creating characters with different stories and strengths/weaknesses is part of the fun. I do have a "main" that I've basically completed the entire game with, but it keeps things fresh to change it up.

    A more practical reason is that you never know what ZoS is going to smash with the nerf hammer next, so it's great to have options. And a lot of things in the game are designed in a way that makes alts beneficial (more writs; more storage space; more event boxes; more furnishing plan drops without waiting for cooldown; more transmutes, etc.).
    Edited by valenwood_vegan on August 12, 2023 10:42PM
  • chessalavakia_ESO
    chessalavakia_ESO
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    Alts provide lots of inventory space. If you aren't on ESO+ crafting eats an absolutely massive amount of inventory space.

    Alts let me do content and actions that would be out of character on other characters.

    Alts can serve a utility purpose for getting different jobs done. For example, one of my alts is designed to solo content without much skill. Another alt is designed for healing group dungeons. I've got a bunch of alts that are builds that didn't quite work but that I don't want to get rid of yet.

    Alts provide some variations to the gameplay experience. The heavy attack builds tend to get old if you play them all of the time.

    Alts do have annoying aspects as the mounts can be frustrating and some of the grinds stink. I always dread leveling Mage's Guild and Psijic Order.

    Alts also can keep people busy that would otherwise run out of things they want to do.
  • MidniteOwl1913
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    It pays to have one of each class as you never know which one will be the next class to be nerfed into the ground.

    Also it opens up your view of skills and play styles.

    Right now my Nightblade is my favorite. She is in my opinion the most versatile of the classes. I have a healer, thief/assassin, dps and crafter builds for her courtesy of the armory system.

    PS5/NA
  • Kallykat
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    I enjoy creating new characters in the character creator, customizing them, giving them their own stories and identities, and having them choose different options when questing. I created one character of each playable race, and then I started creating non-playable race characters (Maormer, Snow Elf, Reachman, Daedra, etc.), which has been a fun creative challenge.

    I get to see all the different possibilities when questing.

    I can use more of my cosmetics on a regular basis.

    I have more combined inventory space.

    I will never run out of things to do.
  • bmnoble
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    When I first started in December 2018, I did my research picked a class that best suit my playstyle, Dragon Knight due to it's high survivability combined with my lag heavy satellite connection.

    At first my intention was just to use that single character play through the story, ignore the multiplayer side of the game. Once I got that character to max level I was always short on gold and thus could not afford to max out my gear.

    So I thought I would try out the other classes with the free character slots, got one of each to 50, found that I still preferred my main over any of the other classes available.

    Then I learnt of daily writs and trade guilds, I spent a long time getting the max number of characters at the time to level 50 with all their crafting skills maxed out, took a few years but eventually got it all set up and once I no longer needed to spend my profits levelling their crafting skills, the gold started to roll in so long as I did my daily writs on all characters.

    I did intend to go back through the story on all my characters, I made a point to make each look reasonable and while I did take some of them back through various parts of the story the lack of different outcomes in 90% of quests, made me ask why bother.

    I do have most of them set up if needed to be able to do group dungeons or at the very least overland without issue but for the most part they just exist so I can screw around with the other classes or to supply my main with income or upgrade materials or transmute stones by getting a large number of them to tier 1 in Cyrodiil.

    Lately though I haven't even been bothering with that, got plenty of gold saved be a long time before I do writs on all of my characters again, I think in a lot of ways inflation killed my desire to make gold before it would take quite a bit of effort to make a few million in a week now just dump gold mats from daily writs and you can make a large profit at least in terms of numbers, in next to no time, doesn't mean you have anywhere near as much spending power as that amount of gold would have given you in the past.
  • TaSheen
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    @bmnoble - *salute* to another satellite "sufferer"....
    ______________________________________________________

    "But even in books, the heroes make mistakes, and there isn't always a happy ending." Mercedes Lackey, Into the West

    PC NA, PC EU (non steam)- four accounts, many alts....
  • AuroranGoldenEagle
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    I create alts because I love seeing what I can do by combining character creation and cosmetics. In particular, I'm really happy with my Maormer character and her home, and am recently playing through as an Ohmes Khajiit arcarnist.

    With my new arcarnist in particular, I'm really enjoying a fresh playthrough of the base game from level 1. No power levelling to 50, no grinding, just naturally working my way through AD zones and quests with chat off and in-game sound on.

    It's a refreshing experience on a new character, and is making me really appreciate the game all over again.
    You have discovered the thirty-seventh Sermon of Vivec, which is a bending of the light, long past the chronicles of the Hortator who wore inconstant faces and ruled however they would, until apocalypse.
  • SaffronCitrusflower
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    I stopped playing alts when AwA dropped. No reason to play alts now.
  • AzuraFan
    AzuraFan
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    Since AwA, I don't play my alts much. When I do, it's for a bit of variety. It usually doesn't last long, though. I always end up going back to my main.

    Before AwA, I'd rotate through all my alts, playing them about equally. I'd play them to try out a new class or to re-experience a storyline. But it's no fun when I enter a map and it's already pretty much complete. Now I use one alt for the rare time I do a battleground (always for an endeavor or event), and the others for that brief variety factor.
  • Hapexamendios
    Hapexamendios
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    Mules, play other classes and max money from daily crafting
  • Blood_again
    Blood_again
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    I created first alt as mule.
    Two more were created to see what the other alliances locations are. That was before One Tamriel.
    The next one was dedicated Templar healer. Dk, Nb and Sorcs weren't so good healers those days.
    Finally I've made a pair for each class to play different styles. They are not actually all the same despite some similarity in elements. Eventually, some are enjoyable in pvp.
    In a certain period of time I turned this small army to master writ and gold mats factory. Also used them to take advantage in some events like Annyversary or New Life.
    Currently it is a good set of toons that can switch between at least two roles with armory. I play each of them time to time. It is more like a choice of clothes before going out.

    As for amount of work spent on each. I wouln't have done it, if I hadn't enjoyed the game. It is always a bit different, when you make a new character. You can raise ones levels on dolmens, and another one will get his levelups in nMA. No need to turn the game into somekind of job.
    Also having a crafter character helps with new caracters a lot, if you wish to make it easier.
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