Why do you play alts?

Danikat

Two reasons:

1) Variety for me: a choice of classes, races and current quests/activities to choose from, so I can play what I feel like at the time.

2) All my characters are different people, with different personalities, priorities and ways of doing things and different stories. If they're too similar to my existing characters I wouldn't keep (or create) them. I use them to do different things and tell different stories so it makes the game more interesting for me.

Importantly this means a lot of the problems other people raised don't come up for me. My alts are not clones churning out the same writs, dailies etc every day so I don't need to rush training them all to an identical status to feel they're usable. I have 1 crafting character, 1 who does scrying, 1 in the Dark Brotherhood etc and most of them (including those) focus on questing so I can start playing them right away.

LittlePinkDot

Danikat wrote: »

Two reasons:

1) Variety for me: a choice of classes, races and current quests/activities to choose from, so I can play what I feel like at the time.

2) All my characters are different people, with different personalities, priorities and ways of doing things and different stories. If they're too similar to my existing characters I wouldn't keep (or create) them. I use them to do different things and tell different stories so it makes the game more interesting for me.

Importantly this means a lot of the problems other people raised don't come up for me. My alts are not clones churning out the same writs, dailies etc every day so I don't need to rush training them all to an identical status to feel they're usable. I have 1 crafting character, 1 who does scrying, 1 in the Dark Brotherhood etc and most of them (including those) focus on questing so I can start playing them right away.

This!
I have different characters for different crafts.
My Stam sorc is clothier/wood worker.
My stamina DK tank is a Blacksmith/provisioner. My Stam NB is an Alchemist/enchanter.
Mag NB is a jewelry crafter. And my Stam necromancer is the scryer.

This also makes not having a craft bag easier to manage.

Norith_Gilheart_Flail

You can make a decent amount of gold just having max level crafters handing in daily writs.

Sometimes patch's break classes you loved, and in order to continue your interest you might shift classes.

For me, it's to maximise chances of motif drops.

disintegr8

Been playing since 2015 and would probably have stopped playing in 2016, once I completed Cadwells Gold, if we could only have one character.

Multiple characters (and accounts) allow us to try different things in different ways. On my main account I have dedicated trial healers, tanks and DPS, dedicated PVP characters on each alliance, and dedicated solo PVE characters.

I have 1900 CP and 18 toons on my main NA account, 617 CP and 3 toons on the EU server and 612 CP and 5 toons on an Alt NA account.

OldStygian

For the variety

Suna_Ye_Sunnabe

Because zos hates Templars.

BloodyStigmata

Money is why. Each new alt may be a huge upfront time sink and gold sink, sure, but by becoming another writ donkey they make back what was spent preparing them very, very quickly.

The second reason of course is class--I can't class change my character in any way so if I want to play something else I have to have an alt. I like to make my own builds and play around with different sets, so having options is vital for my enjoyment.

Third, each new character I spend a good amount of time on is added to a shared story--a shared world so-to-speak. I've had an ongoing head-cannon since TES 3 launched and every character I play that I grow attached to is added to it. I have 20 characters right now--most are new to this timeline while others are reoccurring. The more character I have, the more writing I get to do, and writing is fun.

As far as your grievances go, I will say the following;

You don't have to do every single quest, repeatable quest, guild quest etc on a new character or level everything over again. You just need to level the skills you're going to use and get enough skill points to suit your needs. If you aren't gonna slot psijiic order skills on your bar for example, why level it? The passives literally do nothing if you don't. So why waste time on it?

And... I'm sorry, need daggers? What you need to use is what you like using. If you feel like you need to use what's meta, it's because ARE score pushing. If you're not comfortable with or are having fun with what you're using, then that's going to have far more of an impact on your playtime than not being the best, like no one ever was.

Also, side tangent, I'm tired of seeing things like this;

ixthUA wrote: »

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.

I'd like to remind you your character is an individual, and individuals don't have to adhere to racial customs or societal norms, and they certainly DO NOT HAVE TO ADHERE TO TRADITIONAL FANTASY TROPES, which the The Elder Scrolls has time and again loved to subvert (Though to be fair, they respect those tropes just as often). There are also an innumerable amount of factors in play that determine an individuals magical prowess and ability, not least of which is training, diet, upbringing, paternal or maternal heritage, etc. I implore you to use your imagination--it's far more powerful than you give it credit for.

And I'd like to remind you all once again that your racial passives have a miniscule effect on your overall performance, and you're free to use whatever race you want for any build you want. So if something is too ugly for you to care about, don't use it.

And nerfing acanist? Yeah they'll do that. And buff it. And nerf it. And buff it. And nerf it. Welcome to every mmo ever.

/rant

TL;DR -- please remember to have fun and use your imagination, and if you don't want to do either of those things, maybe one character is just the right amount for you.

katanagirl1

I had only one character for a year or two, didn’t really see the need for more, just questing (on foot until I got a mount well after cp160) through all the alliances. The storage coffer in the level up rewards convinced me to make a second toon, gave me a chance to try another class.

Then a Midyear Mayhem and zerging got me hooked on Cyrodiil PvP and I had to make a toon just for that, then later another one with a different class that would hopefully be better. Once she hit Grand Overlord I made another PvP toon of yet a different class.

Then I got into trials and my main toon, which was unfortunately a stamblade, used to be the top of the dps chart before getting hit by the nerf hammer hard way back, would require a complete overhaul that I did not want to make, so I needed another toon for that of a different class, and a second one of yet another class as backup that I am still working on somewhat.

Now I need another Khajiit stamblade for thieving, so I am working on that now.

So, it helps to have alts so at least one of the classes are currently good for the task at any one point in time, plus having more crafters is always useful.

Oznog666

Same as many other stated already:
.) One is my master crafter and fully trained in scrying
.) 3 DD, different races and classes - although my necro doesn't satisfy me anymore
.) One mostly doing all the gathering things and treasure maps
.) One tank
.) some others just how to see how they are doing and for keeping stuff whenever I am having no eso+ and the bank is full :-)

But of course not all of them are having all guilds fully developed, Mage and Psijic Guild are taking too long.

SpacemanSpiff1

different skills sets. daily quests. yearly nerfs. fashion.

Michaelkeir

I make alts for different play styles. My main is a pet sorc and I have a backup build for him as a battlemage tank for vet/dlc dungeons.

As much as I enjoy my sorc, sometimes I just want to swing a big 2-handed axe. So I created an orc dragon knight for that. Other times I want to be stealthy and kill (pve) and steal or bow gank people in pvp, so I created a dark elf night-blade for that. I also have a pure vampire build for when I want to satisfy my dark goth side and a pure werewolf build as well. I have a Imperial sword and board Templar for when I want to get my holy warrior paladin on.

So with that play style i can’t possibly do all that on one character because I want specific races and play styles and there is no class change tokens, plus race change tokens are a bit pricey for my taste.

Ragnarok0130

I make alts for a number of reason but here are some of them off of the top of my head:

1. I raid and often need to flex to another class for raid composition
2. If I start getting board swapping to another class even if in the same role makes the game feel fresh again
3. Easier to grind transmutes for RNDs if you have several alts
4. It's the only way we can currently re-experience story content once we've completed it on our main

Kiralyn2000

To try different playstyles (I don't follow meta, I mostly don't respec characters, so "they can all do the same thing" isn't my experience), to try different appearances, to have extra characters for things that need it (writs, etc), because I don't focus hugely on endgame.


And because I don't really do 'endgame'/min-max/meta, I don't have the big "have to do all these things to set up a character" list that people keep bringing up as to why alts are too much 'work' to make. I don't do all the guilds, I don't have a big required 'build' that I need to farm hundreds of skill points for, and so on. I've never even considered touching a target dummy or dps meter.


(similarly, in single-player games, I'd much rather make a new character for a new playthrough, than do "New Game Plus" and play the same character through again, just better equipped. And ditto for games with 'endgames' like ARPGs - I made soooo many characters in Diablo 2, but I never got a single one through Hell difficulty or to max level.)

Ingenon

Before AWA I would build multiple alts in every class and play them all. Since AWA, many of my alts only get logged in during events like Anniversary, where I like the drops and will play them all for the event boxes.

Because there are no class change tokens, I play different class alts in trials when ZOS changes balance.

daryl.rasmusenb14_ESO

i don't have a main. been here since beta. i get the 'itch' to make a new toon every now and then.

whitecrow

I made a couple so that I could try out other skills myself, but I don't play them much any more.

emilyhyoyeon

I play alts because I like to play all my TES OCs. I've never really rushed to level an alt and I don't really redo quests on them, I do quests on characters that make sense to do them in terms of their backstories or whatever, and that doesn't really overlap.

The only annoying thing is the riding lessons thing but that's a lot more tolerable now that major gallop is an easily acquirable passive.

belial5221_ESO

I have atleast one for each alliance,so during PVP events I can easily go on the alt where I can get tickets easiest.Also I use em as mules,seeing I use addon(leoalts) to see their inventory and not have to log in on em to check who has what.Also I like trying different combos of race/class/roles.It's quick to level if you have a high level char already,especially since you can use CP on them,and just fast level alchemy/enchanting and do master writs for speedy xp.

Elrond87

14 purely for writs and 6 i actively play because i like to mix it up

zaria

Back then I started I had my sorcerer who I took to VR 14. Also had an templar mostly to reserve Zaia character name. who I took to lvl 15 something, stopped playing after a bit short of a year.
Also made various bank alts, then I came back in time for housing I made an NB and an DK, then an warden with Morrowind. Then I killed off my bank alts for real characters as in an second sorc, templar and NB
Followed by an DK, then an second warden, followed by to necro and now an arcanist.
Not all is active, only 5 something but as its take half a year to level up riding its better to have the character.

LanteanPegasus

I started playing ESO in 2016. With an Imperial, like in the other TES games. I'm still not happy about paying the "MMO-fee" by having to have a class, but it is what it is, so I decided on a Dragonknight, because that was what seemed most appropriate for my usual "sword/shield and medium armor adventurer with only some utility magic" Imperial character following the true vision of the Empire. (Although, yet another MMO-fee, he had to choose some faction, because the Empire is in shambles. So he went with the Covenant, which, out of the three, comes closest to the Imperial idea by far.)
This is the character I played all the stories with that I wanted to play, amounting to nearly every quest in the game. (No interest in furthering the goals of the Ebonheart Pact, so their main quest was left out, and no Dork Brotherhood nonsense.)

But - he's quite the principled fellow, and stealing just for fun or profit isn't something he would do (and he never did). Then I learned that certain nice things I might want were gated behind stealing, like the Morrowind House Motives, certain furniture plans, a cute assistant (Pirharri) etc...
And ESO made me fall in love with the Khajiit. So I made a second character, a Khajiit who is a bit of a charming rogue. She'd never steal from the poor, and she'd never throw her lot in with villains and murderers, but taking some interesting things here and there, it's just so irresistible, and it doesn't really hurt anyone, no? ;-)
With her I played the quests I stumbled upon, and of course Reaper's March and Elsweyr. (And of course with time leveled guilds and such...)

A few years ago my best friend wanted to try ESO, but she wanted to play it together. To be able to quest with her, I had to make a new character, because my main had already done it all, and my Khajiit had at least finished the main quest and bits everywhere. That's what my Imperial Knight of Akatosh (aka Templar) is for. I play him when she has the time to get online and continue questing through ESO (in chronological order).

Then there came antiquities. And endeavours. Both having some nice things you might want to acquire (furnishings and seals), but sometimes making it necessary to do not-so-single-player content (bosses, dungeons, stuff like that). Both my friend and me don't have the most "effective" builds for our characters, and don't care to change them, because our characters are characters, not stat blocks. We also don't like inconveniencing random others by burdening them with not-so-effective characters in random content.
But I realized I had gathered all but one lead for that fabled ring everyone was talking about, that could make people like me halfway decent in the damage department. So I went to get the last lead, got the Oakensould ring, and looked up one-bar heavy attack builds. I hate Daedra, so I went with a Breton Templar and made a light and lightning wielding magician lady. Leveled her doing the Couldharbour main quest and some stuff here and there. Now she is ready to join the fray when I/we need to farm for something I/we like that requires, well, some more raw power than I/we usually have.

In short: I have Alts because certain aspects of the game didn't fit the character of my main, and because I accompanied a friend starting the game quests from scratch. But I don't play them very much, and I absolutely don't grind anything on them. Crafting and events and stuff are done with my main character if possible, with one of the others instead if necessary (or more fitting), and that's it.

Necrotech_Master

i have multiple characters to learn other classes, but i also have each toon built differently, i do not use the armory system

if i want a toon to be a tank, i make it a tank and its nothing but a tank

i only have 11 characters right now, because i would agree that there is a lot of work to setting up a new character: unlocking skill lines (mages guild, fighters guild, undaunted, psijic, dark brotherhood, thieves guild), mount training (if you bother with it), bag upgrades, companion quests, wayshrines (if you dont have tons of houses)

O_LYKOS

Typically to enjoy different characters/roles/builds. I'd often do a different dlc zone with one.

Giraffon

They destroyed any reason to ever play alts when they went to account wide achievements.

I'm still very upset about it. I feel as if they stole from me.

Mesite

Account wide achievements actually encouraged me to use alts. It means I don't feel obliged to spend doing the same content on every alt. I can do quests for different guilds on different Alts

I can play it my way.

ArchMikem

ixthUA wrote: »

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.

That's the biggest hurdle to overcome when making new characters. I have my Main that I do everything on, and she's basically current on Questing and Exploration content. All of my other characters I tell myself, "I'm not trying to complete everything on this one, don't worry about it don't worry about it stop thinking about it stahp."

SgtWinnie

I've put the following on my three 3600 accts.
dk tank
warden tank
arcanist tank
1 bar arcanist dps
and on each acct my Magblade is main
The rest are maxxed out crafters.
I spend my time collecting stickerbook+ achievements on each acct.
Like many have said variety is great

IcyDeadPeople

• They hold your stuff.
• They get mails from hirelings.
• They get daily crafting writ rewards.
• Main reason is because it's fun to try out very different pvp builds for each class (that's 2 or 3 characters x 7 classes)

Mesite

Okay, so now I have three new arcanists -luckily had some empty slots. One mag DPS, one healer and my stam DPS. I've decided to concentrate on the stamina arcanist for this weekend.

I created an initial stamina toon but deleted it because I wasn't sure about the looks. Happier with the new replacement.

petanko

I see no major difference in ESO classes. In the end, you'll use 2-3 class skills at most, so what's the point? I can play any role with my main.
So I use extra chars mostly for daily crafting (writ rewards) and muling. Also, they're useful for certain events like the previous one where you could get a box for spending 10k gold.
Besides that, it's too boring to do quests again and again.
Leveling with consumable writs is quite fast, so they got all possible morphs, but... they'll most likely spend their entire life in the crafting area.