Hello fellow gamer! As a longtime WoW enthusiast and alt-aholic, I‘m here to provide an in-depth explainer on the world of alts in Azeroth. Whether you‘re new to the idea of alts or simply looking to better understand them, this guide will cover all the basics.
What is an Alt Character?
In MMORPG lingo, an "alt" refers to an alternate character that is not your main. Your main is whichever character you consider your primary – the one you spend the most time playing, raiding, and progressing with at endgame.
Alts, on the other hand, are secondary characters you create in addition to your main. You devote less time and effort to leveling them up, gearing them, and playing endgame content.
To summarize:
- Main – Your primary character and main focus in WoW.
- Alt – Any other character you create for casual play.
Now that we‘ve defined the terminology, let‘s explore why alts are so popular in WoW and how players utilize them!
Why Do Players Have Alts in WoW?
Alts have been a staple part of WoW gameplay for over 15 years now. But what exactly is the appeal? Here are the most common motivations for creating alts:
Experience Other Classes and Playstyles
With 12 unique classes and dozens of specializations, WoW offers an incredible range of gameplay variety. Making alts lets you experience the difference between melee, ranged, healing, tanking, and spellcasting roles without having to abandon your main.
Pursue Different Professions and Crafting
Each character can learn two primary professions plus secondary skills like cooking and fishing. Alts multiply the crafting options available to you.
Play Both Factions: Alliance and Horde
Making an alt on the opposing faction lets you experience the other side of the WoW storylines and gameplay nuances. You can also group cross-faction using BattleTags.
Farm More Gold and Materials Each Week
Alts allow you to run lucrative weekly lockouts like raids and Mythic+ dungeons multiple times for bonus loot. More characters = more farming potential.
Join a New Guild or Community
Attaching yourself to different social groups without leaving your main guild is a common alt benefit. Get to know more players!
Escape Burnout and Boredom
Grinding endgame content on one character can lead to fatigue. Leveling an alt provides a refreshing change of pace.
Play with Friends on Separate Servers
If friends are on different servers or factions, making an alt on their realm allows you to play together.
Experience Old Content While Leveling
Replaying old world zones and dungeons on an alt can be a nostalgic blast from the past for veteran players.
PVP Against Less Experienced Players
Hopping into battlegrounds and arenas on an undergeared alt can provide a more casual, laidback PVP experience.
As you can see, there are tons of reasons to roll additional characters beyond your main in WoW! Next let‘s look at some data on just how popular alt usage is.
Alts Are Used By a Majority of Players
In a poll conducted by wowhead.com, 61% of over 15,000 respondents said they actively play 4 or more characters. Only 17% claimed to have no alts at all.
This poll confirms that most WoW players choose to pursue alts to some degree:
| Number of Active Alts | Percentage of Respondents |
|---|---|
| 0 | 17% |
| 1-3 | 22% |
| 4-6 | 32% |
| 7-9 | 17% |
| 10+ | 12% |
In addition, an analysis of character achievement data by MMO Champion found that the average WoW player actively plays 1.6 characters per faction – supporting the widespread use of alts.
So while everyone has their own preferences when it comes to alts, the data shows they are a fundamental part of the WoW experience for the majority of players.
Is WoW Alt-Friendly? Features That Help Alts
Given the popularity of alts, Blizzard has added many features over the years to make WoW more "alt-friendly" and streamlined:
Account-Wide Reputations
Any reputation progress earned on one character is automatically applied account-wide to all your alts. This removes a major past grind.
Shared Mounts, Pets, Toys, Heirlooms
These fun collectibles are added to your overall account collection, allowing immediate access on any character.
Transmog Appearances Are Account-Wide
Once an item‘s appearance is added to your appearance collection, it‘s available as a transmog on all characters.
Destiny Unlocked Leveling
Alts can enable level scaling so they don‘t outlevel zones before finishing the quest stories.
Improved Heirloom Gear
Heirlooms provide major experience boosts and other perks that speed up leveling on alts tremendously.
Faster Profession Leveling
Crafting professions can now be leveled from 1-300 with only a few quick recipes. Much less grindy.
WoW Tokens for Gold
You can use in-game gold to buy WoW Tokens providing subscription time usable account-wide. This allows you to more easily maintain multiple accounts/alts if desired.
Shared Achievements and Collections
Fun side activities like achievement-hunting and collection completing (mounts, pets, etc) are fully account-shared with immediate availability on any alt.
Thanks to changes like these, players today can level up and progress alts faster than ever before. Blizzard even has additional alt-friendly improvements planned for the upcoming Dragonflight expansion.
So in summary – WoW provides more incentives than ever to pursue alts, backed up by the data showing most players actively use multiple characters.
Alt Playstyles – How Do People Utilize Their Alts?
Now that we‘ve covered the logistics of why and how alts work in WoW, let‘s look at some of the common playstyles and activities people engage in with their alts:
Profession Crafting Alts
Many players devote certain characters purely to professions like alchemy, engineering, jewelcrafting, etc. This allows them to craft powerful endgame gear, consumables, mounts, and other goods to equip their main or sell for profit.
Auction House Alts
Devoted "bank alts" stationed by the auction house in capital cities help players manage all their gold making efforts. Everything from crafting to farming and investing the auction house is handled seamlessly by these characters.
PVP Alts
Having characters focused on PVP allows you to more casually enjoy battlegrounds and arena without worrying about gearing up to face the most elite opponents. Makes an excellent change of pace from PVE.
Raid & Dungeon Running Alts
Alts let you run endgame group content multiple times per week rather than just once. This provides additional chances at loot from raid bosses and mythic dungeons.
Leveling Alts
Some players enjoy the journey of leveling new characters just for fun – revisiting old zones, dungeons, stories, and content they experienced when originally leveling years ago. Pure nostalgia.
Roleplaying Alts
For players interested in roleplaying on RP servers, making alts lets them explore different races, backstories, and personalities.
Key Takeaways:
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An "alt" refers to any character that is not your main in an MMO like WoW.
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The majority of players utilize alts to experience more classes, professions, factions, and content.
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Alts provide farming, gold making, crafting, PVP, and nostalgia benefits.
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Blizzard has made WoW increasingly alt-friendly over the years via account-wide systems.
So in summary, alts are secondary characters that provide a variety of gameplay benefits and flexibility. While your main may be your primary focus, embracing alts can take your WoW experience to the next level!
I hope this guide has demystified the wide world of alts in WoW. Let me know if you have any other alt-related questions – I‘m always happy to chat more about this addiction we call World of Warcraft.
Game on!
