Goaldriven altoholic
I have been relatively quiet about what’s currently going on with me in-game, but it’s time to break the silence. Don’t want you guys to think I quit playing or something. 
The name of my blog is a curse in a way, because I do not spend all of my game-time tanking. It’s what I like best (most days), but it’s just not my only focus in-game.
Alts, a discourse:
- I’ve always had alts. No matter what time, I always have to spend time leveling a character to max-level. It’s not that I love questing so much. Especially in Northrend, repeating quests has very little charm. What I do love about leveling is learning to master a new class. The slow progress through levels, training new skills, becoming better and better. Trying different builds. That’s what I love. And so I will keep leveling and leveling, until a WoW killer comes along.
My current leveling project is a Death Knight. Oh no, not another death-tard! Armory Mining has shown us that Azeroth is filled with DKs and Paladins these days. Rogues and warlocks are a dying breed. Usually I am a defender of the underdog, playing the least played race and least played classes in my guild (orc, warrior and shaman respectively). Just this once, I wanted the easy life. Kinda like the hunter I deleted at 43, because the easy life was a bit too easy for me. Also, I like playing classes that I have seen played not so great, to see if it’s the class or the player (usually it’s the player). So here’s my DK, rocking the craptastic Northrend quest greens, slowly but steadily leveling: Hélle. I originally rolled her as a pair to do the DK starter quests with my partner, and her DK is called Hiwater. Get it? We are teh funnay! Anyway. My partner detests leveling and questing and will likely never have more than one max-level character, ever. I am on my own now!
Leveling through Outlands was deceptively easy, but in Northrend the cold reality set in. Unless I am doing something really wrong, you cannot kill elites anywhere as easily as a protection warrior can. Squishy in plate, that’s me. Other than that, it’s super-fast leveling, and with the help of TourGuide + Jame’s addon for TG, I just blast through. 80 is not far away. Already I am making Titansteel bars every day, to be fully prepared. Another reason I really enjoy leveling is the gear game at the end. I already have a gear plan for her. I intend to stay blood for DPS, but want to give unholy a whirl as well. I think she’ll be able to do great.
There’s also such a thing as primary alt, and that spot is firmly held by my shaman. In fact I just wrote a Naxxramas healing guide for my guild. I have done more Naxx clears as healer than as tank. I am proud that I can strongly contribute to 2-man healing in Naxx-10. I love it that I outheal other healers on Patchwerk. I <3 my shaman. Her gear is pretty much perfect for Naxx-10, with maybe 2 upgrades left, and I can't wait to progress with her. She's also very strong in heroics. She's kinda everything I ever wanted in a healer, more than my paladin ever was. Playing a tank makes me a better healer, because I know when to expect spikes, what pulls are hairy, and when I can afford to DPS instead of hanging in the back. I have her ready to spec elemental, with a gear set that finds me hit-capped, and yet I haven't done it, because I want to heal and not DPS with her, much like I want to tank and not DPS with Kadomi. For me, the 'holy trinity' of MMOs still comes in 3 characters.- I am already contemplating what character to level next. It should be ranged DPS. As I am full on my main server, I have a couple options. Should I level my 73 warlock, or my 72 boomkin? Should I go back and level the 55 mage I haven’t touched in 1.5 years? Or my 43 shadow priest? Ah, decisions. It’s hard. I have no clue. My other leveling project is on my German realm, but very much on the backburner. I re-rolled a warrior to level efficiently. She’s 20 and then my DK started distracting me. I want to finish that guide though, and I really want to try Arms. I wish she was on Bronzebeard, and I really wish Blizzard would raise the character limit to…15 or so. I have a hard time playing on other servers. I keep toying with the idea of joining a bunch of old friends on Doomhammer, but they’re mostly on Arizona time, so that likely wouldn’t work out either. Aaaah.
So, how about my gentle readers? Do you enjoy leveling? Do you have alts? No time for alts? Hybrid specs to be tank/healer/DPS all in one? Share!
I seem to only play ranged characters…tho I do have a level 20 BE pally on my former horde server. I honestly just can’t wrap my head around melee dps. I have duplicate toons horde and alliance side (mage, shdow priest, shaman) tho I also have a druid ally side. The hordies need to catch up tho as they are total lowbies.
almostgold´s last blog post..What to Wear: a Shadow Priest’s Guide to 10-Man Ulduar
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“Primary Alt” now thats a good title to use and it makes sense. As of now my guild will not let any toons other than declared mains run, however we have fun runs where you can bring an alt or use ur second spec….but yes I think we all have a primary alt.
RJK´s last blog post..My UI, and an Amazing Feat
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I … I fail alts. I love having alts. I love seeing the new game mechanics, and learning how to master new ideas. But I can’t level them efficiently, and I can’t love them the way I love my main. Norm was the first toon I ever rolled, and she’s been a healer since RFC – I just got lucky. Maybe I just haven’t found another class that speaks to me. My hunter is 71 because BM leveling is so ezmode, and I haven’t even respecced her since Ulduar hit, let alone done any questing. I suspect I should try afflock – I like hots. Maybe I will like dots.
Summary: I am the opposite of a goal driven altoholic.
I do have high hopes for my pally, who makes me squee with glee at the moment, and my pvp server priest, who’s being leveled with a supportive friend.
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I have several alts. I actually really enjoy questing. My current ‘main’ alt is no other than a Warrior, currently 74 working his way through Northrend.
Honorshammer´s last blog post..Unbreak My Heart: XT-002 Hard Mode
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admin Reply:
May 28th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
And how do you enjoy warriors? Did you play around with prot?
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Registered alt-o-holic here. Fortunately I also married one.
Most of our alts tend to be the “get away from it all” type though.
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WTB more warlocks!
I really love starting alts and I love questing, but I’m really, really slow. I’m really enjoying my new rogue, though, and the emblem shoulders are helping with the slow part.
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admin Reply:
May 28th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
Anyone in DotH with 2 80s is not a slow leveler. There’s not a lot of people around with those.
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I usually concentrate on one alt at a time, and pour all my energy into it until I reach max level. First with Julez, then Joanna, and now Muta. I wish I had the motivation to level Jo. I loved her so much toward the end of TBC and I originally planned for her to be my first 80. And we need more warlocks! But my rogue is holding all my interest now.
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almostgold Reply:
May 31st, 2009 at 7:33 am
so funny how that works…I LOVED healing on my shaman so much that I raided with her and my druid through 25 man content in TBC. But then it wasn’t as fun for me for Wrath. While my SP, on the other hand, became all I thought about playing…
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I have a serious alt addiction. I started in classic as a warrior tank, just before BC I moved to a hunter main alt, then a shaman healer main alt. All 3 toons went through Kara, up to BT. (Was never present for a KT kill *Sad face*)
Even during raids I find myself wondering what my current alt should be doing.
I am currently leveling a DK, Pally and Druid. The Pally is Ret, wel cause I’m leveling. DK is unholy cause I miss having a pet, and drood is too little to pic a spec (14).
But if you find you have a alt problem I strongly recommend you picking up a few heirloom items. They rock!
Skraps´s last blog post..Thanks to everyone…
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Any chance I can get a link to your Naxx healing guide please?
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admin Reply:
May 28th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
http://community.livejournal.com/wow_doth/993102.html
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Oh I don’t even want to say how many alts over 60 I have. >.>
Currently pretty happy with my warrior as I’ve just gotten some wicked new toys (Boots, Gloves, Cloak, Blood Draining enchant) and an enjoying running through pug raids, guild raids, and random heroic dungeons. (You’d think I’d get sick of the heroic dungeons, but I never do. It’s an excuse to tank, which I love.)
When I get bored again I’ll have to decide whether I want to level my 62 DK, 67 huntard, or my level 12 orc warrior. Yes, another warrior. The way it works for me is that I level an alt, play with it for a bit (sometimes a couple months!) and then go running back to the happiness that is my warrior. For some reason I ALWAYS go back to the warrior. It’s just fun and familiar I guess.
Nice Naxx healing guide!
I’ve got a little level 50 shaman that I could level too and that could be helpful! 
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Alts are a way of life for me. I actually spend more time leveling than raiding or anything else. Right now I have 80 warrior, 80 paladin, 66 Shaman, 68 hunter, and a bunch of other baby alts.
Rogue is the new one I’m working on. Mostly because I prefer melee, but also because I noticed how low their numbers were getting. And I too pick the underdog, going with a troll rogue (though Orcs are slightly more rare and I think Dwarves are the most rare, but they are dirty alliance).
My problem is getting bored too easy. I get to 80, do some heroics, get some gear and then think “oh God. Rep grinding”. That leads me to start an alt and never fully develop the 80.
And I know what you mean about the alts not handling elites as well as the prot warrior. I leveled my paladin as ret, and got destroyed on some of those quests that the warrior handled easily (even as ret!). My conclusion though was that my warrior was in pretty much t5 equivalent gear while the paladin was in quest blues and greens.
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Thanks!
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I’ve always had two characters at level cap, a healer and a tank, shaman and druid in BC, shaman and warrior now. For me that’s just an awesome way to improve my game.
Other than that, I have my druid and my mage somewhat around 72-ish, but I doubt I’ll ever level them up. Most of all because I can’t stand leveling alone and I just haven’t found anyone to team up with recently.
I’ll surely never level a DK to the max level.
I tried the DK starting zone, and the class is fun. But here’s why I still can’t stand them:
1) They are everywhere
2) Mediocre DPS now put out insane DPS just by rerolling DK
3) They steal my 1H tanking swords
4) They roll for every 2H weapon
5) The DK tier token has a drop chance of around 85 % (or at least it feels that way)
6) They have terrible names in 99.5% of all cases
Blizzard should really be thinking about making it easier to level a character to the level 80. Naxxramas25 pugs filled with DKs are just getting boring.
drug´s last blog post..MMOUI Minion BETA
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I’ve tried to have 3 chars at level cap since TBC, a dps (mage), healer (priest) and tank (gnome warrior, thats right a GNOME!). My main is my priest atm and I guess my main alt is my tank.
So I guess I could be called an alt-aholic. Mostly I just like to have a toon that can help fill that one spot a group needs in order to run an instance/raid.
I’m currently working on a druid, I desperately want to try out tree healing
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My wow plate is quite full! However I do have alts. I’m not much of a leveler but once content slowed down for my guild and my main(mage) had everything I could get outside of raiding, that’s when I started working on alts. I absolutely love tanking on my DK. She’s only in 10man gear which is kind of sad =( but pugging makes me want to stab myself. Luckily my alt Spriest is 25man geared ^^ I suggest you try lvling your mage as well =P They are so much fun!
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Alts. Let’s see…in addition to Linedan (80 Tauren prot warrior), I have an 80 dwarf MM hunter, 80 belf BM hunter, 76 female orc blood DK (because female orcs are +50 cool points!), 70 Tauren feral druid, and a 68 troll enhancement shaman. My wife, on the other hand, has five 80s (Tauren feral druid, Tauren resto/balance druid, orc BM huntress, Tauren enhancement shaman, belf affliction lock) and will soon have a fifth, a now-77 belf frost mage. Oh, and her 55ish Draenei shaman.
Yes, we do love our alts in the Panzercow household.
I love my blood DK. She’s so ridiculously easy to level, it almost feels like it’s karmic payback for leveling a warrior back in 2005 when it was much harder.
I do agree that we’re drowning in bad ones, but that’s because you can still do great DPS even if you don’t know what the heck you’re doing. I’m trying to get better at playing the class so I’m not a failknight when I finally do get her to 80.
Linedan´s last blog post..Of unicorns and other imaginary things
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Well I have 2 alts at 80 – a prot warrior & a mage. Unfortunately, I enjoy the warrior least of all because my main is also a tank. I thought it would be fun to have another tank – but now, the idea of going back to heroics & naxx on a 2nd tank is just unappealing. So he’s kind of stalled. The mage is more fun, I must admit, but its the same thing: dont want to redo naxx. So I’m just sticking with my main these days, and when I’m not raiding, I’ll either socialise, do the tourney, or catch some fish. Possibly I should finish my DK and make him dps; it is still a very fun class to play, in spite of OPness and ubiquity. And in the hands of a skilled player, its even more powerful – so many nice tricks for every occassion.
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I tend to focus strongly on one character, but there will always be alts to pass the time.
My main is a protection warrior – and will probably be my main for the forseeable future. I tend to gear up alts in the time between raids, however, once there is nothing much left to do. In TBC that was some dps classes – now in Northrend it’s changed a bit.
I now have a level 80 deathknight tank/dps dualspec – and seriously enjoy the differences in tanking styles and abilities. AoE threat “oh shit” buttons are apparently non-existent on the DK (except possibly for a rune-reset and howling blast, but that’s hardly the same as a challenging shout) – which is made up for by the 2k-ish DPS and not being reliant on actually taking damage to generate suitable threat. DKs can tank low level instances – yay!
My running projects are a Paladin (*cough* retribution for leveling, protection for fun) and a Druid.
Slightly lower on the list are an affliction warlock and a hunter. Yay. Both of those can tank. Sort of. It’s the closest I can get, really
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admin Reply:
June 2nd, 2009 at 9:03 pm
That’s interesting. The only class I have seriously tanked with other than warrior is feral druid, and I felt that to be very simplistic at the time, in TBC. Never had the desire to tank on my pally or DK. Maybe I will give it a shot sometime.
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I just found this site following a link from a friend to your World of Logs post (which is awesome). The Altaholic post caught my eye though because I am one and I’m always looking for a cure… or my friends are doing interventions.
I don’t have a tank – though I get inspired from time to time by my friend who started WoW with me 1 year ago. I rolled an undead priest and he rolled an undead warrior…
They are both 80 now and run heroics and some raiding (very casual).
I’m always jealous of those who can just focus on their main or even their main alt. I have 77 pally, 75 priest (I know – why), 70 dk and 4 more over 40 and countless under 40 (I have 2 accounts). I boun
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…. dc’d….. anyways, I bounce from toon to toon levelling each a little at a time. I think it’s the dang profs that I’m addicted to and that’s why I need so many alts…
Anyways, awesome site – my prot warrior buddy Deadringer loves it and being a discipline healz I appreciate good tanking.
Tanks FTW!
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admin Reply:
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:26 pm
As you can guess from my WoL post, I am very fond of discipline priests. They are very strong tank healers, and I will probably level a priest next, once my DK is 80. Glad you enjoy it here.
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I like to quest; I leveled my primary (warlock lvl 80), really quickly. Now I’m advancing my favorite alt (60 DK) as fast as possible. It is kind of redundant, but I’m still liking it. My major prob with my DK is that I’m having trouble getting him into a good guild. Nobody seems to want him to join in on anything. I was with one guild for a couple of days and whenever I’d go to help my level 30ish noob guildmates, they ignored me or left me behind. I felt like a playground pariah! I’ve tried getting into the better raiding guilds on my server, but they say I’m not geared/specced/PvP experienced enough. What they don’t seem to realize is that I’m an excellent PvE player, and I work really hard to get the best of everything. It all comes in time, ya know? So, now I belong to a pathetic guild with a kid who really doesn’t know what he’s doing. Oh well, maybe it’s for the best. I don’t want to be with those elitist snobs anyway!
Sorry for the venting…I guess I’m more annoyed than I expected to be!
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