Everybody has alts (alternate characters). You may only have one lonely little bank alt or a server of max-level behemoths on both sides of the faction fence but if you play WoW you have alts. For a very long time, Tinwhisker was my only character. Leveling in vanilla WoW wasn’t terribly difficult (although it was more difficult than it is now) but I was busy learning one class in a new game already. The thought of another character was a bit overwhelming. Eventually though, I rolled my first bank toon.
Well, she wasn’t intentionally a bank toon. I rolled a priest because I had seen shadow priests running around and thought that Shadowform and Mind Flay were pretty awesome. I mean, even today I think that looks pretty darn cool. Unfortunately I really hadn’t gotten my head around WoW yet (I was a slow learner) and when she reached level 12 she stayed in Stormwind. Eventually I made her into a bank alt though I had never known what one was before. I had a level 12 bank alt for all of vanilla, all of Burning Crusade, and the first part of Wrath of the Lich King.
When Burning Crusade hit, I immediately got Tinwhisker to 70 and was raiding Karazhan. Besides that, I was excited about the new starting zones and started my Blood Elf Mage to try one of them out. Before I knew it, I had gotten her to 70, then the Draenei Paladin and got her to 70, then the abandoned Night Elf hunter made 70. Actually, once I started leveling, it all happened so fast I’m not really sure how long it took.
That was when I discovered what alts were for.
Having an alt makes you better on your main. No two ways about it, that is absolutely correct and I’ll tell you why. It’s because when you see a fight from a different perspective, you learn more about it than you would from a single perspective. In Burning Crusade, my paladin tank and hunter gave me insight on fight mechanics I didn’t have to think about on Tin. There are a multitude of fight mechanics that you’re never aware of if you only play a single class in a raid. Most of the time that isn’t important but there are quite a few times where something happens and you have to deviate from the plan a bit. Now you’re the melee standing at ranged and you have no idea what’s being hurled your direction.
Imagine you’re a healer on General Vezzax, standing in melee healing as you always do. BOOM! Uh-oh, there aren’t enough ranged out there anymore! Somebody needs to get out there and run with the groups. Do you run out there and save the raid like a pro or hope somebody else will do it because you have no idea how it’s done?
Matron touched on this when he was talking about reps, when you’re on your main you can often ignore lots of things without consequence when it’s all going well but when things go wrong and you’re out of your element, there’s the potential for real disaster. Going through the same (or similar) fights on alts means you’re being exposed to new mechanics and new situations. When those situations come up, you’re muich better prepared for them.
Right now I’m going through ICC on my main and also on my shadow priest alt. Her gearscore is fantastic but closer inspection reveals she’s more than 100 hit rating over the cap and suffering from other problems (gearscore is just one step above useless in my book). That is often the fate of alts but having to work a little harder on an alt is the best thing ever. You actually learn the fights from multiple perspectives; things you can faceroll on your main become nail-biters on an alt. It also doesn’t hurt that I get to see what actually happens instead of looking at some mobs but crack for five minutes.
But what if you don’t have an alt that can do the same fights?
Not everyone has alts that can raid with the mains, in fact, most people don’t. LoD is a top tier guild and part of that is that most members do. Blizzard isn’t stupid though. There isn’t a single mechanic in any raid that can’t be found in multiple heroics or elsewhere in daily quests. From boss abilities to vehicle content, it’s all there. It’s all a matter of having that alt and Blizzard has made leveling incredibly easy to do.
If you’re reading this and you have a max level alt that you play on a regular basis, good for you. I really hope you can see how knowing how to play in different roles and perspectives makes you a better player. If you don’t have an alt, go make one. I guarantee it will make you a better player. Find another class you like and play it; I can’t stress how much better you’ll be because of it.
