Question for you Altaholics...

If you are an Altaholic like me, what is your GW2 game plan?   Do you plan on leveling up all your toons at the same time?  Or will you focus on one toon in particular and get max level?

The closer we get to launch, the more I am starting to panic!!  So many classes... so little time!

Day after a next, at this time, we might be in the game creating all of our Alts. :)

My main first! I want her nice crafted gear for wvw.lol Alts after.

I am going to limit myself to two toons (probably a Guardian and a Thief but not sure yet) until they both get to 80 and get maxxed out (whatever that means in GW2 game terms). Then I'll play around with other toons....especially the ones that kick my butt so I can figure them out. :)

I'm aiming for incremental rollouts. I'm sure as I settle in the Main will see more play. I'll likely spend a lot of time back and forth between my main and my main alt.. heavy on the main. Next alt shortly into the game. The 3rd alt is being held to play with my sweetie and the final toon I will test my fortitude and resist it for as long as I possibly can. So, Sunday then...

I am going to focus mainly on a main and play alts with friends who are lower level than me or want to start a newish character. I plan on having four crafters and eight characters made at start.

I will be playing 7 chars out the door. Most likely will play whatever I'm in the mood for lol but will focus on the characters I plan to use for WvW first.

I make all of my "alternate personas" first but always have a "main" in mind. I play her with the idea of leveling and totally fleshing her out. I play the alts when I need a break from my main but still want to play the game. So they level much slower. Then there is the wierd occassion that I fall madly in love with an alt and they become the "main" focus of my attention. But - I really focus on one - the others are just there for a little down time - so my main can rest. There is always that one "alt" that has a special purpose... like my Ranger will in GW2 - I like collecting pets - ever since playing a Hunter in "the game that must not be mentioned" - tracking down pets and aquiring them has always been a hobby and I plan on keeping it up in GW2.

Originally I was planning on working on one character before moving on to the next. After playing LOTRO and having to follow pretty much the same path to level up each and every character, and getting SO sick of the same quests, I came to lothe logging in to LOTRO and didn't want my GW2 experience to turn out the same way. However, I find the GW2 game play vastly different and don't feel I have to follow any particular path to level characters. So, I'm making six right at launch and will play each of them as I go along. I will, however, concentrate on my elementalist a wee bit more than the others. Myk

I plan on prolonging my time in GW2 by just focusing on one character at a time. There is a starting zone for each race and multiple story arcs along the way for the personal story so each new character will be a whole new experience. I can't wait.

Not sure how I'll do it, can't even decide on what I want to play yet. Likely with alts though it will go I create one, play till I get bored and want a slight change (or a different crafting skill) then create a new one. So excited, getting twitchy. I need to get my essay finished (due the coming week) though before then, makes it a little difficult to concentrate being so excited.

My Plan is to play an Engineer who has the widest possible range of play styles. Rather than make new characters, just respec! I wont be limiting this character to just one activity, will do a little bit of everything with mostly Wv3 to get to max level. Prolly wont even start Wv3 until I get an Elite Skill just for usefulness.

» Edited on: 2012-08-23 04:56:05

I am an altaholic and without spending money to expand my slots I will make the 5 toons I want at start, but Briseadh will be my main. The other four are just so I have a variety to mess with. I even have all five figured out as what to make as follows: Briseadh - Norn Guardian Cliste or Gadai - Asura Thief Marfach - Sylvari Necro Binbeach - Charr Ranger Pleasc - Human Engineer Last names to be used if single name is taken.

Fill all your toons at the start! Why? Birthday gifts! In Guild Wars 1 minis were given out as birthday gifts. Not the game's birthday but your character's so the sooner you fill those empty slots the sooner you get them. They can be a nice way to earn a little extra gold. That in mind I'd pick a main and settle in for a couple of months. Maybe tool around with the others and not level the alts past their respective starting zones. Why? Flavor of the month theory. Eventually people will figure out what class/trait combinations work out better than others and this way you won't have to re-invest in swapping out your traits. Since traits aren't earned until after most starting zones it's safe to level them up into a few trait points without doing any real harm. And because your personal story will start to merge outside of starting zones (though it's different the zone isn't) it will save you from some drudgery that you might have otherwise completed. Finally, gear help! Having one high level character (since the account shares the bank) will allow you to trade awesome weapons to your lower level toons. This is made especially effective since you can right-click to instantly bank materials and many weapons cross classes because they don't have modifiers that enable just one class. I plan to buy extra slots because I really like all of the professions except the engineer and thief. I've never played an engineer but I don't like the styling of the class personally. And the I have played the thief and the gameplay felt drab and unrewarding to me. Here's my list. Attrezzo Pox - Male Human Guardian (Main) Ronna Neproc - Female Asura Elementialist Calaion Glaspeir - Male Sylvari Ranger (RP toon) Nord Throstson - Male Norn Warrior Garst Sawtooth - Male Charr Necromancer Cloelia Ranoth - Female Human Mesmer What can I say? I have a soft spot for female spell-casters. It's hot when they wiggle around casting spells.

Since I'm not sure yet who my main will be, I'm going to start them all at the same time and rotate until one starts to become my favorite. That one will become my main. At that point, I'll spend the majority of the time on her and rotate on the others as I feel like it.

I appreciated being in the beta weekends as it gave me time to explore my alt-a-holicism and determine the class/race combinations I enjoy playing. Mostly I'll spend my first day or two creating all my characters and advancing them a little, then I'll focus in on my main (human elementalist) for the most part. Knowing me, I'll play long stretches on my main, and constantly swapping to alts as I work on the various crafting skills on alts so I can keep well geared on everyone. As I feel I hit a barrier in some zone or questline, I'll probably hop over to an alt, play it for awhile, then back to the main. Of course, this is with PvE as my main interest. I refrained from dabbling in WvWvW solo (bad, bad experiences in WAR), so I could be completely captured by the concept once we start doing guild runs into it! :-D

I'll have a main, but I'm still undecided on which of my characters will be my main. So, at first, I'll probably play a little bit of each of my characters, in order to decide which one is going to be my main, and then focus on finishing the story with that character. Even then, I'll use the other characters for crafting. That's the plan, but you know what they said about plans, right? "No battle plan survives contact with the enemy". ;-)

If your a crafter the strategy might be a bit different. Still fill all of the toons. BUT, make sure to get as many different races as you can. There are some crafting materials more readily available in some zones that aren't available in others and the starting zones are racial. Once you have all of your various races leveled to 10 then you can get an easier boost on crafting with the other toons. There are a number of crafting professions so you should pick one and stick with it per character, again varying this so you can make the most use of the available materials. As always with the start of a new mmo, basic crafting materials will earn a boatload of gold because they're in such high demand. If you're not so much in it for the advanced level areas then I'd get those low level toons pumped up to 10 and get to farming. The money you earn in the next two months could go a long way to reaching your overall goals sooner. Finally, you might want to focus on crafting professions that offer a lot of tradable consumable items like cooking. These kinds of professions will show an unusually high demand in lower level items simply because there will be so many players starting out that will want them. This demand should last for months and slowly taper off as people create alts and level them. It's a solid money making plan.

My general habit is to make all of the characters I want, then split time between them as the mood strikes. I'm going to try really hard to focus on my "main", but I've said that before as well...

I my self am a long time altaholic and am off the wagon after following a 12 step plan as we all know the 13th step is relaspe :P As in every game i`ve played since 1999 I always have atleast 4 characters in some games i have as many as 12 + normaly in games i tend to make characters that i enjoy but also that can fill a role if needed in a group etc. Since this game has no holy trinity thank god hehe I can just focus on the fun aspect. However I normaly tend to level them up semi close in lvl atleast for the first 2 characters the rest get made and rotated in the lvling process in short spurts like today i`ll play this toon get him a lvl or two then back to one of my two mains then rotate another alt in for a lvl or two then back to one of my two mains etc. I never really have just 1 toon that is my main I normaly have two toons that i lvl up together and play them about equal, with the rest far behind normaly one of the lowbie alts is untagged for when i need a day to just goof off and not listen to guild drama as well hehe . Yep each of my toons will specalise in a type of crafting And from tears of crafting in pretty much every game i can say that a majority of crafters are lazy when it comes to gathering the mats , esp if they are skilling up a alt etc. You can make a lot of cash crafting but normaly you can make a ton of cash just farming mats and selling them on the auction house either in raw form or converted. normaly i`ll farm mats to sell for cash and save maybe 50 % to use myself , however at low lvl or at start of a new game i just normaly gather and sell , to clean up on people trying to skill up crafting first for some sort of bragging rights lol . My toons atm are . 1. slyvari Mesmer 2. Human Guardian 3. Norn Elementalist 4. Asura Engineer 5. toss up between thief and Necro

» Edited on: 2012-08-23 08:22:55

» Edited on: 2012-08-23 08:34:58

I don't know which is my main until by hindsight! In Rift I'd meant for Mulch to be my main, but ended up not ever being much of a main. Part of the problem is keeping a character synched with my gaming partner (not an issue with GW2's auto-scale system, and that there aren't quests to level with), but also that I end up liking another class or a different personality. So as far as my plans, I intend to fully embrace my altaholism and follow my whims with GW2. 'cept my SO wants me to ensure we don't have another same-sex marriage in-game. ;) I think I'll end up with mains for the diff activities (pve, wvw, rp). Time will tell. altaholism isn't a disease, it's a way of life embrace the diversity!

I'm going to name grab but I'm going to try to focus on 2 characters to start with. After they are into the 50+ range then I'll start working on other characters... But being an Altoholic we'll see how it goes.

Heh, off topic, but that's an interesting icebreaker. "Hi, I'm Mulch and this is my wife, but in Guild Wars 2 we play plant people in a same-sex marriage."

I will roll all 5 of my slots and may well purchase and roll my 6 slot as well. Going with these to start: Norn Mesmer Human Thief Asura Elementalist or Necro (not sure which) Sylvari Ranger Charr Engineer Later: *Elementalist/Necro (whichever I didn't choose for asura race) Guardian Warrior

Our gaming idea to start with (hubby and me) is that we will each have a Norn and will go through the game together with them so that will be my defacto main with the name of Kirleen. Not sure what he will do but I am grabbing my five names I hope to get right off the bat. I have always loved the ranger (druid in old EQ days) type of character so I will have a sylvari ranger pretty close to immediately and will play her/him when the old man is asleep or doing something else. (This is our first game launch where we both are retired so we really can play together and level together).Since we can use our lowbies in things like WvW and it will bump them up to 80 that frees me up to not try to level up 5 classes at the same time. Of course, the caveat is that we could end up totally doing it another way but right now, pre-launch, my thinking is going on the lines that I will have one main that really is a main and will usually be my go to character for all sorts of family events.

I am having trouble deciding on what I want my alts to be much less if I will level. If I follow my normal trend I will have a main and my alts I will level slowly to view different elements of the game and get a fresh perspective.

Since you can level up toons through crafting, I plan on having approx 3 toons with the following focus 1) Mezmer/Asura - "Duo" toon to keep pace with a close friend. The other two will be a Ranger and either an Engineer or Elementalist 2) Class/Race tbd - All other PvE toon to play when ever 1) is not playing! 3) Cooking/JC toon that will be a fun to play class but will be stationed near the crafting area. At least one weapon skill and one armor skill for the augments! Who knows, I have 5 slots and adhd could hit any moment ;)

I always have enjoined going against the grain but for some reason all my alt choices seem typical in GW2. Charr Engineer.... Norn Ranger.. Asura Elementalist.. Human Guardian.. No idea why. Maybe the feel of the world calls to me and I want to feel 'right' for lack of a better word. Just surprised me to see my desired initial 5 all seem to fit their races/professions.