Trivia: My Alt Character Policy Throughout Expansions

My alt roster has always been on-and-off as expansions followed one another.

In general, my toon numbers significantly grow during lulls for obvious reasons – lots of spare time when everything is said and done, and a sort of fatigue from rotations and faces of current toons during raid and open world grinds. So I create additional personas and try the most unplayed specs again in case they are suddenly liked.

By the next expansion launch, the roster is a subject of cuts. Looking back, it’s always been a case of the next expansion stories and gameplay systems.

The Story So Far…

Mists of Pandaria – 2-4 toons at launch, can’t remember exactly. My goal was to see the questing lore Vanilla -> Cataclysm for both factions, and also try melee and ranged dps. During Siege of Orgrimmar I expanded to 10 toons – just trying all the classes that seemed interesting, and they all raided and geared up in the latest raid.

Draenor – same 10 toons at launch. It was the time when Alliance and Horde split up by Garrisons and starting zones, so it was 5 Alliance and 5 Horde guys/girls. I kept it like that until Tanaan – then it was a bubble of 17 by the expansion decline, which even required an extra realm.

Legion – I knew there were class stories and weapons incoming, so during pre-patch I’ve shuffled the roster, within and even between realms. I deliberately went down to 12 toons of every class, and even specifically leveled a priest which I never had. Kept playing them during the expansion, then leveled a couple more unnecessary alts during Argus. Also there has been allied races leveling, but I knew they were technical achievement alts.

Battle for Azeroth – it was the most severe cut of all. During leveling months I went down to 12 again, mercilessly deleting the doubling classes during War of Thorns event. By the end of Zandalar/Kul Tiras questlines I’ve roleplayed Hitler and went with racial purity: only 4 gnomes and 2 goblins remained! Quite enough to see both sides of the story.

Yet during the expansion and its lulls I began to miss the gameplay of deleted classes. I’ve un-deleted my druid, paladin and monk – conveniently it’s an option now once in 15 days, even after a year they were waiting for me. Warlock, demon hunter and death knight came from scratch though – new identitites.

Also – this is new – I’ve leveled allied races, and thought I liked the vibe so much that I don’t want to part with the doubling classes completely. Besides, they were in a different spec. Even if I changed the race to a ‘normal’, non-allied version afterwards, I thought they deserved staying with me, being so cool and dear. These were Dark Iron -> Dwarf elemental shaman Jagda and Mag’har -> Orc arms warrior Gorgul. I didn’t even change their nicknames!

So far, by Visions of N’Zoth it’s 14 toons. And the next expansion, with four Covenants and four armor types, calls out for… you’ve guessed it right, sixteen to see and try on every transmog.

My Policy for Shadowlands 

Yes, this is it. I will require four toons for every armor type. What do we have so far?

Plate Armor

We’re good, I have 4 toons now. So far I’m planning:

• Anibell the Human Paladin – naturally, Bastion. Do I have to explain?
• Gaella the Human Death Knight – Maldraxxus, because it holds the Lich King’s helm and Scourge story. Fits like a glove.
• Gorgul the Orc Warrior – the sturdy character will deal with vampires of Revendreth.
• Fearella (?) – now BE, Vulpera in 2 days – the sneaky fox will run in Ardenweald.

Leather Armor

• Jammu the Highmountain Druid – naturally, Ardenweald.
• Paitsu the Gnome Monk – Bastion, she’s a light-hearted creature.
• Melaris the Blood Elf Demon Hunter – Revendreth!
• Pins the Gnome Rogue – brutal Maldraxxus.

And here go the armor types where I’m missing toons…

Cloth Armor

• Jellica the Gnome Priest – Bastion!
• Micromantica the Gnome Mage – peaceful Ardenweald.
• Myrki the Gnome Warlock – vampiric Revendreth.

Now I will need one for a brutal Maldraxxus, and this calls for a fire mage (lol another one). Just in case, I will level vulpera as that for a legacy armor – I hope it will work out.

Chainmail Armor

Currently these are:

• Jagda the Dwarf Shaman – Bastion, she’s the righteous one.
• Nikkeli the Dwarf Hunter – Maldraxxus, he’s a tough guy.
• Schlitzchen the Goblin Shaman – Revendreth, she’ll be fine.

And what do you know, I already have a chainmail toon for Ardenweald. A severe lack of draenei in my organism resulted in a young goat this weekend. Kalaari is currently level 30 and exploring the joys of Survival:

I doubt that I will be playing a mechagnome past heritage armor, I do. I think I will pick one of random faster specs and will just hop to 110 and straight into trash bin with it during lull.

So, the plans and goals are set :) Who would have thought Shadowlands requires 16 characters from me? Yet here they go, and it’s not gonna be a chore. Never was, and never is. Altoholism up to 11!

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