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Best practices for a banker alt
Lately, I've really been pushing hard to get the 5k gold for my epic riding skill-- as I said on Friday, that Netherwing mount is calling my name. And so, on the advice of a rich guildie, I've finally made it a point to get a fulltime auction house alt. I chose one of my younger, less-played alts, stuck him between an Auction House and a mailbox (it happened to be in Thunder Bluff, but it could have been in any capital city), and made it a point to start scanning the AH every day, posting auctions when I start playing, and sending items to the alt when I'm done playing. That way, the next day when I log in with my bank alt, all those items are sitting in the mailbox, waiting for me to put them on AH-- right after I scan it again.That's what Amanna at Adventures in Azeroth does as well-- though she goes even farther and looks for deals on gear she has in mind to buy. It would be great to have that kind of know-how, and I'm sure it makes money, but I don't have time to know the approximate costs of every little thing-- I leave that to Auctioneer. (Auctioneer does come with a mod called Bottomscanner (used to be called Bottomfeeder) that is supposed to find deals on high-priced items for you, but I'm not sure that I can get it to work right-- I'm worried that I'll spend a bunch of money on an item I can't sell).But if nothing else, I do have to agree that the formula works-- check the AH with your alt when you log on, and mail items back to that alt when you're done playing for the night. It's a basic thing to do (and anyone who's been interested in making money before has probably already started doing it). But making money seemed like such a chore before (I'd rather be killing stuff or grouping up then worrying about prices and checking the mail), but it's actually become fun for me to log in every day and check what's sold and how much gold I've earned.
Ask WoW Insider: When does an alt become a main?
It's time once again for the weekly edition of Ask WoW Insider, wherein we publish a reader question for everyone to answer. This week brings us an esoteric conundrum from Matthew: I started WoW about 5 months ago and played an Orc Warrior up to lvl 49. When the expansion came out, I started a BE mage and I absolutely love it. However, I have just surpassed my main in level. So now I have a lvl 50 BE mage alt and I don't see myself leveling my warrior for quite awhile. My question is: Is my lvl 49 Orc Warrior still my main if it was overtaken by my lvl 50 Blood Elf Mage alt? So -- when does an alt become a main, and vice versa? Send us your tired, your poor, your huddled questions yearning to be free at ask AT wowinsider DOT com.
Breakfast Topic: Why do you keep playing?
Some people call them "nerfs." Some people call them "balance." (And usually this is exactly proportional to how the change impacts your own class.) But however you want to phrase it, gameplay in World of Warcraft changes -- and it doesn't always change for to the benefit of your playstyle. So how do you keep yourself playing when you seem to have hit the bottom of the nerfing/balancing cycle? Reroll? Play alts? Explore areas you've ignored in the past? Tell us, why do you keep playing?
Breakfast Topic: Next alt
I have a simple question for you all today. It is Saturday morning, after all, and I'm sure many of you are a bit...exhausted after a hard Friday night partying or, more likely, raiding. So: what's the next character you're going to level, when you're done with the one you're working on now? As for myself, my Rogue is nearing 70 (69 right now), so next up, I think, is my Mage, who's been moldering at 20 for a long time. I may respec him frost, though -- I've never played frost. What are you guys going to make? Or do you have enough characters already?
Is ten character slots enough?
You may or may not be aware of the fact that you are only allowed ten characters per realm. For some, this is not a problem, and for others it is. Kinless writes about his dilemma, with the upcoming expansion, in which he will find himself wanting 13 character slots on a single realm. (I feel his pain -- I'm going to have to pick a character to delete in order to roll my expansion Blood Elf on my usual realm. And then I'll have to delete a second character if I decide I want to try my hand at playing a Draenei!)Of course, Blizzard allows for this, in a way. You can always put your alts on a different realm, which has the notable side-effect of giving you something to do when your usual realm is down -- but that means playing away from friends and guild-mates. Starting over on a new realm isn't for the faint of heart: when you've made a name for yourself on your old realm, and regardless of your alt's name you're likely able to find friends and help when needed. So is ten character slots per realm really enough -- or do you find yourself wanting more?
Finding time for the alt
After hitting 60 with my shaman a few weeks ago, he has definitely become my main. I raid with him all the time, I've got a lot of nice tier 1 gear already on him, and I'm working hard at farming up my alchemy and herbalism skills (yes I slacked off while leveling) so I can become a "Frank Potion-guy" for my guild. The only problem is, I've got this alt...See, a while back, I rolled a UD rogue to play as a twink in WSG 10-19. I never tracked honor for him or anything-- I just sent him nice gear when I found it on the AH, and played PVP with him for fun (usually when the WSG weekends were up, not because I cared about honor, but because that's when they were most busy). Then, a little while back, I decided that I liked playing a rogue (stunlock ftw) so much I wanted to get him to 60. I don't really want to raid with him, I just want him to be 60 and PVP-specced so that when the expansion hits, I'll be ready for all the new World PVP options.But my problem is that I can't seem to find the time to bring him up. Between helping guildies with the tier 0 instances, farming herbs, running raids, and finishing raid quests, I'm finding it hard to fit in some quality time with my alt. Despite what a few people think of me, I do spend a lot of time not playing the game, and so I'm finding time to be at a premium when I play, and most of it is going to keeping up my main.So how have you dealt with bringing up an alt? Do you ditch your main for a while and focus on the alt as if it was your only character? Or do you work the both of them-- lately I've been logging out and switching over to my alt while waiting for raid groups to come together. Or is it even possible to have two characters advancing at the same time? Maybe the classes are so deep that trying to level two at the same time means you can't really dig into both very well. What's your experience? I'd really like to get my rogue to 60 (33 now) before the expansion, but if I have to ditch my beloved shammy to do it, I might have second thoughts.
An AppleScript to enable Windows keyboards to control a Mac
Someone by the name of UNIXGEEK posted an AppleScript a while ago at Mac Geekery that changes Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger's keyboard layout to play nicely with a Windows keyboard. To be specific: the Command and Option keys are switched on a Windows keyboard (as the Windows key and Alt, respectively), so this script simply changes the layout on Tiger so your non-Apple keyboard still feels like home (sorry pre-Tiger users, Apple only introduced the ability to tinker with keyboard layouts in 10.4). If you aren't a fan of Apple's stock Pro keyboard or the MacBook/Pro 'boards, this script is for you. However, the script at Mac Geekery has a few errors in it, and Engadget's Ryan Block trudged through the post's discussions to make the proper edits to the script, and posted a fixed copy for everyone's benefit (download it from us, not Ryan. We don't wanna hit him with the TUAW effect).As a side note, I think it's funny how attached people can get to one keyboard or another. I'm slowly getting used to this MacBook keyboard, though I've been a die-hard lover of the PowerBook/MacBook Pro's tight and low-travel keys since I've owned one for the last 4 years. Ultimately though, I dislike most keyboards because I used to own an ergonomic - y'know the funny looking split ones? - and that was absolutely killer for both teaching myself better typing habits and making sure I don't get carpal tunnel. The only ergonomic keyboards I can find in stores (since you gotta get your hands on those to really get a feel for 'em) these days are Microsoft's and, while I love their Intellimouse Explorers, their ergonomic keyboards' construction just doesn't feel up to par, and there's far too much needless travel in their keys.But I digress (a lot) - if you're using a non-Apple keyboard on a Mac, enjoy this script for easily swapping the keyboard layout for your Mac computing pleasure.
Breakfast Topic: The skills you miss
Being a confessed alt-aholic, I will occasionally find myself running on an alt I haven't played recently and a bit confused about my hotkey layout. Why doesn't hitting "2" cast Power Word: Shield? Oh, wait, I'm playing my rogue... After playing one class for a while, it's easy to get accustomed to pressing the right buttons by habit, and while I try to arrange my buttons in a way that similar situations (across different classes) will use similar hotkeys this (obviously!) doesn't always work. So what's the one skill you have trouble living without when playing another character? For me, it's usually priest's ubiquitous heals -- even though they tend to be counterbalanced by the greater damage abilities.
A second sixty in the making
I'm a serious alt-a-holic, with dozens of characters spread out across servers, factions, races and classes. After getting my first character to level 60 a few months ago, I've been exploring the endgame, but still spending time with my alts too -- and now my first real 'alt' character is about to reach 60. At the moment, I'm considering how to approach the 'main'/'alt' situation. There are many things I want to achieve with my main; the pvp and reputation grinds are nowhere near done, and there's plenty of bosses to fight and items to collect. However, I'm a little bored of the sameness of it all, and being able to experience these encounters from a different class's point of view is going to be refreshing -- and will involve a lot of relearning. Many of the raiding players I know tend to focus on their main character, only bringing out alts for special encounters or when the raidgroup feels generous enough to gear up the alt. Class balance being what it is, my main character (a druid) is more likely to be needed for raids and instances -- but I don't want my alt (a mage) to sit gathering dust in greens for the rest of time. For the time being, I think I will continue playing both characters, attempting to gear up my alt when I'm not raiding or PvPing with my main. Playing my alts is something that I do for a change of pace and scenery, and I'd like to keep it that way.
Holidaying with another self
What do you do when the pressures of endgame all become too much? When the PvP grind gets you down, and raiding just isn't doing it for you any more?Spend some time away from it all, in an exotic location where everything's new again -- make an alt. Preferably a cross-faction alt.It sounds idyllic, in principle. Start life from scratch again, in a town where nobody knows your name. Learn new skills! Have fantastic adventures! Spend four hours killing wolves and only regain a fraction of your former power! (Eh?)
