I just can’t help it. No matter how hard I try, I just can’t stop myself from rolling new toons. It’s like sitting a fat guy in front of a table full of pie and expecting him not to eat them (trust me, I’m the fat guy and I know these things /nomnomnom). I’ve got fifty slots that I can fill with toons, and I love a good reroll.
To give you just a general idea of how much I enjoy rolling new toons, lets look at just the last week. Within the last week alone I have rolled six new characters. Some of them from plans I have for the near future (Psynner), some for plans I have in the distant future (Lexzus), some because I want to try out a new class (Psynwise), some because friends have rolled new toons and would like a bit of company (Psynple), and some because I was just bored and needed something different to play around with for a while. I really don’t need any particular reason to roll a new toon, I just need an open character slot in my account-wide allotment of 50 total characters, and a few minutes worth of open play time.
As I’ve spent so much time doing such a wide variety of things on so many different toons, it puts a bit of a strain on the blog’s purpose which is to write about leveling your characters. But, I feel like writing today regardless, so instead of trying to finish up one of the many near-completed posts I have sitting over there in my Drafts folder, I’m going to share with you what I’m doing simply because I can.
So, here’s a little information about some of the toons that I have rolled within the last week. I’ll leave out the new bank alt because, well, he’s my bank alt.
Psynner (Male Human Priest)
I rolled this guy last night because we had a discussion on Twitter about how much fun low level PvP is. I made the comment that it would be fun to get a premade group consisting entirely of healers to do them with and a few people agreed with me. So, I rolled this guy. Initially I was going to go with a female draenei, but decided the human racial would pay off more than an extra heal as I would likely only use it when I was out of mana in which case I’d already be screwed regardless. How often he gets played will depend on how often my other friends feel like doing some low level PvP.
This guy is named for the obvious contrast between name and class.
Psynwise (Female Human Warlock)
I rolled this one a few days ago because I decided that the Gnome just wasn’t doing it for me. I just couldn’t get into playing that short little guy all the time with his stupid sayings and goofy looking gear. Instead I rolled a human because the female’s casting animation is actually pretty decent compared to some of the other races which…well, suck. I’ve wanted to get a warlock going for a long time now, and maybe this will be the one that I hang on to for a while.
This character is named after Cynwise, for having invited us to the Durotan server which my wife absolutely loves.
Psynister (Male Draenei Death Knight)
Now there’s a shocker of a name, right? I rolled this toon last night because my wife decided to get her start on a Role Play server (Feathermoon-US). She hates some of the quests in the DK area, so I offered to reroll with her to help get through all of the quests faster, and we certainly did. The idea is to get some starter gold for a new toon. He will either see almost no play time at all save farming, or he will become my experimental DK tank. Most likely the former.
Just about every server I roll on fresh has the first character named Psynister, no matter what kind of character it is.
Psynple (Male Dwarf Hunter)
This guy’s just a simple little hunter. I rolled him to level up with my wife and Cynwise who also rolled low level characters. We played with them one night this week and I haven’t logged into him a second time yet. Playing a hunter is always fun and relaxing during the low levels, so I’ll probably come back to this guy before too long just to have a bit of relaxing play if nothing else.
When I rolled the hunter, I knew I wanted something simple. And as soon as the word “simple” crossed my mind, I had my name.
Lexzus (Male Draenei Warrior)
And the last one for today is the one I’ve already brought up when I mentioned him in a post a few days ago. You can read there for any details you want on him. He’s still level 4 by the way.
Your Alts
So I want to know – are any of you out there just as bad as me (or worse?) about constantly rolling new toons?
If so, what are your reasons?
If not, what is it that keeps you so focused on sticking with only a small number of toons?
New Entries 
Psynister's Notebook 
Anea
November 19, 2009 at 4:29 PM
Under normal circumstances, I would say that I’m just as bad as you, but I will admit that I am worse than you, given my behavior this last month or so.
It all started with my Tauren warrior, Rahima. She sprinted to 70, then I had to quit to level a Gnome DK to play with the bf… she got to 70 as well, but I lost half my brain along the way. I (think) I then rolled a baby Orc shaman to play with @Elleiras and @Naithin, then switched to an Orc rogue. But then I wanted to play with the RP crowd on Feathermoon! So I rolled a Dwarf rogue. I played her to 20. Then I faction change/transferred Rahima to Feathermoon and made her a Night Elf (I SO regret that!) She will never be played :(
Then I went back and played an Orc warrior. Then I switched over to a Draenei hunter – played her to 21. Then I decided a Dwarf hunter is really what I wanted. She is now 18.
It’s all so very shameful :(
Cynwise
November 19, 2009 at 4:39 PM
What race would you change Rahima to to make her more playable?
Anea
November 19, 2009 at 9:02 PM
hm… well, if she stayed Alliance, probably she’d have to be a Draenei. If I switched her back to Horde I think that playing an Orc would be fun (I’ve wanted one for a while.) Of the two though, I think I would prefer Horde over Alliance. The only thing keeping me from switching her back right this second is the cost of server transfer and faction change.
Psynister
November 19, 2009 at 4:44 PM
There’s no shame there, there is only awesomeness! :D
That’s a whole lot of leveling wrapped up into a short period of time, too! I’m not sure if you’re worse than me or not, we probably come pretty close, really. You definitely get yours leveled up higher than me before switching though. I usually get a character up to the 20s or 30s and then get caught up in doing something else. A few I get up into the 70’s but those are usually when I’m really sucked into my own little world and ignoring everyone else.
The min/maxxer in me needs to solo everything and be a massive source of power. He’s the one that pushes for Northrend.
The social nerd in me though will drop whatever I’m doing to go hang out with someone else. He’s the one that takes up the other 47 character slots.
The two are constantly fighting one another for dominance, and on any given day who knows who the victor will be or how many battles they’ll have in just a few short hours.
Why the problem with being a NElf though?
Anea
November 19, 2009 at 9:01 PM
I’ve always – ALWAYS – had an issue with Night Elves. Never liked them. I really like their leveling areas and I like the lore that goes along with them but the character models themselves and miscellaneous stereotypes (however unfair) are what keep me from liking them.
Kimberly
November 19, 2009 at 5:04 PM
I don’t have a lot of alts because I am spoiled by my level 80s (paladin and mage) and by having all of my “wealth” on one server. On my current server my level 64 priest and 65 rogue are languishing in Outland because I HATE Outland. I have a 58 DK but I was so turned off by the quests (even though I was redeemed) that I can’t play her. But I don’t delete her because I like her name.
BUT…2 weeks ago I rolled a wee Dwarven paladin on a different server where I know NOBODY. Not only a different server, but a PVP server at that. She’s broke and frightened and I’m not sure if that’s a thrill I’m willing to endure for 70 more levels.
Psynister
November 19, 2009 at 5:21 PM
I can understand that. My wife’s a lot like that too. If the server transfers weren’t possible, we never would have left Blackwing Lair-US (PvP) for that very reason.
I share your hatred for Outlands. If it were possible to skip the whole thing I would do so with every character. I support the non-leveling of the DK too. ;)
Rolling on a PVP server is a whole different experience. It really does a lot for keeping you on your toes. I honestly think that leveling my first 80 on a PVP server did a lot for making me a better player. You have a lot to gain by spending time on a server where you’re not constantly feeling safe and secure and where you need to be able to adapt and change when something surprises you. I think it’s a great idea, no matter what level you manage to get the wee little lass up to.
Aislynn
November 19, 2009 at 5:32 PM
I’m terrible for rolling alts. I do it whenever the whim hits me, usually because I come up with character names I want. I think currently I have about 25 characters total, not counting two bank alts, one on Bronzebeard and one on Medivh. It took me three tries to get a hunter I like and I’ve discovered tho Tauren look very cool, I can’t play them. Something about them just makes me switch characters after about ten minutes of play time.
And I haven’t got an Alliance character above lvl 36 because none of my friends ever want to go Ally-side, much to my dismay. Someday I’ll see their side of the story, someday!
Psynister
November 19, 2009 at 6:35 PM
Well, that means you’ve got 25 more slots to fill. If you’d like to fill one of them with an Alliance character, you’re welcome to come hang out with us on Durotan-US. ;)
Aislynn
November 20, 2009 at 8:56 AM
Hee, I may take you up on that. It’d be nice to check out a new server w/ fun people. :)
Psynister
November 20, 2009 at 11:21 AM
If you decide to join us, the easiest way to find me is to type “/join Twitter” when you get into the game to join that channel. All of my characters are tied into that as soon as they enter the game, so you’ll be able to spot whoever I’m on without having to check which of my 10 toons I’ve logged in as.
Matojo
November 20, 2009 at 11:06 AM
I’m pretty bad for rolling alts, but I have a hard time playing away from Thorium Brotherhood and am slowly working on this by playing on Moon Guard Alliance (GUILTY PLEASURE).
My altmaking tends to revolve around roleplaying concepts. How about a big, clumsy Tauren druid that’s built like a brick house but sharp as a tack? How about an ex-Zeppelin crewman who just wants to be left alone with his beer but keeps getting dragged off across Azeroth as part of his duties as a soldier in Silvermoon’s service? Oh, maybe a novice paladin that’s never left the farm (so to speak) would be fun. If the character concept fails, then I can’t play the alt. My favourite ideas and classes level quickly and the others just stagnate.
… And when I get a character to 80 it winds up not doing much (please see the gear of Kinuka, Grindal, Gahiji and Kombeya on Thorium Brotherhood US, that’ll show you). I think I can pretty much chalk this up to not having much opportunity to make regular runs of any content, so they just don’t make any improvements and I wind up leveling other dudes (DO WANT 3.3 LFG THX).
Psynister
November 20, 2009 at 11:20 AM
So far my characters don’t revolve around concepts so much, but all of them have some bit of RP flare to them. Often something that nobody else ever sees, or notices unless they spend a lot of time with my toon. And since I’m primarily a solo player, that doesn’t happen very often.
I definitely understand the level 80 situation. My characters pretty well retire when they hit 80, opportunity or not.
I’m very much looking forward to 3.3 hitting the live servers as well.