Guild Wars 2

Whenever someone asks me which of my characters is a main I look at them funny. Alts are things like mules to me. If you asked, oh, “who is your main in the shiverpeaks” I would think, oh, that is easy, my asura engineer. Even asking which character I am “maining” that day is a bit odd as I can go through several in one session depending on what tasks I want to accomplish.

Maybe I am different than normal? I also give each of them a distinct personality too rather then have them all become some huge blend. If I took two characters of the same race and profession, with the exact same stats and build, to the same event it would feel slightly different and they would probably project that to others.

Which one is your favorite, overall? That’s your main.

Possibly which one is your first, or do you generally choose to complete new content first. That might be your main.

Which one are you more likely to get things for, forsaking your other characters? For me all of these are the same character, my Human Ranger of the same name.

While I have a ‘main,’ I don’t treat my alts all that differently. It’s just that my charrhammerbaby gets more love than the others. I also find it more convenient to swap characters than carry around multiple gear sets for the same class.

I don’t have a main exactly, but I do have an RP main who also gets first crack at all the LS and new things. Too bad he’s a Thief and very squishy … though that did make the fight against the Shadow of the Dragon in the Grove rather epic the first time. He also has all my shovels and keys for SW.

But I have mesmers for dungeons and fractals, and lots of professions for various RP stories. Oddly I have ascended gear on my one alt that most cannot go PvEing, my human necromancer, because she has her bags choked with all the different light armors ready to swap looks at need. Maybe I should hand over her ascended to my fractals mesmer

My main is just the character I enjoy playing most, and therefore spend the most time on. As a result of that (and to simplify my decision making process) she’s also the first priority for anything new I get.

For example she usually has my infinite gathering tools because she moves around maps more often – if I’m doing something random or reward focused like farming or guild missions I’ll play her, whereas my other characters are almost entirely devoted to their own story/character progression.

But all my characters have their own personalities, back stories and themes and I play them all regularly. Like you I can go through several characters in one play-session.

If someone asked me who is my main I’d give them a list. Though my Mesmer gets all the shiny things first. To me it’s like asking “What classes are your favorite?”

My main is my revenant.

I don’t have a main, not usually. Right now my new Charr warrior is getting all my attention but I’ll be switching back to my old system soon enough. A different char a day to start off with and switch to a different char on the fly, depending on what char I like best for particular content.

My mains were the ones that received the 3 year birthday gift, which had survived my multiple delete character because their hair looks different OCD dilemma

I do not have a main, I have 17 lvl 80’s But I do have 4 Alts and a Mule.

I have 3 warriors

1. Norn Zerk DPS (100% map) dungeons
2. Norn Sinister or Rabid Hybrid (100% map) Whatever I want
3. Charr Zealot support WvW

I have 3 rangers

1. Sylvari Zerk DPS (100% Map) Dungeons
2. Norn Sinister Hybrid PvE/WvW
3. Charr Rabid Condi WvW Alt

I have 3 Necro’s

1. Charr Zealot Support (100% map) WvW
2. Human Sinister Hybrid (100% map) Dungeons/WvW
3. Sylvari Rabid Condi Wvw Alt

I have 2 Ele’s

1. Human Zerk or Celestial DPS (100% map) Dungeons, WvW
2. Human Zealot Support Dungeons Alt

I have 2 guards

1. Sylvari (Nomads/)Clerics Tank/Support (100% map) WvW
2. Human Zealot DPS/Support Dungeons Alt

I have 2 Mesmers

1. Sylvari Sinister or Rabid Hybrid/Condi (100% Map) WvW
2. Norn Zerk DPS Dungeons Alt

I have 1 Thief

1. Sylvari Zerk DPS (100% Map) WvW/Dungeons

I have 1 Engi

1. Norn Sinister MULE.

I consider all others to be main characters. all 12

Menadena.7482:

snip

I do. My first thief. I have got 5 thieves now, 13 characters altogether but I’m still only playing with this one character. (Unless when it comes to dungeons as he isn’t full zerker, then I take another thief and if I face blobby fights in wvw, then I take yet another thief with soldier’s gear).

I’m not a role player, so my characters don’t really have a character but they’re somehow different nonetheless.

My charr warrior is my boy. He will forever be my boy. I love my charr warrior. All new equipment and content goes to him first, for we are boys.

Yes…. yes….

My “Main” has changed a lot

-Originally was my first character, a female norn guardian. Loved her to bits, she has a special place in my heart and is full of the nostalgia of my first exploration of Tyria
-Then came my male asura necro. He was my fall-to guy once I’d done 100% world on my guardian. Strangely enough, I remember doing a lot of dungeons with him.
-Female asura ele- once I understood elementalist, I couldn’t be parted from her. I was beginning to gear her out with ascended stuff and did many fractals and dungeons with her. I loved the dps and supporty feel.
-But then I made another guardian and remember why I loved them so much. Another male asura.

My male asura guardian is still my main today, and he’s fully kitted out in ascended gear now. I’ve levelled plenty of other characters and done 100% world completion on them too, but they don’t feel as natural to play. I doubt he’ll be my main forever, as I do have a Sylvari Guardian (who looks super pretty) who is waiting to be levelled up…

The weird thing that I do is this: if I particularly enjoy a class, rather than stick to that character once they’re 80, I’ll end up making a new one and level it all over again and do 100% world completion again. I love making different styles of each class and breaking the norm.

My advice to anybody who is a raging altaholic is this:
If you’re looking at doing “hard endgame content” and need to splash out on ascended gear, rather than focus on a particular class, focus on a particular weight. It’s slightly less limiting and because of the general meta for all classes, works out quite well.

Or main them all, but in different areas of the game and try and use them equally (e.g: a character each for: WvW, EotM, PvP, World Bosses, Crafting, Jumping Puzzles, Guild Missions, Dungeons, Fractals, Dailies, Exploring, etc). This is actually quite fun and handy as you can customise each character to be most effective in each sub-area without having to retrait/regear/reskill. You can set each alt in prime position for their activity, too.

It’s OK to be indecisive! It’s OK to set yourself lots of different goals on each character! It’s certainly OK to have a different feel/personality for each character too- it makes it far more engaging!.

I like to think I have a main, but it doesn’t really feel like it. I always feel the need to switch characters depending on what I am doing. It also doesn’t help that I have done everything there is to do on my “main” and that it was so easy for me to do so. Normally I play just 1 or 2 characters in an MMO and see them as an extension of myself, but here all my characters are their own thing with their own personalities.

Never before have I seen an MMO that encourages playing multiple characters so much. Not sure if that’s a good or bad thing though…

No main here either. Account is as old as the game. Made characters deleted some made new ones. Have a necro may delete it and make another for the reaper which I may actually play more then my others.

It’s interesting to hear from other people like this. In every game I’ve played that has classes having a main has never been something I could do. I understand people having a favorite class but I always have to make them all. I bought 2 character slots the day GW2 launched because I knew I’d be making every class and playing them equally. Luckily GW2 it’s easy to level which is usually a big issue with swapping through characters too much.

My warrior was my first character, first 80 and thus obviously my first dungeon runner. My mesmer got the first ascended armor because she was the person I was on when the box dropped. My guardian got the first ascended necklace I bought because I wanted more magic find to add onto the omnomberry creams I was using for extra boon duration (greedy). My ranger was the first I used for any duration in WvW. Engi is one I play with builds the most on. Really I can’t pick a main because I can’t be bothered to show favor to one profession. One of the major boons in GW2 is that all the classes play differently and playing the same one repeatedly will burn me out on that class, even if that isn’t the case yet sometimes I’ll go to log on and see a character I haven’t done something on in a while and think “What the hell.” then do the content with them. And it’s sure to be even more impossible with elite specs and the rev coming out.

I like PaxTheGreatOne’s strategy of having loads of all character types, I started making duplicates towards the end of GW1 maybe I’ll do the same in GW2.

I don’t. I don’t like MMORPG terminology at all so it’s not something I ever will call any of my characters.
I just have characters. Many of them are precious to me for different, occasionally very random reasons.

With over 40 characters, I couldn’t imagine limiting myself to the mindset of a “main”? The character I run with is chosen by content, balance, and whim.

I have 4 80s and only two with significant play time. I don’t have a lot of time for gaming these days so my “main” is the one I choose to relax and have fun with while I explore the new content. My first main was human ranger so I’ll stick with her for starters in HoT. My favorite alt was guardian but I mostly used him as healer in WvW.

As to which one I like more it all depends on what I want to do, even though other builds may be better at the task. For example, my warrior LOVES gathering expensive mats … even though she could hold her own against most mobs. It also varies over time, it used to be my first 4 characters getting more or less equal attention then it became my next two. Now it is my asura necro (leveling) and my human mesmer (Teq). Dailies are up for grabs by everyone but largely depend on what the RNG deities gave to us that day (‘oh, 4 in maguuma wastes, better switch to my charr ranger’).

All of my characters (except one) look exactly the same. Same face, height, hair, etc.

So I definitely have a “main,” just one that is proficient at every role when I need them to be.

I am a mainoholic, I always have 1 character in every game. Don’t get me wrong, I TRY many but always end up with the one I like the most and delete the rest, lol. I know it’s weird but I tend to play with ONE character for YEARS…

11 80s at this point.

Sylvari Guardian main. Was my first character. Is my favorite class (currently, we shall see with HoT).

I have two secondaries that I play regularly: Human ranger, Charr necro.

The other 8 characters are alts. Although my second Guardian is like my PvP Guardian, so he’s I guess a kind of secondary.

My human warrior is my “main” warrior, I have 4.

BrotherBelial.3094:

My human warrior is my “main” warrior, I have 4.

I was totally the inverse for so long. Because Warrior was my ‘main,’ I only had 1 for the longest time. It wasn’t until I made another one on a whim (and something of a joke), that I added a second one. But I had at least 3 Mesmers. And 3 Guardians. I don’t even know what to do with Guardians.

But one Warrior. <3

My ranger is my main because she’s the character I love most. She’s not the one I find funnest (hopefully druid will change that), she’s not the one I have invested in most since my mesmer has the only legendary I’ve made, she’s just the one I have most attachment to

I have 9 level 80s, one of each class and two Rangers. The ones I use the most are ranger, guard, and necro but switch them so often that I’d hardly call any single one a main. They are the only 4 characters that I have 100% map completion and story completion on though.

Other characters I use for different purposes. Mesmer for jumping puzzles, warrior for pvp, elementalist for pvp. The rest I will just play now and then when I want a different experience.

Here is how I play my characters:

Human Thief = Character for login bonus
Sylvari thief = collecting home instance nodes
Sylvari warrior = Char for converting dragonite ore into gifts

This is also my daily play routine, takes about 5 mins and I am done.

After this I play new D3 patch, the new monk set is pretty OP.

Seems like a silly question in GW2 where it is relatively easy to equip all characters with more or less the best gear. In other games it would make more sense to focus on a single character where it is prohibitively expensive do the same.

I like to call my human necro my main, but it doesn’t feel like it much anymore. I’ve completed her personal story and world completion, as well as going through LS 2 on her first. I completed Dungeon Master with her, finished all the jumping puzzles with her first, and even made a replica of her for the Beta so I could test out how Twilight would go with her outfit.

Yet when I log on of a day, unless I’m in the mood for PvP, or farming ore/wood in 80 areas, I don’t touch her anymore. There is nothing I can do with her in PvE anymore, and it makes me very sad. The main reason I’m excited for HoT is because it’ll give me something to do with her.

What I spend my time doing nowadays is leveling up alts, completing personal story on 80’s, key farming, or doing more World Completions (I’m up to my 6th one iirc). Sometimes I start LS 2 on an 80 alt just for the rewards, but whenever I play a necro alt I miss that sense of discovery and freshness of the game I had when playing my main.