Guild Wars 2

Right now I have 3 characters I’m focusing on. A Human warrior, Norn ranger, and a Charr engineer. I’m thinking of creating more but what’s the benefit? My goals right now for them is to complete their living story and get to level 80 of course but also complete the maps 100% for each one. Maybe along the way create new characters for a fresh feel every now and then but I don’t want it to feel like a “been there, done that” situation. In fact, for the heck of it I did create a new human character as a Ranger but while leveling up in Queensdale I WAS in that situation and sort of lost interest because I didn’t see the point/benefit so I just felt like just playing my Human warrior instead. However, I’m still interested to try out multiple characters and not be in that situation so I am asking for the players help that have multiple characters, how do you manage that and still what is the benefit?

For me, it was to have some different crafting disciplines, and to try out new classes/races.

Other than that, there isn’t much benefit. Not with the new Trait system. I mean, now you can be level 80 and have only 12 traits or so unlocked. No way to experiment with builds. Too bad, really.

If you are the type of player who can focus on one character, do it.

There are nothing but draw backs otherwise.

I have 7/8 classes at 80 and the last one (Thief) in the mid 30s (I’ll finish leveling it at some point). I generally just will randomly want to play a certain class and it’s nice to be able to do so. Leveling is definitely boring, though, and most of them don’t have very much of the map completed.

One benefit to get one of each class to 80 would be to get a honest feel with each class to see which one you like best. There really is no way around getting this feel than to just get them to 80, and even this has been nerfed with the NPE changes as you can’t get an honest feel for the class until you have the traits to mess around with.

I play games like this for the rpg element, not to get from start to finish and think that I’ve won. Most of my 55 characters have a story behind them, and many of them are from stories (mine or others). As they level they develop personalities and by the time they get to 80 they’ll have particular gameplay aspects that I’m happy for them to spend their time in (battling world bosses, vanquishing Risen, WvW). I’ve got a ranger who’s spending all his time in Wayfarer taking revenge on Jormag’s minions for things that happened in his past. Its all he does and all he’s ever going to do; roams all over the map and kills the bad guys.

How do I manage? I have seven characters I’m leveling at five levels a time before switching, and I do this for dailies. After the daily is done I’ll select whatever character takes my fancy. Some of my 80s don’t see much action but they all get a bit of a go.

Benefit? Its my fun.

My reason is something like zenleto (though, I don’t have that many characters, glad to read that there are people even worse infected by the alt-virus :p)

I level one at the time though, mostly by simply roaming maps. Those that are inactive at the moment, I have parked at different JP’s. You can imagine that getting the monthly JP jumper is a matter of minutes, depending on load times

I personally don’t care about doing things asap and afap, I just want to have fun with my boys and girls.

I have all profession at level 80. Here the benefits.

- I tried most profession which was fun.
- I learned how these profession work so I can understand my friend when we talk about them, but i’m also better in PvP since I know what the other profession can do.
- I wanted to have at least 4 chars to have all 8 crafting professions.
- I always played between 1 and 3 characters, never more. But they changed over time. I started with my engineer as main. Then my guardian became my main and my engineer in sPvP and WvW. Then my Guardian became my main in PvE and WvW zerg. Then I played my Mesmer in dungeon. Then I played my Elementalist in dungeon. And now I play Guardian everywhere and my thief in sPvP and WvW roaming. That gave me different playstyle and allowed me to really figure out which profession I love the most.
- A couple alts that you can park in a specific place is awesome. I use to have all my alts that I don’t play at Orr to farm orichalcum when I wanted to craft vision of the mist. Then they all went for Iron and Platinum when i wanted to craft my ascended heavy armor. Now, they are all in Malchor Leap to get foxfire out of Elder wood. I just take 10min to go thought 6 or 7 character and get the material I want in the moment. I don’t always use them, but they are ready if i need them.

The main benefit of having multiple characters is that you can play with multiple characters. There are side benefits, like cashing in on things that are time-gated per character instead of per account.

As someone with over 20 characters over a few accounts, I find uses for them all. You live and learn certainly applies to the game. You’ll find yourself creating more characters when you are ready.

The benefit is you will have years and years of ‘end game’ aka grinding your kitten off indefinitely for full ascended sets.

zenleto.6179:

I play games like this for the rpg element, not to get from start to finish and think that I’ve won.

While I realize you didn’t intend it to be, this is fairly insulting in that it insinuates that anyone that sticks to one character wants to get from start to finish and feel they won.

Perhaps they don’t want to spend the extreme amount of time gearing them all out in their own soulbound exotics, trying not to have to bankswap out loads of ascended gear if they don’t want to spend extreme amounts of time gearing them all up in ascended. Maybe I should mention each character that has multiple sets of different stat armor, some of mine have 3-4 different stat sets. Do I even mention Legendaries? I could go on and on about why alts in GW2 for the “usual” gamer is a PITA.

I use the term usual gamer to indiciate those without very specific, niche goals like “RP”.

For me the main benefit is having different professions available to play. It gives more variety than simply switching builds on one profession can, which makes the game more interesting for me. My engineer plays very differently to my ranger or thief and they’re both different from each other and from my guardian etkitten

il the September 9th update it was also a way for me to experience all the different personal stories. But I’ve put that on hold until the story from level 70 onwards is fixed because I don’t want to play it in the state it’s in now.

Similarly there are also small differences in the open-world and some living story quests depending on your race and personal story choices. The biggest is probably the Order of Whisper agents can identify under cover Agents all over the world and get extra dialogue choices when speaking to them, which often hint at hidden areas and other things nearby. It’s not a big thing but I enjoy finding all the different options.

It’s a minor point but it’s also a way to get to use more of the skins I like without spending a fortune on transmutation charges. Especially because I tend to have a distinct style in mind for each character so sometimes even if I like a skin I’d never use it on my main because it just isn’t right for her. But I can usually find an alt it does suit.

Personally, I made a male and female of every race. It gives me the opportunity to really get creative with armors and outfits with having so much variety. Plus, it’s fun to try out different story lines in the personal story with having so many characters.

Also, when I need to farm nodes, like certain ores, or wood, it helps having tons of toons to hit up rich veins or clusters of trees constantly.

GOSU.9574:

zenleto.6179:

I play games like this for the rpg element, not to get from start to finish and think that I’ve won.

While I realize you didn’t intend it to be, this is fairly insulting in that it insinuates that anyone that sticks to one character wants to get from start to finish and feel they won.

Perhaps they don’t want to spend the extreme amount of time gearing them all out in their own soulbound exotics, trying not to have to bankswap out loads of ascended gear if they don’t want to spend extreme amounts of time gearing them all up in ascended. Maybe I should mention each character that has multiple sets of different stat armor, some of mine have 3-4 different stat sets. Do I even mention Legendaries? I could go on and on about why alts in GW2 for the “usual” gamer is a PITA.

I use the term usual gamer to indiciate those without very specific, niche goals like “RP”.

That’s correct. It wasn’t intended to be an insult and rereading it clearly isn’t an insult. The OP wanted some words from people that make and play many characters and I took the time to give mine. I have very rarely had a go at people on these forums for how they want to play the game. Stop making trouble where there isn’t any.

Kreejaffa.3682:

Also, when I need to farm nodes, like certain ores, or wood, it helps having tons of toons to hit up rich veins or clusters of trees constantly.

Oh yeah this too.

If, for example, my main is all the way out in Drytop and I need to move materials from my bank to my storage guild or pick money up from the TP I can just switch to whichever character happens to be in a city to do it.

If I want to leave a character at the end of a jumping puzzle or near a particular node or event or whatever I can do it and still play normally by switching to another character.

No real benefit to having multiple characters. The only thing I can think of is that if you don’t main a Warrior, Elementalist or Guardian it’d be a good idea to have one so you’re wanted in dungeons. Otherwise, the only reason to have alts is to keep the game interesting. I find if you stick to one profession for too long it gets stale, so having alts is a good way to avoid hating the profession you want to love. Personally I only have two characters and I tend to rotate which one is my main. For a few months (2 – 3 usually) I’ll main my Necromancer then after some time has passed I’ll go back to my Ranger. The one I’m not currently maining collects dust but always gets their playtime eventually.

I’ve got 10 at level 80, one of every profession plus 2 extra mesmers. They were all created before the trait system was ruined so I had fun leveling them. I used to like leveling characters. I wanted one of each profession in case if I ever got into a 1vs1 player situations I’d know what to expect. Also it helps when playing pve to understand the mechanics of any teammates for combos and other synergies.

By trying all professions you can discover which ones you really want to play. I tried ranger first, then elementalist but my favorite is mesmer. I tried a warrior somewhere in there but he didn’t last long. My 4th oldest character is a warrior and although he is not in my top half of favorites, he’s not my least favorite and I do enjoy playing him. So you might discover that you really like a profession that you never thought you would.

I have one for each profession. Every RPG/MMO style game I play, I tell myself I’m limiting it to one character. ‘Maybe’ a backup. Never happens…I have to try them all and I sway towards being a completionist, so of course I have to gun them to max level and spend hundreds on various builds, equipment, etc.

Multiple races? Same thing…I want to know all the stories.

So, I’ll play each, from time to time, depending on my mood. All the professions have their own pros/cons. Flourishes and touches. Sometimes you’re in the mood to hit things with an axe, sometimes you’re in the mood to see sparkly illusions.

Nice to have the option.

Advantages on the formal/practique/effectiveness side are in my opinion 2: having different crafting disciplines available on different characters without the need to pay every time to reactivate one on a single character/no need to spend gems to upgrade the amount of disciplines that can be active on a single character at once and number two, if you run dungeons and fractals it might always be good to have a few different professions ready, in case your team gets to need you to switch on something else.
On the other side, you can enjoy the sight of different armors and have fun mix’n’matching with them all :P

I thought 15 was getting a bit too much but low and behold, I have a use for each and every one.

- Park inactive toons at the end of JPs
- Park inactive toons at farming locations etc
- Great to have all disciplines across various alts
- No bank space? No problems. Banker toons are here to save the day
- Diverse range of classes to choose from when required

There’s probably a few other actual USEFUL things I would use them for but generally it’s fun to get creative & mix and match gear etc on different races/genders and possibly map completion if you’re super into that stuff.

Benefits:
+ It’s a game. Just like any game, you want to try to ‘master’ it or at least get proficient at it. You do this by playing different characters, learning their quirks and tells. Basically, playing more means you get better at playing, plain and simple.

+ You can test changes. When new additions come to the game to make Engineer the bees knees, if you already have one leveled up, you can just log in and try it. If a new weapon is released for Ranger, and you already have a max level ranger, it’s only a matter of attaining the new weapon and trying it. The alternative is leveling up a character from scratch to try out changes or just take the changes from word of mouth from others.

+ Fun and variety. Fun is subjective, variety is objective. Either you can have a ton of fun with limited variety, or you require more variety to have more fun. But variety is variety. For me, I need more variety (frankly, there isn’t enough) to keep myself entertained. If I have limited variety, I can counter that by playing less. That’s not a threat, I literally will stop playing something for a few months (maybe longer) then come back and play again and have a blast for a while. If I had more variety, i can have more fun longer.

+ Challenge. Semi goes hand-in-hand with getting better at the game. When you reach a new peak of proficiency, you can seek to attempt new game modes and tasks with a different spin. Never leveled up in WvW? Roll up a character and give it a shot. Roll into some dungeons on-level? Level in fractals only? Run some duos with a friend? You either need to delete and reroll or make a new character for some of the challenges.

+ Completionist. If you want to collect and use all the skins, gain all the traits, all the titles, etc. etc., it’s easier with multiple characters.

+ Farmer. Common sense. Dailies and time-gated stuff is feels less monotonous with multiple characters.

- Story. Personal story should have had more impact and paths in this game. It should REQUIRE multiple characters to experience all the personal stories and while it kind of does, it’s only different/impactful at the beginning to have multiple characters. There needs to be more branching so you WANT to have slews of characters to experience the different branches, get close to the various characters so that when those characters are put in harm’s way/die, emotions will go deeper.

- Customization. More related to intra-profession customization, i.e. what can make one warrior different from another warrior. The simple answer is traits, gear and weapons but anyone can follow a template and make their warrior a carbon copy of another within a few minutes. There should be impactful choices for every character that makes it difficult to copy unless you simply have multiples of the same profession so that you can try the variety of options without having to undo effort put into the character.

+- Races. I love how unique each race is with the animations, the voices, the armors and the racial abilities. It gives people a bit of choice in flavor (I love both my Charr and my Asura warriors!). I only wish they added MORE races with the same level of care and variety.

Fun? I want to have seen every possible personal story combination.

Currently have 11 characters, I will eventually have 18.

I have one of every profession, 2 of most and currently 3 guardians.

Why so many?

I’m an altaholic. I like designing characters and their overall aesthetic. I like to work towards particular weapons or armours to finish my characters. I enjoy playing characters differently, using different weapon sets whilst levelling the same profession gives you a whole new experience of that profession.

I really enjoy map completion and the rewards it gives. I like to gather a lot of materials so map completion kinda validates this in an exciting way. I’m sure there are ways to farm the materials I’m after, or get lots of money by doing dungeons every day… but that’s just not my playstyle.

I think playing so many different characters is a detriment when it comes to doing fractals or working towards expensive things. I definitely drain a lot of my money and resources gearing out new level 80’s and transferring gold to gems for new character slots.

Having so many characters and favourites is tough too- you end up switching through mains/having multiple mains, but you still feel constricted to one character because they might have the ascended gear with the infusions, or infinite gathering tools. (Yes, they are account bound, but it’s inconvenient to swap things around all the time).

I would recommend to most serious players to get all professions to level 80 to understand their mechanics (so you’re more useful and understanding in a dungeon teams/parties). It’s also nice to experience most of the story options along with each race’s lore and feel.

Being poor.

The game plays very differently on different classes. I find that pretty fun.

It’s so easy to level in GW2 compared to other MMOs that I have every class in the game at 80, plus an additional guardian, warrior and necro. This is from someone who never made alt classes in other MMOs. Even easier when they made asc.+ armor and weapons account bound.

I agree with many of the points listed so far, but wanted to add a couple more.

You can have multiple characters and even level them up to 80, but you don’t have to gear all of them out with expensive equipment. You really only need the best stuff on the ones you play with frequently.

Living story rewards. No one has mentioned this yet. You get the rewards from the story instances of Living Story for each character that does it. I’ve already run multiple alts through the Dry Top story lines to get more Zephyrite lockpicks instead of paying geodes for them. I’m looking forward to running them through the new story to get more carapace shoulder pieces so I can finish up my collection achievement.

The biggest benefit, of course, is fun. Having fun leveling a new character, trying a different race profession, or build. Exploring areas, or taking the time to talk to NPCs you didn’t before.

If it’s not fun for you, there’s no point in doing it.

Thanks everyone for the advice. I’m probably just going to focus more on the three characters I mentioned that I have for now. At this point, what is going to drive me to play is if I set certain goals for them like right now I already have one complete their personal story for level 20, work to level 25 at least and then now I’ll work on doing the same now for the other 2 and so on and so forth.

Engi, elementalist – pvp\wvw
Warrior, mesmer – dungeon/fractals
Guardian- farming
Thef- was my main, but i never use it now
Necro/ranger- world bosses

And as thaddeus sayd, for pvp is crucial to know every class

It gives me the ability to always bring the class that maximizes the efficiency of the dungeon or fractal run.

DonQuack.9025:

Being poor.

So true, I spent so much gold on characters I’m almost not using, what a waste.

Personally the decision to make all game classes was that i got tired of trying to find out which class is OP and feel bad after finding out at a certain point in the game if i had another class it would have been much better.

GW2 is the easiest mmo to levelup in..u fart in this game and u make a lvl. That’s why i decide fk it, i will just grind all classes, equip them decently and be ready for literally any situation.

Besides this, if i ever get bored i can always change my gaming experience a bit by choosing another class.

This also gave me the opportunity to explore the GW2 world and notice stuff i might not have noticed on my first run.

ascended armor was the dead for my alts

I know its just a minimal dps difference lets say 10% ?

but for me who like play top its hard to let go and GW2 is the game where gearing up is the hardest i ever saw. getting ur gear on one char max is like getting a legendary.

Armor pieces weapons accessories infusions for fractals a plus 10 infusion cost more then 100 g

I know its not necessary to play so but before acendend i always used my warrior or mesmer as well now I’m guardian only.

if ante could tune down acendend armor to half of the cost it would be great

you get multiple amounts of gifts of exploration, so you can get more than 2 legendaries

you can switch between different classes that your dungeon/fractal/wvw party needs

you get to experience new classes,which is always fun unless you seriously don’t like playing the class.

You get to learn tricks from other classes so you can get more prepared when facing those classes in pvp/wvw

I play multiple characters for a variety of reasons:

1) To learn how all professions play so I can counter them in PVP, it also helps avoid silly posts about some of them being “OP”, while they aren’t. “That Mesmer had 8 clones active!” is one such example of ignorant argument.

2) All professions play quite differently, so changing chars is a great way to stay fresh and not be locked to a particular playstyle. I also keep my characters unique, write their background story, exploring new looks and stay in a certain theme look-wise

3) Having multiple chars ready for different situations, for example a Mesmer for Guild Puzzle, a Support Guardian for WvW, a Thief for certain dungeon paths (skipping) etc

4) Ascended/Legendary items are Account Bound so basically you don’t need to equip all your chars, maybe 3 at minimum if you have one char using each armor weight class. This versatility allows for playing multiple characters more easily

5) Multiple characters mean multiple material node runs, that increase the amount of wood/ore you can get

6) Multiple characters offer more map exploration and personal story rewards. The later levels of both offer quite interesting rewards now

/timesink

Outside that theres not much to do once you max one character so you might as well, it keeps the game going imho.

Also the PvP aspect. If you can play it well it helps no-end in PvP but I’ll never EVER get one of each class to 80.

Making money via node farming

You can farm all that rich iron and platinum nodes once per day per character, also
the more characters you have the more you can farm lemongrass around Fort Trinity

I made them for fun. The benefit was that I got to experience some different play styles.
Also much more versatility on how I want to do stuff. Easily with a warrior? Take some risks with thief?

But really I don’t get to use them a lot nowadays because I don’t get to play a lot but still many uses remain.

I wanted to experience each profession and at least one of each race. When I played the game in beta I wasn’t sure which I liked, so decided to make each profession.
I’m more about fun play as opposed to “having the best build/skill” play. I have every intention of playing for many years. So it works for me, some professions I prefer over others but I enjoy being able to change up depending on my mood.

For me, I love the idea of roleplay and creating backstories, even if just in my head and not used. SO I make a lot of characters and each have their own personality through their look, or the attitude I present them as , based on their look, equipment and ability choices. i coule easily get by on gameplay purposes with a top level char of every profession, but I do love the variety of characters that can be created.

well i’ve got 15 lvl 80’s they all have their own builds and own gear… no more swapping no more 2*18 or 20 slots of gear, just 1 or none alternative sets and the neccesaary weapons and food, for wvw characters also some siege

- 3 Warriors
Zerk pug carrier/PVT ,
WvW PVT/zealot hammer (shoutheal),
Rabid/Sinister Hybrid S/S & LB
- 2 Guards
WvW Nomand/Clerics Bunker/Healer ,
Zealot/Zerk DPS Dungeon
- 2 Mesmers
WvW Rabid PU Condi,
Zerk Shatter or Phantasm
- 2 Elementalists
Celestial/Zerk WvW DPS staff ,
Zealot Support Staff
- 2 Necromancers
Sinister(rabid)/Rampager Hybrid,
WvW Rabid condimancer
- 2 Rangers
Zerk DPS PowerRanger,
WvW Rabid CondiRanger
- 1 Thief
Zerk P/P S/P Thief
- 1 Engineer
MULE

I have a variety of builds and can freely experiment. I have 7 mains and play 13 characters regularly, 7 times world completion …. Luckily I had 11 characters before the trait change, leaving me 4 with only partially unlocked traits.

I have the following and the benefit for me is variety and fun. I get bored with the same thing all the time, so like to play different toons quite often. It also let’s me have what is needed/wanted in almost any situation. Finally, in the latest LS you are rewarded per toon (rather than account) for completion so it was nice to get those rewards playing through the story.
- Two 80 Necros
- 80 Mesmer
- 80 Warrier
- 80 Guardian
- 80 Thief
- 80 Elementalist
- 80 Engineer
- 80 Ranger
- 28 Mesmer (newest)

Playing dress up.