To alt or not to alt?

I'm still pretty new, and this is just for down the road for if I get bored, but:

What are the disadvantages and advantages for alting?

To tell you where I'm at: My character now is primarily a PGL, then MRD and Lancer just to get to monk. So basically a disciple of war character. Probably not going to want to or need to level any magic classes, but I'm interested in them so I was thinking of making a secondary character to try them out down the road, maybe a healer for grouping ez-mode.

What are the benefits to learning classes on only one character? I think I can do without the crown and achievement. As far as I can tell the attribute upgrades don't affect other classes, so I could learn it all on one character, but I also like the story missions and wouldn't mind replaying them. Thanks for any help, just wondering!

Alting is fun, and isn't a game supposed to be fun?

I've been playing about 90 days, and I alt a lot (10 characters at at least lvl 12, I think), and that's probably why my "main" character is only SMN 30. Well, that might also be due to my having other things to do besides play FFXIV.

The benefit of having stuff all on one character is one of convenience. You get access to previously-learned cross-class skills, you possibly have unique dungeon drops for alternate classes, and you get +50% bonus XP if your current class is a lower level than another one. Any crafting classes you have leveled can be used to repair your own gear which is much more gil-efficient.

It should be mentioned that the storylines for the 3 nations are largely similar and become the same once you get your airship pass.

Of course if you have fun playing through the story multiple times in other games and think you would enjoy it here by all means do it. You get multiple character slots as it is.

The main benefits are having access to higher-level things earlier on, not having to jump through hoops to juggle items back and forth (in the case of characters on the same server), and not having to redo things you don't enjoy. For example, having a mount and airship access and aetherytes unlocked right from level 1 if you start a new class on the same character, vs. having to unlock all that stuff all over again on a new character. You can't mail your alts on the same server, so it's also easier to use your high-level classes to fund your low-level classes on the same character. Oh, also cross-class abilities. Second Wind, for example, can be really nice for any class (at low levels anyway).

That's not to say there's anything wrong with alts. Alts can be a lot of fun, and it's nice to experience the story again/differently. I also personally find alts easier to experiment with different control/UI setups. Muscle memory just feels easier to retrain when I'm watching someone new.

Definitely alt. Especially if you like SMN and SCH, 30 int vs mnd but also you can play a different race with another 5 or 6 points higher than the other. I play roegadyn sch/tank/melees and elezen smn/blm/brd.

Even in 2.0 this game throws so much xp at your first job, and now it's downright laughable to level jobs.

I've been using alts on FFXIV since beta of 2.0 (and of course a ton of them when my days were spent on XI, mules ftw). The need for alts is very diminished compared to XI or other MMOs, but they do have slight advantages. In my personal conquest, I've been "alting" for reduced armory slots (one character a crafter, one a caster, one a melee etc), and to compound on that, any weekly caps or restrictions are circumvented by being able to get gear for all of them and essentially multiple classes. Finally if your running your own FC to get your own house like me (and to trade between them without having to rely on others via company chest), all of their quests and what not rank it up nicely; I've just come back from nearly a years break and had my FC at Rank 1 that is now half way through Rank 4 from less than a months time by switching between them.

Splitting it up further than that though might not be so fun, as you'll be missing some cross class skills that are important to have and may not feel like leveling up that sub again.

Diminished? More like quite substantially increased.

Maps.
Anything on a weekly cap.
Roulette bonuses.
The lack of craptastically rare drops that would make you throw your keyboard getting them on the wrong character.

The only comparable thing in xi was dynamis but I never had the time to do even 2 runs a day when I was running 3 characters there. Well, crafting you needed alts for there I guess. But certainly it's a no-brainer here to run 2 characters if you play enough.

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Originally Posted by Alistaire

Diminished? More like quite substantially increased.

Maps.
Anything on a weekly cap.
Roulette bonuses.
The lack of craptastically rare drops that would make you throw your keyboard getting them on the wrong character.

The only comparable thing in xi was dynamis but I never had the time to do even 2 runs a day when I was running 3 characters there. Well, crafting you needed alts for there I guess. But certainly it's a no-brainer here to run 2 characters if you play enough.

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Don't get me wrong, if you read my full post you'll see I'm much in favor of having alts. Although they did make the quality of life easier to sit with one character in this game, thus in my eyes diminished. That said of course like I also said in my post agreeing with what your stating here, the ability to get more armor is there through alts.

To be fair you need to have quite a substantial amount of available playtime for alts to be worth considering for all of that. Doing all your daily roulettes alone is probably in the realm of 2-3 hours daily. And don't get me started on needing a drop from Crystal Tower, it's time consuming enough when you are looking for a few pieces spread among a few jobs.

Alts are fun and can keep you interested. I had 2 accounts in both xi and xiv v1 since it was easy peasy to duo char but those days are gone so the second account is getting closed down sadly. However I am rolling a new alt on my main account to keep things interesting. So as an experienced alt-er, I say go for it. Just be sure you know which will be your primary since you should complete things on that one first so you have at least 1 strong and well geared char.

There are few reasons which come to my mind to support making an alt:
- more retainers
- Scholar and Summoner with correct distribution for additional stats - however I don't find it as a big issue to heal with SCH while having 30 INT for my main SMN.
- anything capped daily/weekly - roulettes, quests, ST and SCoB limits (would take a while to get your both characters good for this content, though)

Haven't created an alt myself yet for a simple reason - it would take so much time from already limited time I have to play FFXIV. Getting second char ready for ST and SCoB would require so much hustle that I decided to skip it. Maybe one day for storing items purposes :)
If you plan to make alt just for purpose of playing different classes, then it is rather pointless (other than SCH and SMN) as you eventually want to level all War/Magic jobs to get cross class skills. Stats are class dependant so also no issue with that.

Regards,
M

I think this is the one MMO where having an alt is actually detrimental towards your progress in the game. Dailys take almost forever if you do absolutely all of them, and precious free time should be reserved towards leveling a profession or doing some other means of progression that isn't a daily. Being able to make your own gear is extremely valuable, in addition to being able to queue for a Duty and then spending that time leveling a profession.

In terms of leveling up the actual class, it is much easier to level up any class when you're not being constantly hindered by the story (not even including the 50% boost). Not to mention the large number of lv50 main scenario quests just to unlock patch content, with some of the trial dutys taking over 2 hours just to queue as dps.

I don't play an alt but here are some reasons that I've considered in the past. As a main I always try to level too fast and don't get the full enjoyment of the storyline, an alt would give me a chance to do that. If I had time to cap soldiery on more than one character, alt it up. Being a noob again on fights you already know, I think it would be fun to see people think you're just a natural at the game lol. If you want to join an rp fc but your main is in progression, alt it up.

In that case I see benefits.

Downside, can't grind endgame for alt gear. Can't directly link banks unless third party (assuming it's against tos to do so anyways). Won't have access to cross class abilities that you already have. Marks, myth, sold tomes aren't tradeable.

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Originally Posted by The_Last_Dragoon

... much easier to level up any class when you're not being constantly hindered by the story ...

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Just goes to show how different players see the game differently. To me the story is the main focal point of what the game is about. It's hard to conceive of that as being a "hindrance", although I suppose for someone who's just interested in being max-leveled, it would be.

For me, the story is the main reason for having alts. The main scenario questline and the class questlines can only be done once per alt. (Plus there are a lot of NPC side-stories that advance in sync with the main questline. It'd be too easy to miss a few if you only get once chance to find them.) Multiple alts means multiple chances to see all the stories unfold.

Getting to level 50 with an alt if you just focus on one role (preferably Tank or Healer) is super fast. Probably less than a week if you play casual due to the main story quest that just keep giving you stuffs to do. The only reason why I would make "focused" alt is the weekly lock out which is rather dumb to do that per character instead of per roles. It will take you a good 8 weeks to have a good set for one job/role. If you have alt, you could get two roles/jobs geared. Capping soldiery and doing ST run is rather easy, daily roulette is giving you a good 70 soldiery per day if you only do one roulette for expert dungeon. That's a good 30 mnts or less. You can easily log in, do an hour work on your tank, and an hour work on your healer and meet your daily quota. Or alternate every day between the two. DPS however, may take awhile lol.