To alt or not to alt?

[Machetazzo]

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

[The_Last_Dragoon]

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.

[ksufoley]

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.

[Niwashi]

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

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.

[Luvbunny]

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.