What are the actual roadblocks with alts in FFXIV?

[Atelier-Bagur]

Yeah pretty much the only reason I run character alts is to avoid being a fantasia addict. I currently run 3 characters and yeah I just buy the story skip and a few job boots for my 2 alts, with my main taking the game at its standard pace. Its been fun but definitely eats up a lot of my game time trying to play catch up with the 2 even with the aforementioned skips.

[Iscah]

I For those deep in the alt game, well, with all due respect, you're crazy

Hey, I resemble that remark...

I think a lot of the dislike that people have for alts is that you have to go through the MSQ again – which is not an issue if you actually want to go through the MSQ again.

It can also be frustrating with RNG loot (eg. glamours from alliance raids) because your collection gets scattered across multiple characters and inevitably the piece you really want for A will finally drop when you're playing as B who would look dreadful in it. And if you buy gear from Mog Station then only one character gets it and you need to pay again if you want it for other alts.

And you can get bogged down in levelling various classes over again, but if that's what you enjoy doing anyway then it's not really a problem.

All that said, the appeal of alts is just having multiple ideas for characters and seeing them come to life in the game, and then being able to switch freely between them. I enjoy playing around with glamours and seeing how they suit different races and personalities.

Some people use Fantasias instead, of course, but I prefer keeping my characters independent of each other and with lore-accurate names. It's also better for glamour management since dresser content and plates are seperate per character, and I have those filled with very different outfit pieces.

So yeah. Alts are time-consuming and you work on them instead of spending time at endgame with your main, especially if you don't intend to spend money for skips, but from your comments it sounds like you're probably okay with that.

[Lunalepsy]

I came from a decade of on and off activity in World of Warcraft, where I have about 30 characters within 10 levels of the cap, and it is the height of understatement to say that I looked at how FFXIV handles alts and said "hmm... guess they really don't want you rolling alts here." I've now been subbed for over a year, my singular FFXIV character is a "one man altoholic" and... I still have that opinion for the most part

I get it as an incentivization to buy storage on your singular character, I get it as a social conditioning to "be good on your avatar, making a new one is a pain," and from all those angles, this game still comes off as not just alt-unfriendly, but straight up intentionally alt-averse.

But man... those forthcoming trusts in the MSQ are tempting me.

I guess the question I'm asking in this thread is what are the barriers that people make a bigger deal out of than they actually are for rolling alternate characters, and what are the actual pain in the ass barriers that many people don't realize? I can think of a lot when I think of reasons not to bother with alts: Not sharing resources is a big one (I don't expect to pass gil or items around via an FC bank, I'm very much a loner, thus my excitement for trusts), starting all over again with unlocking all the features is another.

For those deep in the alt game, well, with all due respect, you're crazy, but I'd still like to pick your brain because... as a 30-character altoholic in WoW (where alts are not as... "logistically disrespected" as they are in FFXIV, but WoW could still do better), I think I might try... just one. Is there some great attractive draw that's going to dump me down a crazy rabbit hole of more and more alts? What are the actual barriers I should be wary of? What are the ones that are not as bad as I might think?

Thanks in advance for any and all helpful replies!

I don't see any issues with alts? You can be whatever you want to be.

[DPZ2]

It costs extra to have alt characters on the same world though. You can make as many alts as there are worlds at the Entry level account (one character per world), but if you want to create an alt on the same world as your main character, its a different subscription option that costs more per month.

I don't remember an option to create an 'entry' level account when I started back in 2014, which is why the extra $2 US never came to mind.

[Omedon]

Hey, I resemble that remark...

I think a lot of the dislike that people have for alts is that you have to go through the MSQ again – which is not an issue if you actually want to go through the MSQ again.

It can also be frustrating with RNG loot (eg. glamours from alliance raids) because your collection gets scattered across multiple characters and inevitably the piece you really want for A will finally drop when you're playing as B who would look dreadful in it. And if you buy gear from Mog Station then only one character gets it and you need to pay again if you want it for other alts.

And you can get bogged down in levelling various classes over again, but if that's what you enjoy doing anyway then it's not really a problem.

All that said, the appeal of alts is just having multiple ideas for characters and seeing them come to life in the game, and then being able to switch freely between them. I enjoy playing around with glamours and seeing how they suit different races and personalities.

Some people use Fantasias instead, of course, but I prefer keeping my characters independent of each other and with lore-accurate names. It's also better for glamour management since dresser content and plates are seperate per character, and I have those filled with very different outfit pieces.

So yeah. Alts are time-consuming and you work on them instead of spending time at endgame with your main, especially if you don't intend to spend money for skips, but from your comments it sounds like you're probably okay with that.

Yeah you pretty much nailed a lot of the pros as to why I'm contemplating an alt. I honestly am so much more knowledgeable about the game now, and between that sense of efficiency itch getting scratched and a really neat glam/concept idea I had for another multi-job character (built around the fae gown from the shop and the weapons from Dohn Mheg), AND just the idea of doing the MSQ with all trusts, a lot of the downsides kind of evaporate for me, because taking the journey again has a unique appeal not tied to any real endgame ambition. Just a fun side project to pick at here and there!

[LaylaTsarra]

I have a slew of alts. Some I've taken through story etc and some I've skipped. They're fun but the game is far from alt friendly. You can't even share a house with them unless you create a small FC which allows you to access the same house which I've done on servers like Balmung, Spriggan and hopefully on Sophia when housing releases.

Shared achievements/mounts/minions/glamour would be nice but it's not going to happen in 14 so be prepared to do it all over again.

Some people collect mounts, minions, music etc whereas I collect alts and I might add my alts are all endgame for the most part.

I might add a suggestion that if you roll a new alt and aren't super fussy about the server to pick one that it a Preferred World. The xp bonus for those is pretty silly good and you can level character roles very quickly level wise. Obviously main story does take time but for example I have 7 roles at 80 on Sophia two of which I skipped (WHM and RDM)) to 80 where as the other 5 I've taken to 80 with roulettes primarily.

I'm taking my two Spriggan alts through story right now they've both cleared Elpis and need to finish with Laby II and Ultima which I will probably get done this weekend.

[kaynide]

Re: Cost of alts,

just FYI, you can have the standard sub (up to 8 characters on the same world) for the same price as entry level (1 character per world), if you pay 6 months of sub at once.

If you are thinking of doing alts, you probably will be playing at least one 6 month block.
https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/product/

[ASkellington]

Only major road blocks I see to alts is redoing the MSQ and refarming for glam pieces.

The MSQ is good, but it isn't great enough to have seen 5 times over (which I have done) for some parts. Thank the gods for story skips in this case.

And glam farming was a pain the first go round. (hooray for 50/60/70/80 still not being apart of guarentee'd drops)

[Avidria]

Lack of shared resources and needing to unlock everything again were the most irritating at the time. All the dungeons, raids, side content, grand company crap I forgot existed and had to hunt down again. And having to do the entire MSQ again unless I pay real money for a skip.

What's annoying now that I've stopped playing my alt is that mounts and pets and such aren't account wide, so any rewards I want have to be earned twice. Same with events... If I want the items on both characters I need to do the event quests again. That's less of an issue cause it's true in every MMO I've played, but I'm definitely spoiled after years of playing wow and having account wide pets and mounts at least.

I was a huge altoholic in pretty much every other MMO I played before this one, partly because I get bored if playing the same class all the time and partly because I get bored of playing the same character who looks the same and has the same personality all the time (I do like to come up with backstories for my characters and have done a bit of rp here and there). But in FFXIV leveling and upkeep for alts is such a hassle that I just plain don't bother anymore.

[Jeeqbit]

The barrier is just that you have to do everything again and doing new content on multiple characters feels like a chore. Nothing is shared between characters. That on its own is not very appealing when you don't need to.

It's not necessarily hard to do some things again quicker than you did before though. For example, you can skip cutscenes to get through the story, you can unsync dungeons, buy things you previously looted from the market board, unsync extreme trials for mounts that you didn't used to be able to unsync when they released and used to have lower drops rates, get the beast tribe mounts from moogle tome events and use every speedrun method to level all of your classes quickly including doing daily beast tribes, wondrous tails weekly and grand company turn-ins.

People do make alts for a few reasons.

• Play on other data centers (until Data Center Travel is added).
• To roleplay as a different race and character.
• To sell items on other servers where there may be different prices to compete with.
• To do multiple 2-chest runs of savage each week.
• To gear up a static faster with 8 savage runs a week (most people don't do this, too much effort).
• Play as a sprout again for a short time on a new server for fun.