Is GW2 Alt Friendly?

[Labjax.2465]

I would say, in a nutshell:

Long term: yes.

Short term: no.

What I mean by this is, the game has lots of account bound things you can get over time, such as mounts, masteries, little bonuses to gold find and experience gain from achievement point milestones. You can even unlock legendary equipment that can be used across alts and different equipment sets at the same time.

But legendaries especially are a long term goal way more than the other stuff. So for gearing alts, you're not going to have such convenience for a long time. And it may take you a few months to a year (depending on how frequently you play) to have a lot of those things like mounts and masteries stacked up. Once you do, it's great! But it's not going to be instantaneous. Edit: And to clarify when I say a few months to a year I'm talking about mounts and masteries specifically. Legendaries by my personal estimation can still take a good month or two per piece if you're playing the game a lot and pursuing them heavily, so not something to think you're going to be able to rush super fast, especially without other things done first (like mounts). Legendaries are meant to be more of a bonus thing to go after in the long term, rather than something you beeline for immediately.

Then there is builds, which are one of the most alt-unfriendly parts, IMO. Although it's relatively easy to copy builds themselves from alt to alt, most of the viable ones require (expansion) elite specs that are unlocked per character, which probably means doing one of: Hero Point train (something organized by other players, commonly found in Heart of Thorns); enough WvW to get tokens that can unlock the points required for your character; or seeking them out one by one alone or with a small group of friends, which can take a while and Heart of Thorns ones can be tricky to solo.

In other words, it's not something where you can jump in immediately and have it start being alt-friendly. But over time, it becomes increasingly more that way. So it's kinda this question of how much inconvenience you want to deal with in the short term to get to the long term bonuses, if playing lots of alts is your go-to way of playing MMOs.

Edit: And to answer your further question (missed that at first) I would say the main thing needs improving is Elite Spec unlock, which is pretty tedious process for alts. That and basic gearing with needed stats for alts, even if it's blue gear just to start the person off.

Edited July 11, 2022 by Labjax.2465

[robertthebard.8150]

57 minutes ago, Labjax.2465 said:

I would say, in a nutshell:

Long term: yes.

Short term: no.

What I mean by this is, the game has lots of account bound things you can get over time, such as mounts, masteries, little bonuses to gold find and experience gain from achievement point milestones. You can even unlock legendary equipment that can be used across alts and different equipment sets at the same time.

But legendaries especially are a long term goal way more than the other stuff. So for gearing alts, you're not going to have such convenience for a long time. And it may take you a few months to a year (depending on how frequently you play) to have a lot of those things like mounts and masteries stacked up. Once you do, it's great! But it's not going to be instantaneous. Edit: And to clarify when I say a few months to a year I'm talking about mounts and masteries specifically. Legendaries by my personal estimation can still take a good month or two per piece if you're playing the game a lot and pursuing them heavily, so not something to think you're going to be able to rush super fast, especially without other things done first (like mounts). Legendaries are meant to be more of a bonus thing to go after in the long term, rather than something you beeline for immediately.

Then there is builds, which are one of the most alt-unfriendly parts, IMO. Although it's relatively easy to copy builds themselves from alt to alt, most of the viable ones require (expansion) elite specs that are unlocked per character, which probably means doing one of: Hero Point train (something organized by other players, commonly found in Heart of Thorns); enough WvW to get tokens that can unlock the points required for your character; or seeking them out one by one alone or with a small group of friends, which can take a while and Heart of Thorns ones can be tricky to solo.

In other words, it's not something where you can jump in immediately and have it start being alt-friendly. But over time, it becomes increasingly more that way. So it's kinda this question of how much inconvenience you want to deal with in the short term to get to the long term bonuses, if playing lots of alts is your go-to way of playing MMOs.

Edit: And to answer your further question (missed that at first) I would say the main thing needs improving is Elite Spec unlock, which is pretty tedious process for alts. That and basic gearing with needed stats for alts, even if it's blue gear just to start the person off.

So, here's my issue with "but I have to unlock my elite specs per character":  Yes, and?  This is something that is per character, because it is character centric.  It's the progression for that character.  Alt friendly does not mean that all alts should roll up at max level with everything unlocked.

[Labjax.2465]

15 minutes ago, robertthebard.8150 said:

So, here's my issue with "but I have to unlock my elite specs per character":  Yes, and?  This is something that is per character, because it is character centric.  It's the progression for that character.  Alt friendly does not mean that all alts should roll up at max level with everything unlocked.

So is it still progression if someone exclusively plays WvW, has tons of proof of heroics, and near-instant unlocks any given elite spec on any character, alt or otherwise? Yes, I know they get this because WvW doesn't have hero points. But the point is, that is a convenience that bypasses this so-called "character progression." So why are they the only ones who get such an option? And why shouldn't alt friendly mean alts roll up with everything unlocked? That is already the case for most things in the game, as most of it is account bound. Mind you, I never took the position that alt friendly should mean EVERYTHING is unlocked, but I do want to know what supports the position that there are certain things that should be excluded from that and why. Saying it's character progression doesn't cut it when there's already one option to bypass that in the case of hero points.

Furthermore, you could just as easily claim that something like obtaining a mount is a form of character progression in the RPG sense and yet it isn't in this game. You only have to do it once. So I'm gonna need more than "it's character progression."

[Chichimec.9364]

1 hour ago, Labjax.2465 said:

I would say, in a nutshell:

Long term: yes.

Short term: no.

What I mean by this is, the game has lots of account bound things you can get over time, such as mounts, masteries, little bonuses to gold find and experience gain from achievement point milestones. You can even unlock legendary equipment that can be used across alts and different equipment sets at the same time.

But legendaries especially are a long term goal way more than the other stuff. So for gearing alts, you're not going to have such convenience for a long time. And it may take you a few months to a year (depending on how frequently you play) to have a lot of those things like mounts and masteries stacked up. Once you do, it's great! But it's not going to be instantaneous. Edit: And to clarify when I say a few months to a year I'm talking about mounts and masteries specifically. Legendaries by my personal estimation can still take a good month or two per piece if you're playing the game a lot and pursuing them heavily, so not something to think you're going to be able to rush super fast, especially without other things done first (like mounts). Legendaries are meant to be more of a bonus thing to go after in the long term, rather than something you beeline for immediately.

Then there is builds, which are one of the most alt-unfriendly parts, IMO. Although it's relatively easy to copy builds themselves from alt to alt, most of the viable ones require (expansion) elite specs that are unlocked per character, which probably means doing one of: Hero Point train (something organized by other players, commonly found in Heart of Thorns); enough WvW to get tokens that can unlock the points required for your character; or seeking them out one by one alone or with a small group of friends, which can take a while and Heart of Thorns ones can be tricky to solo.

In other words, it's not something where you can jump in immediately and have it start being alt-friendly. But over time, it becomes increasingly more that way. So it's kinda this question of how much inconvenience you want to deal with in the short term to get to the long term bonuses, if playing lots of alts is your go-to way of playing MMOs.

Edit: And to answer your further question (missed that at first) I would say the main thing needs improving is Elite Spec unlock, which is pretty tedious process for alts. That and basic gearing with needed stats for alts, even if it's blue gear just to start the person off.

This reply makes a lot of sense to me. The longer you play, the more alt friendly the game gets. That has very much been my experience. I've been playing GW2 for a little more than 4 1/2 years. In that time, I've accumulated enough that it only takes me a few minutes to gear up a new alt, from armor & weapons, to trinkets, to whichever maxed out elite spec I want. To reach that point though takes time, which is fine with me. Getting legendaries and the rest of it gives me goals to go after and that's what's kept me involved here, longer than any other game I've played.

One tip - you might want to try out WvW. If you like it, and begin playing it regularly, it's a slow but steady source of elite, ascended, and legendary armor, as well as a legendary backpack and two legendary rings. Then there are the Testimonies of Heroics, which can be traded for hero points, enabling you to max out elite specs with virtually no effort at all other than repeated mouse clicking.  🙂

[robertthebard.8150]

2 hours ago, Labjax.2465 said:

So is it still progression if someone exclusively plays WvW, has tons of proof of heroics, and near-instant unlocks any given elite spec on any character, alt or otherwise? Yes, I know they get this because WvW doesn't have hero points. But the point is, that is a convenience that bypasses this so-called "character progression." So why are they the only ones who get such an option? And why shouldn't alt friendly mean alts roll up with everything unlocked? That is already the case for most things in the game, as most of it is account bound. Mind you, I never took the position that alt friendly should mean EVERYTHING is unlocked, but I do want to know what supports the position that there are certain things that should be excluded from that and why. Saying it's character progression doesn't cut it when there's already one option to bypass that in the case of hero points.

Furthermore, you could just as easily claim that something like obtaining a mount is a form of character progression in the RPG sense and yet it isn't in this game. You only have to do it once. So I'm gonna need more than "it's character progression."

It really doesn't matter what you "need", the answer is right there in the term, Character Progression.  It's called this because your character progresses through the specs as you play the game.  Whether that's through the WvW system, or the PvP system, or progressing through raids and such, or just OW PvE, these specs mark your character's progression.

[Labjax.2465]

1 hour ago, robertthebard.8150 said:

It really doesn't matter what you "need", the answer is right there in the term, Character Progression.  It's called this because your character progresses through the specs as you play the game.  Whether that's through the WvW system, or the PvP system, or progressing through raids and such, or just OW PvE, these specs mark your character's progression.

That does not answer what I said at all, but I'm gonna leave it at that, cause apparently this has been moved to players helping players, which is a completely different tone and not really the best place for these kind of arguments.

[Ashantara.8731]

14 hours ago, RipPaw.5129 said:

In my opinion, it is not. 

I love the story modes per character but eventually it all leads to the same story. Discovering world for the first time is awesome and adventurous but doing the same for all the characters is tedious and frustrating.

It's true. I play through the story with each PvE character. I used to have ~16. At some point, the repetition became so tedious that I deleted several characters and kept only one per profession for PvE gameplay (others I turned into WvW-only characters, who don't do story nor map completion etc).

But even with "only" 9 characters, I find the lack of variety and choices during the story the biggest downside of GW2's story content. I miss the personal story branches that created a much richer and fun experience.

Edited July 12, 2022 by Ashantara.8731

[Ronin.4501]

11 hours ago, Vavume.8065 said:

 

In terms of jade bots = no 

In terms of bag slots = no

Hopefully you didn't make all your Tier 10 Jade Bot cores before you could salvage stacks for Research Notes like I did...12 Tier 10 Jade Bot cores...SO MANY CLICKS...SO MANY CLICKS!!! 🤣😩

[Dayra.7405]

10 hours ago, Ronin.4501 said:

12 Tier 10 Jade Bot cores...SO MANY CLICKS...SO MANY CLICKS!!! 🤣😩

I totally agree that this is *self-censored*. But it has nothing to do with alt-friendliness,, just with bad UI design. If the research-note scrapping would have the same right-click options (i.e. scrap all in normal inv) than the normal scrapping the problem would be gone.

Edited July 12, 2022 by Dayra.7405

[Jukhy.2431]

1 hour ago, Ronin.4501 said:

Hopefully you didn't make all your Tier 10 Jade Bot cores before you could salvage stacks for Research Notes like I did...12 Tier 10 Jade Bot cores...SO MANY CLICKS...SO MANY CLICKS!!! 🤣😩

Alternatively you can equip tier 1 cores on all toons, put one tier 10 core in shared slot and swap it by double-clicking (only module swapping requires a workbench). So basically the same thing many do with their unbreakable gathering tool sets. I did this after crafting my 2nd tier 10 core thinking it takes way too much effort to craft any more of them.

[Keymaster.7362]

4 hours ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

It's true. I play through the story with each PvE character. I used to have ~16. At some point, the repetition became so tedious that I deleted several characters and kept only one per profession for PvE gameplay (others I turned into WvW-only characters, who don't do story nor map completion etc).

But even with "only" 9 characters, I find the lack of variety and choices during the story the biggest downside of GW2's story content. I miss the personal story branches that created a much richer and fun experience.

To be honest, this is a only you problem and has nothing to do with GW2 being alt friendly or not.

 

After you finished the Story requirements with your main character once, all your alts can visit every raid, every dungeon, every fractal, every strike mission, wvw, every pvp Mode and you can buy accound wide teleportion scrolls, so your alts can go to every excisting map, without ever taking a single step into the story.

 

And thanks to the story chronic system you are not forced to play the story chronologically. You can jump directly in every addon or living story chapter if you want.

[Danikat.8537]

39 minutes ago, Keymaster.7362 said:

To be honest, this is a only you problem and has nothing to do with GW2 being alt friendly or not.

 

After you finished the Story requirements with your main character once, all your alts can visit every raid, every dungeon, every fractal, every strike mission, wvw, every pvp Mode and you can buy accound wide teleportion scrolls, so your alts can go to every excisting map, without ever taking a single step into the story.

 

And thanks to the story chronic system you are not forced to play the story chronologically. You can jump directly in every addon or living story chapter if you want.

You don't even need to finish the story once if you don't want to. There's some achievements and skins which can't be accessed if you don't, but it's not required to play other game modes, including other parts of PvE. Many of the living world maps require you to start the related storyline, but even then you don't need to finish it (or do any of the preceding ones), just do the first few bits to get into the map.

Someone could buy a new account, use the level 80 boost and go straight into end-game areas without ever doing any part of the story beyond the tutorial. (Even in the tutorial they could run to the end and get out when someone else kills the boss without talking to any NPCs or attacking anything.) WvW and PvP don't even require you to be level 80 to enter.

I doubt many people do that, for various reasons including new players not knowing it's possible (or even what end game activities are available), not wanting to and the game prompting everyone (especially new/low level accounts) to focus on the story, but it is technically a choice, you're not required to do it.

It wouldn't surprise me if there's at least 1 person who has done large parts of the rest of the game but never finished the personal story and never did more of the other storylines than absolutely necessary to unlock maps and things like mounts. Plus some who did the bare minimum to get into PvP then never went back to PvE at all.

[Nash.2681]

I think we have to differ between replay value and alt friendlyness.

The first is highly subjective, some find it fun to lvl multiple characters and explore every area over and over again, others find it dull. No right or wrong here.

Alt friendlyness is for the very most a big yes imo. With all the account wide unlocks and usable items, the only not so alt friendly things that come to my mind are Jade Bots and Inventory bags. So all in all I'd say, the game is very alt friendly.

[Ronin.4501]

9 hours ago, Dayra.7405 said:

I totally agree that this is *self-censored*. But it has nothing to do with alt-friendliness,, just with bad UI design. If the research-note scrapping would have the same right-click options than the normal scrapping the problem would be gone.

Oh, I was just responding to someone's comment about jade bot cores.  Overall I would say this game is VERY alt-friendly (considering the first online game I ever played it was actually a ban-able infraction to have more than one character in the game!).

But I believe you can salvage entire stacks now.  The problem for me lately is that I've found the best items to salvage for research notes are armor, and they don't stack! 😭

[Ronin.4501]

8 hours ago, Jukhy.2431 said:

Alternatively you can equip tier 1 cores on all toons, put one tier 10 core in shared slot and swap it by double-clicking (only module swapping requires a workbench). So basically the same thing many do with their unbreakable gathering tool sets. I did this after crafting my 2nd tier 10 core thinking it takes way too much effort to craft any more of them.

While I like this idea in theory, I already do something similar with my Ascended trinkets (I have 10 different stat sets in my vault that I rotate amongst alts when I'm testing a new build or swapping between characters in WvW).  The problem is, in practice, there have been more than a few times that I've swapped from one alt to another and forgotten to equip trinkets.  Let's just say my playing experience wasn't optimal in those moments!! 😁

[Kaliwenda.3428]

3 hours ago, Nash.2681 said:

I think we have to differ between replay value and alt friendlyness.

The first is highly subjective, some find it fun to lvl multiple characters and explore every area over and over again, others find it dull. No right or wrong here.

Alt friendlyness is for the very most a big yes imo. With all the account wide unlocks and usable items, the only not so alt friendly things that come to my mind are Jade Bots and Inventory bags. So all in all I'd say, the game is very alt friendly.

This is an excellent point and one I agree with.  I've only gone thru the whole story on 2 characters, and the second time was only to complete all the "return to" achievements last year.  The next furthest character I was taking thru the story got stopped somewhere in LWS2 when I just couldn't do it again.

So yeah, it helps to clarify replay value and alt friendliness.

I still think this is an extremely alt-friendly game because of so many account-wide unlocks.

[Goettel.4389]

It's second to none for alt-friendliness.

But then I don't give a kitten about story in games. Just game(-play).

[Luthan.5236]

Never knewn a game more alt-friendly than GW2. While I agree that the story is the same for every char (except minor variations in the core personal story based on race and order) ... I still think so. And I think it is even more alt-friendly because of this.

The thing you mean is more like "replayability" or "leveling another char through the story again" - where games with more variations would offer more motivation to do so. (Also more "pressure" for people that want "to see everything".)

You can just create a new char and jump into the game and do most of the content. Even without buying boosters you easily can get to most places pretty fast. (Most stuff in core tyria can be walked to ... with mounts even faster. And the expansions and living world seasons usually only need 1 mission. If you do not want to use scrolls or port to friend.)  "End game" only needs exotics gear mostly. (Pretty cheap.) Ascended gear is account bound and in long-term you might get a few legendaries offering free stat switching + usable by all chars.

The only minor problem is if you want expensive stats combos on different chars - and do not have legendary yet. (Which are a grind.) Though for trinkets this is pretty easy to get them. Mainly weapons and the armor set (that one probably the main problem). Still a minor thing compared to other games I think.

Imagine games with a gear treadmill where you have to do raid A hundred of times to get lucky drops with gear you'd need in raid B ... then the same thing over and over ... working yourself through the vertical progression. Then having to do the same with a new char - otherwise the latest content would be locked.

I have played WoW back then at release for about 6 months. Never got a max level char. Tried a few ... but lost motivation quickly. GW2 I now have one level 80 char from each profession. 2 leveled through all story chapters/seasons + full map completion everywhere. (Working at the 3rd.)

Edited July 16, 2022 by Luthan.5236

[Vayne.8563]

I have 60 level 80 characters and all of them have ascended (best in slot) accessories and weapons.  I'm pretty sure Guild Wars 2 is alt friendly.

[Boogiepop Void.6473]

For non-cash things, the Jade Bots are VERY alt-unfreindly, but almost nothing else in the game is that way.

From the cash shop, though, you have a number of character bound things like Templates, bags slots, and endless tools, all of which the player base as a whole has spent literal years yelling at anet to fix and refusing to buy until they do. Unfortunately, the whales apparently give them enough to offset 97% of the player base refusing to buy character bound cash shop items.

[Danikat.8537]

4 hours ago, Boogiepop Void.6473 said:

For non-cash things, the Jade Bots are VERY alt-unfreindly, but almost nothing else in the game is that way.

From the cash shop, though, you have a number of character bound things like Templates, bags slots, and endless tools, all of which the player base as a whole has spent literal years yelling at anet to fix and refusing to buy until they do. Unfortunately, the whales apparently give them enough to offset 97% of the player base refusing to buy character bound cash shop items.

From conversations on the forum I'm not sure many people do refuse to buy those things, especially bag slots and endless tools. I know a lot of people ask for them to be made account-wide and use work-arounds like passing infinite tools through shared inventory slots rather than buying them for each character, but a lot of people seem to have bought at least 1 set.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

 I would say it is very alt friendly from all the account wide items, but it is also very alt friendly if you have multiple accounts, as there are lots of once per day/week per account items you can get that can be traded, that requires a wee bit of effort on your part, but is very worth it in the end.

[costepj.5120]

Endless tools are NOT character bound. I have one set that I share between all my characters. Apaert from my Mistlock pass, they are probably the most useful items I've acquired.