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Sunday, October 10, 2010

Need moar character slots!

Blizzard give us more character slots dammit!

Currently there's a limit of 50 characters maximum, with 10 characters per realm. For players who've been playing WoW for several years, this is not enough. I'm referring mostly to the 10 characters per server limit because I doubt many people really have 50 high-level toons across multiple servers, regardless how altoholic they may be.

Considering there are 10 classes and there are those who like to try out each class, perhaps even take each class to the max level, 10 character slots isn't nearly enough. Any serious player will have a bank alt and that means that at least an additional slot is needed. Now of course, one option would be to use a high level character as a bank alt, provided you've parked him in a major city and he has enough free space in his bags. In many cases it would mean that you're not playing that character anymore.

Let's take my situation as a case study. Here are my character slots on my main server (all of them Alliance):

1. 80 Paladin
2. 80 Hunter
3. 80 Warlock
4. 80 Death Knight
5. 76 Rogue
6. 80 Priest
7. low level bank alt
8. low level inscription alt (seller)
9. reserved name for Cataclysm
10. low level Mage

My problem is that in Cataclysm I want to roll all the 4 remaining classes, namely Druid, Mage (I've rolled him already but he's only in the starting area), Shaman, Warrior. This would mean that I'd have to get rid of my two bank alts which isn't something I really want to do. But then I'd be left without a dedicated bank alt, which is pretty bad for someone who makes most of their gold on the auction house.

After agonizing over this conundrum, I struck upon a solution. Initially I had the notion of deleting my 76 rogue since I don't play him anymore. Then, the obvious hit me over the head like a brick. Why would I do something stupid like deleting a character that I've struggled so hard to level? Instead, I would simply delete my current bank alts and use the 76 rogue as my new alt. Brilliant! The only issue is that I will have to purchase bags and bag slots that my existing alt already has. Oh and I'd have to clear the level 76 rogue's bags of all the crap he's accumulated.

It seems that for me, at least, the problem has been tentatively solved. But what will happen when they add a new class, most probably in the expansion following Cataclysm? And what if I want to re-roll a class that I already have on the same realm? Maybe I want to roll a second Paladin, for example, or another Mage.

If you're suggesting that I should simply roll on another server, well, I don't want to. On my main server I can benefit from all the resources I've amassed over the years: lots of gold, heirlooms and a 6-tab guild bank, plus all the professions at maximum level. Now you can see why someone like me would be very reluctant to spread out on different realms.

In conclusion, please Blizzard increase the realm limit to 12 or 15 characters and you can keep the 50 toons total limit. If not, at least allow us to mail anything (including gold, BoE items and heirlooms) cross-server and cross-faction to our own characters. But that will never happen and the reason is simple: cross server economies. What I'm afraid of is that Blizzard is holding back on increasing the character limit so they can monetize it. Soon, they'll reveal a new feature: paid character slots. I can tell you that's gonna piss some people off. Including me.

12 comments:

Shannara said...

This is definately an issue. I just finished leveling my 7th 80 last week. My goal is to have one 80 of each class due to Blizzard's sadistic history of destroying a class per minor patch.

This goal is mostly impossible if you need a bank alt.

Darth Solo said...

Haha good point Shannara. That's pretty much my mindset for Cata. It is possible that some of my favorite classes will be "ruined" by the major changes to their talents and mechanics. Hopefully I won't sweat it too much because if I have enough high level characters I can still enjoy some of them.

Redbeard said...

Ever since they set it up so that you can have different factions on the same server, they should have bumped the limit to 15.

Darth Solo said...

Definitely. I'm so very happy that I decided to move my Horde characters to a different server back when I had the opportunity to do a free server transfer. Otherwise I would have had to delete them.

Joar said...

Actually, for a mere $15 per month (or $13 if you pay in six month chunks) you can have 10 additional slots per server. Just start a second account...

Anonymous said...

You forget we're going to be 3 expansions deep now... so thats 120 bucks before that 15 a month. Pretty hefty charge up front for this ability...

Elkagorasa said...

IMHO, there is no good limit. As you have eluded to, what happens when they add something new you want to play? (thinking of economy class about discretionary income) 20 slots won't be enough. How about a giant scroll list, where you could simply have all 50 toons on the same realm?

Even after 4 years of continuous WoW, of my 9 used slots on this server, I could delete all 5 of my Alliance toons, and still not be heartbroken. I simply set them up to sell pets on the goblin AH, then realized there's no way to ship GOLD cross faction (without spending RL $).

Darth Solo said...

@Joar I really don't wanna pay Blizzard more money than I'm already paying. An extra account is not a solution for everyone.

@Elkagorasa as you said, there's no good limit but how about a rule of thumb which goes something like this: the number of character slots on one server = number of classes + X. Where X is a number between 1 and N. Where N is whatever they decided is reasonable.

Yeah, I know, it's hard to come up with a number. Maybe you should just be allowed to have a maximum of 50 characters, regardless of how many are on each server. Ditch the 10 characters per server limit.

Anonymous said...

I'm right there with you on the need for more character slots.

If Blizzard makes them available, in any form, I'm getting them. If they're free then I'll take them, if they're sold then I'll buy them.

Making them available for purchase may piss a few people off, but it's going to thrill far more people and that's all they'll care about.

Darth Solo said...

It depends how much they'll charge for them. At $15 a pop I'll pass.

Anonymous said...

I filled all my slots on a main server & I change my banker depending on what I feel like playing at the time - I only have 3 80's & the rest are at various stages but it works for me.

Perhaps you could set yourself a challenge to see how much gold you can make from scratch on a new server? level to 5 or so, sign a few charters to get seed money & bam! hit that AH :) I did this for a week & got 500g to fund my new levelling alt. You may say 500g in a week isn't much, but I only just started to learn gold making strategies so I'm pleased with it :)

Darth Solo said...

@Anonymous oh no man, I'm not doing that again :) What, you want to kill me? I've put in so much time into my Alliance account, that it's hard to imagine.