When their isn’t a ton of content, it’s a signifigant amount of raiding if you have several alts, but it’s fun content unlike ToC. The rise of alts is really tied to the attempt limit, where being able to do content on multiple lockouts helps you see it and plan etc. before you have to waste attempts on your uber geared mains.

That being said most of our alts are of different classes then our mains, I play a resto druid and then a holy priest as an alt. If you want to take it to the next level you can just level a second main which I think is what alot of people in Ensidia are doing. They all have their mains, then they have a second character of the same class and specc that is slighly undergeared. This effectively doubles your tries on hard modes. Crazy.

That being said, sometimes we do open very farmed content up for alts to join. We also do host “alt” friendly runs on off nights for those interested

I think we have a pretty good policy with regards to alts, so for us I largely think they are a benefit.

I would disagree, however, that people can’t be proficient at more than 2 toons. I’d like to think I’m above average on all 4 of my healers, and when I’m in a group of similarly geared toons, I do decently enough with my mage, although she is admittedly my weakest toon…largely just out of neglect

All of my alts have at least their 4pc T9 bonuses, if not better gear. I don’t chain run heroics though because I don’t want to burn myself out on them. This means that I’ll probably be a bit behind with regards to frost emblems on them, but it’s ok because there is going to be a whole lot of ICC before Cataclysm hits…so I’ll either catch up or I’ll have a fresh reset!

You are right with regards to alts not getting as much love as mains, but I’ve seen lots of alts who are just as good, if not better, than some mains as well.

Like you, I am pretty OCD about playing anything that I’m going to attach myself to, so I max out my trade skills and try to genuinely understand the mechanics of the class!

The dark side of alts are raiders who gear up their main, then want to switch over to an alt and start gearing that one. As we progress further into the flavor of the month progression raid, the bosses get more difficult. Maybe its been open for a bit and we have it on semi-farm. X-the-healer has gotten all his drops, so now he wants to bring X-the-hunter or X-the-shammie. Suddenly the raid is down an experienced and geared healer, and the content just got a LOT harder.

With a good policy for when and if people bring their alts to the progression raids, gear policies that favor mains over alts, and a process in place for how often people switch mains, I adore alts in raiding guilds and think they are beneficial. Without those policies, they can be a detriment.

I think your raiding program will suffer if you let anyone bring just about any alt to a raid. There’s only so much the human brain can remember. There are very few players that I’ve met who are proficient at more than 2 toons.

My hunter and priest are the only alts that I’ve let languish for a while but that’s because you can only run so many heroics a day before wanting to slit your wrists.

I really care a lot about my alts, going so far as to stress about their gear, get them specific titles and achievements and generally making sure that I could swap any one of them out for my main at any given time and not miss a beat.