Leatherneck

Absolutely.
Why should they be "forced' to change their main?

That said, if I ever decided to get into raiding in any game again, my alts would be well-guarded secrets, to avoid just that sort of thing.

Pinski

Obviously they're perfectly fine with playing their alt thus they'd be perfectly fine with switching their main. If I had an alt but didn't want to play it for a raid, I'd say no.

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Leatherneck

You're right. I do know people who have a hard time saying no to that sort of thing especially if they know, or are made to think, the raid won't come off if they don't play the alt.

Nubi

Any hardcore guild (in my opinion) will only let people bid on gear for their mains, not their alts. Reason being is that most guilds recruit a certain mixture of classes to form the best raid setups (which now seem to be changing a bit as we need fucked up raid formations to beat a certain encounter, but i won't go into that).

If people are gearing up their alts, then that is a piece of gear that isn't going to a main, and therefore is slowing down the gearing up of the guild's core as a whole. THE reason most hardcore guilds run with less than 25-30 people is so that they will get geared up faster.

90% of the time when someone in a hardcore guild is asked to play an alt, it is because someone isn't online that night - and giving gear to characters that aren't considered "first string" is a piece of wasted loot imo.

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Nubi - Warlock of Onyx (Nagafen PVP)

Mello

Well, for hardcore raidguilds, you have a point. However, first off, I can't think why a hardcore raid guild would NEED someone to play an alt to fill a position, unless their recruiting department is a little behind the curve. Secondly, the 'less than hardcore' guild, who needs that alt in the first place, would still benefit. i can't imagine them asking only once to play that alt. Now, if I'm 2boxing, and I've had to do that for some raids at times, I pick which toon I'm bidding for, unless nobody can use the item my alt could use, in which case, I lose a point, and he gets the loot.

Guiddian

blah just delete all the alts if playing your main is to boring there are other games out there

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Crazedmutha

Alts should always only be a temporary solution to a problem (i.e. for x fight you need extra mana regen you wouldn't normally). Gearing up this character over somebody's main toon that they use regardless is stupid since most likely the benefit over time will be almost nonexistant.

If you do find yourself asking somebody to play an alt recurringly, recruit for that class, don't make other people suffer.

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Avirodar

I believe it is more logical for the main focus of a raiding guild, to be gearing up mains as best as possible, and alts should come second. That is not saying anyone else is wrong. Simply my opinion on the matter.

Sometimes people are away, or for what ever reason a class may be needed, but it should not be normal for alts to be called upon, meaning if alts out bid mains on upgrades, the benefits of that upgrade will rarely be seen, and serve the guild no real benefit.

Well geared mains that kick ass, will help your alts get geared better and faster.

Ultimately, each guild to their own. So long as a consistent standard is in place and upheld (eg: in a guild charter/rules, and made available to all members), players will know where they stand when using their mains, or if asked, alts. If multiple players in your guild believe it should be managed differently, ask the guild leader to put the topic up for a guild vote. Democracy ftw.

It would be a boring world if everyone was the same, and did everything the same way.

MadLordOfMilk

I figure, with the way DKP works, if you have enough to SPARE for gearing an alt and it's enough to outbid other people, they realistically couldn't've needed/wanted the item that badly anyway, or your main is geared to the teeth already. I figure alts should be allowed to get stuff, but only circumstantially - if an expansion just came out and everyone needs gear, no of course. If it's a few months into the expansion, your main is geared out really well from stuff, and the item, while it raises a couple eyebrows, it really isn't anything major to let them get an item that might give a main a 0.5dps boost but is a huge upgrade to the alt. It really depends on what you're raiding and what the drop is - Avatar loot to an alt would be mildly retarded, your 400th copy of some piece of armor to drop that only one guy kinda wants but not really but your alt could really use, sure wtf ever.

It's situational.

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ezcw

Rules like this should be defined before it ever comes time to roll on loot.
This is something that its easier to take care of in a hardcore guild than it is in a more casual raiding guild, because classes have been specifically recruited to fill a raid spot and less alt playing is generally needed.

But if you are in a guild that doesn't play to recruit the exact right classes(and sometimes needs peoples alts to tackle content) than the last thing you should do is punish the people that are making the extra contribution by not only having their main working for the guild but also having a leveled up class that the raid also needs. if the raid NEEDS someone to play an alt then they need to either let the alt earn loot, or preferably let the main earn DKP or loot.