Second Account vs Additional Character Slots - Advice Needed

[Brydon]

Okay, so I need a little advice... As I'm working my first three characters up to lvl 80, I know already that I want to role at least three more characters (guardian, ranger, and ele). So my debate is, would it be a better plan to purchase a second account ($59.99) than to buy three more character slots ($30.00 in gems).

Perceived Pros:

- 2 additional character slots for storage characters, or eventually the thief and mesmer I will want to make someday.

- an additional bank access.

- the ability to mail items from one account to the other, meaning that...

1) If I'm out in the field with character A and find a sweet weapon that I want to give to character B, I can mail it to character C on the second account who I can have return it by mail without anyone having to come into Lion's Arch to access the bank.

2) Theoretically, you could just store things indefinitely in unopened mail (Which seems a little exploit-y to me and is not my purpose... But the ability to send mail without coming in from a quest, does sound really nice)

Perceived Cons:

- steeper initial investment

- purchased items (mostly additional bank slots) would not be shared

- the need to logout and log back in when switching between accounts



I know we talked about this before the game went live, but I was hoping some of you might have some firsthand experience now. Does the self mail thing work? Am I overlooking something here?

If anyone wants to weigh in, please do so today... Character slots are one sale, so I'm going to decide today one way or another. Thanks in advance for your insight!

 

[Enok]

I've never hit it personally, but I see customer service on the forums constantly saying that there is a 10 mail limit on your inbox, so storing stuff there may be problematic.

Also, remember to take into account expansions. It may be more cost effective to get multiple accounts than additional bank space and characters slots at the moment, but if you have two accounts, you're going to have to buy every expansion twice if you want to keep up with them.

EDIT: One more thing, ANet seems to be willing to make things account bound over soulbound in order to help people with alts. Recipes, for example. Useful if you get a drop but it's another character that has that craft. Or jugs of karma that you can get on one character and then use on a different one that actually needs it. Having multiple accounts will put a wall between your characters for the purpose of account bound items.

Of course, on the other side, you can earn two daily rewards per day and two monthlies to spread the rewards over your characters.

 

[ursen]

At the risk of making more of a fool of myself than normal I have been thinking on this for a while for my own personal needs also. First at the risk of comparing aardvarks to orangutans I will start off in relation to GW1. If you played a second account, or third, in GW and it was advanced highly in HoM than 2nd account makes more sense. The other thing to look at is storage issue. Compared to the original GW you have loads of space even with only a couple of bank tabs purchased. Makes even the expanded Xunlai chest look a little weak. Not only that the need for storage mules, unless you are a worse pack rat than me, is almost non-existant. Personally because I head up guild treasury I reserve one 'toon just for dealing with the GB, 'tis easier, and I don't think it is a need for anyone else, even other treasury officers. As for the field transfer idea it is neat, but as Enok pointed out there is a limit you can have floating around in your mail. With the field access to TP, instant storage of mats, field salvage, and extra storage bags, along with larger storage bags hitting storage limits in the field shouldn't be much problem. Except for Orr there are usually merchants, armour repair, or heart npcs to sell to fairly close in most explorable areas. The few times I have gotten full a quick dump of mats gives me more room. The other use of alt accounts of transferring items without having to ask friends or guildies is just not necessary in GW2. The last part to look at is event items. In GW the idea of extra event items between 2 or more accounts came up a lot, 2 accts on board walk etc., it was possible to double up a lot of items that were not account bound to help out the main acct. That just doesn't seem to happen in GW2. If you are going to work 2 accounts the sooner you do it the better. In GW I waited until late to get the second acct, so didn't benefit from it as a could of, although I still play GW and am getting a lot of good from dual accts in Pre Sear, where they really shine. Yes it is cheaper to wait, but if you are really going to work it hard, start early so it pays off more. Just remember like Enok said expansions ARE coming can you afford to double up on all of those?
For me personally it comes down to is it a need or a want? Sure it would be nice, but most issues on the need of it just aren't that big right now. If I had plenty of rl moneys maybe, but ig gold earned while playing is just plain cheaper. So bank tabs, character slots, extra bag slots, extra capacity bags all seem to make more sense for now and down the line. I can see with the expansions, and other goodies spending several hundred real moneys in the long run. The question is do you want to budget that into your gaming?

 

[Stc95]

The biggest factor, I believe, will be in future costs. If Anet decides to go the expansion route, rather than free content, that means two additional purchases of said expansion rather than just one. So it's $30.00 now for additional character slots OR $60 now for more character slots, but also needing to buy TWO expansions if/when available.



PLUS, character slots are on sail today in the gem store. You might grab the deal today, or hold off for a few months and see if they have an even better deal! Or wait for gem prices to go down and get more bang for gold -> gem ratio. Provided you want to save on USD.

 

[Brydon]

See, expansions! And account-bound items. Those are definitely big factors that I was overlooking... See, that's why I asked. You guys are so smart.

I'm going to bee-bop on there and snag me some character slots this evening. (Anyone know when the sale items change?)

 

[RyanB]

As for playing the characters, 2nd account is definitely a no go. As others have said, account-bound items will get you, expansions, etc. Beyond that...imagine how much you'd split all your achievements.

Now, for storage...as I'm sure you've worked out, you get way more storage per dollar spent with a second account and 5 characters full of 15 slot bags. Should be 400 slots + 30 in the bank for an account if I'm doing my math right. Don't pay $60; Amazon had GW2 for $30 one day, and sites like greenmangaming have it on sale occasionally. So that's even better efficiency there. I don't believe you'd want to use mail; as others have said there's a storage limit, and it would be downright cumbersome to try to offload your inventory. I mean, it's not like you can't wait to get back to town.

Just consider what you are storing. I made the mistake in GW1 of letting my alts become so bogged down I couldn't play them anymore. In GW2 it is easy to offload them to the tradepost. "But what if I want to use them later???" Well, buy them back. The only stuff you really want to store long-term are things you expect to gain value.