Threads Of Fate – The Climb #646

Sunday 29^th November 2020

I’m already leveling my second character through Shadowlands.

Whilst my main is busy unlocking things and doing the dailies of the endgame, I’m alternating time between him and my alliance leveling alt.

The idea is that I’ll be joining up with some old guildmates from 8 years ago on their new server to raid with them. I started this character back in October and they’ve been one of my legion of alts that I’ve leveled and geared through pre-patch.

What’s unique about them is that they are on a different server and a different faction. No sending them gear, money or materials as they level. And as I’ve still not received a guild invite I am wondering if this is a waste of time. I’m happy to put in the work if it means I get to raid again, but if not… I’d rather spend the time elsewhere.

Shadowlands has a special feature for alts called Threads of Fate. It means that instead of your alt going through the same questing experience as your main, they can select their covenant right away and level up through world quests and side quests. The idea is that they can build supplies of anima and increase reputation as they level.

It’s a good idea and I’m sure for people who level through dungeons it’s a good idea, but for someone who levels through questing it’s no better. All the activities you’d want to do are in The Maw and you don’t get to go back there until you hit 60. So no Ve’nari rep, no Torghast. Just world quests and bonus objectives that take far too long for the XP they reward.

You can switch from the campaign to Threads of Fate at any point as you level, but you can’t go the other way round.

So I decided with all my alts yesterday that I’d select to level them through the campaign and switch to Threads of Fate when they get close to 60 so they aren’t forced to continue doing Campaign quests once they ding. However, it was too late for this character.

On the plus side: because I took the time with my main to read the quest text as I leveled, I have absolutely no guilt in turning on automatic quest pick-up and turn-in and speed-leveling through the content. Even after I get them to level 60, there’s still a whole bunch of gearing I need to do to get them ready for raiding in 10 days or so.

But I’m still wondering if prioritising this alt for leveling over others is a distraction. I suppose if raiding doesn’t pan out I can always faction change and server transfer them. I would like to raid this expansion though. I had some good times doing so in the past, such that it’s worth the risk.