If you’re trying to maintain 4 characters simultaneously, that’s a you problem, not a design problem.
There will be plenty of content droughts to run alts through various covenants and such.
I don’t know why people feel they have to do it all immediately and then complain it’s overwhelming.
You got years to do it all.
I didn’t read the article yet, but I currently have 7 level 60s. I’m keeping up with 6 of them and banished the 7th one to never be played again (he’s a rogue and waaaay too squishy this xpac for me to play). Once a character is “caught up” with Torghast and the campaign they’re pretty much in “maintenance” mode as far as I’m concerned, as they’re then around ilvl 180-190 and each week as I get more anima I upgrade all the campaign armor to 197 eventually, so they end up 190+ ilvl (I do queue and solo content, no mythics or normal raids).
In contrast, back in BFA I only had 2 characters at 120 for most of the expansion, one on Alliance, on on Horde. It wasn’t until near the end of BFA that I slowly leveled a few other toons up to 120, but even then I never did much with them AT 120 due to how much of a chore it felt.
I don’t know if it’s because of the level squish or what, but I’ve got this renewed itch to level alts like crazy. I’d always had alts, with 1 of every class on each faction at varying levels ranging from 45-110 on my Alliance toons and level 100+ on all of my Horde characters of every class. But before the squish it still felt like too long of a journey. Now I’m having fun leveling alts.
I do wish they’d make the Maw upgrades from Ven’ari account-wide rather than just the Torghast upgrades. As it is, I go into the Maw for the weekly rescue souls quest and that’s it on my alts. I go in on my main character to do the weekly (and sometimes daily) quests to continue building up my rep (only have one more TG upgrade to unlock at 21000 ven’ari rep).
But yeah, I’ve got about 4 60s in maintenance mode and 2 that are actively working through the campaign (just finished the Venthyr campaign on one of those 2 today, but still have to do TG chain). I’m therefore gradually leveling more toons up to level 50 (I have about 6+ waiting at level 50) and slogging them through the SL intro in the Maw but not yet leveling them to 60.
I think I was too ambitious and will going forward only take 1, max 2, characters from 50-60 at a time. Then I’ll focus on them until they are done with the campaign and their gear is maxed out at 197 and they’re done with the TG quests (other than maybe going into TC, the last step) before bringing more alts to max.
BfA had a lot of flaws. But in terms of alt friendliness. I thought it’s better than SL. And legion is even friendlier.
Legion, I had dozens of alts. BfA, a handful. SL, none so far 
You have four undergeared alts you can do world quests on.
I’m not cherry picking anything. An alt IS a secondary character. That’s why I’m saying your original statement doesn’t even make sense because you’re saying Shadowlands is alt friendly as long as you have no REAL alts.
Thus I point out, we need to define alt. Because what you’re suggesting can only be a “second main” is what I call an “alt”.
<- This is where my non-main level 60s will stay until there is easier renown, better drop rates, and legendaries from sources other than Torghast.
Which had you not specifically quoted ONE piece of my post you’d see that I mentioned the very fact treating an alt like a second main is indeed alt unfriendly.
Lack of loot makes it difficult to gear up alts
I like Torghast, but this part doesn’t make too much sense right now. I can see the argument that each character has to ‘earn’ it (not that I agree with that, necessarily) but the problem is, it’s applied incosistently.
For example, I could walk right in to Layer 8 TC on one of my alts, despite not having even done the required quest to ‘unlock’ TC on that character, but I can’t do higher levels of regular wings until I grind my way up.
I can see a seasonal “need” to have 4 characters of differing armor types for pvp. Especially if they keep the I think 2100 requirement to have the full set (unique cloak). Beyond that people are just reaching for content.
anima is not fun to clear the map of zzzzzz
especially on alts
I don’t do the maw.
Took like maybe 1 hour for all 4 of my characters big whoop
Pvp does count and covenant gear is 197 ilevel
Literally only need anima to upgrade my renown gear…1000 anima quest is easy through pvp
Wait are you really doing every world quest every single day… what’s wrong with you…?
Anima grind is absurd. The time-gating of it and trying to get people to farm WQ is bad on even a single character, let alone multiple. There should be non time-gated reliable sources of anima from other things we regularly do. We should get a lot more anima from dungeons for example.
Torghast is very time-consuming to do twice a week on multiple characters. Not even really fun to do on one.
The maw rep lock on items as basic as socketing gear is stupid. Stygia being exclusive to the maw (and rare table missions) is also stupid. The fact that so many players just buy into blizzard making socketing of gear some kind of elite thing only high-end players should care about is very bizarre since it’s one of the few minor ways we have of controlling secondary stat allocation that isn’t RNG based. Combine stygia with Torghast at least to add a reliable non-gated way to farm a socket whenever you want one.
The most reliable ways to get better ilvl gear are now rated PvP and raiding, so if you don’t enjoy that kind of content you likely won’t find gearing to be as alt friendly as it was when M+ was a better source of gear. I think M+ content is currently in the worst shape it’s been since it was introduced. Both in terms of actually being fun and in terms of being a source of gear.
Dont blame you that place sucks
It should be skipable, doing it once its not an issue, having to do it on every single character is, specially with all that role playing.
It doesnt, and covenant gear requires you to earn renown and finish the campaign to unlock the ranks for the armor.
Plus a bunch of anima.
Not everyone plays PvP, not should they be forced, the same goes viceversa.
Cause the stupid Sanctum Upgrades and Callings.
Pvp gear counts… how are you playing a game but not every aspect…especially one of three pillars to WoW end game
Callings are just gold and none of the sanctum upgrades I take past upgrading the mission table once to farm anima missions to upgrade covenant gear.
This aint a normal game, is a massive one.
And im not a fan of PvP, simple as that, and many arent, a lot of people prefer PvE.
Why do you think so many PvP players were complaining about having to do PvE content to be any relevant? for the very same reason, they got their vendors back, but unfortunately that method is considerably better than PvE gearing, which is bad.
And that’s where you should stop, because they’re WAY more powerful in Shadowlands zones than a level 60 is without weeks of gearing.
I just hit Exalted today with Court of Night, and headed to the Quartermaster to see what goodies were available to me.
Mounts that cost 5000 anima PLUS “offerings”.
Transmog that costs TWENTY FIVE THOUSAND anima plus more “offerings”.
They only “reward” for hitting Exalted was a fresh grind for two different currencies for unimpressive reskinned mounts. Not even an achievement. You’ve reached Exalted, and now the REAL work begins, so don’t you even THINK of wasting time on those alts! Every anima world quest for you!
It is - especially because there was one of the devs (I think it might have been Ghostcrawler) on a podcast a few years ago telling casuals that they always, ALWAYS should “gem up”.
Then the min-max raider design team took over, sockets somehow became “elite” and my Jewelcrafter’s barely been used since.
Put me in the “first define alt” camp. I have 3 mains - all around ilvl 185ish, all doing callings and campaign storylines. I’ll work on covenant games next, although those are totally optional.
My next char really will be an alt - I’ll play him just enough to get a trade skill to max, and then he’ll live in Oribos. May be a DK, I haven’t decided yet.
I’m sure my main would have progressed faster if I concentrated on one of them, but that’s not how I play. Anyway, perspective is a heck of a thing, and people need to agree on their terms before we can have a meaningful discussion.
Just because gearing is easier, doesn’t make it alt friendly. Not in the least. Especially not with:
And many other things.