Alts are the spice of Azeroth

I usually talk a lot about being a shaman on here, which is understandable considering the majority of my time on WoW is playing my enhancement shaman. Lets just face it, dropping totems and shredding faces is pretty awesome stuff. Not to mention the way those ghostly Shoveltusk heads pop out of my Tier 10 shoulders. Only thing more I could ask for is an extra couple spirit hands so I can dual wield 2-handed weapons.

But from time to time I feel the need to play my alts. I have many which vary from race and class combinations, to profession differences, as well as leveling mindsets. Overall I guess I'll just talk about why I created/play my different alts.

1. Tauren Protection Warrior
Current Level: 80
My first serious alt. I had been dpsing for quite a while on my shaman(with a little tanking back in vanilla wow dungeons, and I actually tanked King Dred the other day now that I think about it) and felt the need to make a tank. At the time it just seemed like the right class combo to do. Taurens look awesome in armor, and they are huge which makes them a bigger target for being a meat shield. Since I was making him a tank I didn't even bother with making him a fury or arms warrior first and then switching to prot. He's been prot his whole life, and it's all he will ever know. If I ever get to dual talenting him it will be for another prot spec.
The nice thing is I'm able to keep his bank very clean. If I pick up a piece of gear that isn't for tanking then I sell it or send it to my disenchanting alt.
My other reasoning at the time was a lot of the tanks I met in pugs were either morons or jerks. After having been a tank for a while I now understand where that jerk-ness can come from. Insider tip for not making a tank mad: Let him pull the mobs.

2. Holy Priest/Shadow Priest
Current level: 74
This one started as a DE and bank alt. I wanted to make a little money so I sent all my greens and blues that I could to this alt to disenchant, and then proceeded to level them as needed to progress their enchanting. Funny thing was I started getting a bunch of Bind on Equip drops that would be perfect for a healing priest. So that's when I got her set up as holy and proceeded to spend most of my level grinding in dungeons. Killing stuff as holy takes way to long, especially at the higher levels. by the time I hit outland, I decided to switch to shadow and instantly fell in love with it. I used to just stand there and let the alliance kill me. But once I went shadow, I got a druid 4 lvls higher than me down to 10% health before I died. I felt empowered by the darkness. I even healed a few dungeons still specced as shadow, which was a little tricky and got me some laughs. I mostly just use here for enchanting purposes which is why I haven't maxed out her level.

3. Death Knight
Current Level 70
Everyone has a Death Knight alt. Who wouldn't want to start at level 55 after grinding from 1-80 on a couple of characters?
I like to play him for the fun of it. I already have a good dps and tank so I don't have much need for him. He's also my personal glyph maker, which isn't as needed since I don't have to re-glyph everyday.

4. Druid
Current Level 71
Few reasons for starting this one. Ever since a couple of my friends and I rolled 3 druids on a server and then never got them past level 13, I kinda wanted to play one. That and certain ones were really annoying to kill in pvp (resto druids I'm looking at you) But I also needed an alchemist to supply me with raiding flasks, which I am now able to make. Cheap, albeit time-consuming at times, farming of herbs and making flasks. Plus flight form is pretty sweet. Especially since i can stay in it while gathering herbs.
Side Note: New killing method for resto druids on my shaman - Purge and auto-attack with Rage every now and then to keep my mana up. Eventually they run out of mana and then it's just funny.

5-9 Other alts
Level < 30
One of each class and a mixture of races. My pally is a human just because I'm holding out for my Tauren version once Cataclysm hits.

Overall the alt experience is fun, and a great way to learn some weakness and strengths of each class so you can know what to expect from people that actually know how to play them. Me personally, I suck at mages. But maybe it's just because I'm not up to the level where I can kill everything with 2 hits before it reaches me.

So whether you have an alt for a profession, or exploration, or because it's so much easier to pvp with, remember the deadliest alt of all.... alt F4.