So what is the minimum amount of alts I can get away with and still be able to experience all normal content. I never really got into the game but always wanted to. I really don't have the time to maintain a ton of alts to grind with. So what could I get away with, if I'm willing to spend a little cash and I don't need to compete with some of these folks running extreme modes, I just want to get to whatever the minimum ilvl is to see the content, do the raids. One alt in t3 , two?
Probably a longer response than you were looking for but I think it's important since the subject isn't as simple as it is in other MMOs:
All content is available to be played, traditionally directly at release provide you maintain a
single character and complete all your tasks and are willing to spend the average cost that you would to play a sub MMO (e.g. box + sub). The content release cycles are specifically designed so that it's incredibly easy to reach the minimum threshold. There are however several caveats to that which makes it misleading:
1) Individuals who run multiple characters will be well above those thresholds and the power growth is exponentially larger. The difference between me & someone who is at ilvl for a raid is massive.
2) You will not be able to generate sufficient gold for your sole character to be very viable. You'll be in rather 'meh' accessory builds that prioritize being economical and your gems & cards will be laughable.
3) As a result of (1) & (2) you will have a difficult time finding a party for the current tier of raids. You'll mostly be relegated to needing to raise your ilvl beyond the threshold before anyone will really consider you, short of the types of groups you want to avoid.
4) The game will not have sufficient content even for a casual MMO player at the end game if you're only playing one character. Daily content (which the game has a heavy emphasis on) will take you about 20-30 minutes to complete and you're not even needing to do them daily with rested bonuses. The raids, while incredibly fun / challenging are limited to once per week. You can clear them all in one day. You will have boatloads of horizontal content however (much of this will actually be fun to do) but it won't directly increase your power level very much.
Based on the above, I'd strongly recommend anyone who wants to start to also be prepared to create ~2 alts, even on the casual side of things. It will help reduce the negatives mentioned above significantly, in addition to the fact that the class & combat design is actually probably one of the strongest points of the game. For context, I am traditionally someone who hates alts and sticks to one character in all MMOs I play - LA is the
only exception to that that I can recall and I've played pretty much every large MMO released and raided in most of them.