the only two altcoins worth a bit of salt are DigitalCoin and DevCoin. Other than that I've seen very little reason to invest in any of the crap that calls itself a coin.
DigitalCoin is decent because, despite the recent drop in value, the coin itself is supported and developed. Baritus works hard to update the coin and he stands behind it. The fact that CAVE is up and running also helps DGC in the long run as well.
http://www.cryptoave.com/register.php?r=deadbitDevCoin is just... well awesome. It pays developers, what more can you want?