The Queue: Rule of Two
by Alex Ziebart 
Feb 20th 2012 at 11:00AM
Mists of Pandaria feels like it's right around the corner, what with the press event taking place next month and the ongoing signs of an alpha in progress. However, we haven't been able to see any of that quite yet, so it's incredibly difficult to answer questions that include the phrase "in Mists of Pandaria" in them. "In Mists of Pandaria, will we be able to ...?" Who knows!
Hang onto those questions a while longer. Once we've seen more of Mists, we'll happily answer those sorts of questions. In the meantime, if you have questions about the current game, we would love to hear them. It would make writing this thing for you guys every day much easier, and what we write in it will actually be useful to all of you rather than nothing than speculative jibber-jabber.
Now let's hug.
Batlesh asked:
Will Blizzard ever get rid of that super pesky Sith "Rule of Two" obstacle when it comes to forming/entering raids?? Sometimes I just want to farm for old Tier gear without having to harass someone to jump on an alt and log out....
This is another one of those things where I can't say for certain, because I'm not a mind reader. However, this is a change I'd really like Blizzard to make. I absolutely hate bothering friends or guildmates to make a raid group for me when I want to go killing things in an old raid. They have better things to do. Especially if they need to pause their questing to make a raid for me.
@o_philosopho asked:
will we be able to name our companion pets in Mists of Pandaria?
My gut says no, but we don't know for certain either way. We haven't seen the Pet Battle system in action yet. Maybe we'll learn more about it at the Mists of Pandaria press event next month.
@Brennya asked:
do you think Blizzard will do any updates to gems, in regards to epics being raid only, before Mists is released?
This late in the game, I'm not sure there would be a point to that. We aren't gong to be getting new tiers of gear. Upgrading all of the gems in your existing gear just in time to get rid of all of it in Pandaria would be strange. If ever there were a time to do that, it would have been patch 4.3, not a Mists of Pandaria pre-release patch. So no, I don't think Blizzard will do anything with gems anymore this expansion.
@diegosacuna asked:
Any idea whats happened to the N'Zoth storyline?
N'Zoth still lurks in the darkest deeps. The moment you forget about him is the moment madness wins. It is out there, and it is coming.
Do not forget that. Do not ever forget that.
Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW Insider crew is here with The Queue, our daily Q&A column. Leave your questions in the comments, and we'll do our best to answer 'em!
Filed under: The Queue, Mists of Pandaria
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 10)
lazymangaka Feb 20th 2012 11:02AM
I would grab a crocilisk pet and name him Totodile.
Homeschool Feb 20th 2012 11:41AM
Seconding Mycroft's remark. WoW runs low-power enough that most machines can handle two copies at once (albeit poorly), and that's all you need to invite your L10 second-account character in and form a raid group. /exit the second copy, and you're homefree!
I've been solo farming Kara (and other raids) for over a year now with this method.
Edymnion Feb 20th 2012 12:51PM
Yeah, and all you have to do is pay Blizzard twice as much money every month to do something you could do for free with a guildy with 30 seconds to spare.
Sorry dude, but paying for two subscriptions and dual boxing just to get into an old raid is not a viable answer.
Ullaana Feb 20th 2012 1:09PM
Edymnion,
If you read Mycroft's post you will see he was advocating using the trial account, which costs nothing.
I myself have 2 accounts so I can have more that 10 alts in one realm but I'm just weird that way.
Pax.
DonSerrot Feb 20th 2012 1:50PM
In the case of the companion pet names, I remember someone at Blizzcon saying that companion pet names would be added, it wasn't as big news at the battle system though so it could have easily been missed.
Dementron Feb 20th 2012 9:30PM
I remember the same as DonSerrot, that someone at Blizzcon said we would be able to name them.
I certainly hope that's the case. I want to name my Moonkin Hatchling Annie Mal, after the moonkin from You Awaken in Razor Hill.
Luke Feb 21st 2012 3:14AM
You can't use trial accounts to make raids for yourself. Whether or not the accounts are tied to the same battle.net account or not. You have to have two characters of the appropriate level, which means two active accounts because trial accounts are limited to level 20.
Nathanyel Feb 21st 2012 5:56AM
Luke, that is absolutely wrong. Even a trial account character can be used to form a raid once level 10 - just like normal characters.
Scotty Feb 20th 2012 11:05AM
The rule of two does not apply to Molten Core if you port in via the Blood Elf fellow. I've been getting into MC solo regularly.
Alex Ziebart Feb 20th 2012 11:06AM
You're right. My example was crap. Off to edit!
ThorCow Feb 20th 2012 11:22AM
You can also go into BWL solo iirc. At least, if you are in a non-raid party it'll give you each solo instances of MC and BWL. It might be a 40-man raid thing.
Mycroft Feb 20th 2012 11:18AM
For other areas, if your computer can temporarily handle it, you can launch another instance of the wow game, and log in to a never-expiring trial account. From your real account, group invite any of your trial characters that are level 10 or above. Tada, raid group, and no having to bother friends/guildies/beg in trade. After the raid group is formed, you can exit the game on the trial account (but stay in a group) to get full performance from your computer back.
Pam Feb 20th 2012 11:44AM
You can also get in if you have done a random heroic, and didn't leave the party. If everyone else leaves, you can still use that 'party' that you are in to get into the raids without requiring another person.
Docseuzz Feb 20th 2012 11:46AM
@mycroft
I've been doing this - works out pretty good - just set EVERY setting to minimal - and obviously no addons except an auto-accept addon of your choice (just easier). Getting a trial toon to lvl 10 takes less than an hour and makes life easier...
S Feb 20th 2012 11:49AM
My trick is to /who a capital city and find a lvl 1 (those are usually bank alts since they haven't leveled) and invite them. Then no one is really harmed.
cromahr Feb 20th 2012 11:59AM
Indeed...your guildie doesnt HAVE to stop his questing or anything. If I wanna enter an old raid, I usually ask someone in my guild to log an alt for 5 secs, invite that alt, make the group into a raid, then the guildie logs back to his main or whatever char he or she wants to use, and I head to the raid instance.
So that person doesnt have to stay online on that char, and usually, everyone has at least one alt they can "borrow" you for that.
Ez Feb 20th 2012 12:34PM
Also you can do a cross-realm group with Real ID as long as it is the same faction. Just group, change to raid and you are good to go.
musicchan Feb 20th 2012 1:33PM
Wait, what!? You mean the instance doesn't try to kick you out or anything? How long has this been a thing? :O
murmaiderxx Feb 20th 2012 3:13PM
I was able to solo within Karazhan at one point. I had downed two bosses and then the person I asked to join me for the raid while not inside with me, was in town dropped group. I was expecting to get the boot from the instance but it never came. I ended up running through the whole thing without any error, could someone explain that for me? I don't understand it myself.
twbrienn Feb 20th 2012 3:13PM
When I want to hit up Karazhan I'll log to an alt, invite a guildie, make them leader and hop to the toon that I'm running it on. Then they can drop group and I'm off to the races.