The Queue: NO
by Michael Sacco 
Feb 24th 2012 at 11:00AM
I know Adam just used this image yesterday, but man, how could I resist? Image relevant to next question.
Finneous asked:
I wonder, if you create a character in the MOP beta, and later buy the game, will the character still be there to play, or do you have to start from scratch?
You don't get to keep your characters from any Blizzard beta (or many online game betas, period). Expect that trend to continue with MoP when the beta ends.
Draven asked:
What are your guys opinion on the Ironman Challenge that is happening on WoW? Are any of the writers partaking in the grind to 85?
I think it's insane and great. Talk about high stakes! I have some friends at Cryptozoic who are undertaking the challenge; in fact, one of them creates characters based on coworkers and plays them until they die. I'm proud to say that Ironman contestant Mikesacco the undead mage lasted until level 16, whereupon he was killed by two prowling worgen with Shadowstep. RIP.
Welshy asked:
I went back and watched some of the BlizzCon 2011 preview panel and saw where Ghostcrawler joked about the lack of a female Pandaren model at that point. If I recall, they had trouble with the worgen female model before Cata's release as well. Why does Blizzard have trouble with female character models? Are they somehow harder to create?
It's less a problem with female character models -- you'll notice goblin females came out just fine -- and more a problem with female anthropomorphic animals. It's pretty easy to make a male anthropomorphic character look "right" within the constraints of WoW's art style, but it's hard to avoid sexualizing a female one because male sexual characteristics are a little less obvious than female ones. Worse, if you have an "unattractive" female model, no one will want to play it, and you need people to play your new races. I don't really envy Blizzard. But I still think worgen females look like wet chihuahuas.
Jebediah54 asked:
Why is it that when I run my 64-bit client of WoW, I tend to get a lower framerate? I've heard everywhere that running the 64-bit client should make the whole experience smoother. I even have all the settings on low... Any thoughts would be awesome.
Computers with less than 4GB of RAM will suffer from poor performance under the 64-bit client. It's built for a better machine than whatever you're running it on. Add some RAM and I bet it'll run fine (a good rule of thumb for any software, actually).
AltairAntares asked:
I have a question for the queue- I'm thinking of creating and leveling a new character on a new server- is there any server (faction really doesn't matter) that's widely considered to be at "just the right spot" with faction balance/people being decent/overcrowding etc? Every realm forum I look at people always seem to be frustrated with their server.
Most servers are pretty balanced in total population as well as Horde/Alliance ratio; just pick one that seems to get a lot of forum activity rather than one that looks like people are "happy". Everybody who posts on the forums hates their server.
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
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
Puntable Feb 24th 2012 11:03AM
Why do you think they made the raid hit cap for casters more than twice as much as it is for melee?
Killik Feb 24th 2012 11:08AM
Probably something to do with casters not needing expertise. Melee needs a total of +16% hit & expertise. That does, however, leave Hunters as an anomaly in terms of needed stats.
Moeru Feb 24th 2012 11:08AM
Melee has to deal with exp as well. For dual-wield, the mythical hit cap is actually 27%, but no one should ever try to hit it, simply because you'd sacrifice too much just for more white damage. But it does give you more space to add some in.
Also, some melee actually have to hit spell cap for spells/poisons. (Shaman, some DKS, some rogues).
The only ones who have a low hit is hunters, but they have minimum range. Not sure how Blizz is going to balance it out now.
Kelly Feb 24th 2012 11:24AM
HI, I'm an assassination rogue and I FEEL YOUR PAIN!
Kakume Feb 24th 2012 11:54AM
I'm really interested in this one as well. I found myself wondering recently - why 17%? Why that number in particular? Is it just an arbitrary number, is it a miss rate that feels about right as a lower bound (so people want +hit but aren't too punished when they start out) or is there some particular magic to 17% that keeps it balanced against something else?
Grovinofdarkhour Feb 24th 2012 12:08PM
Based on my recent research, it seems the various online resources cannot come to consensus about whether combat rogues can stop at 8% or have to try to reach 17% for their poisons.
(Baenlin's brain hurts, he no longer cares about killing that guy in Gilneas, he wants to go back to farming...)
Jorges Feb 24th 2012 4:29PM
Combat Rogues shouldn't stop at 8% hit, but at that number they should try to get 26 expertise. When you have 26 expertise, any hit you get after 8% doesn't hurt and adds to your white damage. Also, combat only need enough hit to apply and maintain 5 stacks of Deadly Poison to trigger its effect, and to trigger Savage Combat. That's all the use combat has for poisons. That's why having less than 17% is no big deal (I have 15%, and zero problems).
Hunters, simple: their damage is physical (with a few magical attacks here and there, that actually count as special attacks, not spells). They don't need to hit the spell hit cap.
Jeff (Not that one ^ ) Feb 24th 2012 4:42PM
My enhancement Shaman can get to 26% hit on gear alone, without reforging out of mastery or crit. There's too much expertise and haste on Shaman gear.
Moeru Feb 24th 2012 11:05AM
http://www.warcraftrealms.com/realmstats.php
Pretty accurate balance, population and activity ratio statistics.
Drakkenfyre Feb 24th 2012 11:28AM
Warcraftrealms is the last place to describe as accurate. It's buggy data is legendary.
Shinae Feb 24th 2012 11:49AM
@Drakkenfyre
Do you know of a better place to get such information?
Gazpacho Feb 24th 2012 12:01PM
@Shinae
RealmPop!
http://wow.realmpop.com/
Much better data collection; they use the Blizzard APIs, not buggy addons like Warcraft Realms.
loop_not_defined Feb 24th 2012 11:58AM
http://wow.realmpop.com/
Kakume Feb 24th 2012 12:01PM
There's http://wow.realmpop.com/ which does a very clever thing. Per the bottom of that page "Every visitor to this site fetches some data that we need and sends it to our servers."
loop_not_defined Feb 24th 2012 12:05PM
For a comparison:
-Warcraft Census uses a pool of 975,000 level 85 US characters.
-WoW RealmPop uses a pool of 5,005,000 level 85 US characters.
It's probably still off, but WoW RealmPop is definitely more accurate than Warcraft Census.
Kuro Feb 24th 2012 12:26PM
@Drakkenfyre
Do you know of a better place to get such information?
I like wowprogress for that info. They base they population statistic numbers from a really low bar of achievements based on raiding in the last tier of content. ("Population - amount of level 85 characters that meet any of the two conditions: - The character is from a guild and the guild killed something in Tier 12 content - The character killed something in Tier 12 content.")
Sure, it misses some people like those under level cap, those not in a guild who never raid. But... usually you're looking for a new server to do end of game content at level cap. (If you're 5 man content or solo player, then you're current server + lfg should suit you just fine.)
To me this is a better way to gain the feel of server populations rather than relying on a census addon that a person on that server/faction may not use on a regular basis.
US-Mal'Ganis PvP en 6 12233.59 28,091 (1 / 0.03) -05:00
US-Ragnaros PvP es 12 10488.48 27,366 (1 / 0.50) -05:00
US-Proudmoore PvE en 32 7519.59 25,927 (0.36 / 1) -07:00
US-Blackrock PvP en 7 12177.30 25,883 (1 / 0.18) -07:00
US-Kel'Thuzad PvP en 24 8846.74 25,143 (0.20 / 1) -06:00
US-Stormrage PvE en 19 9509.78 24,812 (0.08 / 1) -04:00
zEagleEye` Feb 24th 2012 4:11PM
My opinion - a very good question, regardless of the detractors.
To the people who ridiculed the question, here is some data from the source you recommend (realmpop). At different times I have played on:
Azuremyst 41.4K Alliance/ 24.7K Horde
Bladefist 41.2K Alliance / 26.1K Horde
Dragonblight 46.7K Alliance / 25.5K Horde
Hyjal 33.8K Alliance / 48.1K Horde
Moonrunner 41.2K Alliance / 17.4K Horde
Silvermoon 47.6K Alliance / 34.5K Horde
Silly me, I have trusted the default Blizzard screen and the results reaped me ...
All of those are server PST but most are NOT in the PST zone, causing extra lag.
Because of the imbalance there are various issues with availability of grouping for PvE or PvP activities. It is true that these are all PvE realms, but you still want PvP activities sometimes (even if only in BG and not open world where your AH is destroyed 5-6 times a day).
Another thing to keep in mind - don't trust the default realms selection menu when it tells you about the population. I tried a server that said "New Players" and turned out it was HIGH POP !!!
Again, even on PvE realms there is a meaning to faction imbalance (Tol Barad anynone?).
Rollo Feb 26th 2012 10:32PM
There is a big difference between fetching data in game and fetching it from the armory.
If someone splits their time between multiple alts, it looks like multiple people in the armory but it won't affect the number of people on the realm.
If the people on one faction stays logged in for 10% longer, that means a 10% increase in population with regards to getting groups, trading, anything in game. The armory won't catch that.
If your realm has several people running the census addon, that is the best data you can get if you are interested in the population, activity and faction balance. That's probably not the case, so armory data may be the best you get, but remember that the numbers are not the same as you see in game.
Drakkenfyre Feb 24th 2012 11:07AM
In response to the server balance question, if you want one that is balanced, avoid PVP servers. They generally have a Horde-balance.
My own server feels like it's at 8:1 for Horde to Alliance. It's really irritating when you have something like Halaa, or Wintergrasp, and the Alliance population seems like they just can't win.
slim1256 Feb 24th 2012 11:22AM
Just curious - on a non-PVP server, why do you really care about balance? I guess maybe things like Tol Barad? I understand not wanting to be on a server where your side is miniscule, just because of the problems small pops entail, but otherwise, I'm missing the point of worrying specifically about balance?
Now - for PVP servers, I totally understand wanting that balance. After all - you don't want to be out questing and constantly being overwhelmed by swarms of enemy players.
To that end - I play on Dark Iron (because my friend that got me into the game had rolled on that server due to the Penny Arcade Alliance choosing that as its home), and Horde/Alliance ratio is almost exactly 50/50 - at least it was last I checked.