Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 newsThe Queue: Hat Trick
by Mathew McCurley 
Mar 9th 2012 at 11:00AM
This is my third Queue in a row. I wanted to say "Three-peat," but I think that's trademarked.
Sidvicious asked:
I didn't know you can transfer a LvL 80 character form one account to another. I have 2 accounts that I'm playing with the same credit card can I transfer a lvl 85 for one to another?
If both accounts are under the same name (personal name -- your name, not the account name), you can pay to transfer characters between accounts. Thanks to Cephas from the comments, who made my life easier and did the copy and pasting for me:
Character Transfers Between Accounts
"Characters may be eligible for transfer between accounts which are registered to the same user. To conduct an account-to-account transfer, you will have to answer the 'secret question' for the account you are transferring the character from (the source account), and the last name on both accounts must match. We do not support the transfer of characters between friends, guild mates, or family members."
Jason asked:
Where do you go to grind Steamwheedle Cartel rep now? Is it just endless farming low level mobs?
I've been asking this question myself, since those factions are some of the last that I have to really grind out. My first instinct was to go to Wowpedia and look up a list of mobs and quests that gave me Steamwheedle Cartel reputation. Check out this list, and get to grinding. I'm sure there will be plenty of answers and tips in the comments, because I'd love to know the answer as well.
uncletouchy asked:
Any guesses as to how "stat normalization" will work for challenge modes? Nerfing primary stats seems relatively straightforward, just reduce/increase by a percentage or to a given value. However, secondary stats seem more complicated since people gear to hit caps, haste plateaus, etc. If the the same percent nerf/buff rule is applied to these, we'll end up above/below caps.
I do not know how the exact mechanics work, but currently in game, there is a mechanic to bring relative power levels in line with one another and scale down people's gear. You probably saw the buff (or debuff, in our case) on the test realms, especially during our epic fail Queen Azshara run during testing when she was nigh impossible to kill. Our characters had vastly overgeared the fight, but because of the zone-wide debuff to our item levels and stats, things were at a controlled difficulty.
Challenge modes will most likely work the same way. If you're overgeared for the content, the game will apply a debuff to you much like the one on the public test realm. If you are appropriately geared, nothing should happen. This is all theory, however. We have no idea how these challenge mode dungeons will work yet.
Batleth responded to my answer yesterday:
"I think there will be massive server migrations and merges in the future, but we won't see it. It will all happen behind the scenes."
Maybe I'm not fully understanding this sentence...
Do you mean that one day, in an attempt to balance or populate a server, Blizzard will move toons around without the consent of the paying customer? Please tell me I'm crazy and I'm not understanding.
What I am saying is that I believe the radical move Blizzard will make is that you won't ever leave your realm, but other realms will merge into yours. For example, let's say that three realms, A, B, and C, are all experiencing population problems. My theory is that you would still log in to server A but share the same virtual space with people from realms B and C. Towns would feel fuller, Auction Houses could be merged for low-pop realms, yet you would never know that you actually moved -- because you technically didn't. Does that make a bit more sense? It's a long shot, but it's the least invasive idea I could think of, and it really cuts down on the "WoW is dying, look at all these realms that are closing" rhetoric.
matt responded to my answer yesterday:
Mat said: "Personally, the last thing that I want is to have the old instances and raids to be challenging again in any fathomable way. In fact, I like those places because of how easy and fun it is to farm at my heart's content"
then why do you support the notion of an item level squish? Are you not aware that the impact of that will be to reduce your relative power compared to older raids? From the graph posted in the blue on the topic:
Post-squish @ 85 in DS epics your comparative power vs. Kara would be comparable to a lvl 70 in sunwell gear zoning in today, good luck solo farming that mount.
While I understand that post-squish my relative power will decrease significantly, Blizzard has said that the rest of the game would follow suit. We would have comparable power against level 60 or 70 bosses to we have now, since everything is getting squished, bosses included. I am hopeful that Blizzard can act on an item level and stat revamp successfully with minimal turbulence.
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 2 of 6)
Killik Mar 9th 2012 12:24PM
They literally had a debuff on the PTR that would scale your gear down to 353 to test the new instances. That's probably the mechanic they'd use for challenge modes. It's a technology they already have; allows people to retain control of their character's appearance; doesn't rely on additional reforger/regem/enchanter NPCs at the start of every instance.
Procs off weapons and trinkets already have an item budget (see the different versions of gear from Dragon Soul or Icecrown), so it's likely the damage part of the proc will be diminished. That also goes for damage done by spawned NPCs, like the tentacles from Gur'thalak.
What I don't know is how this affects things like stat caps, like hit and expertise. Anybody paying more attention on the PTR than me? :)
(cutaia) Mar 9th 2012 2:33PM
"This makes the most sense, IMO. Not the grays/whites, of course;) but rather than they'll simply replace your real gear with pre-made gear that they've balanced for the dungeon"
The debuff Killik mentioned probably is what they'll do. They'll take your current gear, and scale it's max efficacy to a certain cap. Otherwise, they're assigning themselves the job of creating a complete set of gear for each class, for each dungeon, for all time. Ever time they change the stat weights on a class? Time to go in and adjust the premade gear for every single dungeon. New expansion? Time to go adjust all the gear again.
Having your gear scale down, means they can set some simple rules about hit/expertise remaining at cap, while the stat balance you choose on your gear will still affect your performance.
Abbadon Mar 9th 2012 5:52PM
I was thinking something along the same lines... It would seem unfair for one person to be in a T14 2pc set, and another with a 4pc bonus, and then the next guy with a T15 2 or 4pc bonus. Even if the stats equal out, tier bonuses would be near impossible to balance around.
Tbah Mar 10th 2012 10:29AM
All in all it will be nice to see how they do this, as what I understood from BlizzCon panels every group entering the instance will be at the same level. Not the same gear level (as in ilvl) but in all considerable ways. The difference would be the players' skills.
Therefore no enchant procs, no trinket procs, no gear procs whatsoever. Every player of a single class/spec will have the same stats. Else it will not be the same starting line. The filthy rich can buy the Avalanche of the MoP while the poor ones will have to go with Hurricane equivalent (I hope you see my point) and the starting situation will be uneven. Or mr. Hardcore has an OP proc weapon (I'm looking at you, Gurthalak) while mr. Casual has a thirteen-in-a-dozen weapon from the latest LFR. Even if the procs are tuned down to some pre-set level it will become an unfair advantage.
Thus the idea of gray rags and a stick as a weapon sounds good. At least the idea of getting the stats normalized, not tuned, for challenge modes.
astorflo Mar 9th 2012 11:11AM
Question: With the addition of the raid finder tier gear to the existing gear (normal, heroic, points), do you think that raid reputation recipes (like Ashen verdict) will not be implemented anymore? An argument can be made here, that with this, professions will not have any source of recipes after the initial expansion into later patches, but Blizzard can get over this with a new reward feature (give recipes as rewards for something like challenge modes, which I think it's the case anyway).
Amanda A. Mar 9th 2012 12:00PM
You probably just won't get rep (or will get less rep, or will cap rep sooner) in LFR mode. Same way random recipes don't drop in LFR.
TimR Mar 9th 2012 12:17PM
I would really like to see LFR made viable for obtaining high level recipes and mats. Right now I feel like so many professions become very outdated as the expansion progresses. You can make great gear for the first tier with vendor bought recipes, but beyond that if you are not an active raider, tough luck.
Boobah Mar 9th 2012 12:51PM
And of course, there's the other gating; you make your new Nether Vortex not drop in LFR.
Batleth Mar 9th 2012 11:11AM
Thanks for clarifying!
That does make more sense to me now.
:-)
deadly Mar 9th 2012 11:12AM
For any rep check out http://www.wowjuju.com/repcalc gives you mobs how much rep for a kill and the link to quests you can complete to get rep.
Homeschool Mar 9th 2012 12:54PM
Best place I've found for farming Steamwheedle rep is Tanaris, the pirate cove on the east shore. There's a big ol' battle between pirates, goblins, and gnomes, and you can run around and nuke little pirates for rep repeatedly.
brian Mar 9th 2012 11:11AM
What do you think will be a good gold making strategy in the beginning of mists?
Shinae Mar 9th 2012 11:21AM
Gathering as you quest in Pandaria and sell those mats as high as people are willing to pay. I hold off on leveling my crafting professions at the expansion's start, when mats are at a premium.
Lower level mats and leather goods will also get a boost to value, as people level up their monks. They'll also want bags on their new characters.
razion Mar 9th 2012 11:21AM
Craft-able gear definitely has a good market at the beginning of an expansion. Selling materials to help people level their crafting professions (such as Jewelcrafting and Blacksmithing for raiders) will also make a good hand of gold. Although for better tips I'd recommend you search back a couple weeks through the articles on the site--they had one about this very subject on Gold Capped.
Puntable Mar 9th 2012 11:27AM
Do you mean the first few weeks? You have two options. 1. Sell all the materials you gather for inflated prices, and put off leveling your professions, or 2. Level your professions quickly to try and be one the first to sell the new crafted items.
Shinae Mar 9th 2012 11:30AM
As Razion said, there's a Gold Capped about it:
http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/02/17/preparing-a-money-making-strategy-for-mists-of-pandaria/
brian Mar 9th 2012 12:00PM
Thanks for the link!
llcjay2003 Mar 9th 2012 12:23PM
Yeah stacks of Obsidian Ore was upwards of 1-2k per STACK at the beginning of Cata. I assume it will be somewhat similar for all gatherable (is that a word?) mats. The competition may be reduced somewhat for nodes due to no flying for most people for a little bit until they hit max level.
The bitch at the beginning of Cata was the competition for nodes. God help you if you were on a PvP server.
llcjay2003 Mar 9th 2012 12:25PM
My point is, I say screw crafting for the first few weeks and sell all your mats.
Killik Mar 9th 2012 12:31PM
Auction off literally everything you can gather or that drops off a mob. And do it as quickly as possible before prices crash.