The Queue: Hat Trick

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.
Filed under: The Queue
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Reader Comments (Page 4 of 6)
Hob Mar 9th 2012 11:14AM
Re: gear squish...
So, my ogre-slaying dagger with +9 against ogres will be useful against Gruul?
Yes! I'm fighting the darkness already!
nosoup4u76 Mar 9th 2012 11:18AM
Odd QfTQ - Is there a spanish or portuguese version of either WoW Insider, Elitist Jerks, or some similar resource? The reason I ask is I'm constatntly amazed at the level of play from folks who seem to originate from South American servers. I'm completely understanding of the language barrier and the issues that can arise there, but I've certainly run across my fair share who appear to have no clue what they are doing.
-The warlock doing nothing but wand attacking all mobs while his pet sits idle at his side
-The retadin who apparently only knows the key for divine storm
-The 85 enhancement shaman rolling with a single one-hand weapon, and it's a spellpower weapon
And wouldn't you know it, these guys are always from Nemesis, or Ragnaros or Tol Barad. It would just be nice if I could link a resource where they could go and learn that there is no use for strength gear on a druid, EVER.
Puntable Mar 9th 2012 11:33AM
I imagine that wow sites in portugese are sparse. I would also point out that there are plenty of english speaking players that do those things you mentioned.
thgilbert1 Mar 9th 2012 11:18AM
"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. "
Likely then the character cap per server would need to increase to 20. As there would inevitably be people who may have characters already on 2 (or 3) of the servers being merged together and it would be rather annoying to have to move them elsewhere or anything.
Perhaps Blizzard would consider setting it so that you could have 10 characters per faction on a server (say if you have 7 characters on 1 server and 5 on another; when the servers merge you can then move the 5 or 7 or some of them to be on different factions and avoid having to sort out 12 toons all together etc)
Boobah Mar 9th 2012 1:00PM
Well, the server merge that refuses to use that name would be simplified if Blizzard just decides to go ahead and allow us to use as many of our accounts' fifty character slots on a server as we choose.
Phredreeke Mar 9th 2012 11:18AM
As for stat normalization. How about:
1. Keep current hit and expertise stats (for spriests, ele shammy and moonkin include spirit as well)
2. Substract those stats from a pre-set value (the sum of your secondary stats at a certain level)
3. Now, add the remaining secondary stats together.
4. Divide the value from step 2 with the value from step 3. Apply the resulting fraction as a modifier to appropiate stats.
Killik Mar 9th 2012 12:25PM
Divide by two and... voila! The number you first thought of! ;)
Puntable Mar 9th 2012 11:21AM
I think Mat is saying that the NAME of your server would not need to change for them to do a server a merger. But beside that, it would BE a server merger, and it would be very noticable if your server population suddenly doubled, new guilds appeard, more items in the AH, etc.
I don't think that is what they are planning, because when an MMO does a server merger, they are admitting that they are on the decline. I don't think Blizzard wants to admit that just yet.
Noyou Mar 9th 2012 1:34PM
And it would be really weird if you were on a west coast server and suddenly the time on your clock was 3 hours ahead. I think ultimately, they would have to pick one server and move the other 2-3 etc.
underground_slacker Mar 9th 2012 11:49AM
Q for the Q: Maybe i missed something, but why on earth is the Dragon Soul airship boss backed up by Vrykul?
Was there any precedent for this?
I mean i get they could be disillusioned after losing both arthas and ymiron and be willing to join the twilights hammer cult, but some explanation would be nice y'know?
Shinae Mar 9th 2012 12:03PM
I believe that we're not supposed to think of them as Vrykul. I think it's just that their model looks better than a vanilla human model, especially when scaled up to be seen over the heads of 25 players, as raid trash and bosses always are.
Boobah Mar 9th 2012 1:07PM
It could go either way; you don't really need a big explanation for having all of six Vrykul choosing to join up with the Twilight's Hammer. It's not like we have an explanation for why Blackhorn signed up with Deathwing, either.
CursedMonk87 Mar 9th 2012 7:40PM
Also keep in mind most of the Dragon Soul raid is IN Northrend, where the Vrykul would be an easy recruit for the Twilight's Hammer. I'm sure the scattered tribes were easy to brainwash (or, like you said, they're looking for revenge). The Vrykul are skilled dragon-riders too and maybe they fit a certain niche in Blackhorn's force. Even though it wasn't explicitly explained why, I do like the throwback to Wrath.
And yes, the Vrykul player models are so much better than the human PC's.
Matthew Rossi Mar 10th 2012 4:10PM
There were Vrykul in the Twilight's Hammer back in Ulduar.
monotype Mar 9th 2012 11:54AM
The more I hear about item squish, the less I'm enthused. As a soloist on three toons (hunter, pally, DK), I enjoy being able to go back and, through quirky application of skill, mechanics, and sheer good luck, one-man things that by rights ought to leave me a flat smear on the ground. I understand that this isn't Blizz's preferred way of playing the game, but hey, would it be so difficult to throw a toggle in there for old raids? "Talk to Brann to decompress your stats, so that you might actually survive when Mimiron goes V07TR0N on you."
Puntable Mar 9th 2012 1:06PM
How easy do want old raids to be? You can already solo MC with no chance of failure. It would only be another expansion or two before you can walk up to Mimiron and kill him with one blow as if he was a level 10 kobold.
monotype Mar 9th 2012 1:16PM
I'm not asking for them to be easy, I'm just asking that it be viable. Right now, soloing is doable because a maxed out toon does, by itself, as much DPS as an older tier, level- and gear-appropriate raid group; reducing that damage output to on-level means that soloing old content becomes entirely unfeasible. Just like challenge modes are optional, I want item squish in old content to be a choice. That's all.
Sir Broose Mar 9th 2012 12:00PM
Is it safe to assume that if you pass out multiple scrolls of resurrection invites and have more than one person use them, that you will get multiple benefits - a spectral mount on more than one character, etc.?
robsmith77 Mar 9th 2012 12:07PM
I believe you can only hand out one Scroll per account.
Shinae Mar 9th 2012 12:15PM
You can send out 2 Scroll invites per day (one in-game and one on Battle.net). If multiple people accept your invites, I would think that you would get a mount per accepted Scroll, thereby having multiple characters with the mount.