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 6 of 6)
Noyou Mar 9th 2012 1:40PM
Already have Zaijiang saved. Not sure if I will use that on my Monk or not. I do like the way it looks with the iji in the middle. Yes, I am kind of weird like that with names.
chaosdefined Mar 9th 2012 12:28PM
Would multiple character migrations be something Blizz would ever try do you think?
I've got two characters I really want to change realm with to join a friend, but the thought of that amount of cash isn't a good one.
matt Mar 9th 2012 12:55PM
Not to keep bringing this up, since everybody has made up there minds about it already but if one takes a logarithmic system and "squishes" it into a linear system, there MUST be a change in y-axis value ratios. There is serious misunderstanding of what should be simple math.
think of player power as something that can be plotted over time you start out @ 10dps 50hp you end @ 30k dps and 200k hp. the plot of that line is a logarithmic curve. the rate of change is changing. this is the current system
now imagine a squish, as it was explained by blizzard. you start the same but you end @ 1kdps and 6000hp. in this example you have lost 97% of your power, but that's cool you roll into DS next week and all the trash and bosses have also lost 97% of their power (since mob power and player power are 2 sides of the same coin)
now think about our graph, to make that linear, the amount of power lost in the squish by a mob/player is dependent upon there place along the x axis the RFK mobs may only lose .01% of their power to adjust them to the new linear curve while LK may need to loose 40% of his power and ultraxion may need to lose 90%+ of his power.
so to recap post squish T13 units (players and mobs) have lost 90% of there power, while T4 units (again players and mobs) have lost say 15%. the difference between the power of those 2 units HAS CHANGED. you are (post squish) LESS POWERFUL THAN BEFORE when compared to a T4 mob even as you are equally power when compared to a T13 mob.
the thing you describe is the the much loathed mega-dmg scenario. under that scenario the relative power levels are all maintained but the numbers get smaller.
please go re-read that post with your math hat on, I promise you I am not crazy, many people have misunderstood this. Or, continue to ignore the math. But please don't complain too much when your solo farming is brought to an end by a change you said you supported.
Noyou Mar 9th 2012 1:43PM
Tomorrow's Queue should be titled, "You spin me right round baby..." with all the math and theories flying around. I wouldn't mind seeing that video in the header too. *cough* hint *cough*
Fweet Mar 9th 2012 2:07PM
Analogy:
As it stands, the WoW Skyscraper is 85 stories tall. The first floor has standard 8-foot ceilings. Each successive floor (being "better" by virtue of being "above" lower levels) is designed with a higher ceiling, so the result is higher floors that are dangerously unstable. The eighty-fifth floor has 5,680-foot ceilings. The elevator ride between the eighty-fourth and eighty-fifth floors, alone, takes nearly two hours.
In order to make the building more structurally sound, while also maintaining the "status" associated with being on the higher floors, the rate of increase from the ground floor to the top must be "squished" so that it will be shorter and less prone to collapse, despite having five more stories added to the top.
(cutaia) Mar 9th 2012 2:23PM
"are dangerously unstable"
That would be a good analogy if there were actually something intrinsically dangerous or unstable about the imaginary concept of "damage" being larger.
We can see how a mile high story in your building would cause a very real logistical problem. However, saying, "100k DPS seems like too much," is purely psychological...not actually based in any facts about how much imaginary D a person should be able to do in a second.
My building analogy for this squish, then, would be this:
Players are saying, "Jeeze...the Burj Khalifa is too tall! This building is over 800,000 millimeters tall!"
And I'm all, "Yeah, ok, but that's just 800 meters. It's fine."
And the players are like, "No! We need to re-engineer this building from scratch to be smaller so the number won't be so big!
DarkWalker Mar 9th 2012 2:24PM
It's actually possible to use the idea behind logarithmic scale to make a system where stats increase linearly (or even having a number of them not scale at all, and just a few scale linearly), but the resulting power increase is exponential just like it's now.
It's roughly what the D&D combat system achieves since it's inception. Up to D&D 3.5, the basic stats didn't increase in any meaningful way, and other stats (level, armor class, HP, hit bonus) increase linearly; but the relative power between different level characters increase exponentially.
(Before someone runs with this the wrong way: I'm not saying WoW should slap a D&D combat system on top. I'm just pointing that a system with linear stat increases but exponential power increases is possible - and something with those characteristics would solve the big numbers problem while preserving the same relative power increase as the players level up.)
Tbah Mar 10th 2012 10:52AM
The problem with big numbers isn't them being big. Not in itself.
The problem is that most won't be buying a new, ultra-large, ultra-resolution screen to show them. What we're getting now is hits in the tens of thousands. That is five digits and a dot. Six characters long. At this rate, at the end of MoP we might be getting hits in the tens of millions. Eight digits and three dots, eleven characters. That's 83% increase in length.
If we'd go in the way of multipliers we will lose the point of comparison. My 18M dps and your 19M dps don't seem too much apart, but there's 1'000'000 in between.
Besides Burj Khalifa: is it 830 m or 82984 cm tall? Both are correct but the other gives a wrong idea. By 16 cm (6,2") I know, but still.
Kyle Mar 9th 2012 1:40PM
I'm not sure how appropriate this question is - but over on the forums I noticed that Joystiq has been given diablo 3 beta keys to give away - Is that to the WoWinsider people or that other joystiq?
(cutaia) Mar 9th 2012 2:09PM
"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."
But mathematically, it's still going to be harder to kill older things.
Since Ragnaros in Molten Core, there have been 3 exponential increases in power on our end. If the squish goes through, suddenly there's only one linear power gain from level 60 to level 90, followed by 1 exponential power gain between hitting 95 and getting geared in the final raid.
If, in Mists, H-Lich King suddenly goes from 30 million health to 10 million health, it's still going to be *comparatively* harder to kill him if we're all back to doing 5k DPS than it would be to kill the current, untouched Lich King with 80k DPS each.
matt Mar 9th 2012 2:47PM
you accomplished this in many fewer words than me.
/hat tip
It concerns me how frequently I hear people assume that they would maintain there power ratio vs older content. If that is what you want, Blizzard offered that option, they called it Mega-dmg and people said it was a stupid band-aid fix. I sure hope the systems team is savvy enough to understand that the applause for the ilvl squish was largely from people who had no idea what the impact on the game would be.
for my part, I actually think they should implement it, the deprecation of old content is just sort of bad business. WoW has been out for 7 yrs and it has 1 raid (and a bunch of old stuff that is easy sauce, solo bait). I say squish the power curve so hard that I NEED 5+ to clear kara.
Noyou Mar 9th 2012 4:27PM
@Matt
See the problem with that is, right now if you want to make something harder, you can take off gear. The only option to make things easier is to add more people. Many of the people concerned are people who like soloing content. Easy, hard or in between, it is where there comfort level is. To Ignore this, would be very bad on Blizzards part. If you have that much fondness for old content and want to have it a challenge, roll a toon and stop their xp at the level you want. We have a lot of options right now. What you suggest cuts them all down.
nycblackout89 Mar 9th 2012 8:21PM
Is there a website that tells you per server what dailies are up and things like that? Its crazy flying to shat to check for crocs then to deepholm for pebble then to tol barad for the one quest i'm missing there. Theres got to be a simpler way.
Elazul Yagami Mar 10th 2012 1:47AM
Do you think the affect of Expertise on Spell hit will pave the way for a cloth wearing melee class?
We always wondered about the creation of a monk class before it was announced , and we always assumed it would be a cloth wearing melee class, but now we know monk's will wear leather
However, now with expertise affecting Spell hit, i wouldn't be surprised if we saw expertise on cloth, and in a later expansion we got a cloth wearing physical class.
What do you think?
Killik Mar 10th 2012 6:32AM
The Expertise = Spell Hit mechanic is meant to standardise itemisation for the melee classes that also use magic (ie. everyone except Warriors). Currently DKs get a free +8% Spell Hit, Rogues & Shamans stack +Hit to the skies and Paladins just hope for the best.
So we're unlikely to see cloth items with Expertise - there's no tangible benefit to the caster classes (it might as well be +Hit), while melee may choose to roll on Intellect gear that isn't suited for them. So no positives and potential loot drama.
As for a cloth melee class, I think if they were doing it then Monk would have been the class they would have chosen. There was developer talk at the start of Cataclysm that Rogues were too squishy without their cooldowns - this would be even more the case with a cloth-wearing melee. But the cooldowns made a class too bursty in PvP. I don't see them wanting to make another class with the same problems to fix. You could argue 'let them get bonus armor from cloth', but then they might as well be wearing leather, or mail, or plate.
stmart Mar 10th 2012 7:48AM
You don't even have to have the same COMPLETE name to transfer from an account to another...ALL YOU NEED is that both accounts have the same last name...
When they forced the bnet account conversions me and some friends all used MY last name for our accounts...
We traded characters from time to time after that...
NO you shouldn't do it, cause it's technically against the rules...
But you CAN do it...
xino Mar 10th 2012 11:54AM
As a new player who finally hit lvl 85, I want to run old content. What is the easiest way? Do I have to find that dungeon's location in the map to actually be able to enter it, or is there an easier way? The only thing I see available on the LFD is current content. Help a newbie!