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Free character transfers opening next week for select NA realms
Select North American realms that are experiencing high queue times will have an opportunity to catch some relief. Community Manager Bashiok announced that next week, Free Character Migrations will be offered to players on these high-queue realms -- players choosing to partake in the service will be allowed to transfer to slightly less crowded realms in order to ease queue times. Bashiok We'll be offering Free Character Migrations next week for realms currently seeing high queue times at login. Those looking to avoid waiting to log in can take advantage of the free transfers to a set destination realm. We're targeting the middle of next week for these Free Character Migrations to become available, and they'll remain open for approximately one week, or until a destination realm fills up. If you're looking to transfer with others we recommend setting up plans early to avoid any stragglers being left behind. Quote: Area 52 & Stormrage >--> Turalyon Tichondrius & Illidan >--> Blackrock Bleeding Hollow & Darkspear >--> Korgath The transfers will be announced on the front page once available. source Keep in mind that this is a free Character Migration -- this does not include the Guild Transfer service. For more information on the Free Character Migration service, including eligibility guidelines, take a look at Blizzard's official FAQ on the topic.
Updated: All realms now online
Updated: All realms are now available. Re: Rolling Realm Restarts 10/14/2010 All realms are online and available for play! See you all ingame source After announcing rolling restarts on all U.S. and Oceanic realms last night, Blizzard has confirmed that all U.S. realms are currently offline due to an unforeseen technical issue. We will have more information when those issues are resolved. Re: Rolling Realm Restarts 10/14/2010 All US realms are temporarily unavailable due to an unforeseen technical issue. We are unable to provide an estimate on when these issues will be resolved. source
Race change available
The expected race change feature is now active on the Account Management page, at least on the US realms. One of our writers has gone through with the change, and it appears to be working. The charge is $25, five dollars less than the faction change feature released a while ago, and includes a full customization -- gender, name, and appearance if you choose to do them. The race changes do not include the new class combinations yet -- we'll probably have to wait until Cataclysm at least before those become available. It's not live on the EU realms yet either, as of this writing. There is also an extended FAQ, which we've posted after the break. This is something that we mostly never expected to happen, right up until Blizzard started saying that it would just a while ago. So at this point, once you roll a character, you're now able to (for an additional charge) change everything about it save for the actual class. It seems unlikely that Blizzard would ever let that happen (given that classes are the fundamental basis of a roleplaying game), but of course we've learned to never say never with them. Update: We've now received official blue confirmation that it is intended to be active. Enjoy, everyone! %Gallery-76618%
Shadowburn BG down for emergency maintenance
We've received a lot of tips in the past few minutes, and now it's official: the Shadowburn battlegroup is down for emergency maintenance. The realms are estimated to return in two hours, around 3:30 EST, but we'll keep you posted if we hear anything new. The affected realms are Agamaggan, Azshara, Baelgun, Dark Iron, Detheroc, Emerald Dream, Greymane, Kalecgos, Lightninghoof, Maelstrom, Malfurion, Moonrunner, Nazjatar, Sargeras, Staghelm, Twisting Nether, Ursin, and Wildhammer. What are you guys going to do in the mean time? I hear there's a good WoW blog around here somewhere that you might enjoy browsing through. Update: The realms are back up.
Free US character transfers
In honor of patch day, Blizzard have opened up some free character transfers on many US realms. These are open now and scheduled to run until Tuesday, April 21 at noon PDT. PvP: From: Blackrock, Tichondrius, Emerald Dream, Lethon, Warsong To: Ursin, Ysondre, Nazjatar, Gul'dan PvE: From: Aggramar, Borean Tundra, Aerie Peak, Azuremyst, Proudmoore, Bronzebeard, Anvilmar, Alexstrasza, Blade's Edge, Silvermoon, Dragonblight, Bladefist, Antonidas, Arygos, Cairne To: Nesingwary, Garrosh, Winterhoof RP: From: Feathermoon, Cenarion Circle, Earthen Ring, Argent Dawn, Moon Guard To: Wyrmrest Accord I worry about their servers slightly, between patch traffic and these character moves, but we'll see if they can take it. This is more server transfers than we usually see at one time. I'm intrigued to see Arygos on there, since it really doesn't feel like a high-population realm to me, at least not on the Horde side. So who's moving?
The Queue: The Scantily Clad Edition
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.Hello, everybody! I'm going to jump right into things today because I'm sure at least a dozen people will want to shiv me for my answer to our first question, and I'd like to give everyone time to do that.Andrew R. asked..."Why do the females in WoW always wear such scantily clad gear? I don't see how plate armor that exposes half your upper body will do you any good when someone wants to stab you. Isn't it kind of degrading to real women who play the game?"
Many free US character transfers opened
Good evening, US WoW players. I've just received a priority message from Zarhym, your favorite floating skull: many North American PvP, RP, and RP-PvP realms now have transfers available! The following transfers are scheduled to run until Tuesday, February 3, at 5:00 PST: Source A (PvP): Azgalor, Bloodscalp (Horde transfers only), Cho'gall (Horde transfers only), Crushridge, Dark Iron, Darkspear, Deathwing, Drak'Tharon, Dunemaul, Firetree, Gorefiend, Nathrezim, Shadowmoon, Smolderthorn, Spinebreaker, Stormscale, Tortheldrin, WildHammer Destination A (PvP): Malorne, Scilla Source B (RP): Argent Dawn, Cenarion Circle, Earthen Ring, Feathermoon, Moon Guard, Scarlet Crusade, Shadow Council Destination B (RP): Wyrmrest Accord Source C (RP-PvP): Maelstrom, Twisting Nether Destination C: Scilla (PvP), Wyrmrest Accord (RP) Hey, that includes my own native realm, Shadow Council. But I'm never moving; I love that place. In addition, the following PvE transfers will be enabled this Thursday, January 29, at 6 PM PST, and are scheduled to run until Monday, February 2, at 6 PM PST: Source D (PvE): Arygos, Alestrasza, Shadowsong, Eonar, Hyjal Destination D (PvE): Winterhoof As ever, transfers may close early if the desired population levels are reached, so go ahead and transfer early if you intend to do it.
New PvE realm open for character creation
On top of free transfers for both North American and European servers, a brand new realm has opened up for the US! The vital stats: Name: Borean Tundra Type: PvE Time Zone: Central Battlegroup: Emberstorm As a non-transfer realm, you can't transfer characters to it (duh) or create Death Knights on it (unless you have another level 55+ character on that realm) for the next 3 months. AQ gates are closed. Reroll locusts, get ready to swarm. When I was on a few hours ago, the highest level was 13 (a hunter); it seems like the realm opened around when Bornakk did his post (9:30 PST/12:30 EST). There is also, apparently, a new RP transfer realm planned to open at some point; we'll let you know as soon as we find out anything more. P.S. Hi to Justin, Nerdan, and Healinator.
US transfers now available
I like to think this is in response to Jose here: Nethaera has announced some free realm transfers for North American players, to complement the European ones. In addition, the list of eligible realms for migration to Fizzcrank, the new transfer realm, has been expanded. The transfers to Fizzcrank are currently active, and are scheduled to run until Monday, 11/24, 12:00 PM PST. Realms newly eligible are in italics. Source: Aggramar, Alleria, Alextrasza, Argent Dawn, Arygos, Blackhand, Doomhammer, Greymane, Hellscream, Hyjal, Medivh, Thrall, Silvermoon, Whisperwind, Zul'jin Destination: Fizzcrank These moves, on PvP servers, are just your run-of-the-mill free server transfers. They are currently active, and are scheduled to run until Thursday, 11/20, 4:00 PM PST. Source A: Arthas, Magtheridon, Mal'Ganis, Kel'Thuzad Destination A: Dentarg Source B: Burning Blade, Cho'gall, Illidan, Mannoroth, Skullcrusher Destination B: Haomarush So who's switching homes? Those are some extremely popular realms in the source sections there; denizens of Dentarg and Haomarush, are you up for the influx?
New US realm tomorrow morning
They've already opened a new realm for transfers, but Bornakk just let us know that a brand new US realm will be open for character creation tomorrow morning (Pacific time). I assume he specified Pacific time so they're not held to opening before noon Eastern, which would be pretty early for those west-coast dwellers. The vitals on the new realm: Name: Grizzly Hills Type: PvE (normal) Time Zone: Pacific Eastern Battlegroup: Retaliation AQ gates closed, closed to transfers for 3 months. I have to say, though, it would take quite a reroll locust to start over from scratch tomorrow, when the rest of us are leveling Death Knights or enjoying Northrend. Who's going to go check it out?
Bloodlust realms down to fix latency
As of 10:50 AM PDT, 1:50 PM EDT, Blizzard has brought down all the realms in the Bloodlust (US) battlegroup for brief maintenance "to address issues relating to high latency and disconnections." The affected realms are expected to be done after about an hour, which means they should come back up around 11:50 AM PDT/2:50 PM EDT, which is in twenty minutes. The affected realms are listed as: Aman'Thul, Barthilas, Blackrock, Caelestrasz, Dath'Remar, Dreadmaul, Frostmourne, Frostwolf, Khaz'goroth, Kil'Jaeden, Kilrogg, Nagrand, Ner'zhul, Proudmoore, Sen'Jin, Silver Hand, Thaurissan, Tichondrius, and Vek'nilash. Note that as far as I can tell the Dreadmaul realm does not actually exist. Edit: Never mind, it's the new Oceanic realm. It's just not listed on the Battlegroups page for some reason. I kind of wish they'd do some maintenance on my own realm (Shadow Council), since I've been having relatively high latency myself recently (150-200ms as opposed to my usual 60-100ms).Update (3 PM): Not entirely unexpectedly, the realms are not fixed yet. The new ETA from Bizzard is 1 PM PDT/4 PM EDT.Update (4:30 PM): The realms are back up, but still experiencing issues. Blizz promises to provide more updates as they are available.Update (8:15 PM): Realms down again. They were supposed to be back up at 5 PDT/8 EDT, but apparently that is not the case.
Many realms still down
The saga of the Rampage and Shadowburn (US) battlegroups continues. All realms in those battlegroups have been down since at least 11:00 AM EDT this morning. Blizzard says they're working on it, but so far all we've seen is an ETA given, which was promptly missed -- that ETA was 1:30 EDT. The new word is to expect an update roughly now; I'll be keeping my eye on it and will update this post if there's any news.Once again, the affected US realms are Agamaggan, Alexstrasza, Alleria, Azshara, Baelgun, Balnazzar, Blackhand, Cho'gall, Dark Iron, Destromath, Dethecus, Detheroc, Emerald Dream, Garona, Gorgonnash, Greymane, Gul'dan, Hellscream, Illidan, Kael'thas, Kalecgos, Kirin Tor, Lightninghoof, Maelstrom, Malfurion, Moonrunner, Nazjatar, Ravencrest, Sargeras, Spinebreaker, Staghelm, Stormreaver, Twisting Nether, Ursin, Whisperwind, and Wildhammer.Zul'Jin is also reportedly down, as well as Burning Legion and Lothar; I'm unsure of the status of the rest of the Ruin and Vindication battlegroups.Update: It looks like Ruin and Vindication are down in their entirety. Meanwhile, Blizzard updated to let us know they're still working on it, and they expect the Rampage and Shadowburn realms to be up by around 1 PM PDT/4 PM EDT.Update 2: Apparently the Ruin and Vindication issues are a hardware problem; Blizzard knows about it and expects to have those realms back up by 3 PM PDT/7 PM EDT.
36 US realms down
Starting at least half an hour ago, and continuing through to now, 36 US realms, comprising the battlegroups Rampage and Shadowburn, are down. Blizzard notes that they are "currently unavailable and are being worked on," and that they don't have an ETA right now, but will give us an update around 8:50 AM PDT/11:50 AM EDT. So we should hear more about this in 15 minutes or so, at which point I'll update the post with any new information.The affected realms are: Agamaggan, Alexstrasza, Alleria, Azshara, Baelgun, Balnazzar, Blackhand, Cho'gall, Dark Iron, Destromath, Dethecus, Detheroc, Emerald Dream, Garona, Gorgonnash, Greymane, Gul'dan, Hellscream, Illidan, Kael'thas, Kalecgos, Kirin Tor, Lightninghoof, Maelstrom, Malfurion, Moonrunner, Nazjatar, Ravencrest, Sargeras, Spinebreaker, Staghelm, Stormreaver, Twisting Nether, Ursin, Whisperwind, and Wildhammer.[Thanks, Laz]Update (12 PM): Blizzard provided an update to let us know that they will provide another update at 10 AM PDT, which is in an hour. They're working on it and appreciate our patience.Update (1 PM): Now they think they've figured out what's wrong, and they're saying the realms should be up by 10:30 PDT/1:30 EDT.
