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Blue Notes: Transfers, amulets, and Frostbolt
Moves are on in a big way right now, and there's a piece of good news about that. Now you can play your character while it's in queue to be moved; it won't be moved until you log out. From Nethaera: We are changing the way we process our free character moves and paid character transfers. Players will now be able to queue into the system for the destination realm they wish and continue to play that character until the specified period of time the move will occur. Characters will only be moved after they are logged out of the game. Moves will occur each day from 12:01 AM PST until 2:00 PM PST. We all probably figured this, but Griftah, vendor of "Amazing Amulets" in Shattrath's Lower City, almost certainly sells nothing that actually works. If the vendor's name name doesn't tip you off, how about this post by Eyonix: He's a very sneaky vendor. Buyer beware! Although they are pretty fun little items to have from an RP standpoint. Lastly, Tseric comments on the Frostbolt XI vs XII issue (in a nutshell, XI costs less mana and does more damage than XII): Rank 11 Frostbolt is a book drop. Rank 12, like most other ranks, is available from a trainer. The players this would impact the most are people who've gotten the book, which then don't really need the trainable 'upgrade' at that moment. Those without the book drop are moving along the graded increase of frostbolt's power. Consider Rank 11 a vestigal growth, like an appendix or ear muscles. ;)
New servers and transfers
Well, I was right. Blizz opened new servers very soon after the expansion's launch. We've got two new non-transfer servers and six transfer ones. From Tseric, here are the new non-transfer servers (AQ gates closed -- but who's going to go to AQ now?): Blood Furnace - Central - PVP - Frenzy Battlegroup Shattered Halls - Pacific - PVP - Frenzy Battlegroup And from Eyonix, the new transfers: Destination: - The Scryers, RP - Pacific Feathermoon Silver Hand Scarlet Crusade Argent Dawn Shadow Council Destination: - Area 52 PvE, - Eastern Icecrown Stormrage Gilneas Bloodhoof Lothar More transfers after the jump.
Free transfers for some European realms
For the European-server-playing readers in the audience, some awesome cracking news: free transfers, including a couple of brand-new realms! Thundgot sends a telegram wireless announcing the following transfers for English realms, with a stern note to the effect that origin and destination realms are subject to change, and that they won't be helping guilds with transfers: Burning Legion to Boulderfist Burning Legion to Haomarush Crushridge to Burning Blade Crushridge to Jaedenar Drak'thul to Twisting Nether Drak'thul to Xavius Frostmane to Dentarg Frostmane to Mazrigos Grim Batol to Agamaggan Grim Batol to Dragonmaw Warsong to Daggerspine Warsong to Vek'nilash Kilrogg to Anachronos (brand new realm) Runetotem to Anachronos (brand new realm) Silvermoon to Bronze Dragonflight (brand new realm) Stormrage to Bronze Dragonflight (brand new realm) Sometimes I feel like a European when playing since I listen to a lot of BBC radio shows. Can I have free transfers?
MPAA strikes again, says transporting DVDs to iPods is wrong
We don't seeing anything with helping a man out, or cutting him a sweet deal if he picks up a bundle of goods, but apparently the MPAA isn't down with companies loading the DVDs that consumers purchase onto their iPods as a friendly convenience. In another round of studios forcing consumers to purchase content multiple times for no good reason at all, Paramount Pictures has filed a lawsuit against the all but helpless Load 'N Go Video, which provided customers picking up an iPod and a few DVDs with a converting service to get flicks onto their handheld as a thank you for their business. According to the suit, the actual ripping of the DVD is illegal under the almighty DMCA, making the entire process illegal, fair use or not. Evidently selling millions of copies of Mission: Impossible III isn't good enough, as it appears that customers will be asked to shell out multiple times for the same (admittedly subpar) content. While pirating copies for personal gain is certainly aggravating the law, transcoding content for personal use sure seems harmless to us, but you'll have an exceedingly difficult time convincing Hollywood of that.
Breakfast Topic: Pick a Realm, Any Realm...
This post about selecting a realm to play on caught my attention, as I recently find myself in a similar predicament. After playing many months on one realm, the guild I've been in has started breaking up - with several of my friends giving up on the game - and I'm left wondering what to do next. The existing guilds on my realm hold little interest for me and the Horde population there is sufficiently small as to make establishing a new guild a difficult or impossible endeavor. So I'm faced with the thought of starting anew. Should I re-roll on another realm? Transfer to another realm? And, regardless of which one I might decide, I'm faced with the ominous decision of which realm to pick. So, how does one choose the perfect realm - or is there such a thing? What do you look for when deciding to start afresh in Azeroth?
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Transfers to Bloodhoof? WHAT?!
On November 23, 2004, I created my very first WoW character on the Bloodhoof server. I made a Night Elf rogue (go figure...what a noob!) and played happily. After a while, I saw the light and made a Troll Priest (not undead?...what a noob!), joined a good guild and truly started my WoW career. The server was never really what I would call wonderfully stable, but at least it didn't crash nightly and the lag wasn't that bad. I recently left Bloodhoof, and have heard nothing but horror stories about how the server has become even more unstable after I left, complete with constantly high pings and nightly crashes. Coincidence? My ego would like to think so, but I suspect it has more to do with a high player population on an old server still running the original hardware. How does Blizzard respond? They open up transfers to the Bloodhoof server! You can imagine how happy that is making the folks on Bloodhoof, and I can't believe it is the only server who is facing this situation. I am totally down with Blizzard, and have loved every moment of WoW, but this seems like a really, really bad idea. But hey, who am I? If you said some dork sitting at home watching Will & Grace on Lifetime, you'd be right!
US Character Transfer Offline
No, it's not broken and there are no technical problems. However, the system apparently works on a queue basis - and when the queue is filled, it automatically stops accepting new transfer requests. CM Tseric informs us that the queue system is in place to ensure that the system remains stable. If you managed to sign up for a transfer before the queue stopped new transfers, you should still be in the queue to be transfered - but because the queue's been maxed out, there may be a bit of a wait. For the rest of us - if you have a character you'd like to transfer, you just need to check back to see if the queue has opened up.
More US Realms Open for Transfers
More realms opened up for paid character transfers yesterday, with even more planned for today and the rest of the week. Though it looks like most realms will be open for transfers by the end of the week, the rules for transfer availability remain the same. So we're still waiting to see whether players' complaints on the fairness of transfers to new servers will have any long-term impact on the transfer policy. In the meantime, Blizzard Europe's policy has a slight alteration - adding the opening of the gates of Ahn'Qiraj as a factor in opening transfers.
EU Launches Paid Character Transfer Service
It's no real surprise this service was heading to European shores, but it does surprise me that the rules are slightly different. While most of the US and EU FAQs are identical, there's a slight difference in when servers are allowed to be open for transfers. On US realms, transfers are available to realms that have been open longer than 90 days (assuming the realms aren't already high population, with login queues, etc). On EU realms, there's an additional qualification - if a realm doesn't yet have the gates of Ahn'Qiraj open at 90 days, transfers won't open until either the gates open, or the server has had another 90 days to work towards it. This means that transfers may not be opened for as long as 6 months. I wonder if this restriction would be enough to calm some of the complaints on US forums as Ahn'Qiraj geared players start to transfer on to realms where the gates have not yet opened.
The Results of Paid Realm Transfers
I've spent a long time looking forward to the idea of paid character transfers. I have two well-geared 60s on an old realm that I abandoned for various reasons, and I'm excited at the prospect of having them available for play on the realm I now call home. So I've always looked at the prospect of transferring as a way of regaining access to characters that I'd put a lot of time and effort into, but had to abandon in order to play with friends.However, one of my want-to-transfer characters is in full tier 2, with some Ahn'Qiraj gear. I'd be transferring to a server well Nefarian has not yet been slain nor the gates of Ahn'Qiraj opened. And I can't be the only one wanting to move such characters, for one reason or another. There are many impassioned cries by players on realms old and new - as characters far beyond the realm's progression transfer over and start changing the face of PvP and PvE. With the number of restrictions on the transfer service ($25 per transfer, can only transfer every 6 months, can't transfer to severs less than 3 months old) it's obvious they've thought about the potential problems. And it's equally obvious, with the effort put into rolling out this program, that it's not just going to vanish. So where's the happy medium between a free-for-all transfer and allowing players to rejoin friends on other servers without abandoning previous efforts? Blizzard seems to be listening to player concerns, but where it will go from here, and how open character transfers will continue to impact realm status, is still a mystery.[Fan art by Guillaume Bonnet]
Additional Realms Opened for Paid Transfers
Blizzard seems to be moving quickly to expand their paid transfer service, and has opened eight new realms to transfer from. So if you have characters you're interested in moving off one of these realms, you're in luck! Characters may now be transfered from Burning Blade, Durotan, Earthen Ring, Elune, Laughing Skull, Lothar, Medivh, and Shadow Moon. Realms also seem to be disappearing from the ineligible destination list, meaning there are more places you can transfer to as well. (I haven't found a specific list, but noticed a realm I have characters on - Duskwood - is no longer on the ineligible list, though it was yesterday.)
New Paid Transfer Destinations Opened
Blizzard has added seven realms to the list you can transfer from. For those wanting to take advantage of the service, servers Arthas, Dalaran, Magtheridon, Spirestone, Stormrage, Turalyon, and Zul'jin are now available to transfer from. I have two level 60s on a server that I no longer play on, so I am glad to see that they're opening up new transfer realms relatively quickly - even though neither the realm I want to transfer from nor the realm I want to transfer to are currently available for transfers. When they do open up transfers to and from my desired realms, I'll get back to you with a users' perspective review of how the service works.
Paid Character Transfer Confirmed
Looks like Elizabeth's earlier report on paid character transfers was right on the money, as today's report on UkGamespot confirms. They have an interview with Blizzard developer Shane Dabiri, who sheds some more light on the process, including official details for pricing & realm transfer rules.Dabiri also touches on some of the reasons for the transfer regulations, and addresses some other related questions, including the oft-mentioned cross-realm battlegrounds. So, if you're planning on switching realms when transfers become available, check it out & find out all you need to know!
Paid Character Transfer Coming Soon?
While this may be pure rumor (and I can't find a reliable source attribution anyhwere), there's a fairly detailed character transfer FAQ floating around with all the information on pricing and availibity. If this is just a rumor, someone's certainly gone to a lot of trouble to write it up with so much detail. Here are the highlights, though you'll have to read the full document to get all the details: $25 per character transfered Transfers can take up to 10 days to process, during which time you cannot access the character Not all realms avalible for transfer (full or high population realms, realms soon to be open for free transfers, or recently released realms will not be avalible) Restrictions on how much gold a transfering character may have (300g for characters level 10 to 30, 1000g for characters level 31 to 50, 5000g for characters level 51 to 60) You may transfer from a PvP to a PvE rule-set, but not from PvE to PvP You may only transfer to a PvP realm if you do not have characters of the opposing faction on that realm You may transfer characters from one account to another only if you are the subscriber for both accounts
Norgannon and Thrall Transfers Opening!
Finally, I'm sure some of you are saying. Initially announced on March 24th and delayed three times since, it appears that transfers to the new Norgannon and Thrall realms are finally going to happen. Begining Monday, April 17th, at 3:00 AM PDT, players from Shadowsong and Azjol-Nerub will be able to transfer to Norgannon while players from Alleria and Hellscream will be able to transfer to Thrall. Transfers will close on Thursday, April 20th, at 3:00 PM PDT, so get on it while there's a chance.
PvE to PvP Realm Transfers?
Because I do not play on any of the affected servers, the fact that Blizzard has opened up PvE to PvP realm transfers was not immediately obvious to me. Hyjal, Lightbringer, Shadowsong, Zul'jin, Alleria , Hellscream, and Whisperwind are all PvE servers, and have recently been given the opportunity to transfer to new PvP servers Black Dragonflight and Dalvengyr. This is interesting, primarily because Blizzard has, in the past, always kept realm transfers within their realm type. So these new transfers will allow seasoned players from old PvE servers a taste of the excitement of PvP without the difficulty that faces most players who wish to make such a switch - rerolling and releveling.
Update on Upcoming Character Transfers
Transfers to the new Norgannon and Thrall servers are still on hold until further notice, though CM Drysc posted on Saturday assuring us that preparations for the transfers continue, and that they have not been canceled. Drysc has also provided an update on transfers to new realms Black Dragonflight and Dalvengyr. Due to "gameplay-related concerns" the Khaz'goroth to Dalvengyr transfer has been dropped from the list, but the remaining transfers began this morning at 3:00 AM PST. These transfers end on Thursday, so if you're interested, get to it as soon as possible!
Two New Transfer Realms
Starting on Monday, April 10th, at 3:00 AM PST, players on Hyjal, Lightbringer, Shadowsong, Zul'jin, Alleria, Khaz'goroth, Hellscream, and Whisperwind will have the option to transfer to new PvP servers Black Dragonflight (Hyjal, Lightbringer, Shadowsong, and Zul'jin) and Dalvengyr (Alleria, Khaz'goroth, Hellscream, and Whisperwind). Transfers will close on Thursday, April 13th, so if you're interested in making the jump, do it as soon as possible.
Norgannon and Thrall Transfers Postponed
While Norgannon and Thrall are supposed to be two new servers accepting transfer accounts (from Shadowsong & Azjol-Nerub and Alleria & Hellscream, respectively), transfers keep getting pushed further and further back. At the end of last week, they were scheduled to come online Monday. On Monday, technical issues prevented transfers from occurring. On Tuesday, as I'm sure you recall, all servers were offline. On Wednesday, we were told they were opening on Thursday. And today we're told that transfers are postponed until further notice. It's nearly getting to where you can't trust these people...
