How Long Does a Faction Change Really Take in World of Warcraft?

The big question on every World of Warcraft player’s mind when considering a faction swap: How long does a faction change actually take? Under normal circumstances, the faction change process itself typically completes in under an hour. However, several factors can influence this timeframe. This includes server load, the complexity of your character’s data, and potential queue times. This article will break down the faction change process, cooldowns, and all the nitty-gritty details you need to know before taking the plunge.

Understanding the Faction Change Process

The faction change service allows you to switch your character from the Alliance to the Horde, or vice versa. This process involves more than just a simple allegiance switch. It includes potential race changes (to a race compatible with your new faction and class), name changes (if your current name is taken), and adjustments to your character’s standing within the game world.

After initiating the faction change and paying for the service, the game processes your request. You’ll usually see an icon next to your character on the character selection screen when the change is pending. This icon indicates that the faction change is in progress. Once completed, you’ll be prompted to log in and customize your character to fit their new faction.

Potential Delays: Factors Affecting Faction Change Time

While the ideal completion time is under an hour, keep in mind some factors can extend this duration:

• Server Load: Peak hours, especially after content patches or expansions, can lead to longer processing times.
• Character Complexity: Characters with extensive inventories, bank contents, and numerous achievements may take slightly longer to process.
• Payment Processing: Sometimes, payment verification can cause delays. Make sure your payment information is up-to-date and accurate.
• Account Restrictions: If your account has any restrictions, such as a recent suspension or outstanding payment issues, the faction change will be delayed until these are resolved.

Important Cooldowns and Restrictions

The 30-Day Cooldown

A crucial aspect to remember is the 30-day cooldown associated with faction changes, paid character transfers, and race changes. This means that once you use one of these services, you cannot use the same service again on that character for 30 days.

Furthermore, you cannot perform a Faction Change or Race Change within 30 days of each other.

Other Restrictions

Several other restrictions apply when initiating a faction change:

• Level Requirement: The character must be at least level 10 to be eligible.
• Active Auctions/Mail/WoW Tokens: You cannot have any active auctions, mail in your inbox, or WoW Tokens on your character. Clear these out before initiating the change.
• Recent Faction Change: You cannot have changed factions in the last 72 hours.
• Boosted Characters: If you recently boosted a character, you must wait 72 hours before applying a race change, faction change, or character transfer. Transfers to another Battle.net Account cannot be performed until 30 days after a boost.
• Starter Edition Accounts: You cannot faction change on a Starter Edition account.

What Happens to Your Character During a Faction Change?

Quest Progress

Any quests in progress will be abandoned, and all quest items in your inventory will be destroyed. If you want to complete a quest you had in progress before the change, you must visit the quest giver to pick it up again and start progress over.

Reputation

Faction-specific reputations will convert to their cross-faction equivalent if one exists. For example, a reputation with Stormwind will convert to a reputation with Orgrimmar. Faction-specific reputations which do not have an equivalent in the new faction will reset back to Neutral. Reputations with races and factions that have no allegiance to the Horde or to the Alliance remain unaffected.

Gold

There is no limit to the amount of gold you can bring with your character with a Character Transfer or Faction Change.

Crossing Fate

If you want to complete Crossing Fate after changing factions, it will be automatically started again once the character enters the current Fated Raid instance. However, progress will reset to 0.

Great Vault

As long as you transfer before generating any rewards in the vault following a weekly reset, you should be able to transfer and keep your current progress.

Allied Races

Faction change unlocks the ability to pursue Allied Races of the new faction.

Cost and Included Services

A single faction change typically costs around $30 USD (though discounts are sometimes available). The service also includes a free race change for your class, allowing you to choose a race appropriate for your new faction. Gender change, re-customization, and name change are also usually included.

Bypassing Cooldowns and Refund Policies

Bypassing Cooldowns

There is no legitimate way to bypass the 30-day cooldown on faction changes or other account services. Third-party platform account links have cooldowns limiting how often they can be changed. Customer Support is unable to bypass account cooldowns.

Refund Policies

You can only get a refund for a faction change if the service was “borked” – meaning it didn’t function as intended due to a technical error. “Buyer’s remorse” is not a valid reason for a refund. However, you can always faction change back by utilizing the service again.

Faction Change and Other Services

Be aware of interactions with other character services. The Article for Faction Changes does list Transfer as one of the services that will be prevented for 72 hours if you Faction Change, so be sure to Transfer first.

Final Thoughts

Faction changing in World of Warcraft can be a game-changer (pun intended!). While the actual faction change process is quick, it’s important to be aware of the cooldowns, restrictions, and potential impacts on your character’s progress. Understanding these factors ensures a smooth transition and minimizes any unwanted surprises.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Here are some frequently asked questions regarding faction changes in World of Warcraft:

1. How often can you faction change a character?

You can faction change a character once every 30 days due to the cooldown. Remember, this cooldown also applies to paid character transfers and race changes.

2. Can you send gold to the opposite faction?

Yes, you can send gold cross-faction to your own toons on your account, plus any items as well, not just BOA items. And the mail arrives instantly. But you can’t send gold or items cross-faction to toons not on your account.

3. Does faction change affect account-bound items?

No, account-bound items (BoA) are tied to your Battle.net account and are unaffected by faction changes. You can continue to use them on your character after the faction change.

4. What happens to my PvP progress when I faction change?

You won’t receive any rewards for the current round if you switch your faction. If you change your faction after the first round is over, you lose out on the rewards for the season. So if you are going to change your faction, do it now rather than in round 2.

5. How does faction change impact achievements?

Most achievements are account-wide, so they won’t be affected. However, some faction-specific achievements may be lost or converted to their cross-faction equivalent. Also after you do the other factions war story you get the achievement a tale of two sides or something like that and get a new mount for each faction. A horse for the horse and wolf for alliance.

6. What happens to my guild when I faction change?

Your character will leave the guild upon faction change. If you are the guild master, you will need to either disband the guild or transfer leadership before initiating the faction change.

7. Can I send items to my character immediately after faction changing?

Yes, you can send items and gold to your character immediately after the faction change, provided the other character is on the same account.

8. Does a character transfer include a faction change?

No, a character transfer is just a transfer, there is no faction change as part of it. These are separate services.

9. What happens to my professions after a faction change?

Your profession levels and most profession recipes will remain intact. However, some faction-specific recipes may be lost and need to be re-learned in your new faction.

10. Can I transfer back to my original faction if I don’t like the new one?

Yes, you can, but you will need to wait out the 30-day cooldown before initiating another faction change.

11. Is it expensive to change factions in WoW?

It’s either 30 dollars or the amount of time required for you to create a character, level it to 80 and get it the same/better amount of gear as the character you wanted to change faction as. Which depending on how much playtime you have at your disposal, the alternative could end up costing more money.

12. Does the “Global Cooldown” (GCD) affect faction change time?

The global cooldown (the small delay after using an ability) does not affect faction change time. The global cooldown is generally 1.5 seconds for all classes except rogues, Cat Form druids, and Death Knights, whose abilities are mostly one second global cooldown(reduced to 0.5 in UP).

13. Where can I learn more about game-based learning?

For more information on game-based learning and the educational aspects of gaming, check out the Games Learning Society at GamesLearningSociety.org. They conduct research and provide resources on how games can be used effectively in education.

14. What if my character name is taken on the new faction?

If your character name is already taken on the new faction, you will be prompted to choose a new name as part of the faction change process.

15. Why is faction reputation capped at 3000?

The 3,000 Reputation Cap Explained: This is because you need to complete a quest to further your rank. To get past the 3,000 reputation cap, you need to complete the “Trial of the [Faction Rank]” quest, available at level 20.