Top 5 WoW-Myths

Every game have them - the myths. Things no one is really sure about, whether it's that way or the other. Since I first started playing WoW there has been a couple of things where I thought "wait a minute, is this really how it works?". Or in other cases I've just assumed something until someone told me otherwise and I was completely shocked that I had thought wrong all this time. It is time for my top 5 WoW-Myths, maybe we can clear out some of those misconceptions flowing around in the game.

5. You can bandage other people in combat
The interesting thing about this myth is that it isn't a myth. Of course you can bandage other people in combat, just as you can bandage yourself in combat. Some people have misunderstood this however and think that you can bandage someone while they're being hit, in combat. Quite the difference. A reason this myth has prevailed is because people think bandaging is interrupted when whoever is bandaging becomes hit, that's not how it works though. It's very easy to test. I wasn't sure about this one so I simply asked Love to go fight some mob while I tried to bandage him. And sure thing, it got interrupted as soon as he was hit. An easy to refute myth, but it still lingers on and makes it to place number 5 in my list.

4. Fall damage is a fixed amount
Yet again, not entirely untrue. Fall damage is a fixed  amount, but not by hp, but by percent. A level 80 takes as much percentual damage (and has the same chance to die from a fall) as a level 1 falling the same distance. This too is rather easily tested. The funny thing about this is that I sometimes think I'll actually take less damage on my lowbies than my highbies, because my highbies feel heavier with all that fancy gear on ^^

3. Plate wearers pay more repairs than cloth wearers
Understanding why people think this is true is easy, this actually used to be true. It was changed a long time ago however so I am always amazed that people still think this is true. I think they removed the differences in repair costs between different armor classes already in BC and yet today I can hear people say things like "sucks more to wipe when you're a tank, you casters don't have to pay as much repairs".

But are they really all wrong? Taking a closer look into the matter show they might not be. It is true that Blizzard have made it so that 1 dur on a plate item costs as much as 1 dur on a cloth item (and the other armor profficiencies too of course). The dur cost increases with the items ilevel, which means that it costs more to repair an item of ilevel 264 than 226, for example. But it doesn't end there. Plate items cost the same to repair theoretically. But plate items have alot more durability than cloth of the same ilevel. Between t10,5 (five items of ilvl 264) for warriors and priest it differs a total 210 dur (540 vs 330). And since you take a percentual loss of dur from your items when you die (10%), a plate wearer would loose a total of more dur than a cloth wearer which ends up in him actually having to pay more repairs per wipe than the clothie!

Back in Vanilla the differences in repair costs between clothies and plate users differed significantly, so what kind of sums are we looking at today? One durability on an ilvl 264 item costs 11 silver and 58 copper if neutral and 9 silver and 26 copper if exalted, to repair. Repairing the five items of t10,5 for a plate user would cost 21 more dur than the same set for a clothie. 21*11,58 = 2g 43s 18c. That is 2g 43s 18c more per wipe, which isn't a small sum if you consider you could easily die 10-20 times in one single progress run (and that's just counting 5 items).

I wasn't able to determine whether a plate user, and especially a tank, takes more dur loss during a regular fight than a clothie. One might think that should be the case since the tank is being hit by an evil monster, while the healers/dpsers usually standing in some corner not being hit by an evil monster. That is for another post to determine! A tricky myth that isn't completely untrue makes it to place number 3.

2. You regen mana and hp faster when sitting down
I heard about this just a few months into my WoW-gaming. My brother told me "you know you regen faster if you sit down than if you stand up?". "Really?" I said, and I have been thinking about it ever since, too lazy to find out. Well it's time to make sure!

One could just look at the character screen to see if the mp5 numbers change from standing and sitting down, but that would be too easy.
I made a really simple test with my mage, who has about 498 mp5. First I timed her going from 0% to 10% mana while standing and then 0% to 10% mana while sitting. The difference was 0,2 seconds, which I think simply is a difference in reaction from me. So we can probably say that this is a myth and there is no difference in regen whether you stand or sit down. I am also quite sure this has never been the case.

So where does this myth come from? I can think of two things.
First of all, you have to sit down to eat. Maybe early players didn't know people who sat down were eating, but noticed they regened alot faster than themselves and somehow came to the conclusion that it was the sitting down itself that made the regen go faster.
The other thing could be that if you stand up for a couple of seconds and then sit down, regen actually will go faster when sitting down since it takes 5 seconds for the 5 second rule regen to get started. This might've made people think that regening goes faster when sitting eventhough it would've gone just as fast had they continued standing.

1. There is a Cow level
Well there is if you count Mulgore! The Cow level is one of the oldest myths, and probably the only one that no one believes in anymore except the really fanatical Blizzard fanboys. "I am sure they've hidden it somewhere and one day I'll be the one who finds it!". The Cow level was a very real thing in Diablo 2, a sort of secret area found only if combining Wirts leg with a Tome of Town Portal in the Horadric Cube. The existance of Wirth's Third Leg in WoW is probably what started the rumours. What if you combined this item with some X item in your inventory and stood on a mountain doing /dance?

When I started out playing there were alot of rumours going about where the Cow level could be, and I remember mages tried to blink their way through different areas to find it hidden behind walls or under the ground. One persistent rumor was that the Cow-Level existed behind the wall in Silverpine Forest, what is now known as Gilneas and a soon playable area. Others travelled to areas of the map not yet "implemented" in the game. The areas are there but they're completely empty. So far no one has been succesful in finding the Cow level, but there is of course no way of refuting something that doesn't exist. You can just say that it's out there, but no one has found it yet. Even if Blizzard went out and said that it didn't exist the really dedicated wouldn't believe them. That is how conspiracy theories work after all. And that's why the Cow level makes number 1 on my list!

Can you think of any more wow-myths? Or other common misconceptions that have turned into "common knowledge"?