Returning from 2+ year break

[Brandish]

Thanks, Wubsie!

OK. Whew. Between my bank freaking at the sudden multiple charges and Blizzard's fraud detection canceling my orders... it's been a hell of a couple weeks. Went to the bank on Friday and had a suspicious extra $300 in the account, which was supposed to have paid for the Deluxe special they were running for Labor Day weekend. Finally got that fixed after hours and hours battling in the ticket system. They were friendly, just not too helpful, and failing to recognize this was across multiple account and not just the one I had the ticket running on. It's all good now. (Yes, sue me I played tons of Starcraft II during the interim.)

New question: Opinions on merging accounts? Since I haven't played in so long, none of my mounts/pets/toys are "in the new system" and I'm told that will happen when I log in the first time.

It was suggested that I consider if I wanted to merge my accounts to share all of that stuff between them, since pre-login "would be the time to do it."

Which way do people prefer? Right now, my accounts are separate but on the same authenticator, so I get a code, and can broadcast that and be logged in.
This also means I get the pleasure of farming for pets/mounts/toys for each account. This is both semi-fun, but also a semi-pain-in-the-ass.

Maybe merging them onto two accounts? To both spread the mounts coverage, and to leave room in case i want to 10-box later on?

Guess it comes down to how much hassle is logging the accounts all at once.

[MiRai]

To quote myself:

"There is no reason¹ not to have all of your WoW accounts on the same BNet account."

¹there might be a reason, but it's highly subjective

Maybe merging them onto two accounts? To both spread the mounts coverage, and to leave room in case i want to 10-box later on?

Sure, you could do that, but I think the problem is... How will you know which accounts have what prior to logging them in to see? What if you guess wrong and a rare mount ends up on the second BNet account when you wanted it on the first?

Guess it comes down to how much hassle is logging the accounts all at once.

There is no hassle whatsoever.

[Brandish]

Thanks for the reply.

I have a list of the "important" mounts and which accounts have them, so I could choose the merges that way. Even if I miss, I'd only have to get one more drop. (The list is short, Headless Horseman and Ashes of Alar)

A buddy was running merged accounts, and way back he had to get several authenticator codes written down over a few minutes, before using them all at once to log in. Has that behavior changed? Or is it that they now buffer how often you enter the codes, so this mini-"hassle" is only once per week?

Support said there was still an 8 account per BNet limit, so if I merge, and 10-box, I'd rather it end up as 2 groups of 5 that have good mount/pet/toy coverage.

[MiRai]

A buddy was running merged accounts, and way back he had to get several authenticator codes written down over a few minutes, before using them all at once to log in. Has that behavior changed? Or is it that they now buffer how often you enter the codes, so this mini-"hassle" is only once per week?

I've had an authenticator since before we were forced to put our WoW accounts into a BNet account, and I've never written down any codes so that I could log in my accounts. If you get hit with an authenticator pop-up, you just enter it on one account, then bring it back to the login screen, and continue logging into all of your accounts simultaneously.

Outside of changing hardware or IP, or unless you've specifically set your account to ask for an authenticator every time, I've no idea what prompts an authenticator pop-up—I see them only a few times a month, if that.

[Brandish]

Good deal.

Also, the Armory is showing me who has what mounts, so that makes that part easier.