The basic feeling I am getting from this is that besides the code fixes and DB issues that will be addressed with a wipe, the new client and server will have so many changes to it that it will be almost like a completely new game. You should start out with a baseline character for that.
The basic facts are this. There are maybe 1000 active players in the game per week. Most of them will leave in less than three months. I am going to guess there are less than 100 steady players who remain for more than a year, and even fewer that last past that.
A wipe now might not be the healthiest thing for the current players, but in six months most of those would have quit anyways. In the long run, it is healthy for the game itself.