Armory delays abundant, fix expected
by Mike Schramm 
Jan 7th 2008 at 3:30PM
What's up with the Armory lately? I've always had a problem getting in there (the pages load super slowly, although I'm pretty sure that's just all the database pinging they're doing), but lately, players have been reporting lots of character progress missing from The Armory. I spent all day yesterday on my Hunter ploughing through Hellfire Peninsula's big gear giveaway, and none of that new gear shows up on my profile. One of WoW Insider's writers hasn't even seen one of her alts on the Armory-- that's 40+ levels worth of missing info.To be fair, the Armory is more or less an extra service, and Blizzard knows there are problems and is supposed to be working to fix them, so there's not that much to complain about, really. Unsubstantiated rumors being passed around say Blizz is working on updating the code to allow level 80 characters (for the expansion), but the fact is that we don't know what's going on-- they could be adding in even more features that we don't know about (like, say, what the Figureprints folks get, or a nifty little API system). But, as a WoW Insider writer told me, at least there always is one way to see what's up with any character in the game: make an alt, run out to where they are, and /inspect away.
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
Update: Looks like we lit a fire under somebody over there-- the Armory is redirecting to a maintenance page at the moment.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Realm Status, Odds and ends, Blizzard, News items, Classes
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
BaboonNL Jan 7th 2008 3:41PM
Weird, the EU armory seems to have no problems at all.
The arena games I played an hour ago already showed up, and everything's up to date. Loads quickly for me too.
Jasperwind Jan 7th 2008 3:42PM
Can't they afford test servers? Maybe they should start charging everybody an extra dollar in order to buy a test server for their "update" for the new level 80 cap.
Also, have you checked any char on the armory that hasn't played in a few months? They work. I kept opening guildies' profiles until I found one that worked. It was a char that hadn't been played since November.
Milktub Jan 7th 2008 3:47PM
Here's my hope ...
That they're updating the "find an upgrade" button. You choose that and a side window (pop up) opens up with the upgrades. You choose an upgrade and it automatically calculates your character's stats if they had that new gear.
And same thing with talents. You open your character's talents and click "test new talents" -- make a new build and your character sheet reflects your new talents.
Wow, if that happened, I may have to take a week of not playing WoW and just play the Armory.
Fadmin Jan 7th 2008 3:50PM
Seems all my chars which have recent activity older than 6 days will appear just fine - anything updated since then will not appear. I'm guessing this is something related to the new year?? However, on those chars which are "missing" (my updated chars), warcrafter.net will show the data as of Dec 31st, but still not show all armor.
Just shows you how much you take something for granted until it's gone... /sigh
thunder Jan 7th 2008 3:51PM
actually, this is very lame, arena team ratings are updating almost immediately, but it's telling me that characters who are are on all the time haven't been active...
And my armory hasn't updated in days.
Zumwalah Jan 7th 2008 3:54PM
i just tried to get the the armory, and all i got was redirected http://www.wowarmory.com/maintenance.xml ...
Cap Jan 7th 2008 3:59PM
I also wish that the armory showed which crafting recipes your toons have. One thing I do a lot of "offline" (not in-game) is researching mats for enchants and tailoring, etc. It would definitely be useful to have that in there.
In addition to that, it would then be possible to search within your guild to see who had what recipes.
Lori Jan 7th 2008 4:13PM
And a completed quest list.
Nails Jan 7th 2008 4:12PM
it's been like this for a couple of weeks
its either stuck at December 20something, or it just says Character Awaiting Data Refresh
i think the guild bank/bank log portions have been working correctly though
scott Jan 7th 2008 4:17PM
Download firefox beta 3. It renders the armory a lot faster and that weird lockup issue doesn't happen.
Mindrinne Jan 7th 2008 4:29PM
I second Firefox 3 Beta 2...works beautifully on the Armory site.
My character hasn't been updated since 28th of December :(
Khanmora Jan 7th 2008 4:25PM
Last Thursday Eyonix posted a sticky in the general forums that The Armory would be undergoing maintenance early this week.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html;jsessionid=0BED03BB4C12C5961BA22F2AB506C7AA?topicId=3773358729&sid=1
L2readstickies.
PeeWee Jan 7th 2008 4:33PM
The Armory is nothing but a shitehole. It eats up resources Blizz could spend elsewhere. There is no reason to have them run yet another item database, nor statschecker. You can do that in-game anyway, and get the updated information.
What they could do is add Reputation to the in-game inspect-window, remove the cross-faction filters and simply scrap Armory completely. We don't need it anymore.
And don't even get me started on the official european webiste...
On the shaman information page, you can STILL read "Allowable Weapons: One-Handed Maces, Staves, Fist Weapons, One-Handed Axes (with training), Daggers (with training), Two-Handed Axes (with talents), Two-Handed Maces (with talents)". WTF? Shamans haven't needed talens for 2H axes and maces since the release of 2.3!
On the paladin page: "No ranged capabilities, except to stop wounded opponents from fleeing." Oh? How about Avenger's Shield? Holy Wrath? Engineering items? Maybe it should say "Limited ranged capabilities, dependant on talents and professions."
Oh yeah, the talent calculator and event calendar still use the old website .css files and layout. GG Blizzard. How long since that website update? 6 months? A year?
Nah, Blizzard should ull the plug from the Armory, their sub-par "Encyclopedia" and other parts of their website they obviously don't care about, and put the money where it's needed.
Milktub Jan 7th 2008 5:04PM
Angry much?
You honestly think updating page information about what weapons a Shaman or a Paladin can use is that valuable?
Why Armory is great: Allows for access to information about your character or other character while not in-game. Lets me look for gear upgrades or plan rep grinds. Allows me to take a look at the spec of that great group member. Lets me track the gear progression of guild mates.
Without the armory, you're limited in what gear and specs you can look at by only being able to see those people who are standing right next to you -- and you better look fast, because when they walk away, you've lost it.
The Armory needs more support, not less (or the same support if nothing else.)
PeeWee Jan 7th 2008 5:14PM
Repgrinds and gear-upgrades :: Use www.wowwiki.com, www.lootables.com, www.wowhead.com or www.wow-loot.com, each of those sites surpasses The Armory in every aspect.
Talentspecs of "that great group member" :: Use /inspect. If you have the addon Examiner, his spec is chched for later use. It's also not dependant on you keeping the character targeted. (I'm actually not sure if this is still required without the addon, the in-game /inspect is shite, haven't used it since 1.x-somehing)
Track guildmember's gear :: Ask them, that's what /guild is for.
Information about your character while not in-game :: Starting the game and logging on is faster than the Armory. And you get the UPDATED information, not some bullshit cache from last month.
I agree that the shaman and paladin information is not extremely important, but at least we can ask Blizzard to update their own bloody website for people that might not always know.
The Armory does not need more support. If it's going to be useful in any way, it needs to be moved to a separate server-park and at least load pages faster than 90 seconds. And no, I am not willing to pay for that.
PeeWee Jan 7th 2008 5:18PM
Addition: If you use the Rocklib and Cowtip addons, you get people's specs in the tooltip (not the actual talents, but the numbers, such as 0/12/11 or 12/11/18 or whatever they have)
prudychick Jan 7th 2008 4:54PM
So that is why my characters which I've been actively playing haven't been working. I thought I might just be crazy after all.
Ian Jan 7th 2008 4:57PM
I guess that's why my forums sig wont update. It's been auto-updating since I made it...but it stopped a couple weeks ago.
PropogandaPanda Jan 7th 2008 7:05PM
Yeah my toon hadn't been updated since the 26th.
And my buddies toon still said he had not been on recently.
Pain in the butt since I had respecced and wanted to find some gear.
V3T_TOO Jan 7th 2008 7:25PM
Most of Dragonmaw shows a message saying:
Character Data Unavailable
It seems like the character you are trying to view is not currently available on the Armory. Since the Armory data is periodically updated, this character needs to have been active recently for detailed character data to show up. Character profiles that have been updated recently may display this message as a result of high server load.
Started before new years. Happens to 70s it seems, but I could be wrong.