Breakfast Topic: Patch 3.1? Already?
by Zach Yonzon 
Mar 14th 2009 at 8:00AM
Kind of puts me in a panic, actually. Patch 3.1 doesn't seem like it's quite ready yet, and even though I know there'll be quite a bit of change from now until it goes live, there are some things in the patch now that don't quite work for me. A number of talents don't quite have the right polish, for one. That said, Blizzard has been working very fast lately so I wouldn't be surprised if all this gets straightened out before the patch goes live. For today, though, let's pretend Patch 3.1 is about to go live. What would you change? What stuff would you still like to see? It looks like an exciting patch, so what are you looking forward to (or dreading) the most?
Filed under: Patches, Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Wizie Mar 14th 2009 8:12AM
Ok i started downloading the 3.1 patch with background downloader and its acturly pretty slow. I was wondering if any1 else have had that problem?
I started download at 03:00 this morning and at 13:04 its only at 45%.. is it because its background downloader or is it because so many is downloading it already? please help
PeeWee Mar 14th 2009 8:52AM
In the Launcher Options, go to Downloader Preferences and make sure that everything is marked. Your download is throttled by default, but if your computer can't handle the 4-5 MB/s download (if you have a good connection) while you play, you might need to take a look at your hardware. System performance shouldn't decrease unless you're sitting on a 1 Gbps connection or more.
Enabling Peer-to-Peer transfer will allow your downloader to not just pick up the data from the main server, but from everyone else downloading as well. This is a torrent, plain and simple. Before, you could actually find the torrent-file and use a regular torrent-klient to download the patch and then continue to seed it for everyone else to pick up as well, but Blizzard changed this so it's no longer possible unless you hack the launcher and extract the torrent-info from it. I think.
Anyway, make sure all the boxes are marked, and all the required ports are open in your router/firewall. Information for how to do that is on the official website.
Darkrose Mar 14th 2009 9:26AM
Don't know if there is any difference between US / EU. I live in the EU and I found the .torrent-file in [WoW-folder]\Cache\BackgroundDownload.torrent
After getting terrible download speeds in Blizz's downloader (even after disabling bandwidth throtteling not getting above 20kbps), I loaded the .torrent into uTorrent which is downloading at 350kbps at the moment.
I don't know how Blizz managed to screw up their downloader so badly, but it's been like this everytime a .torrent was present in the WoW-folder. Crap performance from their downloader, very fast on at least BitComet and uTorrent.
Soatari Mar 14th 2009 9:37AM
Not like speed is critical here or anything. The patch is still a ways off (I'd say it's still at the very minimum two to four weeks away) so if you're not getting fantastic speeds, I wouldn't worry about it. You have plenty of time.
Darkrose Mar 14th 2009 10:14AM
True as that may be, I still find it a lot more convenient to have the patch downloading together with all my other p2p-downloads. This allows me to properly prioritize downloads and throttle total bandwidth usage.
I guess it's just a matter of personal preference.
Hoggersbud Mar 14th 2009 10:44AM
Well, if you're not satisfied with Blizzard's download not being screaming fast, do remember, it's not designed to be super-fast. It's designed to be unobtrusive so folks don't complain that their downloader at fault for slow internet speeds or whatever.
It's a matter of priority for them.
MazokuRanma Mar 14th 2009 11:26AM
@Hoggersbud
This is exactly it. They want it to sit in the background and take as few resources as possible. That's why you have to specifically change it to run while WoW is running (So people can't complain it's affecting the game) and to remove throttling (So people can't complain it's stealing all their bandwidth).
Mine right now is set to throttle, and even at that incredibly low speed, the file is 25% done from downloading overnight. Considering the patch is likely weeks away, those speeds should be more than sufficient anyway.
Clopert Mar 14th 2009 8:06AM
Looking forward to: Swimming Mounts :D
Not Looking forward to: The inevitable disconnects, lag and bugs for the first few days... or weeks.
Heilig Mar 14th 2009 1:26PM
Looking Forward to: Prot Paladins getting a 3 second silence on a 6 second CD >:)
Dreading: Ret paladins being completely castrated by the loss of Spiritual Attunement
Hyacin Mar 14th 2009 4:25PM
Do ret pallies really rely on Spiritual Attunement that much anyway? As DPS aren't you supposed to *not* be taking much if any damage, and thus getting very minimal healing?
Bob Mar 14th 2009 5:43PM
The damage from Seal of Blood that you receive is meant to be a blessing, not a curse: it damages you, healer heals you, you gain mana. Now, it just damages you.
Urthal Mar 14th 2009 8:09AM
They are just allowing us to download the art assets that are already finished. Ulduar maps, music, textures, sounds, models. Stuff that's heavy in terms of megabytes. Doesn't mean 3.1 is any closer than when they released the PTR.
Rugus Mar 14th 2009 8:21AM
Quote on this. Blizzard is just making thinks easier for when 3.1 will be deployed on live servers. Too much stuff still needs to be fixed, tweaked and balanced.
Angus Mar 14th 2009 10:52AM
Bingo.
You'd think after them doing this exact thing with patch 3.0 a month before the actual date, Zach would remember.
They did this exact thing with 2.0, 2.1, 2.3, 2.4....
It isn't like this is a new thing.
Zach Mar 14th 2009 10:53AM
@Angus - Shhh. I need a juicy breakfast topic. We'll rehash this again in a month or so...
JinArcana Mar 14th 2009 8:16AM
What is with the severe lack of mage changes? Considering blizzard said they were going to change how Spirit works for us and make fire pvp a little more viable(both of which they haven't done), why have there been so little changes to the mage class?
Debesun Mar 14th 2009 8:17AM
Well seeing that something as unrealistic as Ele and Enh shammies getting multiple buffs in PvP, I guess the idea of 3.1 on tuesday would push it as likely to happen as the sun rising the next day and winning the lottery 5 weeks straight O.o
laughtrey Mar 14th 2009 8:29AM
I'm guessing at least 3 more weeks from next Tuesday before we either get a date or 3.1.
PNG1 Mar 14th 2009 8:56AM
Has anyone had trouble getting this to download on Mac?
themightysven Mar 14th 2009 9:15AM
yes, I play on a mac and the download is super slow (1.61 MB out of 555MBs after 20 minutes-ish) but, it was like that for 3.0.2. especially bad, it seems to stop downloading whenever the screensaver comes up, so that's fun