Guessing on the patch 3.1 release
by Mike Schramm 
Apr 8th 2009 at 2:30PM
bridges_squares wants to know, and we're getting really, really close, so let's finally go out on that limb, shaky as it may be: when's the patch coming out? Turpster predicted it would be this past Tuesday on the WoW Insider Show last week (since Noblegarden and the equipment manager got delayed, he figured they wanted to hurry for a release), but obviously no dice on that one. And on the other end of things, April 26th is the date we're told Noblegarden will start, so it's a pretty good guess we'll see the patch by then.If you follow that line of reasoning, that just leaves the next two Tuesdays, April 14th and 21st. And since we had rolling restarts last week, it seems like maintenance this week will bring us the patch on Tuesday, the 14th. But of course there are other factors in here: the PTR should go down before the patch comes up, and since the PTR it still up, we be waiting until the 21st. Also, just because Blizzard said Noblegarden on the 26th doesn't mean they won't delay it again, so we may still see the patch on the 28th or after that. And Tuesdays are usually when the live realms get patched (Fridays are usually when the patch the PTR, in my experience), but technically they could do it anytime, right?
So let's do a poll. I'm going to go with Tuesday the 21st (since there's no sign of the PTR going down yet), but when do you think patch 3.1 will drop? And no, "when it's ready" is not an option -- we'll just assume (hopefully correctly) Blizzard will make sure of that anyway.
| April 14th | |
|---|---|
| April 21st | |
| Sometime the week of 4/12 - 4/18, but not on a Tuesday | |
| Sometime the week of 4/19 - 4/25, but not on a Tuesday | |
| April 28th or after that |
Filed under: Patches, Polls, Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Blizzard, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Cody Apr 8th 2009 2:39PM
I'm afraid it will be next Tuesday. That leaves me just this week to get my 10 man OS3D for my achievement... let it be tonight!!
Hogan Apr 8th 2009 2:40PM
I'm going for the 14th. We will see though.
inthemidst01 Apr 8th 2009 2:45PM
I'm assuming it's hitting the 14th, next Tuesday. As both big patch parts have hit the Background Downloader already (1.2 GB approx.)
carthard Apr 8th 2009 2:46PM
Hopefully just in time for the new Arthas novel by Christie Golden, available soon!
jbodar Apr 9th 2009 4:53AM
I hear it makes WoW Mountain Dew taste even better! ;p
Jay in Oregon Apr 8th 2009 2:49PM
"the PTR should go down before the patch comes up, and since the PTR it still up, we be waiting until the 21st."
I could be wrong, but didn't the 3.0.2 PTR stay up until it dropped on the live servers?
masterraistlin Apr 8th 2009 3:43PM
Was going to say exactly that...I believe a few recent patches have stayed on the PTR as they were deployed. So PTR going down is not always an indication.
I'll say April.14...my reasons being:
- they've said "mid April" all along
- very anxious player base
- the fact that they announced equipment manager wouldn't be in. If they were going to take longer why not keep working on it?
- patches on the PTR have been increasingly smaller and more frequent
- very little activity this week so far - no raid testing or focused testing announced.
- Ulduar looks very polished and they've said they're not testing Yogg or Algalon.
Firestride Apr 8th 2009 2:54PM
I've been saying "May is more likely than April" for a month now, so it wouldn't be fair to revise my guess now. So I voted for the latest option, but I think 21 is probably a safer bet.
Thunderer Apr 8th 2009 2:56PM
Let's look at this practically...
Arena will end on or shortly after the release of the patch.
Arena will end the 14th (or the week after).
The patch will hit on the 14th, most likely, coinciding with the end of the season.
Justizia Apr 8th 2009 7:57PM
Blizzard has also said that there will be a "dead" week after this arena season ends for people to spend their points before the next season starts...
My money is on April 21st for the patch since the arena season ends on the 14th.
h8rain Apr 8th 2009 2:57PM
I know this is used as much as "First!", but where is the Soon(tm) choice?
Mike Schramm Apr 8th 2009 2:59PM
I thought about putting that and "when it's ready" as poll options, but let's be honest, everyone would choose those. I wanted to really see what people thought in terms of times, even though Blizzard does what they want to do.
h8rain Apr 8th 2009 3:11PM
Good point. :D
I have not done anything on the PTR, so I am not sure of the bug level. I would guess the 21st, but I hope the servers don't go crazy when Noblegarden is supposed to be going on though.
Delay > bugged patch now
arkaitz Apr 8th 2009 4:35PM
/agree
snowleopard233 Apr 8th 2009 3:03PM
(Patch 3.1 bursts through the wall) Oh yeah!
What the hell man? You just crashed the servers! What the hell, there’s bugs all over the place.
Thanks, thanks a lot. You really should have waited until you were ready. You know, just leave.
(Patch 3.1 sheepishly backs out of the gaping maw in the side of World of Warcraft)
Shyara Apr 8th 2009 3:08PM
best reply...
in the history of replies.
Futue Apr 8th 2009 5:11PM
Yeh, I went for next week (14th) but I wish they pushed it back now to get the equipment manager in :(
Just for completion sake, I really want to have all the dual-spec stuff on a bind (swap gear/talents/action bars) and all Blizz-made w/o having to use addons for equipment changes :(
Ichigo Apr 8th 2009 3:05PM
Today is the 8th. Next possible time that the patch could launch is the 14th. This is unlikely as they are still testing Uldar and Noblegarden.
That leaves us with the 21st. As some have mentioned, this is the end of the arena season and usually is the time that patches are launched to coincide with the end of the event. Normally I'd say this was the day, but with so much else going on, as well as the fact that they want 3.1 to go off without a hitch, my thought is that it won't be the 21st.
My guess is the 28th.
xenothaulus Apr 8th 2009 3:07PM
I said 3.1 would be the second week of April when Wrath launched and I'm sticking to it. 14 April.
Millea Apr 8th 2009 3:09PM
that made me laugh so hard I almost spit my drink on the screen.