Tuesday Morning Post: No pre-BlizzCon lull edition
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Oct 19th 2010 at 7:00AM
Of course, my personal choice for the best news of Patch 4.0.1 is the fact that Anzu is up all the time. Don't get me wrong, I had a druid in Burning Crusade, and the epic flight form quest was amazing, but I want a giant frickin technicolored bird on my death knight now, and I'm pretty happy I won't have to drag around a druid for that.
There's plenty of more patch 4.0.1 news to peruse and guidance to absorb, and since it's maintenance Tuesday, you should have some time to absorb it all. Check out our usual roundup after the break!
Hot News and Features
- The newest Warcraft novel, The Shattering, is out. We have a review!
- Headed for BlizzCon? We hope to see you at the WoW Insider reader meetup!
- Patch 4.0.1 does still have some bugs.
- Parts of the new guild UI have been implemented in patch 4.0.1.
- Patch 4.0.1 is a little imbalanced, but don't panic, they've already started rebalancing it.
- The new Tree of Life form is now on the beta servers.
- Warlock pets got renamed in patch 4.0.1, but the old names should be coming back soon.
- Some items will no longer be available in patch 4.0.3. Better get them now!
- Check out some of the lastest tier 11 class armor sets from the beta servers.
- Shifting Perspectives has advice for the patch 4.0.1 cat druid and DPS rotations for the patch 4.0.1 balance druid.
- Scattered Shots looks at patch 4.0.1 hunter talent specs and rotations, as well as hunter gems and glyphs in patch 4.0.1.
- Lichborne has talent specs and rotations for the patch 4.0.1 death knight.
- The Art of War(craft) looks at death knight PvP talents in patch 4.0.1.
- Spiritual Guidance discusses shadow priest raiding in patch 4.0.1 and adapting to patch 4.0.1 priest healing.
- Encrypted Text discusses rogue talent specs for patch 4.0.1.
- The Light And How To Swing It discusses retribution rotations in patch 4.0.1 and the invincible holy paladin.
- The Care And Feeding of Warriors discusses patch 4.0.1 DPS.
- Arcane Brilliance looks at getting your mage up to speed in patch 4.0.1.
- Raid Rx looks at patch 4.0.1 raid healing.
- Totem talk discusses restoration shaman stats and spells at level 85 and enhancement theory in patch 4.0.1.
- Check our impressions of the beta test of Cataclysm raid boss Halfus Wyrmbreaker.
- Having Addon trouble in patch 4.0.1? We have some advice for you and a guide to some of the best addons that have already been updated for patch 4.0.1.
- WoW Rookie covers patch 4.0.1 for rookies.
- Gold Capped looks at the patch 4.0.1 fallout for auctioneers.
- City tabards give reputation in dungeons in the latest beta build.
- Gems changed a bit in patch 4.0.1. We have a rundown of the new gem changes.
- Reforging is here! Check out the official preview.
- Blood Sport has more gladiator PvP secrets.
- Rejoice, holiday achievement seekers. Long, Strange Trip will continue to award Master Flying.
- Check out the latest installment of WoW Insider's weekly webcomic, Safe Passage.
- The Lawbringer looks at real money transactions.
Filed under: Realm Status, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
pancakes Oct 19th 2010 7:13AM
Here's hoping maintenance brings about fixes for Hallow's End, and also brings back my old demons. I miss those guys.
Marzim Oct 19th 2010 7:31AM
There is a workaround for the crashed caused by the cog thing.
http://blue.mmo-champion.com/t/27300876552/workaround-gear-cog-icon-of-doom/
or if you don't wanna use the link:
You will need to create two macros, for "turn off tooltips" and "turn on tooltips".
Turn Off Tooltips
/script GameTooltip.Temphide = function() GameTooltip:Hide() end; GameTooltip:SetScript("OnShow", GameTooltip.Temphide);
Turn On Tooltips
/script GameTooltip:SetScript("OnShow", GameTooltip.Show);
Shane Oct 19th 2010 7:20AM
I was also underwhelmed by the cinematic. I think that Blizzards annual allotment of awesome videos was used up by SC2.
Euranne Oct 19th 2010 7:34AM
I was completely underwhelmed also. I rushed home from work because I heard that it was "THE BEST CINEMATIC EVER CREATED BY BLIZZARD!!!111!1one1!!" It was neat eye candy like usual, but it was just - nothing special. Give me more scenes of characters or more story or just, something - anything!
metalspawned Oct 19th 2010 10:57AM
I'll agree to that. While there is no doubt that the animation was beautiful, the sound was awesome, and all that, it really didn't give current WoW players any new information. I know that it was not intended to do so, but c'mon Blizz, give us something... Guess we'll have to wait for the cinematics at BlizzCon... :-D
Twowolves Oct 19th 2010 7:31AM
The cinematic also left me feeling 'meh.' Oh look, another angry voiceover while an angry dragon takes flight. I was hoping for more scenes of destruction and our buddies from the first two cinematics. I guess they're dead and gone. I was more thrilled with the first teaser trailer and the TV add; 'Where Will You Be?' That was good. The cinematic should have build that line up. Oh well. There's always the next expansion.
Jennifer Oct 19th 2010 7:52AM
That is exactly how I felt. Someone commented that the full cinematic might have even been better if you'd seen or heard people screaming and running for their lives. It's like an empty world that he's destroying.
But the TV spot - that gave me the shivers.
Ashimar Oct 19th 2010 12:44PM
I definitely liked what they did with the Original WoW cinematic and introducing the races and classes in a short snapshot. Then the BC cinematic that showed those characters had improved and evolved, and had even made a couple of new friends along the way. I was really hoping in the Wrath cinematic to see those characters brought back and portrayed as trekking through the frigid north toward the Citadel viewed in the distance.
Well that didn't happen, but I still got this shivers from the Wrath movie. Cataclysm... Yeah it makes sense to show the destruction, but I think a more engaging video would have been to go back to those now iconic characters, show them in their home cities experiencing the flight of Deathwing overhead destroying their homes, and then some action cuts of them coming together to fight elementals with their new worgen/goblin friends.
Jennifer Oct 19th 2010 7:49AM
Question!
I purchased a virtual ticket to BlizzCon and I went on just now to download the live stream program and make sure I knew what to do when it went live. Unfortunately, the "test" stream is having issues and having to buffer, etc. I know with WoW patches, Blizzard tells you what ports to have openings in your firewall for - but what about the BlizzCon live-stream? I have a hardwire firewall in my modem and I'd like to set it up properly before it becomes an issue. Any suggestions?
l0lus Oct 19th 2010 7:50AM
Is Blizzard censoring webs so they don't publish that 4.0.1 has more bugs than features? Such silence instead of telling the truth is kinda disturbing
MusedMoose Oct 19th 2010 8:03AM
Blizzard does not have any control over the content of this website; people who work for the site have said as much in the past. It's also incredibly unlikely that Blizzard has any legal power to tell websites that they are not directly affiliated with - which covers most fansites and I would guess most if not all WoW-centric blogs - what they can and cannot post.
Instead, it's most likely that others do not share your view on the patch (which is your opinion, not an objective truth), or that they choose to focus on the positive aspects, rather than complain about the bugs. Bugs will eventually be fixed, while new features are here to stay, at least until they're changed again.
Bronwyn Oct 19th 2010 10:22AM
Saying that patch 4.0.1 has more bugs than features is major hyperbole, as well.
Look. It's a HUGE content patch, possibly one of the biggest we've ever had. There are going to be bugs- that is the nature of anything like this. The bugs will be fixed- I don't understand all this mistrust that people seem to have for Blizzard. They're working on it, and frankly, they get their bugs fixed a whole helluva lot sooner than a lot of other companies (coughEAcough).
And really I don't feel like this patch was as bad as it could have been, I mean, anyone remember the Ulduar patch? There were random server shutdowns for like a week after that patch dropped. On the upside, that helped me get my Higher Learning achievement (Because the books respawn after a server restart so eventually you're bound to get all the ones you need even when there are fakes), but still, I feel like that was way more unstable than the current patch.
Honestly, I don't get why people act like bugs are some kind of personal affront to them.
Literaltruth Oct 19th 2010 11:27AM
I think one of the big issues with this is that people are confusing problems caused by addons with problems caused by the patch. A lot of addons were completely broken by the patch and the scramble to get them fixed has caused a lot of them to be still unstable and there are a lot of addon conflicts out there. There have been some bugs - warlock pets, the Hallow's End crash etc - but the majority of other issues that people are experiencing, I would guess, are because of buggy addons which have hastily been patched up for 4.0.1 because authors that are carrying them through are often (understandably) focussed on getting things working for the expansion rather than this wierd in-between time.
I wish WoW.com covered things like the changes that were introduced that broke so many addons - not in-depth, but just enough so that people would understand just why so many problems are happening. I think a lot of people think that if their addon affects a particular part of the user experience that hasn't been changed then it can't be the problem and so it must be Blizzard's fault - not knowing about the LUA changes that broke so many things. If you are experiencing a lot of issues, lag, FPS problems etc. then go into your options and enable error reporting (it's turned off by default) if you are getting LUA errors - it's your addons, not WoW itself that's causing your issues.
I think another thing that people are confusing here is issues that are due to the game being balanced around 85 while still being capped at level 80 as a bug. Your druid not being able to hold AoE threat at all (for example) isn't buggy, it's just that you get the talent to do it when you ding next time.
l0lus Oct 19th 2010 8:00AM
I've also purchased virtual ticket, demo videos work flawlessly with hardware acceleration and high quality under Chrome 8, there is schedule and direct access to all stages although some events overlap, meaning if you love Diablo and Starcraft you will be switching stage every 30 seconds, same happens with other events.
razion Oct 19th 2010 8:12AM
If I was directing the cinematic, I would only change one thing:
Reshow the old characters from the old cinematics bellow in the devastation wrought by Deathwing (druid looking up from Auberdine, dwarf looking up from bellow the dam, and so on) if only to make the cinematic a bit longer and to poke at a bit of nostalgia.
Bronwyn Oct 19th 2010 10:16AM
This. Other than that, I loved the Cinematic. It was pretty, it conveyed the sense of destruction- I mean, that zeppelin crash? Wow.
l0lus Oct 19th 2010 8:32AM
Bugs aren't subjective, webs, blogs are. If I told a customer he's being 'subjective' about application bugs I'd be unemployed as a developer in less than a week
balamoor Oct 19th 2010 11:08AM
I loved the Cata Cinematic, it seems like those who have huge issues with Richard Knaaks characters are underwhelmed and everyone else seems to enjoy it. My wife commented that there would have been a lot more hate for the cinematic no matter what quality it was if Rhonin made an appearance.
Dragoniel Oct 20th 2010 7:19AM
Anzu is available as a regular boss now..?
Oh... And I was hoping it would remain the one extremely hard to obtain and yet accessible to anyone without imba raiding group.
Well, I'll get over this. I promise :/ At least now I can get it on both of my mages... I always wanted to.
But it wont feel the same as the first time I got it nearly a year ago.