Posts with tag Patch2.2

Players on US and EU realms have all had a couple of days of playtime in Blizzard's latest release -- patch 2.2. And though all we're hearing about recently is the upcoming changes in patch 2.3, but patch 2.2 is what we're all playing right now. I'm guessing we've all had enough playtime to come to our own conclusions, so I'm asking what you think of patch 2.2! Are you loving the new voice chat feature (it's not running on my realm yet, so I can't comment), annoyed with issues in the battlegrounds, or find it impossible to deal with the new delay on auction house profits? We want to know -- tell us about your 2.2 experience.

Patch 2.2.2 (currently on the PTRs) doesn't just feature Oktoberfest... er, I mean Brewfest event -- there are also some changes to the regular Hallow's End event, in the form of a daily quest to summon the Headless Horseman from inside the Scarlet Monastery graveyard. And the Horseman isn't just here to celebrate the occasion -- MMO-Champion reports he also has an epic loot table featuring both useful gear and toys. On the useful side, there's a DPS caster ring, a healer ring, a physical DPS ring, and a DPS plate helm. But more interestingly, he can also drop broom mounts of four types, one for each level of riding skill. The downside? Your new cool broom mount is single-use only.

[Thanks Darkbeard and Boubouille!]

I got the idea for this breakfast topic when I saw the following two posts virtually back-to-back in the WoW forums: Reporting AFK'ers - a Pleasant Surprise, and AFK Reporting System Broken And Abused. The former tells the story of the AFK system going well, all the AFKers being removed from the game, and the Horde going on to win. The latter is from the perspective of a player who was erroneously flagged AFK, and asks for several changes to be made, including a limit to the number of AFK reports a player can make in a given amount of time. (It turns out that limit, while not user-visible, is already in place.)

So there are obviously some diverging perspectives on this AFK debuff system thing. What do you all think of it, having had a couple days to check it out?

Alright, so maybe this morning's "final 2.2 patch notes" weren't so final. They were based on the files distributed with the patch, and there are a couple things that got changed after those files were put together. One is the Daze mechanic not having been retuned as the patch notes claimed (that change in fact got repealed last time on a very special episode of Daze of Our Lives). There is also a change that isn't in the (shipped) patch notes: when someone wins an auction that you're selling, it takes an hour for the gold to get to you.

Apparently you get an in-game mail as soon as the item sells saying the sale is "pending," and then an hour later, you get your cash. Nethaera simply says "By adding in the delay we can better track transactions to assure the legitimacy of them;" I'm betting it has something to do with the gold sellers' new tactics. When will you learn, Blizzard, that the gold sellers are like the borg? You can stop one of their channels, but they will simply adapt and find another. Resistance is futile.

Nah, I'm just kidding. One more inconvenience in the way of the RMTers is one more step in the right direction. In this case, it may be a little inconvenient, and it certainly makes playing the AH somewhat harder, as reader Vynn points out (thanks for the screenshot, by the way), but maybe that's not such a bad thing either. How do you guys feel about this change?

And as Blizzard loves to claim, the latest patch notes can always be found at http://worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/. Those notes do contain the AH change and don't erroneously list the daze change. The reason I don't always use that source is because it usually takes a few hours after patches for the notes to show up there.

Good morning! Now that the patch is being distributed to all and sundry, I have the proper, official, final, live 2.2 patch notes for you. 2.2 features voice chat and more small changes than you can shake a gnome at. You know the drill: new information not in last night's version up front, and the full notes after the cut. Let's patch!

• Eye of the Storm: The points awarded from capturing the flag now increase based on the number of bases the capturing teams owns.
• Merciless Gladiator's Ringmail Helm: This item will disable hair from being displayed [was "will no longer disable hair from being displayed]
• Monstrous Kaliri: This creature now has loot and will give reputation. ["will give reputation" is new]
• Blackrock Spire: The gems for the Seal of Ascension are now a 100% drop from Overlord Wyrmthalak, War Master Voone and Highlord Omokk.
• Wailing Caverns: The Druids of the Talon will no longer permanently flee.
• Blackfathom Deeps: Several creatures will no longer permanently flee.
• Temple of Atal'Hakkar: Several creatures will no longer permanently flee.

As before, the patch notes are too long for one post, so look at the end of this post for a link to the rest.

This is the second part of the final 2.2 patch notes. The first part is back here.

World Environment

• The following old-world factions have had their acquisition rate significantly increased: Cenarion Circle, Argent Dawn, Timbermaw Hold.
• If you get a positive reputation from combat you also get the corresponding opposite reputation reduction.
• Adjusted Yowler's level to 20 (from 25).
• Adjusted the level of Redridge Bashers and Alphas.
• Arcane Missiles: When cast by creatures, this spell will now properly cause activation of pets set to defensive mode.
• Azuregos: The tooltip on this creature's Frost Breath now correctly indicates Frozen rather than impairing movement.
• Chieftain Mummaki: This creature can now be pickpocketed.
• Crypt Fiends around Azeroth and at Hyjal Summit are now more totem friendly.
• Doctor Maleficus: This creature can now be pickpocketed.
• Dragonmaw Peon: The creature now has the correct pickpocket loot.
• Fel Corrupters in Blade's Edge Mountain are now less potent.
• Fixed an improper dialog option on Carolyn Ward, a Rogue Trainer in Undercity, when the player's Lockpicking was 300-324.
• Highlord Mastrogonde: This creature now always drops at least a good quality item.
• Kataru: The totem cast by this creature will now be treated as a totem, rather than as a creature.
• Markaru: This creature is now skinnable.
• Minor Fairbreeze Village fixes: The general goods vendor was moved from home to the lower inn, the pet vendor was moved from the upper inn to home, the upper inn is now flagged as an inn.
• Mo'arg Doomsmith: This creature now drops Marks of Sargeras rather than Marks of Kil'jaeden.
• Monstrous Kaliri: This creature now has loot and will give reputation.
• Quest target Fel Spirits are now considered undead.
• Vindicator Aeus in the Aldor bank is no longer attackable by players who are members of the Scryer faction.
• Sethekk Ravenguard: The Howling Screech from this creature is now properly considered a Snare, and is clearable by Escape Artist and other abilities that remove Snares.
• Skettis Windwalker: The Cyclone effect from this creature can now be cleared by PvP trinkets and Bestial Wrath/The Beast Within.
• Skulloc Soulgrinder in Blade's Edge now correctly summons Sundered Ghosts to aid him in battle.
• Void Reaver: The Arcane Orb ability used by this creature will now correctly Daze players affected by Aspect of the Pack or Aspect of the Cheetah.
• Void Terror: This creature is now skinnable.
• Wyrmcult Blackwhelp: This creature now can be skinned but can no longer be pickpocketed.
• Blackrock Spire: The gems for the Seal of Ascension are now a 100% drop from Overlord Wyrmthalak, War Master Voone and Highlord Omokk.
• Wailing Caverns: The Druids of the Talon will no longer permanently flee.
• Blackfathom Deeps: Several creatures will no longer permanently flee.
• Temple of Atal'Hakkar: Several creatures will no longer permanently flee.

Mac

• Additional graphic optimization utilizing AltiVec for PowerPC-Mac and SSE for Intel-Mac. This provides some performance benefit on systems where vertex animation shaders are either unavailable or disabled (recommended on systems with Intel integrated video).
• Mac Options dialog has been added to the primary options panel. This dialog offers configuration options for any features that are presently unique to the Mac client, such as iTunes Remote and Movie Capture.
• New iTunes Remote configuration options have been added to the Mac Options panel.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed problem where players could be disconnected by clicking on an item link in cross-server battlegrounds.
• Pets will no longer chase players that Vanish.
• Pets no longer follow enemies after being revived.
• Stacked items will no longer disappear from a player's inventory when zoning multiple times.
• The WoW client on Windows no longer defaults to 800x600 video resolution if the WoW resolution is higher than the desktop resolution when going from fullscreen mode to windowed mode.
• The Temple Concubine's polymorph no longer has the pig icon appearing when it sheeps a player but now shows the proper sheep icon.
• Players using ranged attacks while under the shapeshift effects of Torment of the Worgen, will now play attack animations
• The Toxic Spore Bats in the Lady Vashj encounter will now properly despawn if the raid party wipes.
• Toxic Spores in the Lady Vashj encounter can no longer kill phase shifted imps.
• Anzu can no longer be kited far from his spawn point and will properly leash.
• The Doomguard Punisher will no longer hit players not involved in the Legion Ring Event.
• Dressing room models for females are now showing the correct head when transformed into a Fel Orc via the Dragonmaw Illusion.
• The trash pulls in the Grand Promenade will now shut off after the Blood Elf Council are killed.
• Players can now accept daily quests even after their daily quest limit has been reached.

Please return to the main post to leave comments.

As Mike noted earlier today in Twitter, today/tonight/tomorrow is an exciting geek convergence. Heroes, Halo 3, and WoW 2.2. And now we have a new set of patch notes, so we might actually know the final list of what's going down tomorrow. However, these are technically termed PTR notes, so be sure and check back tomorrow for the official notes that will come with the patch itself. As always, the full patch notes are after the cut, and here are what I see as the most important things that seem to be new in this iteration of patch notes (Edit: there seems to be some dispute over which of these things are actually new. I'm sure some of them are, but my memory is a bit overtaxed right now.):

• Blessing of Kings, Light, Might, Salvation, Sanctuary and Wisdom increased to 10 minutes.
• Greater Blessing of Kings, Light, Might, Salvation, Sanctuary and Wisdom increased to 30 minutes.
• Lightwell: The heals from this ability are now increased by the bonus healing effects on the Priest.
• Many enchanting formulae are now available from various faction quartermasters: Dodge, Stealth, and Subtlety to cloak; Superior Agility and Threat to gloves; and Greater Agility to weapons.
• Monstrous Kaliri: This creature now has loot.

That's in addition to Voice Chat and the boatload of fixes we knew about already. But looking over these patch notes, I have one question: can this really be called a content patch? Is voice chat actually content? Where's the new zones, dungeons, class overhauls, or whatever? This just reads like an unusually big bug-fix patch to me, with the exception of voice chat. Finally, there is a pleasingly colored breakdown of everything new in 2.2 over at MMO-Champion, and as promised, patch notes after the cut.

Restless for the 2.2 patch to go live, players have been flooding the official forums for updates on long requested features: surnames, player housing, engineering revamp, to name a few. The response to all these requests was the same: we'd like to implement these ideas, but don't know when.

The only glimmer of hope the Community Managers could give was about class reviews. Word is Ret Paladins and Enhancement Shamans are receiving "changes" sooner rather than later and for Priests, the Holy tree and Discipline tree will receive some dev lovin'. For those classes not listed and feeling the need for review, there's always the next expansion. TBC did wonders for the druid Balance and Feral trees.

Now we must wait for the Voice Chat patch to go live and then Blizzard can be more specific about what game changes are coming next and which stay on the back burner.

Hot on the heels of the Orc shoulder scandal (to be fixed in patch 2.2), World of Raids has some screenshots suggesting that Draenei shoulder graphics are smaller on the PTRs. While I always thought the level of concern with shoulder size to be sort of odd, the outcry over Orc shoulders made it clear that it's an issue players care about. So why-oh-why is Blizzard restarting the debate over appropriate shoulder size by shrinking the shoulders of another race? We'll see if this graphical change, more minor (at least to my eyes) than the Orc alteration, causes the same level of public anger.

[Thanks, Akyl]

This is blasphemy, I know. I'm messing with the natural order of things when I suggest something like this. But here's what I think: Blizzard should give us a release date.

Excuse me while I duck all those tomatoes. Check out this forum thread, in which Neth voices her feelings about having to deal with players asking about a release date all the time. She gets as far as saying "later, but sooner than much later," which basically means next week or the week after.

Fine then. But, in cases like this, why doesn't Blizzard just go ahead and say a release date? That would shut everybody up, we could all move on with our lives, and Neth wouldn't have to deal with that stuff. And it doesn't even need to be accurate-- if Blizzard said "2.2 is coming on September 18th," and then it dropped on the 11th (which is when Blizzard really planned to release it), then everyone would actually be happy that it came out early. And yes, Blizzard doesn't want to have to explain delays to us, but delays are delays-- surely videogame fans have gotten used to it by now.

I'm not saying they need to change their whole company-- they're not going to give us a date for Wrath of the Lich King, and I'm fine with that: I'd rather see it "when it's finished" (and we will see a release date for it anyway, eventually) But for something like 2.2, where testing is almost complete and they must have some clear idea of when it will drop, why not give us a target, however off it might be? Even "before November," in my mind, is better than all the question ducking that Neth and the other CMs are doing.

World of Raids has pointed out some lowered enchanting costs that are showing up on the latest build of the public test realms. However, changes at present only seem to apply to enchanter-only ring enchants (if you're not familiar, these enchants soulbind the item when enchanted, so they're only useful to enchanters), so if you aren't an enchanter, the following is probably of no interest. However, if you are an enchanter, happy days! The cost of enchanting your rings seems to be dropping significantly in the next patch. For precise details on the current and future costs, read on!

[Thanks, Akyl]

Patch 2.2, currently in testing on the PTR, has some great improvements like voice chat and reporting AFK'ers in Battlegrounds. What it doesn't have is any new, big, sexy chunk of playable content. So when are we going to see the post-Karazhan 10-main raid zone, Zul'Aman? New Heroic Badge rewards? Guild banks? Oh, we already know that last one.

Forum MVP Schwick on the WoW European forums has compiled a list of known updates in Patch 2.3 and beyond. He often provide reference links to his sources form many of his future patch notes, which makes him an information god in my book.

He also goes on to list all the verified information about the WotLK expansion. I thought I had read all the info that was out already, but on Schwick's list I found items I didn't know, like the fact that Blizzard has a plan to deal with the fact that the Horde doesn't have a fear ward. Or that Naxxramas, the last raid zone introduced before TBC launched, will be repurposed in the new expansion. Or that new shaders will be introduced for shinier graphics. Mmm, sparkles.

Check out Schwick's post if you want to get a look ahead about what's known for future patches.

Screenshot of Zul'Aman boss models courtesy of MMO-Champion.com.

More PTR changes! Hooray! This time it's the US forums that have the newest notes, which appear to have been changed from the last version only in the Professions and Quests sections. Here are the modifications:

• [Jewelcrafting] A new recipe for Steady Talasite is now available from the Halaa vendors, at the cost of research tokens. This superior green gem grants resilience and stamina.
• [Blacksmithing] Added a new recipe for Ragesteel Shoulders that drops from an unknown creature in Shadowmoon Valley.
• [Blacksmithing] Reduced the number of pieces required to get the benefits of the Ragesteel set bonus.
• [Engineering] Reduced the cooldown on the engineer-made Parachute Cloak.
• Quests:
• Banish the Demons now rewards either a Darkrune or a Fragmented Darkrune. Five fragmented Darkrunes can be combined to create a Darkrune.
• In the Bomb Them Again quest, the cooldown of the Skyguard bombs was decreased to 5 seconds (was 10).
• In the Relic's Emanation quest, the money reward was decreased while the Ogri'la faction reward was increased.

No major changes, then. Go forth and test the voice chat!

We all have questions about the new voice chat features that's coming in patch 2.2. Helpfully, Blizzard has posted a FAQ, answering many of these very questions. Some of them are fairly obvious ("What is the new voice chat feature in World of Warcraft?"), but several answer things I was genuinely curious about:

• Q: Can I speak in more than one channel at a time?
  A: While you can join multiple chat channels, you can only have voice chat enabled in one channel at a time. You can switch voice chat between channels by using the new chat interface found in the social window, or by clicking on the voice chat options button located near the mini-map.
• Q: As a parent or guardian, how can I control my children's access to the voice chat feature?
  A: Parents and guardians have the ability to manage voice chat via the parental control system found on the official World of Warcraft website. You can turn voice chat off entirely or allow your children to listen but not speak in voice chat. The voice chat feature defaults to "off." If parental controls are enabled on an account, you will need to turn on voice chat via the parental control system (found in the account-management section of WorldofWarcraft.com) before it can be used in the game.
• Q: Does voice chat work in guild chat or when using the "/say" command to talk to characters in your immediate vicinity?
  A: At this time, the integrated voice chat feature does not work in guild chat, "/say," global defense, trade, or any public chat channel. However, we may look into offering voice chat functionality for the guild chat channel in the future.
• Q: Do raid leaders have moderator rights?
  A: Yes, raid leaders have moderator rights and can mute players in the raid voice chat channel for all other players in that channel.
• Q: Can I mask my voice?
  A: Voice masking is not currently available. This is a feature we are looking into and may consider for the future.

The entire FAQ is posted after the cut. Are you excited about voice chat?

Shaman's Windfury Totem is being hotfix-nerfed:

Windfury Totem will no longer trigger for any "yellow" attacks unless they are on next swing attacks, such as Heroic Strike and Cleave

That is fairly significant, I think. And those of us who are anxious to test out voice chat (coming in patch 2.2) will be able to do so after a new PTR build being pushed tomorrow morning:

We will be activating Voice chat on the PTR with the new build tomorrow morning August 10th.

Voice chat is currently available only for parties, raids and custom channels; there is no cross-server battleground voice chat at this time.

Hortus goes on to note that it won't work for PPC Macs for the time being, but a forthcoming build will fix that soon. It's probably a good thing that VC isn't going to be active for General chat and the like; I could see that getting annoying fast. It would be nice if it worked for guild chat though.

[via World of Raids]