Posts with tag Patches

If World of Warcraft had but one holiday, it would be Patch Day: the glorious Tuesday (or Wednesday) in which the WoW servers go down for maintenance but come back online brimming with new, unexplored content. If you're new to World of Warcraft, or MMOs in general, you may not entirely understand all the fuss the community makes over patches. So just what is a patch? Why are they so important? And how can you get your hands on one? We'll do our best to explain.

What is a WoW patch?
Did you know we're playing version 5 of World of Warcraft right now? It's true: Version 1.1 was World of Warcraft's launch client and every expansion since has bumped the version number up a full number, while each patch release is a decimal place. The original game went up to patch 1.12 (the 1.1 launch client and 11 patches after), Burning Crusade (2.0) had a scant 4 patches, Wrath of the Lich King (3.0) had 3, Cataclysm (4.0) had 3, and Mists of Pandaria (5.0) is about to see the release of its 3rd patch, patch 5.3. These days, patches are coming more quickly than ever and we have no idea how many patches to expect before the next expansion arrives.

So the Patch 5.3 PTR was announced earlier this week, and I am currently downloading the files for it as I write this. Patch 5.2 only went live a couple of weeks ago, and its PTR began in January, a mere few weeks after 5.1 was released. Oh, and Mists of Pandaria itself has only been available since October! Whew! Ladies and Gentlemen, content in WoW's fourth expansion has been coming at a breakneck pace, and I'm not entirely sure I like it.

I'm a slow player, in all honesty. I like to take my time and explore, do lots of quests, level professions, and generally just take my sweet time. I play WoW largely to relax, and for me, racing through everything as quickly as possible is not relaxing. I also have a pretty hard limit to the amount of time I can spend playing before I start to go stir crazy and really need to get up and do something else. That isn't conducive to rapidly completing things like daily-based rep grinds. So for me, I'm a little disappointed by the short spaces between new content being released. It kind of stresses me out, makes me feel like I need to play more, and harder, to keep up. I realize that feeling is all in my own head, but it doesn't stop me from wishing I had, oh, maybe two extra weeks before the 5.3 PTR was announced!

First off, we know that game balance is an eternal goal. As the game evolves and becomes more complex (as it does every expansion, because new abilities are introduced and new classes or races make their debut), balancing them all for every role they can fill and every aspect of the game (Arena PvP, BGs, 5-man instances, raiding) becomes ever more complicated. Abilities that seem minor in impact can mushroom in importance due to synergy with other talents or abilities. As an example, Vengeance in PvP became important enough to cause it to be turned off, as gear improved and health pools rose.

This has been the case in World of Warcraft since its debut. Heck, thanks to Indalamar, warriors got nerfed before the game went live. Balance is ephemeral. Your class may be on top one day, but your day will end. Anyone who's tanked for the past six years can attest to the roller coaster of which class is best at which aspect of the role. There was a time where paladins were the undisputed kings of AoE tanking, a time before Death and Decay or Blood and Thunder.

Blizzard has updated the patch notes for the patch 4.2 PTR today, with some notable additions!

• The defensive pet stance will now only cause the player's pet to attack enemies that attack the pet or the master.
• Hunters can tame eight new rare beasts, each with a specific "taming challenge."
• Party/raid interface profiles can now be saved, letting you easily switch for different encounters and roles.
• Mages: Arcane Blast damage done has been reduced by 5%.
• Warlocks: Soul Fire is now available at level 20, down from level 54.

For the full update, follow along the cut below.

This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the AOL guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages.

There are a lot of firsts in World of Warcraft. Some firsts are great -- our first level, first mount, first dungeon, and first raid. Then we have our horrible, cry-ourselves-to-sleep-while-hugging-our-teddy-bear firsts -- our first death, first wipe, our first night of wipes ... We always remember these firsts. They're permanently set in our mind (much like Magni is permanently set in Old Ironfoge, may he rest in peace).

Finally, we remember our first patch day. This first could fit in either category.

My first patch day was catastrophic. All of a sudden, my talent tree was different, my DPS was garbage (well, worse than it was before), and everyone was "LFM for Ulduar." I was lost, confused, and scared -- yet it was the first day I knew I loved the ever-changing World of Warcraft. Patches provide an always-evolving universe, and I love it.

Do you remember your first patch day? What patch was it? Was your first patch a good or a bad memory?

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Robin Torres writes WoW, Casually for the player with limited playtime. Of course, you people with lots of playtime can read this too, but you may get annoyed by the fact that we are unashamed, even proud, of the fact that beating WoW isn't our highest priority. Take solace in the fact that your gear is better than ours, but if that doesn't work, remember that we outnumber you. Not that that's a threat, after all, we don't have time to do anything about it. But if WoW were a democracy, we'd win.

The above video has absolutely nothing to do with WoW or upcoming patches or even gaming. It's just a feel-good video that is currently at the top of my current YouTube favorites. Besides, everybody's doing it. Now, onward to the actual content...

So, rumor has it that patch 3.3.3 will be out either next week or the week after. The PTR seems stable-ish and the downloading of much of the patch has already been happening. So, let's talk about what we have to look forward to in the patches before Cataclysm, particularly 3.3.3.

So just when it looked like things might be getting quiet in the wake of Patch 3.3, Blizzard stirred things up again last night with a release of PTR Patch 3.3.3. There's some pretty big changes coming our way. In addition to various class changes, we've got some other cool stuff too, including an abolishment of battleground marks, a way to get rid of all those annoying Frozen Orbs clogging our banks, new auction house functionality, and a lot more.

Wowhead has been a go-to site to track what's going on on the PTR for quite some time, and now there's even more reason to go there. Their improved new items in patch 3.3 page features the following improvements:

• Categorization by item level, with breakdowns for the five levels of items that are coming at us (219, 232, 251, 264, and 277).
• You can now filter the new items and search within them.
• Items are also sortable.

And this isn't a new feature, but it bears mentioning, at least if you're a major news geek like me: you can get an RSS feed of the new items added to the Wowhead database. If you wanted to you could probably hook this up to Twitter, or put it on your blog, or whatever.

Anyway, if you want to know what items are coming at us along with Icecrown Citadel, I think there's no better place to be. What items are you most excited about?

This week, The Care and Feeding of Warriors looks back at the legacy of the Warrior class through the original game and two expansions. Matthew Rossi remembers when Taunt cost rage. Remember that? Makes you shudder, doesn't it?

I don't mean crotchety guys in stained overalls working on your car.

No, what I'm talking about is the foundation of the warrior class itself, those abilities that are holdovers from the very beginning of the game. It's hard to remember sometimes, with a game that changes and flows with time the way WoW has, that things were once very, very different... I still remember when they fixed the bug that kept dodges, parries and blocked attacks from generating any rage, hoo boy was that one a killer for warriors... and some of our abilities date back to the very beginning of the game or shortly after it. (Pummel was removed in patch 1.1.0, for instance, and returned in patch 1.2.0, when Maraudon was introduced.) I personally have a very hard time remembering not having Pummel, which is probably because I didn't use Berserker Stance enough before that patch went live. It's even more interesting to note that before patch 1.2.0 Berserker Stance granted a flat 10% melee haste instead of 3% crit, the kind of stat that probably would have had me scratching my head in confusion back then. (I don't scratch my head now, I just kind of grunt softly and bang on the monolith with a bone.)

I don't know if you've noticed, but Blizzard's been inserting new icons in every patch. You know those little square graphics that appear next to spell or item descriptions? They've been revising some that were shared across several items and gave them entirely new icons. It doesn't appear on the patch notes, but some spells got new icons - such as the Black Tabby, which got a new icon back in Patch 3.1.

Here in Patch 3.2, we see two new cooking icons which are probably going to be related to some world events - the Bread of the Dead and Cranberry Chutney. Both have new, unique icons. Personally, I think spell and item icons are a small but important part of what makes the game feel unique. Some icons are funny, some are really colorful, and some are even plain sexy. Some icons were actually confusing - remember when flying carpets all looked like Runecloth? That was dumb, but Blizzard got around to setting things right.

There are cool spell and talent icons, too. Some icons look exactly like the item they represent, some icons are totally generic, and some icons are hard to make heads or tails of, although that's probably what Blizzard is slowly trying to eliminate. Did anybody notice how they changed icons for the Cockroach and the Magical Crawdad Box? Blizzard didn't have to, certainly, but I for one appreciate the little things. Like I said, small parts of the game that give it its unique feel. Are there any icons in particular that stand out for you? What are your favorites? Dislikes? If anything, I'll take this opportunity to give a shout out to the amazing art team at Blizzard responsible for those little square things. Oh, and if you can name all those icons pictured above... you probably need professional help.

In the good old days, expansions came around once in a blue moon. They were the stuff of legend which invited almost two years of hype and intrigue. You paid your dollars/pounds/euros/yuan, and you got your new classes, those shiny new zones and those ten extra levels. But, with patch 3.0.2 (aka Echoes of Doom) we got something new, we got transition. Yes, this was the patch where we got a sampling of Wrath designed to tease players waiting on tender hooks and also keep interest for that final week until the expansions hit properly.

Given Blizzard's shift in how they treat patches, now geared towards larger mini expansion style updates like patch 2.4 and patch 3.2, there's definitely something changing in the way we get new installments of the game. After all, there's as much hype about every mini expansion-like patch, from the new areas, class buffs/nerfs and weapons to the smaller changes involving the UI. Shiny expansion special editions aside, do you think it would ever be possible to have expansions become automatically downloaded massive patch updates over a standalone disc or download that you have to buy every two years? What do you think, readers?

This post by Eric Heimburg on the excellent MMO design blog Elder Game, alleging that WoW is currently run by Blizzard's B-team, has ignited a fair amount of controversy around the blogosphere. The general argument appears to be that the people previously in charge of WoW, like Jeff Kaplan, have moved on to other projects. As a consequence knee-jerk changes are being pushed through very fast, without being sufficiently tested first. "Back in the day," claims the article, "QA held the game to a higher standard."

My reaction to these claims are mixed. Kaplan may not be in charge of WoW anymore, but I don't think that "the steady hand has left the rudder," or if it has, maybe a less straight-ahead course is a good thing. Changes may be getting pushed through very quickly - Ghostcrawler routinely refers to players getting whiplash from the frequency of balance changes - but in many cases, I think this is for the best.

Popcap kindly sent us a note to say that both of their free addons (Bejeweled and Peggle) for World of Warcraft have seen updates lately, so if you're still playing the versions you downloaded when they first came out, better give them a refresh. Bejeweled, the classic gem matching game, is now up to 1.1, and features a completely updated score system (you'll be asked to convert it the first time you load) that tracks all kinds of new features. In addition, the Achievements now have their own screen, so they're all easier to track as well. And a bunch of bug fixes have gone in, to make the game smoother and faster.

And Peggle has reached 1.02, with some new code to try and keep users with different versions from having compatibility problems, as well as a few options to keep the chatspam down to a minimum. If your guild is angry that you keep accidentally hitting "Publish" and getting your score in their guild chat, get this new version, as it allows you to control where that goes, as well as change the name from "Publish" to "Brag," to more accurately describe what it is.

Both versions can be downloaded right over on Popcap's WoW site, or from the usual suspects at your favorite addon databases. It's great that they're still updating these (still for free!), but, completely selfishly, we still kind of want Zuma next.

Reader comments – ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week.

Yeah, we know you've already got Algalon on farm -- WoW.com readers are just uber that way. But for the rare handful of you still playing at a somewhat less stratospheric progression point ... How about those patches? Is the flow of new content keeping pace with your playstyle and interest?

"The pace of new content is fine – ooh, shiny :)," wrote Julie. "What worries me is the rate at which old content becomes obsolete (which is way too fast). For example, I'm glad Ulduar and Emalon are out. I hate the fact you can't do Archavon without doing Emalon. I also hate the fact that there's no reason to go into Naxx (Pro-Drake, badges, etc.) or heroic five-mans, for that matter. Basically I'm ok with the new content coming out; not ok with being forced to move to the new content the moment it does, however. There should be some balanced incentives to keep doing older content."

Is your guild working patiently through the existing content at its own rate, or has the addition of new content shoved you out into the deep end before you were ready?

A couple months ago, we asked if you could add one new game mechanic to WoW, what would it be? This morning, I'd like to ask what you'd pick if you could add one new feature. Some common requests:

• Player/guild housing
• Ability to be in multiple guilds simultaneously
• Ability to start a character at a higher level than 1 (like Death Knights)
• Mounted combat
• Cosmetic gear (ability to have one set of gear equipped, and another set displayed)

I'm sure there are more commonly desired features that I just haven't thought of yet.

Me, I'm really excited about the PvE arenas that I hope are coming in patch 3.2. Aside from that, I suppose I'd like to be able to start alts at a high level. I like leveling well enough, but 1-40 is simply tedious. Characters haven't really come into their own yet, and those zones are pretty underdeveloped. What new feature would you want to add to WoW?