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Posts with tag wow-new-patch

Patch 3.3.5: Regional release schedule

by Gregg Reece Jun 1st 2010 at 1:35PM

While we don't know when the 3.3.5 patch is going live, community manager Slorkuz has posted that the North American realms will be getting a week's head start on Ruby Sanctum as well as Operation: Gnomeregan and Zalazane's Fall. This is due to issues that are likely to pop up with the Battle.net upgrade and chat system so that the kinks are worked out before moving on to the rest of the regions.

While those of us in North America are excited, this likely means that patch 3.3.5 will have some issues at the start. Be prepared for hotfixes and realm restarts until things are ironed out.


Slorkuz
In patch 3.3.5, we will be introducing our new Battle.net system, which opens up new communication options for World of Warcraft players and lays the groundwork for integration with future Blizzard games, such as StarCraft II. In order to ensure that the implementation of this major new system goes as smoothly as possible, we plan to release the patch to North American realms first, with Europe, Korea, and the region of Taiwan following approximately one week afterward.


Filed under: Blizzard

Real ID security concerns

by Gregg Reece May 28th 2010 at 11:00AM

Ever since the Real ID friend system was announced, players have voiced concerns about hackers and phishers exploiting this system. They're worried that hackers will move through a group of Real ID friends like a wildfire during a drought. While it is always good to have concerns about account security, sometimes paranoia is a bit too much.

Yes, you do need your friend's email address to add them as a Real ID friend. However, that is the last time you'll ever see that email address in your game client -- once you hit the "Send Request" button, that's it. There is no way to look up that person's email address from the interface again. The only personal information in the client after that is your friend's name.

Just remember that this system is meant for your real-life friends and family and not for some guy who was a good healer in your ICC PUG last week. If you don't know where to go to knock on the person's door if something happens to your account, then don't share your email address.

Filed under: Account Security

Operation Gnomeregan and Zalazane's Fall available now on the PTR

by Michael Sacco May 27th 2010 at 2:48PM

Blizzard has big plans for gnomes and trolls, with brand new starting areas and questing experiences available for those races when Cataclysm launches. But before that can happen, they need your help! There are some awful baddies that've been crashing on their couches, and they've been kickin' around for far too long.

But all that's about to change! With the upcoming Patch 3.3.5, new world events and quests will kick off that will allow players from their respective factions to help their allies reclaim Gnomeregan's surface and the Echo Isles.

Players who want to test out the new quest lines and events need only log into the Public Test Realm starting today, Blizzard has announced. They want tons of participation and feedback to make these events fun and memorable, so copy your character over and hop to it! It's just embarrassing to let low-level mobs control your territory for four years. Help your buddies save face.

Filed under: Cataclysm

Icecrown Citadel raid buff to 20%

by Basil Berntsen May 25th 2010 at 1:30PM

The Icecrown Citadel raid buffs, Hellscream's Warsong and Strength of Wrynn, just went from 15% to 20% with today's maintenance. As always, this means a bunch of raid groups will be able to progress a lot farther in Icecrown Citadel, and we're two thirds of the way to the final 30%. Assuming the schedule remains constant, the last Tuesday in June, the 29th, is when we can expect to see the next 5%.
Adam Holisky: I'm doing 10k single target dps right now on my huntard in ICC. today I'll magically do 10.5k. that just doesn't seem right.

Basil Berntsen: It's better than suddenly reducing the health of the bosses by 30% like they did in BC
While this might cheapen raiding rewards for many hard core players, I'll take a slowly increasing, optional buff against a flat out 30% HP reduction any day. Also, I suspect we might see some new achievements or rewards for players choosing to not use the buff once it finishes hitting 30%.

Filed under: News items, Wrath of the Lich King

Where is patch 3.3.4?

by Adam Holisky May 21st 2010 at 11:00AM

For the past several weeks, people have constantly been asking where patch 3.3.4 is. Right now we're at patch 3.3.3, and Soon™ we'll be basking in the Ruby Sanctum with patch 3.3.5. We seem to have missed an entire numeral! Clearly this is a sign of the end times, shows how Ghostcrawler is really slapping us all in the face and how the "B team" is so special that they can't count to five without screwing things up.

Or ...

Blizzard just skips numbers all the time.

For instance:
  • Patch 2.2.0 lead directly into patch 2.2.2
  • Patch 2.3.0 lead directly into patch 2.3.2
  • Patch 3.0.3 lead directly into patch 3.0.5
  • Patch 3.0.5 lead directly into patch 3.0.8
  • Patch 3.2.0a lead directly into patch 3.2.2
  • Patch 3.3.0a lead directly into patch 3.3.2
So why was 3.3.4 skipped? Your guess is as good as mine, as long as your guess is that they've left 3.3.4 open in case they need to do an emergency client patch to fix some major error. Just like they have in the past.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion

Blizzard to break the AVR mod in Patch 3.3.5

by Fox Van Allen May 20th 2010 at 5:00PM

Suffer, mortals, as your pathetic mod betrays you! Come patch 3.3.5, Blizzard is disabling the functionality of the ultra-useful Augmented Virtual Reality (AVR) addon. The popular mod allows three-dimensional images to be shared between party members in real time to aid in raid strategy and positioning. It is perhaps best known for making the Sindragosa encounter a snap during the ice blocking phase (and, of course, for sharing crudely drawn pictures of genitalia).

Blizzard poster Bashiok broke the news of AVR's impending demise, citing its invasive nature and the fact that it takes away from the need for on-the-spot decision making:

Bashiok -- AVR Mod Broken in 3.3.5
This is a notice that we're making changes in 3.3.5 in attempts to break the ability for the AVR (Augmented Virtual Reality) mod to continue functioning. For those unaware, this mod allows players to draw in the 3D space of the game world, which can then be shared with others who are also using the mod. In some cases this manifests itself through drawing/tagging/defacing the game world, but more popularly is used to give visual guides for dungeon and raid encounters.


The full announcement after the break.

Read more →

Filed under: Blizzard, News items, Add-Ons

Patch 3.3.5 PTR: Ruby Sanctum testing on Thursday

by Gregg Reece May 19th 2010 at 9:00AM

Daelo (lead encounter designer for WoW) updated his post in the dungeons and raids forum last night announcing that the upcoming Ruby Sanctum raid would be back up for testing on Thursday the 20th. This is after a small update to the Public Test Realm client, which should hopefully fix some of the small stability issues and crippling lag.

With premade characters able to be copied now and the Lua errors gone from the new Real ID friends list, it appears some kinks have been worked out of the system. If you haven't done so already, be sure to copy over a character and try out the new features and the newest raid under Wyrmrest Temple.

Daelo
Now that the 3.3.5 patch is available for PTR testing, we wanted to have a round of focus testing for Ruby Sanctum. Only normal mode will be available, with Heroic testing to occur at a later date.

Everything related to this zone is implemented for this test, please note any issues with the trash creatures and sub-bosses, loot, achievements, and quests.

US Testing Schedule:
Thursday, May 20 starting at 19:00 EDT.

We plan to allow testing for an extended period. However since this is the Test Realm, unforeseen issues could delay or cancel testing at any time.

Filed under: Raiding

Patch 3.3.5 PTR: Unfinished Doomsday quest line removed

by Anne Stickney May 16th 2010 at 2:00PM

Sure, Patch 3.3.5 is shaping up to be interesting with the implementation of the Battle.net Real ID system, and new Ruby Sanctum raid dungeon -- but early players on the PTR got a sneak peek at a quest line that has since disappeared from the PTR servers. This quest chain was originally datamined back in the Patch 3.3.3 PTR along with various Cataclysm doodads and items, but the quests hadn't surfaced until now. Its removal suggests that it wasn't meant to be implemented in the first place -- luckily, we've got screenshots of the entire chain. These are spoilers for pre-Cataclysm content, so if you don't want to be spoiled, don't check out the gallery. More info on the chain after the break.

Read more →

Filed under: News items, Lore, Cataclysm

Patch 3.3.5 PTR: Battle.net Real ID system

by Gregg Reece May 13th 2010 at 1:00PM

After several tries at character copies, extended-extended downtime and Battle.net issues, we've been able to hop onto the public test realm and play around with the new Real ID features. We were able to grab a lot of screenshots of the new chat features.

Now, if you're not familiar with the Real ID system, I'll give you a quick summation. If you have a real-life person you know who also plays Blizzard games and you would like to keep in touch with them despite realm, faction or even game (Diablo III, StarCraft II or World of Warcraft), then you can now add them in a social media-type format with announcement, statuses and cross-realm/faction/game whispers. This is not something you want to do with someone you've only ever known in game. The reason you don't want to do this with just anybody is that you will be using your Battle.net email login.

If you happen to try out this feature on the PTR, please note that we're still in an early test realm build and there are still a lot of bugs in the system. This means you're going to get Lua errors off of the default interface, and the Battle.net server managing your friends list is often down as they're tweaking things behind the scenes. It's the test realm; it's meant to test things. So don't take its stability as a sign of what the functionality will be like when the patch hits the live realms.

Filed under: News items, Cataclysm

Ruby Sanctum raid testing this Thursday

by Alex Ziebart May 11th 2010 at 4:00PM

Daelo hit the Dungeons & Raids forum this afternoon to announce some upcoming focus testing for Ruby Sanctum this Thursday. The blue post with scheduling is quoted below. Unfortunately, copying characters over to the PTR doesn't seem to be functional quite yet, only throwing a "Sorry, but there has been an error with your request" error. If you were planning on preparing for this in advance, no such luck. There's no reason to panic yet considering we have two full days before the testing is set to begin, but the closer we get to Thursday evening without the character copy system coming up, the dicier it's going to be as far as actually getting a character transferred.

Here's hoping that little orcish peon on the World of Warcraft website gets to work. Where's my booterang when I need it?

Daelo
Everything related to this zone is implemented for this test, please note any issues with the trash creatures and sub-bosses, loot, achievements, and quests.

US Testing Schedule:
Thursday, May 13 starting at 19:00 EDT.

EU Testing Schedule:
Thursday, May 13 starting at 19:30 CEST.

We plan to allow testing for an extended period on Thursday. However since this is the Test Realm, unforeseen issues could delay or cancel testing at any time.

Filed under: Raiding

Patch 3.3.5 PTR Patch Notes

by Adam Holisky May 10th 2010 at 6:05PM

Zarhym has just released the Patch 3.3.5 PTR Patch Notes. Patch 3.3.5 will introduce the Ruby Sanctum, an all new level 80 raid dungeon located below the Wrymrest Temple in Dragonblight. Other major features of 3.3.5 include:
  • The new Real ID system / Cross-server, cross-game, cross-faction friend chat / Battle.net 2.0 is active for testing on the PTR.
  • There is a new "pop out" option for chat channels, placing them in their own tab of the chat window.
  • The new "pop out" option can also apply for whisper conversations with an individual player.
Remember, these patch notes are only for the PTR, and they often change. Don't expect them to be exactly like this when 3.3.5 is released to the live servers.

The full notes after the break.

Read more →

Filed under: News items, Raiding

Icecrown Citadel raid buff to 15%

by Adam Holisky Apr 27th 2010 at 1:30PM

The Icecrown Citadel raid buffs, Hellscream's Warsong and Strength of Wrynn, have increased from 10% to 15% today. This is great news for those guilds just on the cusp of downing a boss -- expect to see quite a few new Lich King kills and some more progression in the next day or so.

The buff is going to keep increasing, so expect it to go to 20% in about four weeks.

Enjoy!

Filed under: Raiding

Icecrown Citadel raid buff has been buffed to 10%

by Matt Low Mar 30th 2010 at 3:00PM


Raiders rejoice (or despair depending on how you feel about it)! The Icecrown raid wide buff has been increased by an additional 5% to 10%. Anyway, if your raid has been on the brink of taking down some bosses but could not muster enough firepower, then the improved Strength of Wrynn or Hellscream's Warsong could be that extra push you need!

For more information and resources, check out WoW.com's Icecrown Citadel raid strategy and information page!

Filed under: News items, Raiding

In-game fixes for March 26th, 2010

by Adam Holisky Mar 26th 2010 at 11:30PM

This evening we have another round of in-game hotfixes that were applied separate from the minor patch this morning. Bornakk posted them in the official forums as follows:

Bornakk - In-game fixes
  • The Endless Healing Potion is no longer usable in arenas as intended.
  • Warlocks using a lower rank of Life Tap will receive a reduced benefit from their shadow spell power.
  • The damage done by the cannons in the gunship encounter in Icecrown Citadel has been increased and the rate at which their heat decays has been reduced.
  • In Alterac Valley, the buffs that the Generals get from the Warmasters and Marshals now grant them negative enemy dodge. This means they will now ignore some of their target's total dodge percentage. The base health of the Generals has been increased and the buff also grants a slightly increased amount of damage and health.
  • The cheese items in Dalaran as well as the Kvaldir Berserkers in Icecrown will once again respawn at a faster rate.
  • The window that comes up when talking to an NPC should no longer close on its own.
  • Some changes to the battleground queuing system have been made to improve performance and group queuing.
  • The timer for when the next battle in Wintergrasp will occur should no long disappear


There are a lot of other problems still with addons and the "loading screen boss." When those will be resolved fully is anybody's guess.

The entire list of hotfixes for this patch so far after the break.

Read more →

Filed under: News items

Patch 3.3.3a should fix issues for some Mac users

by Allison Robert Mar 26th 2010 at 7:00PM

A heads-up for our Mac users, although there's a good chance you've already been painfully aware of this if you play on one of the affected systems -- patch 3.3.3 has been causing major issues for some PowerPC and Tiger users, which have (hopefully) been fixed by the mini-patch 3.3.3a.

S4d1K -- 3.3.3 Known Issues for Mac players
We are aware of 2 critical bugs that are affecting users with specific configurations.

#1 PowerPC G4/G5 users get disconnected after login.

#2 Users with a MacBook Pro GeForce 8600M and 10.4.11 crashes after entering the world.

We are very sorry and we are working on these issues and hope to fix them as soon as possible.


UPDATE 5:10pm:
We have a fix for both issues but it will require a client patch. We don't have an ETA for now.

UPDATE 3/24 12:15pm:
We are currently testing a patch. We want to make sure that we do not break the game for another group of people. We are doing everything to release this patch as soon as possible.


The patch in question is (we think) 3.3.3a. With the patch, many of the affected users are now reporting that WoW is playable again, but while monitoring the official thread on the issue, it's apparent that a lot of players are still having problems. We had several people drop comments on Adam's earlier post on the mini-patch -- did 3.3.3a work for you?

Filed under: Bugs, News items

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