Where did all the clouds go? Apparently, something significant changed when the servers reset for the debut of Arena Season 3. After the initial round of harvesting (when many engineers reported successful sweeps of their regular extracting routes), the clouds stopped respawning. Many players report seeing what appear to be the shadows of the clouds -- but alas, no clouds to actually cast the shadows.
Just as engineers were beginning to enjoy the fruits of their labors extracting motes with their Zapthrottle Mote Extractors, the outlook seems to have turned ... well, decidedly uncloudy. Engineers are clamoring for a blue response on both the profession and bug forums alike, but no official response has yet been posted. Most in-game petitioners have been told that the situation was working as intended, and several players report email replies indicating that Blizzard is aware of and investigating the "situation." So no, your goggles aren't broken -- stay tuned to the official forums for possible updates!
Read on for tips on spotting pure water pools and a handy way to search for crafted items that have had stat updates in patch 2.3.
Pure water pools
If any of you fishers out there are still having trouble spotting pure water pools since patch 2.3, take note: it's probably your graphics settings. Settings involuntarily changed by the patch may cause pure water pools to appear no different than regular pools. Bump up your settings to restore the pools to all their bright blue, swirling glory. (Of course, if you have found a fish tracking journal, you'll already be seeing the pools pop up on your minimap. Go fish!)
Changes in crafted items
If you don't have a lot of research time to make sure you're on top of the various and sundry stat tweaks to crafted items in patch 2.3 (or if you're a real old-timer who's returned to the fold and want to know what's been introduced since you last played, pre-Burning Crusade), you need wowhead's handy filtering option. Check out this example of changed tailored items to see what these filters can show. This option will be old news to the hardened researchers among us, but for craftspeople with less time on their hands -- it's solid gold!
How to start a tradeskill
Thinking of taking up a new profession? The things that matter to you as a new character will vary significantly from the things that matter to you as a re-speccing level 70 or an alt-aholic seeking to round out a stable of craftspeople. Insider Trader will look at each side in several upcoming installments. Send your questions, tips, how-to's and ideas to Insider Trader -- we'll do the rest!
Insider Trader's Lisa Poisso is a writer and editor, when she's not fiddling with filters on various gaming sites.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-30-2007 @ 1:49PM
Salty said...
Damn, was wondering about that. I thought some ridiculous farmer was circling Nagrand 24/7
Reply
11-30-2007 @ 1:50PM
hoeding said...
I have come across several windy cloud nodes in nagrand that have been a hundred yards about the ground near floating islands, but out of range of the mote extractor. Rather annoying. The node respawn rate appears to be nerfed as well. On 2 full rounds of netherstorm mining I didn't see a single mana cloud. :(
Reply
11-30-2007 @ 2:25PM
Michael said...
I've been wondering where the heck they all went... Even the ones outside of Telaar (the impossible to farm ones) are gone. :(
Reply
11-30-2007 @ 3:36PM
Dipstick said...
Hmm, I saw a few clouds in Zangamarsh, and a few in Nagrand (this is EU servers) after the patch, but never the amount that was there before.
Maybe they've killed the respawn timer a bit? It was getting a bit silly with windy clouds repopping after 10 minutes, I could get a butt load of primal air in no time. Not that I'm complaining or anything :P
Reply
11-30-2007 @ 5:49PM
AndyF said...
Been working fine here, have zapped the clouds in Zangarmarsh in at around 4-5 seperate occasions.
Reply
12-02-2007 @ 7:35AM
Sehvan said...
Oh THAT's what they are! I saw a dusty ball of stuff rolling about in Nagrand not that long ago. Flapped around it in Flight form, took a screenshot and went on my merry way :)
Reply
12-02-2007 @ 12:53PM
Lisa Poisso said...
Blue had an official "no comment" post on Friday, 11/30/07 on the European forums:
Tharfor
Blizzard Poster
* 57. Re: No more Gas clouds Oo? | 30/11/2007 10:51:57 UTC
quote reply
I have nothing to say that has not been said already:
We are aware of your reports, they are not being ignored.
We are not aware of any changes, but we're looking into it.
We do not have any information to post, but we will post when we do.
As has also been said many times in the past: a lack of blue tag on your thread does not mean it has not been read by a blue poster.
See original thread at:
http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=1782078678&postId=18288085045&sid=1#57
Reply
12-07-2007 @ 11:06PM
Lisa Poisso said...
A fix is on the way!
From Naethera, 12/07/2007 10:56:09 AM PST:
We posted an update on the Profession forum that may have been swept away by other posts.
Essentially, our QA department found an error that was keeping Gas Clouds from respawning once harvested. This is fixed in patch 2.3.2 which should be on its way before too much longer.
See the original post:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=3270770715&postId=32336899837&sid=1#4
/cheer
Reply
12-11-2007 @ 4:42PM
Lisa Poisso said...
Reports from various servers indicate the problem appears to be fixed! Please let us know if you observe any additional problems -- and go forth and extract!