Between 5:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. PDT today (Sunday July 27th) all U.S. realms will be undergoing a rolling restart. Each realm should be down for about 15 minutes, though these things have a tendency to last longer than scheduled.
The login announcement tells us that the servers are getting a hotfix applied to them, however there is no indication what the hotfix is for.
If anything does happen to extend this restart, you'll see it here on WoW Insider.
Just a heads up to all our American night owls and Oceanic players: There will be rolling restarts for all Realms starting at 5am PDT, about an hour and fifteen minutes from now. Each realm will be down for about 15 minutes, and the entire process will take about an hour.
It's likely that this downtime is for working out a few kinks with the Midsummer Fire Festival. Kisirani confirmed earlier that there is a problem with the Striking Back quest for those under level 65, so it's likely that these rolling restarts will institute the hotfix to that problem. In addition, there's been some rumors that Lord Ahune's Normal and Heroic loot tables are not properly separated, so it's possible that this will fix those issues as well.
Speaking of Ahune, be sure to keep your eyes glued to WoW Insider today. We're writing a complete loot guide and a strategy walkthrough for the new holiday boss as well speak. You can also check out the Midsummer quest walkthroughs we already have set up -- they're perfect reading material for the downtime. Happy reading, and we'll see you on the other side of the restarts.
Let's give a quick timeline on what's happened with respect to Kil'jaeden (as a boss) so far in WoW. When patch 2.4 went live, on March 25th (26th in Europe), the Sunwell Plateau, the 25-player raid of which KJ is the last boss, was opened, but several "magical gates" were interposed between would-be KJ-killers and the demon himself. The last of these gates, giving access to KJ, was opened on May 20th/21st. SK Gaming got the world-first kill on him on the 24th, and Method and Nihilum quickly followed; and Deus Vox got the US first on the 27th, with Exodus following the day after (thanks, hyos). Nobody else has killed him, as far as I (and WowJutsu) know.
That may or may not be about to change, due to a new hotfix just implemented last night. According to Lead Encounter Designer Daelo, a change has been made to KJ's Soul Flay ability. It now uses "a much simpler rule" to determine its target: the target of Soul Flay is the player with highest threat against KJ (typically the main tank, I would think). Daelo notes that this is not intended to make the encounter easier nor mor difficult, but rather to produce "a more consistent, more understandable, and more enjoyable Kil'jaeden fight." Folks who have done this fight, do you think this is a good description of the change? Or is it a nerf, in the long tradition of nerfing raid bosses?
I love hotfixes. They're like patches you don't have to wait for. Just posted by Daelo, WoW's lead encounter designer (who I've been seeing a lot of lately, but don't remember seeing much before) is a brief account of hotfixes to Archimonde and the Eredar Twins. For Archie:
We just implemented a hotfix for all realms that makes Archimonde's doomfires no longer be able to move right through him after they spawn. Their movement should now be much more consistent with the previous patch's behavior, and melee should have a bit easier time dodging the doomfires as a result of the change.
He goes on to note that any other problems people might have noticed have been un-reproduceable at Blizz HQ, but they're still keeping an eye on them. As for the Eredar Twins, they "hotfixed a bug in the Eredar Twins encounter that prevent a Hunter's Feign Death ability from working if Lady Sacrolash was alive." Nuff said there. These fixes should, as far as I can tell, be live now on the US and the EU realms.
Drysc is keeping a post up-to-date of all the latest hotfixes that are happening. Patch 2.4 went live without too much trouble this last Tuesday, yet there is a slow but steady stream of issues popping up in the game. Each morning for the next few days we'll let you know about all the hotfixes that have come out the previous day. You can also check out all of the hotfixes for Patch 2.4.
Yesterday's hotfixes include:
Reliquary of Souls, Prince Kael'thas, and other bosses now properly cast their spells
The time before players with flags in Warsong Gulch receive the Focused Assault and Brutal Assault debuffs has been reduced
The timer for Focused Assault and Brutal Assault in Warsong Gulch will now reset whenever both Flags are returned to their bases
Of course, if something major comes up, expect to see it covered right away on WoW Insider. Enjoy your patch 2.4 fun!
Patch 2.4 sounds great, but what's in it for you? Find out on our Sunwell Isle page where we list the impact on classes, professions, PvP, Raiders and many other playstyles and interests including walkthroughs on the new Sunwell Daily Quests. Looking for more great info? Check out the WoW Insider Directory for the best of our guides and analysis.
Drysc is keeping a post up-to-date of all the latest hotfixes that are happening. Patch 2.4 went live without too much trouble this last Tuesday, yet there is a slow but steady stream of issues popping up in the game. Each morning for the next few days we'll let you know about all the hotfixes that have come out the previous day. You can also check out all of the hotfixes for Patch 2.4.
Yesterday's hotfixes include:
Archmages's Guile, Battle Mace of the High Priestess, Terrok's Gavel, and Sedai's Blade have all been properly changed to Main-Hand Only weapons
When taking the flight path from Ironforge to the Isle of Quel'Danas, you will no longer become fatigued and die if you had any buffs active which effect your ability to breathe underwater
Looting Bind on Pickup items now properly brings up the confirmation dialog while using the Round Robin looting method
Of course, if something major comes up, expect to see it covered right away on WoW Insider. Enjoy your patch 2.4 fun!
Drysc is keeping a post up-to-date of all the latest hotfixes that are happening. Patch 2.4 went live without too much trouble this last Tuesday, yet there is a slow but steady stream of issues popping up in the game. Each morning for the next few days we'll let you know about all the hotfixes that have come out the previous day.
Yesterday's hotfixes include:
Increased Felbound Initiate respawn rate. These are the guys you need in the "Blood for Blood" quest.
You can no longer accept thequests given by Magistrix Seyla up in Hellfire Penisula without first compleating "The Missing Magistrix."
Thanks to rolling restarts last night, you will now see your server name correctly displayed in battlegrounds.
Of course, if something major comes up, expect to see it covered right away on WoW Insider. Enjoy your patch 2.4 fun!
A few days ago it was reported on the PTR that those dastardly evildoers of dastardly deeds (aka: Warlocks) managed to enslave Brutallus. These vile locks then took their newly enslaved demon out to play. And playing for a creature of pure darkness means letting them wreak havoc onto the unsuspecting citizens of the Isle of Quel'Danas. I would have expected a hotfix to this almost immediately, and some form of public announcement that the bug has been fixed. However as of Saturday at 7 p.m. EST, there has been no such luck. Instead, Blizzard decided to hotfix the Brutallus encounter inside Sunwell Plateau, the new 25 man raid.
The hotfixes Blizzard has given the encounter are:
Ever since patch 2.3, a number of players have been having a lot of trouble with their instant abilities, especially in PvP. They're finding they get constant "spell is not ready yet" and "target is out of range" errors whenever they mash their buttons. The main source of this problem has to do with a change to the way your computer communicates to the server what your character is doing. It's not very easy to explain, but I'll do my best here. First, I'll explain how the change affects longer spell casts, and then afterward look at how it affects instants.
Here's how things worked in patch 2.2:
I press a button to cast a spell or activate an ability.
My computer says, "Hey! Realm server! David wants to cast Frostbolt!"
The realm server says "Okay!" 300 milliseconds or so later (this round-trip communication time is your "latency").
My computer then starts a 1.5 second global cooldown, and shows me the Frostbolt casting bar.
I cannot use any other abilities from the time I press the button to the time my Frostbalt casting finishes, unless I manually cancel the spell (as with a /stopcasting macro), or unless the server tells my computer, "Okay the spell is finished already!" or "Whoops! That spell got interrupted!"
Either way, without a manual interruption on my part, I'm waiting on the server to tell me the outcome of the first spell before I can tell it to start casting the second.
Here's how things work in patch 2.3:
I press a button to cast a spell or activate an ability.
My computer says, "Hey! Realm server! David wants to cast Frostbolt!"
My computer goes ahead and starts the global cooldown for me, assuming the Frostbolt will succeed.
The realm says "Okay!" 300ms later, and the casting bar shows up.
Alternately, if there's a problem, then the realm says "No way, silly! David isn't finished casting Fireball yet! Wait a moment to try again, and cancel that global cooldown while you're at it!"
Either way, I can send my commands to the server whenever I want, as long as my global cooldown isn't currently active -- and if it gets activated too early, I just have to wait for the server to tell my computer to cancel it before casting another ability.
Sounds fine, right? Before, we had to wait for latency between our computers and the realms in order for any spell to go through, but now we just have to wait if we press a button too early.
While some Brewfest events are hotfixed, others are stubbornly refusing to work without a full server restart. Community Manager Drysc spells it on a late night forum post. The short version, for those whose eyes aren't up to extensive reading after last night's festivities, is this:
Dark Iron attacks are disabled for now. The large number of people using the /wave emote during the twice hourly event was causing many to crash repeatedly.
Blizzard will reinstate the attacks before Brewfest is over as soon if they figure out a work around to the crashing problem..
Ticket rewards for other Brewfest activities have been increased to compensate for the lack of Dark Iron generated tickets. The Barking quest reward increases from 15 to 40 and the Keg Delivery quest increases each keg to 3 tickets (and can be done every 12 hours.)
Until the Dark Iron attacks are brought back, "Complimentary Brewfest Samplers" acquired by /waving are disabled (confirming the /wave emote/crashing problem)
Brewfest Goggles which were implemented with a temporary duration, will be permanent. A duration timer will show until the next patch, but can be ignored.
No /wave or emote is necessary to complete the Barker quest. Just be on the Riding Ram and pass close enough to the flags.
In a separate thread, it was confirmed that the Pink Elekk's quest is NOT a daily quest. Some players were able to do it twice due to a one-time reset.
The servers will be getting a rolling restart this morning at 5:00am PST. We'll have to keep an eye on the forums to see what got fixed and what's still bugged.
Daelo is saying over on the forums that the Kael'thas event is bugged. After a player reported that the shield (one of the magical weapons that you first have to defeat and then can fight Kael'thas with) has tons more health than expected, Daelo confirmed that if Kael'thas resurrects his advisors while weapons are "alive" their health will be increased, making the fight much harder and throwing most guilds off of their pacing.
So if you're headed to Kael'thas this week, beware. Unfortunately, Blizzard says they can't hotfix the issue, which means it'll have to be fixed in a content patch. Fortunately, however, 2.2.2 is due this week, so if Blizzard can sneak it in yet on that one, raiders will be able to take Kael on as of Tuesday. If 2.2.2 is already too far along in the process for the code to be added, however, Blizzard will either have to create a patch just for this fix (2.2.3), or wait until 2.3 releases (which could be a matter of weeks, severly hampering guild progression past Kael).
We'll have to wait and see what they do. This is a confirmed bug, so hopefully we'll see a fix for it with 2.2.2, hopefully on Tuesday.
Daelo, Lead Encounter Designer, has announced on the forums that the Archimonde encounter in the Battle of Mount Hyjal (Caverns of Time) has been hotfixed in preparation for Patch 2.2. Daelo says: In an effort to apply some of our upcoming 2.2 changes in a more expedited manner, we're hotfixing some elements of the Archimonde encounter. Not every planned change to Archimonde could be hotfixed, the other announced changes will occur with the release of patch 2.2.
The following hotfix changes are now live: - Archimonde now casts fear in a bit more consistent manner, roughly every 40 seconds. - Fear's cast time is now 1.5 seconds. - Grip of the Legion now has only a 60 yard range. - Red Soul Charge now only silences players for 4 seconds.
The planned changes for Mother Shahraz could not be hotfixed, but we are working to resolve via hotfix the timing issue with Essence of Desire's Rune Shield and Spirit Shock. Working on that fix, we discovered that Rune Shield wasn't actually absorbing any damage. We're also working to fix that error. Since the Rune Shield is normally removed quickly, Essence of Desire still won't get much benefit out of the effect. Mages who Spell Steal the effect will be quite a bit happier, however.
I wonder if this means that Patch 2.2 will be coming out in the next couple of weeks. Since VOIP just got implemented on the PTR, I doubt it will be released any sooner.
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.
Confirmed by CM Drysc, a hotfix was implemented 7/19 that now prevents Warlocks from summoning in Battlegrounds. Drysc explains:
The reason for the change is that it was being used to exploit battleground mechanics, most notably flag captures. We realize that its use in Alterac Valley was useful as the battleground is much larger in size, and it was with much disappointment that we had to make the change to keep players from exploiting its use in other battlegrounds. At current the rules extend through all battlegrounds which we find also helps maintain a consistency of rules and mechanics, but we will be watching the impact of the change.
Drysc goes on to explain that players in Warsong Gulch are the people using summons not as intended and therefore ruining it for the players in AV using it legitimately. The way it worked was that a Warlock would be standing by his or her team's flag while another player would approach the enemy flag. The flag carrier would grab the enemy flag, accept the summon and be able to immediately capture the flag.
Except for a handful of times, I have played AV on the Horde side and rarely were we organized enough to summon people to help kill Stormpike. Honestly, it's hard enough to get the Horde to not fight on that stupid bridge. (Just ride through to a common objective, people! You can't capture the bridge!) But I do know that the Allies often used summoning to beat us. Or so I heard from the woefully undermanned defense while I was trying to heal the handful of people who weren't fighting on that bridge or AFK in the entrance or fishing. Hmmm, I seem to have a lot of bitterness left over from my "pre BC trying to get the pretty Frostwolf Mount" days.
Do you think it's fair to have made the change across all battlegrounds? Do you even think that the summoning method of flag capture should be considered an exploit?
Between 5:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. PDT today (Sunday July 27th) all U.S. realms will be undergoing a rolling restart. Each realm should be down for about 15 minutes, though these things have a tendency to last longer than scheduled.
Just a heads up to all our American night owls and Oceanic players: There will be rolling restarts for all Realms starting at 5am PDT, about an hour and fifteen minutes from now. Each realm will be down for about 15 minutes, and the entire process will take about an hour. 
I love hotfixes. They're like patches you don't have to wait for. Just posted by Daelo, WoW's lead encounter designer (who I've been seeing a lot of lately, but don't remember seeing much before) is a brief account of hotfixes to Archimonde and the Eredar Twins. For Archie:
Slorkuz, Mr. Blue Poster over on the European WoW forums, gave us a few hotfixes that have been pushed through this week:
Patch 2.4 sounds great, but what's in it for you? Find out on our Sunwell Isle page where we list the impact on classes, professions, PvP, Raiders and many other playstyles and interests including walkthroughs on the new Sunwell Daily Quests. Looking for more great info? Check out the WoW Insider Directory for the best of our guides and analysis.
While some Brewfest events are hotfixed, others are stubbornly refusing to work without a full server restart. Community Manager Drysc spells it on a late night forum post. The short version, for those whose eyes aren't up to extensive reading after last night's festivities, is this:
Daelo is saying over on the forums that the Kael'thas event is bugged. After a player reported that the shield (one of the magical weapons that you first have to defeat and then can fight Kael'thas with) has tons more health than expected, Daelo confirmed that if Kael'thas resurrects his advisors while weapons are "alive" their health will be increased, making the fight much harder and throwing most guilds off of their pacing.
Daelo, Lead Encounter Designer, has announced on the forums that the Archimonde encounter in the Battle of Mount Hyjal (Caverns of Time) has been hotfixed in preparation for Patch 2.2. Daelo says:
Shaman's Windfury Totem is being hotfix-nerfed:
Confirmed by CM Drysc, a hotfix was implemented 7/19 that now prevents Warlocks from summoning in Battlegrounds. Drysc explains:
Subscribe
