Tuesday morning at WoW Insider

Posted May 6th 2008 6:52AM by Adam Holisky
Filed under: Realm News, Analysis / Opinion, Realm Status

It's Tuesday morning and the hamsters that run the servers are being fed by Blizzard, which means all the realms are down for extended maintenance until at least 11:00 a.m. PDT. There is no patch 2.4.2 to look forward to when the servers go back up this afternoon, but that might not be that bad of a thing. Usually patch days mean add-on trouble and serious server stability issues. Those spell disaster for anyone expecting to enjoy the evening.

While the servers are offline, go ahead and get your WoW fix from us! We've got a few dandy articles to entice you and keep your WoW addiction in full swing.

• Take a look at the official and unofficial patch notes for patch 2.4.2. Highlights include reduced cooldown timers, changes in the hand specifications of some weapons, and new polymorphing mechanics.
• A talented rogue was able to tank the seventh boss in the Black Temple, Mother Shahraz, by stacking insane amounts of avoidance and agility. Take a look at the video of the encounter, definitely worth watching if you have a minute.
• SK-Gaming killed M'uru (the next-to-last boss in the Sunwell Plateau) over the weekend. M'uru dropped some nice loot for them. Check out what they got in their world first kill.
• Did you know Blizzard launched a new and improved online store? The best part about it is that if you buy something, you can click a little check box that gives you a chance to be selected to participate in a beta. I ordered a tee-shirt over the weekend, and have my fingers crossed that I'll get in a certain beta test pretty soon (I could care less about the tee-shirt, naturally).
• Sean Forsgren recently profiled one of my favorite add-ons, Dr. Damage. It's a great tool that gives you very useful statistics about all your spells in the form of extended tooltips. Take a minute to look into it now, and get it all downloaded and setup for when the servers come back online later today.
  

When the severs do come back online, WoW Insider will let you know. Hopefully there won't be any major stability issues tonight, but if there are, we'll be covering that too. Enjoy your downtime!

PTR goes up

Posted May 5th 2008 8:40PM by Adam Holisky
Filed under: Patches, News items

Usually Blizzard is pretty definitive when they take something down. However today they've decided to take down the PTR (Public Test Realm) in the morning, and then put it back up early tonight. I'm reminded of a recent Simpsons episode I watched where Homer is sitting in his hospital bed awaiting a heart bypass surgery and goes "Bed goes up, bed goes down. Bed goes up, bed goes down." PTR goes down, PTR goes up.

All of these announcements come from the same person, Hortus, so it's not an issue of him being confused or anything (unless the whirly jig in his head has gotten to him). Hortus does tell us that they've put it up for "some additional testing," which really isn't a surprise given it's a test realm.

This probably means that patch 2.4.2 won't go live tomorrow if there is maintenance. Once we know more we'll post and keep you updated.

Tuesday morning maintenance

Posted Apr 22nd 2008 7:00AM by Adam Holisky
Filed under: Realm News, Realm Status, News items

Sometimes I feel like Blizzard chooses a handful of random servers to Ice Block every few days – not letting players on, and giving a (hopefully) short window when the servers will be offline.

If you're on the unlucky servers of Agamaggan, Azshara, Baelgun, Dark Iron, Detheroc, Emerald Dream, Greymane, Kalecgos, Lightninghoof, Maelstrom, Malfurion, Moonrunner, Nazjatar, Sargeras, Staghelm, Twisting Nether, Ursin, WildHammer, or either of the Tournamenet Servers, you're going to have at least two hours of downtime from 5:00 a.m. PDT until 7:00 a.m. PDT. Blizzard will also be doing rolling restarts across all realms this morning.

For those of you waiting to get your morning fix of WoW, fear not. There are several pieces of news and entertaining reads to catch up on.

New WotLK alpha screenshots – Did you know that WotLK is in alpha, and the first batch of new screenshots has been leaked? We've got them confirmed from an inside source and mirrored here for your enjoyment.

As a tank, I hate to pug. Our Warrior columnist Matthew Rossi agrees with me. Check out his enlightening piece for One reason tanks won't pug. And I hope the subject of his piece, Primula, enjoys his or her new found fame as one lowly ninja-looter.

Do you have a life outside of WoW? Not that I do, but if I did I would be a casual player and appreciate Robin Torres' advice from WoW, Casually: Finding groups fast. Just remember that they don't always have to be random pug groups.

Two pieces of Season 4 gear have been accidently enabled by a GM on the live realms. You can check out the new stats and have look at them. They remind me a bit of the Ori from Stargate, so I have to ask: Hallowed are the Ori, anyone? Hopefully the bosses at Blizzard are a bit more understand than the Ori and will let the GM that made this mistake keep his job.

And finally you can check out my new favorite column of the week, [1. Local] by Lisa Poisso. Lisa takes a look at all the comments posted on WoW Insider and rounds up the best of them for us to marvel over. I know that I've sent her a few lately.

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Gallery: WotLK Leaks

No Sunwell Plateau this weekend

Posted Mar 8th 2008 1:45PM by Adam Holisky

If you were expecting to trash around in the Sunwell Plateau this weekend, think again. According to a Daelo post, Blizzard has taken the instance offline for the next couple of days.

While I can understand the Blizzard dev's taking the realm offline here or there, and taking down an instance for an extended period of time during the week, it does strike me as odd that they would choose to remove access during the weekend – a prime playing time for a lot of folks. And I know that I and many of my friends only raid weeknights, so we have ample opportunity to test out the content on the weekends.

Nonetheless, we can all look forward to reentering the Sunwell on Monday. If this changes, expect to see an update on WoW Insider.

Tuesday night live!

Posted Feb 12th 2008 10:30PM by Adam Holisky
Filed under: Patches, News items

Live, from Blizzard H.Q., it's Tuesday night!

The Blues (official Blizzard forum posters) have given us a few important late night news tidbits, including some new patch 2.4 news. However, they lack the comedy stylings of John Belushi in a bee suit:

• The World of Warcraft website at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/ will be taken offline for about 90 minutes tonight, starting at midnight PST. There is no reason to suspect this will affect players in the game.
  
• On the PTR, Shattrath Flasks will soon work inside the Sunwell Plateau raid instance.
• Also on the PTR, the transporter to the Caverns of Time will soon require revered reputation instead of exalted.

If you notice strange happenings with your sever, you can always checkout the realm status forum on Blizzard's site. And of course, stay tuned to WoW Insider for the latest news.

Updated 12:16 a.m. EST: We are getting user reports of Canadians not being able to access either the game or the World of Warcraft website. However, Blizzard has yet to officially comment on this. We'll keep this post updated with anything more we learn.

Updated 12:33 p.m. EST: I heard your calls for help! I've written up an article titled Solving recent connection issues, which goes into some details about what you can do, including Blizzard's tech support phone number.

The extended maintenance cycle begins! [Updated]

Posted Apr 3rd 2007 3:45PM by Elizabeth Harper
Filed under: Patches, Realm Status

Tseric greets us on this pleasant Tuesday afternoon with the news that today's maintenance cycle has been extended until 1PM PDT for select realms. There is, however, no news as to why the maintenance has been extended -- patch problems, perhaps? Though as far as "select realms" are concerned, I suspect the list of "non-select realms" would be shorter. So if you play on any of the following realms, the wait for uptime just got a little longer:

Agamaggan, Aggramar, Alexstrasza, Alleria, Arathor, Argent Dawn, Arthas, Azgalor, Azjol-Nerub, Azshara, Baelgun, Balnazzar, Blackhand, Bleeding Hollow, Bloodhoof, Bloodscalp, Bonechewer, Boulderfist, Bronzebeard, Burning Blade, Burning Legion, Cho'gall, Crushridge, Daggerspine, Dark Iron, Darkspear, Destromath, Dethecus, Detheroc, Draenor, Dragonblight, Dragonmaw, Dunemaul, Durotan, Earthen Ring, Eldre'Thalas, Elune, Emerald Dream, Eonar, Eredar, Feathermoon, Firetree, Frostmane, Garona, Gilneas, Gorefiend, Gorgonnash, Greymane, Gul'dan, Gurubashi, Hellscream, Illidan, Kalecgos, Kael'Thas, Kargath, Kirin Tor, Laughing Skull, Lightninghoof, Lightning's Blade, Llane, Lothar, Madoran, Maelstrom, Magtheridon, Malfurion, Malygos, Mannoroth, Medivh, Moonrunner, Nathrezim, Nazjatar, Perenolde, Ravencrest, Sargeras, Scarlet Crusade, Shadow Council, Shadow Moon, Shadowsong, Shattered Hand, Silvermoon, Skullcrusher, Skywall, Smolderthorn, Spinebreaker, Spirestone, Staghelm, Stonemaul, Stormrage, Stormreaver, Stormscale, Suramar, Terenas, Thunderhorn, Thunderlord, Trollbane, Twisting Nether, Uldum, Ursin, Warsong, Whisperwind, Wildhammer, Windrunner, and Zul'jin.

(Wow, that was a mouthful.)

Update: Tseric informs us that all realms should be back online in a matter of moments. Huzzah!

Multiple US realms offline

Posted Mar 11th 2007 3:44AM by Elizabeth Harper
Filed under: Realm News, Realm Status

Early Sunday morning (at least in my time-zone!) Blizzard is reporting thirteen realms offline, including the following: Area 52, Auchindoun, Azuremyst, Blade's Edge, Blood Furnace, Coilfang, Exodar, Shattered Halls, Terokkar, The Scryers, The Underbog, Velen, and Zangarmarsh. However, Blizzard's network engineers are awake and working on the problem. While they don't know the exact cause of the outage, they're currently expecting to have the realms back online by 2:25 AM PST.

For the most updated news on the situation, keep checking this thread by Drysc.

Breakfast Topic: Dealing with downtime

Posted Dec 1st 2006 8:00AM by Elizabeth Harper
Filed under: Breakfast topics, Features

We've all had to do it time and time again -- the servers are down for regular or emergency or just plain unscheduled maintenance, and your evening plans are suddenly ruined. So what do you do about it? Spend the evening trying repeatedly to log on to your realm? Troll the forums? Switch to a different realm? Roll a new alt? Fire up a different game? Go out for dinner? Go outside and try to remember what the sun looks like? Or something else entirely?

Downtime for select US realms today

Posted Nov 30th 2006 1:25AM by Elizabeth Harper
Filed under: Realm News, Realm Status

Sixteen US realms are being taken offline for urgent maintenance early this morning -- that is to say, Thursday, November 30th at 5:00AM PST. The maintenance period is expected to last approximately one hour and, no -- there is not the faintest clue as to the reason for the maintenance, other than the indication that it is "urgent." So if 5:00 AM PST falls into your usual playtime, and you play on any of the following realms, you're going to be forced to take a nice breakfast break: Azjol-Nerub, Bloodscalp, Boulderfist, Bronzebeard, Crushridge, Daggerspine, Darkspear, Draenor, Dragonblight, Dunemaul, Feathermoon, Perenolde, Stonemaul, Stormscale, Suramar, and Uldum.

Holy 36-hour downtime, Batman! [Updated]

Posted Nov 3rd 2006 7:00AM by Elizabeth Harper
Filed under: Blizzard, News items, Expansions

Yes, I admit, when I ran across the thread titled "Extended Maintenance 11/7/06," my eyes sort of glazed over and I moved on to the next topic. (Hopefully one of some interest...) Another Tuesday, another maintenance cycle. Ho-hum. However, this particular maintenance extention not only effects my own realm -- which I had thought was safe, having come up on the supposed new hardware platform not all that long ago -- but is also planned to last a full 24 36 hours. Oddly enough, Blizzard is also performing this maintenance on the most recently opened realms -- Echo Isles, Blackwater Raiders, Vashj, and Darrowmere, brought online on October 5th.

Why? Hardware upgrades! Blizzard will be transfering data onto a new storage solution in preperation for the coming expansion. Hardware upgrades are all well and good, but the necessity of them on such newly opened realms puzzles me a bit.

The process is expected to start on November 7th at 12:00 AM PST and end on November 8th at 12:00 AM PM PST -- and if you're on any of the following realms, it's time to make alternate Tuesday plans. Andorhal, Anetheron, Anub'arak, Archimonde, Black Dragonflight, Blackwater Raiders, Cenarion Circle, Cenarius, Dalaran, Dalvengyr, Darrowmere, Dentarg, Duskwood, Echo Isles, Executus, Haomarush, Hyjal, Khadgar, Lightbringer, Mal'Ganis, Norgannon, Scilla, Steamwheedle Cartel, The Forgotten Coast, Thrall, Turalyon, Uther, Vashj, Ysera, Ysondre, and Zuluhed.

Update: Maintenance times revised from 12AM through 12AM to 12AM through 12PM the next day -- that adds up to a full 36 hour maintenance window. I swear the first time I looked at Tseric's post it said 12AM to 12AM, but it's possible I was mistaken, too.

A bit of Saturday downtime...

Posted Sep 30th 2006 2:16AM by Elizabeth Harper
Filed under: Realm News, Realm Status

Well, at least everyone hopes it's only a bit. Saturday morning at 4:00 AM PDT, 18 US realms are going offline for database maintenance. I always wonder what exactly they mean when they say things like "database maintenance" without further specifics, but Tseric never acquiesces to my requests for additional info, so it looks like we'll have to get by with the limited news we're given. Maintenance should only last an hour, meaning these realms should be back up by 5:00 AM PDT... so if we have any early birds in the audience who were planning to play at that hour, perhaps you should take the time to get that extra cup of coffee. Realms affected include the following: Aerie Peak, Altar of Storms, Anvilmar, Blackwing Lair, Deathwing, Demon Soul, Doomhammer, Gnomeregan, Icecrown, Jaedenar, Kel'Thuzad, Lethon, Onyxia, Sentinels, Tanaris, The Venture Co., Uldaman, and Undermine.

Greatly extended weekly maintenance for some realms

Posted Sep 26th 2006 4:00AM by Elizabeth Harper
Filed under: Realm News, Realm Status, News items

Do you play on one of the following realms? Azjol-Nerub, Bloodscalp, Bonechewer, Boulderfist, Bronzebeard, Crushridge, Daggerspine, Darkspear, Draenor, Dragonblight, Dragonmaw, Dunemaul, Eldre'Thalas, Feathermoon, Firetree, Frostmane, Gurubashi, Nathrezim, Perenolde, Scarlet Crusade, Shadow Council, Shadowsong, Silvermoon, Skywall, Smolderthorn, Spirestone, Stonemaul, Stormscale, Suramar, Terenas, Uldum, or Windrunner. Well, if so, I feel sorry for you, because your so-called Tuesday maintenance will be stretched out until 12:01 AM PDT Wednesday morning. They're down for hardware upgrades to -- hopefully -- improve server stability, but such extended downtime isn't exactly fun for those looking forward to logging on and playing Tuesday afternoon. As an additional downer, friend and ignore lists will be lost for those on effected realms, and paid character transfers will be offline for the duration of the maintenance period.

Blizzard Will Compensate Bored Players from Offline Realms

Posted Sep 7th 2006 8:43PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Tauren, Realm News, Fan stuff, Realm Status, Blizzard, News items

Just like you probably are, I'm currently sitting around not playing the game. My realm (T-horn represent!) is in the list of servers Blizzard pulled offline last night and won't put back up until late tonight.

And the complaints on this, as you can imagine, are many and varied. My guild was especially distraught, as we were all excited to run AQ20 this evening. Nimrodel of Earthen Ring isn't really happy that the advance notice Blizz gave was easy to miss. A few of the servers, including Laughing Skull, already had an upgrade-- why are they going through this again? And I can't think of another "upgrade" that caused all of us to lose our friends list. Sure, it's not the end of the world, but it is a little inconvenient at least. And we don't even have the new hunter talents to console us-- although Neth seems very happy to sell books to bored players. Maybe this is all a grand scheme...

There is a silver lining to all this. Drysc has acknowledged that Blizzard will be "providing compensation" for those realms currently undergoing the 36 hour upgrades, although he won't say how much until the maintenance is over (presumably because it may go on even longer than planned). That's nice, but I won't lie-- I'd rather be in AQ. Meanwhile, feel free to come join me in a few spirited rounds of iSketch! Look, I drew a Tauren!

Wednesday Maintenance on US Realms

Posted Aug 23rd 2006 6:40PM by Elizabeth Harper
Filed under: Realm News, Realm Status

Numerous US realms were pulled down starting this morning because of unspecified problems which may be related to the cross-realms battleground system. Tseric only provided us with the information that the realms were remaining offline because they were undergoing battlegrounds testing, but this may have something to do with the problem of missing characters as well (as the final realms offline for maintenance seem to match the realms with missing characters). However, all realms should be back online and running as of 3:10 PM PDT. If you're still having problems, however, you may wish to page a GM or post about it in the customer service forums.

EU Maintenance Extended

Posted Aug 23rd 2006 6:20PM by Elizabeth Harper
Filed under: Realm News, Realm Status

Proving that the US isn't the only one with extended weekly maintenance periods, CM Thundgot tells us that EU realms will be down until 16:00 CEST today. Here's to hoping Blizzard figured out something from the many problems with the US patch roll-out and the deployment over the European realms will go more smoothly.

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