Highlights of this patch include:
- Mounts at level 30
- Changes to non-combat pets
- Curse of Shadow and Curse of Elements have been combined
- Hunter pet changes
- Magisters' Terrace nerf
- Changes to Rogue's Cheat Death ability
Posts with tag patch
Patch 2.4.3 patch notes
Highlights of this patch include:
2.4.3 on its way to PTRs
Daniel told you last night that the official PTR boards were up and character copy was live...but no actual PTR servers were active. We've known a 2.4.3 was going to exist for a little while, since Iriel mentioned it in the UI forums. But, the mystery of when seems to be over at least. Hortus announced on the PTR forum that the 2.4.3 PTR is on its way, and the forums just happen to be up a little early. It's coming fairly soon, too -- he's already telling us to delete our old WoWtest folder in preparation.
2.4.3 seems likely to be built of minor bug-fixes. We've not seen any of the doom and gloom that tends to surround class balance. It's definitely feeling to me like Blizzard's taking the time and effort to shore up their services as they prepare for Wrath of the Lich King. Still, let's see what 2.4.3 has for us.
Official PTR boards and character copy are up, but no PTRs are active
Late last night, without fanfare or blue announcement, the official PTR forum went up, and the PTR character copy function became operational.
Unfortunately, nobody is sure quite what to make of this, as there are no PTRs up, no patch announced, and no post from Hortus or any other blue on the PTR Forums themselves. It's certainly possible that someone threw the wrong switch, although for now, people are holding out hope for an announcement later this morning. It's certainly a bit late now to do some last minute testing on Season 4 gear or the Midsummer Fire Festival, likely, and it's far too early to expect any of the WoTLK stat adjustments or other mechanics changes to see the light of day on live, so it's likely that this will a minor bug fix patch. Perhaps the fix to all those Hunter growl bugs is finally incoming, or maybe they'll add the Brewfest Kodo to the live servers.
Unfortunately, nobody is sure quite what to make of this, as there are no PTRs up, no patch announced, and no post from Hortus or any other blue on the PTR Forums themselves. It's certainly possible that someone threw the wrong switch, although for now, people are holding out hope for an announcement later this morning. It's certainly a bit late now to do some last minute testing on Season 4 gear or the Midsummer Fire Festival, likely, and it's far too early to expect any of the WoTLK stat adjustments or other mechanics changes to see the light of day on live, so it's likely that this will a minor bug fix patch. Perhaps the fix to all those Hunter growl bugs is finally incoming, or maybe they'll add the Brewfest Kodo to the live servers.
We'll keep you updated as we hear more, but it looks like it's a safe bet that we'll have a PTR patch 2.4.3 coming soon enough.
[Via Mania's Arcania]
Patch 2.4.2 is live
Yep, as expected after the test realm ended, patch 2.4.2 has hit the live servers, and is now available for download and installation. Daniel did a terrific roundup of what you can see in the new patch this morning. The patch notes aren't available online yet, but the only change I can see between the PTR notes and what's live is that the Druid Natural Perfection change didn't go through -- otherwise, everything else is in there as expected, including the Arena changes and the Growl changes (whatever they are).
Enjoy the new patch (and if you're an Outlands Hunter like me, enjoy your new pet!). This might be the last one we get for a while.
Update: BigDownload's got the patch, in case you haven't seen it yet.
Enjoy the new patch (and if you're an Outlands Hunter like me, enjoy your new pet!). This might be the last one we get for a while.
Update: BigDownload's got the patch, in case you haven't seen it yet.
Patch 2.4.2 notes released
Blizzard has released tonight the patch notes for patch 2.4.2, which means the PTR will probably be up and running sometime soon. Patch 2.4 will likely be the last major patch before Wrath of the Lich King, and we expect to see a couple more of these minor patches before WotLK comes out.Highlights of 2.4.2 include:
- Changes to the way arena points are calculated - essentially what Drysc talked about earlier.
- Void Shatter no longer has a cooldown, and other cooldowns have been reduced.
- Illidan will no longer despawn if a raid wipes during his death speech.
- If you are sheeped / polymorphed by a mob, you will no longer gain back health (ie: the mass sheep in Aran, which regens your health before he fire blasts the raid). This is a potentially large change.
- Many main hand weapons are now one hand weapons.
- A good list of bug fixes, including several problems associated with sounds.
Tuesday morning maintenance
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
Arcane Brilliance: Cast fast and hit hard
Every week, Arcane Brilliance strives to make us all a bit Mage-ier. This week, we shine our spotlight on two stats every Mage should have, but far too few of us know enough about: Spell hit rating and spell haste rating. Last week we saw that patch 2.4 has made these two ratings a bit easier to obtain on gear, and this week we'll find out why that should make the Mage nation a happy place.
When I wrote up the list of shiny new Mage gear the patch delivered to us last week, I couldn't help but notice a strange preponderance of two stats I was relatively unfamiliar with. Currently, I have a whopping 53 spell hit rating on my Mage, from the Scryer's Bloodgem and the Gladiator's War Staff. None of my current gear gives a single point of spell haste rating. When I saw those stats reflected on so much of the new 2.4 gear, I became very curious. Why is Blizzard pushing these two ratings? Where's my spell crit and spell damage?
I broke out my most scholarly looking pair of glasses, perched them upon the end of my nose so that I could squint down through them at my computer screen, and did some research. I may have scribbled some complex formulae upon a chalkboard, and it's entirely possible that I muttered the occasional "astonishing!" or "brilliant!" under my breath in a faux English accent as I conducted this study.
What did I learn? Well, two things really: first, both of these ratings are important to Mages, and in PvE you can make the argument that spell hit is the single most important end-game stat for a Mage to have. And secondly, I fricking hate researching things. I mean seriously, my mind pretty much shuts off when I see a decimal point. After the break, I'll try to save you the trouble of doing what I did this week, and break down what these two ratings mean in layman's terms. Don't worry, math nerds, I'll link you to the crazy numbers articles too, so you can go make out with your calculators or whatever.
Hotfix roundup for Sunday March 30
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
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.
Arcane Brilliance: Mage version 2.4
Every week, Arcane Brilliance endeavors to provide a small peek into the mysterious world of Mages. On Tuesday--in case you just teleported in from under the Dalaran bubble this morning and weren't aware--we got a new patch. This week, we'll take a long hard look at the patch as it relates to Mages, including some Mage-related observations and a giant list of all that sweet, sweet, cloth gear.
I almost didn't have time to write a column this week, guys. I don't know if you've noticed, but there are 8 billion daily quests out there for us to do and most of them involve competing with several hundred players for the same 3 mobs. At some point on Tuesday I may or may not have started sprinting around Quel'Danas Arcane Explosioning over and over until I tagged something, but I can't be sure. The whole day is sort of a blur.
So far I absolutely love the patch. We've had the better part of four days with it now, and I have a few thoughts, if you'll indulge me. First, Magisters' Terrace is hard. I like that. You have to know what you're doing in there, so either find a patient group, study up yourself on what to do for each of the boss fights, or invite someone who's run it a few times. Unless you know what you're doing, you're going to wipe a few times. It's just the right amount of challenging for what will eventually be the final 5-man dungeon before the expansion. There are a lot of ways for Mages to make themselves useful in the place, what with all the sheepable mobs that pull in large groups and the value of ranged DPS in many of the encounters. If you haven't gotten to AoE the living crap out the room before Vexallus yet, you're missing out. Just make sure the healer has a quick trigger finger.
Secondly, If you haven't respecced to try out the new Improved Blink, you should consider it. It isn't going to let you tank an instance by any means, but it provides some very nice extra survivability in PvP. When you Blink, you get this very nice phased-out effect going on, and you can actually see the arrows and spells pass through you instead of hitting you 25% of the time. Good clean fun, believe me. Makes running the flag in the new and improved Warsong Gulch slightly more entertaining.
Come back after the break for more gear than you can shake a magical stick at.
Breakfast Topic: Fun surprises
As many of you are, I've been doing my duty to my server and pocketbook by completing the Shattered Sun Offensive daily quests every day. I have to admit, I was pretty disappointed that the reward for many of the quests is [Shattered Sun Supplies]. Before opening it, I was excited. I expected some nifty food and potions, maybe gems or herbs, and greens. I like to be surprised by some things, so I hadn't looked up the current loot list.
Needless to say, after a few days, and a bag full of useless 68 greens with + resistances on them, I became discouraged. Then I opened my first one of the day, and voila! A [Badge of Justice]!
Because I rarely have much time to spend in-game these days, I hadn't collected any of these yet (sad I know). The experience actually reminded me of the two times that [Wall of the Dead] dropped for me, and the time that [Kang the Decapitator] fell into my hands, and the roll came out in my favor. The two rarest pets I've ever farmed and received, the [Captured Firefly] and the [Tiny Crimson Whelpling], also definitely gave me a natural high.
What warm and fuzzy memories do you have of surprising drops and good fortune?
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.
Hotfix roundup for Saturday March 29
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
Hotfix roundup for Friday March 28
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:
- Veneratus the Many now spawns correctly.
- The Horde Spirit Healers in Alterac Valley will once again teleport Horde players to a different graveyard if the current once gets captured by Alliance.
- Kael, RoS, and other bosses will now cast all of their spells. No more Kael'Thas without birds.
Breakfast topic: The best parts of patch 2.4
We've all had time to read the notes and tinker around with the new changes. My plan for the day was to check out the notes and then head on in the battlegrounds. I must admit that I didn't get a chance to try out the new Warsong Gulch. I'm sure I'll get to it soon once the queue settles down. I did get a chance to arena, and that queue was popping incredibly fast.Apparently Bornakk spoke the truth about queue relief.
Continue reading Breakfast topic: The best parts of patch 2.4
Burning Crusade content offline [Updated]
According to numerous reports and several personal experiences, much of the Burning Crusade content is offline on several servers, both in the U.S. and the E.U.. When attempting to access a character in any of these locations you will be presented with an error that says "World Server Down."This is no doubt from the mass of people who have flocked to the Isle of Quel'Danas in order to see the new content. While the realms and content are being bumpy tonight, checkout our extensive collection of patch 2.4 information.
I'll update this post as the night goes on with the latest realm announcements. Stay tuned!
Update: Realms are all online, although a tad bumpy.
Mirror, mirror, on the wall...
...who has patch 2.4 for you all?I've spent the day collecting patch mirrors for everyone. Some may require a short free registration. All of them are sources I, and others, use and trust. However with that said, we can't be responsible if something goes wrong. But I've never heard of that happening.
2.3.3 to 2.4.0 patch mirrors:
Full 2.x to 2.4.0 patch mirrors:
There are more lists available at WoWWiki and Nihilum. However, there are several sites on there that I haven't been able to test or havne't used before - so your mileage may vary.
Enjoy your speedy downloads!
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