One of the biggest surprises Hunters found when they logged on after this morning's patch was that all was not as it was supposed to be. Although the tool tip for Scare Beast reads as instant cast, the old 1.5 second cast time is still intact. Netheara confirmed that the reversion of the cast time was, in fact, intentional. It was considered too strong and reverted, although the 30 yard range buff is still intact. The instant cast designation in the tool tip is an error that will be fixed.
Continue reading Hunter Growl and Scare Beast changes not so sweet after all
Ever since it was reported that in 2.4.2, threat generated by Growl would no longer scale with pet attack power, Hunters have been trying to figure out what that means. Will it only scale with Hunter attack power? Is there any way to get Growl's threat up? Just what is the relationship between the threat generated by Growl and the stats listed on both Hunter and pet? The Mystic Hunter has been working to try and figure things out, but the stats he's found have actually been more confusing than clarifying -- he did a series of tests on the Live server and then on the Test server... and found them to be the same.
We had some hints that this would happen soon and now WoW Insider has confirmed through anonymous sources that the next expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, is in closed alpha status, and that various players are being invited to check it out, under a strict NDA.Gallery: What we know about Death Knights
Gallery: Wrath of the Lich King
Check out more information on WoW's upcoming expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, including a look at the new Death Knight class and the new creatures that infest Northrend.
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 it looked like the new 25 man on the PTR, the Sunwell Plateau, was going to be staying open after a few closures in the recent weeks, luck would have that it's not.
After Skellum of Dalaran posts on the forums asking just where all these PTR changes are coming from, Nethaera sobers us all up about what the PTR is all about: progressive testing. She says that Blizzard has said from the beginning that there will be changes in the notes, and that things we thought were the end of the world in the beginning have changed or been completely removed. Welcome to the perilous world of progressive testing.
Hortus, the PTR community manager, announced a few hours ago that pre-made characters are going to be enabled on the patch 2.3.2 PTRs, starting today. This often-requested but seldom realized capability means anyone who can get on the PTR can get a level 70 character there of any class they want. This time around they'll be geared up in Arena Season 2 and heroic badge reward gear, and will start with extra Badges of Justice to get whatever other gear they might want; "don't even ask" for other gear, warns Hortus and his spinny hat. In a later post, he says that the PTRs will not be up tonight, and are expected to be available "sometime late tomorrow."
Once again it's been a fun run on the PTRs, but they have, officially, closed. Of course, the real news here is that this means patch 1.11 has been mostly finalized, and that we should expect patch deployment soon - possibly as early as this week. On the matter of a release date, Tigole tells us, "No promises as to when the patch is going live, but if I were you, I'd start working on that Argent Dawn rep by tomorrow -- either that or pillage the guild bank while the pillaging is good." Of course, what that means is up in the air, but if you'll excuse me, I think I need to be getting a Scholomance run together about now...
The public test realms opened late Friday, and despite stability issues, are officially online. With lots of interesting changes, are you interested in checking them out? Perhaps exploring the new Naxxramas dungeon with a pick up group, or just enjoying playing a pre-made and pre-geared level 60 character. So let us know - will we be seeing you on the test realm?
GameDaily has an interesting article up about how game
developers seem to be using players as beta
testers. Buggy code is released as a final product to the public with the thought that it can always be fixed
with a later patch. And, while the article specifically discusses single player games, the argument is perhaps
even more applicable to large MMO's in which regular patches to add content (and fix old bugs) are the norm.
While it's understandable to an extent - World of Warcraft is a massive game, and it would be impossible to test every
race, class, and talent spec in every situation - some of the bugs are sufficiently obvious that they make one wonder
how much testing happens at all. However, perhaps MMO's are so expansive that it's imposible to give them the
full quality assurance treatment in the traditional sense - which is why we've ended up with test servers and a regular
patch cycle. What do you think - are we beta testing the software we're paying for? And should we be?
| Event | Date |
|---|---|
| WoW Insider Arena Tournament | FRI nights |
| WSG weekend | 5/16 - 5/19 |
| Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza | SUN 2p - 4p |
| Midsummer Fire Festival | 6/21 - 7/5 |
| Worldwide Invitational in Paris | 6/28 - 6/29 |
| BlizzCon 2008 in Anaheim, CA | 10/11 - 10/12 |
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| 2 | Adam Holisky | 58 | 41 |
| 3 | Daniel Whitcomb | 52 | 48 |
| 4 | Amanda Dean | 40 | 0 |
| 5 | Moo Money | 32 | 28 |
| 6 | Elizabeth Wachowski | 30 | 3 |
| 7 | Eliah Hecht | 30 | 21 |
| 8 | Zach Yonzon | 26 | 0 |
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| 10 | Alex Ziebart | 22 | 2 |
| 11 | Matthew Rossi | 20 | 89 |
| 12 | Sean Forsgren | 13 | 0 |
| 13 | Lisa Poisso | 12 | 4 |
| 14 | Amanda Miller | 10 | 0 |
| 15 | Jennie Lees | 7 | 8 |
| 16 | David Bowers | 7 | 12 |
| 17 | Shelbi Roach | 5 | 1 |
| 18 | V'Ming Chew | 4 | 0 |
| 19 | Matt Low | 4 | 0 |
| 20 | Scott Andrews | 4 | 0 |
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