realm-status
Latest
WoW Archivist: A rolled-back history of realms
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? If your low-population realm hasn't been linked up to another one yet, it soon will. This is a drastic step for WoW, but one that should solve the long-bemoaned low-population problem on many realms. When WoW first launched, Blizzard had the exact opposite problem on their hands: realms had far, far too many players. Let's look back to 2004 to the earliest months of the game and remember just what players had to endure -- and what Blizzard had to do to fix it. Uncharted realms The servers that run the game's realms have always been shrouded in mystery. Technical details have never been shared. In a 2005 interview, producer Shane Dabiri deflected questions about the realms hardware: "Well, I really can't get into how we structure or build our infrastructure," he said. "Much of the information is proprietary and complex."
Tuesday Morning Post: Gnome appreciation edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone! As we settle into the first full week of patch 4.1, I feel we should take a break from all the headers full of trolls and troll dungeons to appreciate the other semi-homeless race of WoW, the gnome. The Alliance loves them because they provide the technological backbone we need to fight back the orcish war machine. The Horde loves them because they're bite-sized and puntable. Plus, apparently, they're pretty good at music. If you aren't much into the whole gnome thing, don't worry, there's plenty of news to go around. There's a bunch to discuss about patch 4.1, as well as news about patch 4.2, all waiting for in our usual nice tidy roundup. Downtime this morning is from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. PDT, so you should have plenty of time to read up.
Tuesday Morning Post: Meanwhile, in WoW edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. I have a confession to make. I pretty much logged onto WoW the minimum possible amount of time last week. Now, don't get me wrong, I had a lot of stuff going on in real life too, but my main reason for playing hooky was because I was obsessed with Ezekiel Hawke, the dashing, roguish champion of Kirkwall you see above. That said, having now defeated Dragon Age 2, I am ready to get back into the game and eager to check all the new patch 4.1 goodies being discovered on the PTR by the day (and, of course, reported by us). If you're tired of patch 4.1 news, have no fear, we have some pretty sweet non-patch news too. We had a contingent at PAX East 2011 and got a chance to sit down with Cryptozoic, the makers of the WoW TCG. The developers also recently held a forum Q&A, and the first round of questions and answers was released yesterday. Me, I'm most excited that they didn't completely dismiss the idea of an appearance layer on gear like they have in the past. You should have some time to read up on this and all the rest of the week's news, as we have our usual scheduled maintenance from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. Pacific time this morning.
Extended realm maintenance for Tuesday, October 12th; Patch 4.0.1 likely
I shook my Imp in a Ball and asked if the pre-Cataclysm patch 4.0.1 would be dropping on Tuesday and he said, "Yes, but if anyone asks ... It wasn't me who told you." Then Blizzard representative Rishgur announced on the forums that we would be having extended maintenance from midnight until noon on Tuesday, Oct. 12. Coincidence? I think not. It's so blatant that even Kaylee Switchgear, our maintenance graphic gnome, thinks we're having a patch. Could some random bug crop up between now and then to crush the hopes and dreams of those of us preparing for a 4.0.1 Tuesday? Sure, but that could happen with just about any patch. What we do know is that realms will be down for 12 hours and Cataclysm is only a month and a half away. Be sure to tune into WoW Insider during the downtime to brush up on your 4.0.1 patch information and all of the class-revamping, reforging, prime-glyphing, guild-member-capping, Azeroth-shattering information. Rishgur We will be performing extended maintenance on Tuesday, October 12th. Maintenance will begin at 12:00 AM PDT and conclude at approximately 12:00 PM PDT. During this time, all realms and many web services will be unavailable. Thank you for your patience. source
Tuesday Morning Post: Adventures in beta patching edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. The big news this week has the been the beta test of the new patch process and launcher, which allows you to play even when your patch is only partially done. I've tried it out myself, and I must say, it's quite a feeling logging into Acherus to see nothing but the Eastern Plaguelands spread out below you for miles as the hold itself shifts into being around you. It's sort of crazy. Still, I imagine most of the time I'll just wait for the download to finish. There is, of course, plenty of other news to catch up on. If you're waiting out this morning's rolling restarts, why not check and see if you missed anything from the past few days? Our usual roundup awaits after the break.
Tuesday Morning Post: Real ID ruckus edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. It's been a surprisingly busy and controversial week in WoW. The ill-fated Real ID forum integration has come and -- after extensive community outcry, rampant rumors and multiple attempts to explain themselves on Blizzard's part -- gone again, and we're all hopeful that we can go back to the carefree slaughter of internet dragons. In actual gameplay news, everything we know about our classes may be changing with the extensive new talent revamp that limits trees to the 31-point tier and gives level 10s signature abilities from their chosen tree. There's plenty more beta news and (for those of you avoiding Cataclysm spoilers) Ruby Sanctum guides to browse through, and since we have the usual 5-11 a.m. Pacific downtime coming down the pipe this morning, you'll have time to tackle it, I'm sure. Read on for all the latest from the past few days.
Tuesday Morning Post: The coming Cataclysm edition
Happy Tuesday Morning, everyone! With the closed beta beginning and the NDA lifted, the floodgate of information fresh from the Cataclysm beta servers continues to gush forth. There's plenty of analysis and opinion to be had on the changes as well. You can look below for the usual list of stuff, including a special beta information section. Of course, this beta, so expect things to change pretty quickly as the days and weeks go by, and expect us to be here, keeping abreast of it. Of course, if you have any burning questions we haven't answered yet, remember that The Queue is now taking your Cataclysm Beta questions. The usual 5 AM to 11 AM Pacific downtime will be upon this morning, so now's a good a time as any to catch up on the latest beta news and happenings. Read on for the roundup.
Early maintenance announcement includes 24 hour downtime for select realms
Blizzard's already let us know the scheduled downtime for Tuesday, June 29th, quite a bit ahead of their usual late Monday night announcement time. Right now, most realms can expect a normal downtime window of 5 AM to 11 AM Pacific time on Tuesday, June 29th. However, it is time for the next batch of US servers to go down for 24 hours, from 12:01 AM, June 29th to 12:01 AM Wednesday, June 30th. As with the first batch, the 24-hour downtime will likely be used to get the servers in shape for Cataclysm's launch, and if we're lucky, should mean less downtime in the first few days and weeks as everyone comes in to check out the new content. Check out the full list of servers with extended downtime behind the break:
Tuesday Morning Post: Burning for you edition
Happy Tuesday Morning, everyone! Rumor has it that Patch 3.3.5 may drop this morning, and with a 3 AM to 11 AM pacific downtime coming our way, the points are racking up in favor of such a conclusion. Either way, you'll probably know by the time you read this, and either way, the downtime's coming, so either way, you'll probably want to settle in and join me on catching up with the latest WoW news. It's been a relatively slow news week the past 7 days, but the Midsummer Fire Festival is in full swing, complete with a level 80 Frost Lord Ahune bearing new ilevel 232 loot -- and lacking his scorchling pet, sadly enough. There's more news to peruse as well, and you'll want to keep an on eye on the site throughout the day and coming weeks for more news and guides on the coming Patch 3.3.5 content.
Tuesday Morning Post: The press gang edition
Happy Tuesday Morning, everyone! The past few days have been pretty busy as far as shiny new Cataclysm news goes. First we saw the first few class talent previews go up for druids, rogues, priests, and shamans. We, of course, have analysis of all the ins and outs of the new trees, as you'd expect. But the big news of the week was, of course, the Cataclysm press event. We got a massive info dump of juicy information, including interviews with Ghostcrawler. Among some of the other highlights: New juicy lore tidbits, including information on the Archeology skill. New raid lockout mechanisms. A complete overhaul of the guild leveling mechanic. The complete scrapping of the Path of the Titans system, and some adjustments to glyphs to compensate. Video previews of the new Orgrimmar and Stormwind. Confirmation of a War of the Ancients raid. In addition to that, there's plenty of other awesome news tidbits to catch up on this morning. You'll have the usual 5 AM to 11 AM pacific downtime, so you'll have the time to do some reading. Read on for a list of the latest stuff.
Tuesday Morning Post: The long downtime of the soul edition
Happy Tuesday Morning, everyone! If you were part of the massive rush to get BlizzCon tickets this past week, I hope your luck was good, because they are now officially sold out. If you didn't get one, there's probably nothing left to do but hope you win one as a contest prize! Whether you were successful or whether your hopes were dashed, you will, alas, have quite some time to brood or celebrate if your characters are on a list of servers slated for a 24 hour downtime today. Of course, even if you dodged the bullet, we still have the normal 5 AM to 11 AM Pacific time maintenance period coming for all servers. Luckily, there's plenty of news to catch up on, including a good selection of official news on patch 3.3.5 and some of the new features of the Cataclysm expansion. Read on for all the latest, and keep coming back all day for the latest news, tips, and guides. Whether your server is down for the morning or down all day, we'll be here for you.
24-hour downtime this Tuesday for 72 servers to make them Cataclysm-ready
Blizzard's announced a 24-hour downtime window for a large group of servers, from 12:01 AM Pacific time on Tuesday, June 8th, to 12:01 Pacific time on Wednesday, June 9th. All other servers will have a normal downtime window of 5 AM to 11 AM Pacific time. The extended downtime, says Blizzard, is to prepare the servers for the Cataclysm expansion. While this should not be taken as a sign that the expansion is imminent, it's at least nice to see that preparations are continuing apace. In addition, it's probably fair to assume that even if your server isn't in this current list, it'll eventually get a day of downtime of its own as Blizzard gets all of their servers in shape. Check the full list after the break to see if your server is in this batch:
Tuesday Morning Post: Gnomeregan rising edition
Good Tuesday morning, everyone! It's been a surprisingly slow news week as far as new Cataclysm stuff goes, but luckily, we have the PTR to keep us busy anyway. With Operation: Gnomeregan and Zalazane's Fall active for testing on the PTR, now's the perfect time to go test out some fun new world events and show your own patriotism for your favorite refugee race. If you'd rather stay on the live servers, we do have a nice picture gallery of the Zalazane's event for your perusal. The PTR is also being used to test the new Real ID functionality, which makes it an excellent time to caution you: Be careful who you trust with your Real ID. Perhaps the most "surprising" news this week may be the fact that there is absolutely no downtime anticipated for today. That's right, early morning pacific coast Tuesday players, you can keep right on trucking. But just in case you need a break, or you're stuck at work or school and can't play, we've got the usual roundup of all the good news from the past 7 days or so after the break.
Tuesday Morning Post: Ferengi are cooler than Goblins edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone! This week has actually been pretty good for news that is not directly game related. BlizzCon ticket frenzy is nearly upon us. They'll go on sale June 2nd and June 5th, which means you only have around a week to get ready to click madly to get into that queue and get another chance to see Jay Mohr. In possibly even cooler news, Aron Eisenberg, better known to geeks like us as Deep Space 9's Nog, was the subject of this week's 15 Minutes of Fame and our special guest co-host on the podcast. The usual 5 AM to 11 AM pacific downtime is go, so you'll have plenty of time to join us in geeking out with Nog, or read the rest of the latest news. We have the usual roundup after the break.
Tuesday Morning Post: Sanctum's closed edition
Happy Tuesday Morning everyone! It's mostly business as usual here in WoW land. The Cataclysm friends and family testing is trucking right along, as is the patch 3.3.5 PTR. Although there was supposed to be Ruby Sanctum testing happening, bad lag prevented testers in the US from doing much of anything, and the European testing was canceled altogether. Luckily, even without the sanctum, there's plenty of news and other things to look at. There's the usual downtime this morning, from 5 AM to 11 AM pacific, so you'll have time. Check out usual roundup after the break. The Cataclysm leaks and spoilers are in their own section, so you can skip those if you're trying to stay pure.
Tuesday Morning Post: Levee's gonna break edition
Happy Tuesday Morning, everyone! As you're probably aware, the family and friends alpha test of Cataclysm went up early last week. While there's still a Non-Disclosure Agreement on the whole thing, that hasn't stopped a lot of enterprising people from getting their hands on the client and disseminating all manner of information to the WoW community at large. I wouldn't say the leaks are coming out in a torrent quite yet, but there's still some pretty juicy stuff if you know where to find it. Of course, if you're one of those who's trying to keep pure about the spoilers and leaks, have no fear. In the list below we've placed all the unofficial leaks in a separate Cataclysm leak section so you can skim over them or pass them by. So read on with confidence. There's plenty non-leak stuff to read up on, including the new Patch 3.3.5 PTR notes. It looks like only a handful of servers will experience scheduled downtime this morning, and even then only for 2 hours starting a 5 AM pacific time, but Tuesday's good WoW news reading time anyway.
Tuesday Morning Post: We dislike NDAs edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. It looks like the wheels may finally be in motion, inexorably turning toward the release of Cataclysm. Community Manager Zarhym has confirmed that the family and friends alpha is under way, and signs of the beta have begun to crop up on the official site. Could an actual NDA-free beta be close behind? Speaking of NDAs and betas, now's a good time to remind people of a few things: First, beta invites have not gone out, so if you get an invite in your in-box, be careful. It's very, very likely a scam. Second, the family and friends alpha is under a Non-Disclosure Agreement, so it's likely we won't get much new information, if any, until that's released. Beyond that, there was plenty of other news dropping this week. Children's Week is upon us again, the night elf mohawk has returned and Cataclysm news continues to trickle out, among other things. We do have the usual 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. Pacific downtime window this morning, so since you can't log on to WoW, why not read on? Our usual weekly roundup of the news awaits.
Tuesday Morning Post: Raiding reshuffling redux edition
The big news this week came only yesterday in the form of some basic raid changes coming to Cataclysm. Depending on your perspective, they may or may not be as absolutely earth shattering as the changes to raid sizes at the start of Wrath, but they're still big. The discussion and debate over these changes will continue for many days, and you know we'll be in the thick of it. If raid size debates aren't your cup of tea, there's plenty of other news to peruse. For example, we also got a small sneak peak at Cataclysm's world with some Cataclysm concept art uncovered by Scrolls of Lore. For a roundup of the rest of the week's happenings, you can check below, as usual. You'll have plenty of time to do so, as we will have downtime this morning from 5 AM to 11 AM pacific.
Tuesday Morning Post: And live in harmony harmony oh love edition
Happy Tuesday Morning, everyone! By now, I'm sure you're all aware of the big news: The Sparklepony is here! The Celestial Steed went up for sale on the Blizzard store, causing massive queues and earning Blizzard hundreds of thousands of dollars in the first day alone. You either loved it or you hated it, but either way, it seems to have been a coup for Blizzard. While the pony talk refuses to die down, some people just want it to go away, and luckily for them, there have been other things of note to report. For example, there was also a bit of Cataclysm news this past week. Paladins got their day in the sun with their Cataclysm class preview (along with some extra blue clarification, of course), and we, of course, have analysis for all three talent trees. We also saw the release of a preview of Mount Hyjal, as well as a preview of Vashj'ir, a sunken city of the Naga. There was also a twitter developer chat, where we learned that we'll be able to learn 310% flight for all our current flying mounts in Cataclysm. No matter what type of news you prefer, you'll have some time to get caught up on it thanks to a 5 AM to 11 AM pacific downtime window. You can check after the break for a list of some of the other odds and ends from the past seven days as well, and, as always, keep it here for WoW news as it happens throughout the day.
Tuesday Morning Post: Viva la Revolucion edition
Happy Tuesday Morning, everyone! Of course, the big news this week was all the class previews for Cataclysm, unless your favorite class is the paladin. Paladins have to wait a few more days. But paladins aside, there's been tons of buzz, debate, and argument. Some people are happy, some are angry, some are confused. But overall, we think the right scope to take is to chill out and see what happens. If nothing else, other things are going on. For example, Operation: Gnomeregan is imminent. And it has some of the snazziest propaganda ever. Seriously, Blizzard, make prints of that poster. I would buy one in three seconds flat. Regardless of your news preferences, we do have downtime this morning, from 5 AM to 11 AM Pacific. To keep you busy while WoW's down, we have our usual roundup of the latest news below, including a special section collection of all the class previews along with our analysis of every single class and their respective roles and talent trees.
