extended-maintenance
Latest
Tuesday Morning Post: Down to the Wire edition
So this is it. A lot of people are saying it, and while there's no word one way or another, it seems like this morning is sort of the deadline. If they don't release Patch 3.2 today, pretty much everyone agrees we'll be lucky to see it before BlizzCon, since they're gonna need to get into gear to get all those special BlizzCon surprises ready for us. Now mind you, by the time you read this, you'll probably know for sure if it's going down. But me, here, on a warm Monday evening, I'm just finishing up some writing before I meet some friends for $2.50 beer night at the local microbrewery. So consider this, if you will, a message from the past, a past where the future was uncertain, but hope reigned supreme; Where we all looked forward to a pleasant evening and a bright tomorrow.Wait? What's that? It is coming out? Oh sweet. Okay guys. Be sure to check out our guide to Patch 3.2 for all the latest new and guides on the new patch content.Also on the list of what is confirmed is that we have extended downtime. All servers will be down from at least 3 AM to 11 AM Pacific time, and a couple battle groups will be down even longer. Considering that, you will probably have some time to catch up recent WoW news, so let me lay it on you:
Extended server maintenance for Tuesday August 4th
There's a detailed server maintenance announcement for tomorrow, Tuesday August 4th. And off the bat: we still don't know for sure if Patch 3.2 is dropping tomorrow. You can bet that we'll be burning the midnight oil waiting to find out, though. (Note, that would be inadvisable. If you attempt to ignite a petroleum product on this ship at zero hundred hours you will activate the fire suppression system, which would seal off this entire compartment.)All realms will be down from at least 3:00 a.m. PDT / 6:00 a.m. EDT until 11:00 a.m. PDT / 2:00 p.m. EDT tomorrow. However a large group of special realms will be down from 12:00 a.m. PDT / 3:00 a.m. EDT until 12:00 p.m. PDT / 3:00 p.m. EDT.Those special realms are those in the battlegroups Emberstorm, and Whirlwind.Check after the break if you need to see a listing of which realms belong on those battlegroups, and stay tuned to WoW.com tonight and tomorrow for all the patch 3.2 goodness.Minor update: The service alert, which is obviously suffering from a typo, now reads in part: "..we expect all realms to be playable by approximately 11:59PM PDT on Tuesday, August 4." Emphasis added. Hey, at least they're honest, right?Update: Blizzard changed their announcement to indicate that only Emberstorm and Whirlwind would be going offline for an extended period.
Blizzard responds to extended maintenance and instance problems
Blizzard EU has released a long and detailed statement concerning the recent waves of extended maintenance and how it's connected to the problems associated with launching instances. For several months players have been plagued with the message "Additional instances cannot be launched." The message was being caused by overloaded instance servers, and for a long time there was seemingly nothing Blizzard could do about it.Blizzard's statement today clearly informs us that all the extended maintenance we've been seeing is directly due Blizzard implementing fixes for the problems server-side. While the statement comes from an EU source, once can assume rather easily that it applies to the US as well.While no timeframe is given as to exactly when this will be done for all realms, it is very good to know that stuff is getting done behind the scenes. And this look at exactly what Blizzard is doing to their servers represents a rare glimpse into their inner workings. Usually Blizzard is pretty tight lipped about what exactly is happening with their hardware.The full statement after the break.
Tuesday Morning Post: Breakfast of Champions edition
It's Tuesday morning, and you know what that means: downtime. On the plus side, we here on the US Servers don't have any more complicated type of down times with various groups of servers getting extra downtime seemingly at random and so on. Then again, that just means we all get to suffer through extended downtime together, from 3 AM to 11 AM Pacific.Luckily, there's tons to read about while you wait out the downtime. In probably the biggest PTR news this week, Coliseum testing is now well underway (despite some hiccups at the start), and we were in the middle of it. We have galleries of some of the 5-man loot we discovered and first hand impressions of the place. Check out more news after the break:
Realm maintenance for July 14th
The Breaking News box has recently cropped up in-game, announcing tomorrow's maintenance for North American realms. As you can see in the image to the right, servers will be down from 3:00 AM PDT until roughly 11:00 AM PDT, assuming all goes well. If you're not sure what time this is in your timezone, use this timezone conversion tool.You know the drill, guys. WoW.com will, as always, be here all throughout the maintenance to cure your boredom. For you European readers, remember that some of you will be hit with an extended maintenance later on, which we've posted about already.
Ancilorn reveals extended EU maintenance next week
European CM Ancilorn has revealed that, for next week's EU maintenance, some of the realms will be offline for a whopping fourteen hours. The Blue was keen to ensure players were given enough warning of 15th July's maintenance to make sure that players who have toons on the affected realms had an "opportunity to plan accordingly".The affected realms are: Balnazzar, Bloodfeather, Darksorrow, Defias Brotherhood, Earthen Ring, Frostwhisper, Genjuros, Haomarush, Hellscream, Laughing Skull, Lightning's Blade, Magtheridon, Neptulon, Nordrassil, Quel'Thalas, Ragnaros, Ravencrest, Runetotem, Shadowmoon, Shadowsong, Shattered Hand, Silvermoon, Skullcrusher, Spinebreaker, Stormrage, Stormreaver, Stormscale, Sylvanas, Terenas, The Maelstrom, The Venture Co, Thunderhorn, Turalyon, Twisting Nether and Vashj.While the problem seems to be specific to these realms, Ancilorn didn't elaborate on the precise reasons for the extensive maintenance. He only informed readers that these realms will be offline from 3:00am CEST until around 5:00pm CEST. I suggest this might be a very good time to explore the opposite faction on another server, roll a twink or level that long-neglected alt. We'll certainly keep you updated next week and hopefully the maintenance should run smoothly.
Tuesday Morning Post: Cataclysmic Edition
It's time once again for weekly maintenance, and not only do we have the standard 5 AM - 11 AM Pacific downtime for most US servers, there's also a handful that are down from midnight to noon today. With all that extra time on your hands, you'll have time once again to read up on WoW news.The big news, of course, is the Cataclysm. Blizzard went on a trademark registering spree around this word, which has everyone abuzz with speculation. Are we seeing the name of the new, maelstrom-related expansion? Or is this another secret project, perhaps even that new top secret MMO? Only time will tell, but it's fun to guess anyway. Once you're done being all atwitter over that little bit of gossip, here's some more stuff to read until your server comes up:
Tuesday Morning Post: Racial Roulette edition
So we're swimming in news again this week, what with the patch 3.2 PTR well underway (you can check out the latest patch notes right here) and all, but the biggest piece of news for me, remains the faction changes. If nothing else, this should pave the way for me to be able to switch every single one of my characters to the High Elf race once they're finally implemented. Of course, that's not the only race-related news bouncing around this week. It also looks like the Tauren may be looking to make some waves in lore.But anyhow, we have some nice long maintenance today, so you should have plenty of time to read the above stories and all the awesome news coming out of the PTR while you're at it. Check out a list of some of the highlights of the past 7 days below, and be sure to stick around throughout the day. There's bound to be more patch 3.2 news trickling in.
Extended Maintenance for Tuesday, June 30th
Once again, we have maintenance off the port bow. You'd almost think this is a weekly scheduled thing, eh? This week, though, is one of those special extended maintenance weeks, with servers down from 3 AM to 11 AM Pacific. No, despite the extended maintenance, we aren't expecting patch 3.2 yet. In addition, other servers will be down an extra 2 hours starting at 1 AM Pacific time. We have the full list of said servers after the break, and it's actually a somewhat long one.
.jpg.cf.jpg)
Maintenance continues, restarts for many realms [UPDATED]
Rolling restarts are currently in progress on many realms, apparently to address a talent issue that cropped up with patch 3.1.3. These restarts shouldn't take more than 2 hours across the board. Meaning that your server shouldn't be down for very long at all, because that two hour window is for the entire process. The battlegroups being hit with these restarts are: Ruin Vindication Rampage Shadowburn Stormstrike Nightfall Whirlwind Emberstorm Retaliation We're not sure if this will mean the end of today's maintenance woes, but we can hope.Update: They're still working on getting the downed realms into working order, but don't currently have an ETA. They say an update will come soon.
Maintenance extended two hours
Another maintenance day, another "surprise"-extended maintenance. According to Bornakk, they've "encountered some issues" causing them to extend maintenance on all realms by two hours. Most realms are therefore expected to be up and running by about 1:00 PM PDT. Many realms, however, were already undergoing extended maintenance to finish some hardware upgrades. The following realms are currently expected to be playble around 2:00 PM PDT: Aegwynn, Akama, Aman'Thul, Arathor, Azjol-Nerub, Barthilas, Blackrock, Bloodscalp, Bonechewer, Boulderfist, Bronzebeard, Caelestrasz, Chromaggus, Crushridge, Daggerspine, Darkspear, Dath'Remar, Draenor, Dragonblight, Dragonmaw, Draka, Drak'thul, Dreadmaul, Dunemaul, Eitrigg, Eldre'Thalas, Feathermoon, Firetree, Frostmane, Frostmourne, Frostwolf, Garithos, Gundrak, Gurubashi, Hakkar, Jubei'Thos, Khaz Modan, Khaz'goroth, Kil'jaeden, Kilrogg, Korgath, Kul Tiras, Malorne, Mug'thol, Muradin, Nagrand, Nathrezim, Ner'zhul, Perenolde, Proudmoore, Rexxar, Runetotem, Saurfang, Scarlet Crusade, Sen'jin, Shadow Council, Shadowsong, Silver Hand, Silvermoon, Skywall, Smolderthorn, Spirestone, Stonemaul, Stormscale, Suramar, Terenas, Thorium Brotherhood, Tichondrius, Uldum, Vek'nilash, Windrunner Whew. In the mean time, you might want to take a look at the notes for patch 3.1.3, which goes live today, or at the new Tauren cat forms.
Maintenance for Tuesday June 2nd
Maintenance, you say? Unheard of! After all, what is wrong with a Paladin standing upright while riding her horse? Or what's wrong with constant errors telling intrepid adventurers additional instances cannot be launched?Well, okay. Something might be wrong with those things. Hopefully tomorrow's maintenance will bring fixes to them. But more importantly based on all account it'll be bringing patch 3.1.3 with it as well.Maintenance will last from 3:00 a.m. PDT until 11:00 a.m. PDT. Unless, of course, you on one of the few dozen realms listed after the break. For those special realms, maintenance will last from 12:01 a.m. PDT until 12:01 p.m. PDT. Why is it starting at the :01? Because Blizzard wants you to have an extra minute to complete raids tonight. That's how much they care. And you know what? So do I... (Click it... I dare you.)The full list of realms under the extended maintenance after the break.
Maintenance done soon, Battle.net accounts having problems
In a pleasant change of pace, extended maintenance for a group of realms is currently not expected to be further extended today. The following realms, which are receiving hardware upgrades, are expected to be up and playable by 1 PM PDT, as originally promised: Area 52, Auchindoun, Azuremyst, Blade's Edge, Blood Furnace, Coilfang, Dawnbringer, Exodar, Fizzcrank, Galakrond, Ghostlands, Grizzly Hills, Shattered Halls, Terokkar, The Scryers, The Underbog, Velen, Zangarmarsh All other realms should be up "in about the next hour," slightly later than the 11 AM PDT goal time. And now the bad news. There are also some issues with Battle.net account authentication, as is so often the case. Blizzard is aware of the Battle.net issues, and promises to provide further updates by noon PDT.Update: Further updates on the Battle.net issue will be released at 1:00 p.m. PDT. Most (if not all) Battle.net accounts are unable to log into the game.
Maintenance extended further for many realms [updated]
In completely unsurprising news, extended maintenance for the realms that were undergoing it has been additionally extended today. These realms were suppose to be brought up at noon PDT today. The latest news is that there is no current ETA for them to come back, but that we should get another update by 1 PM PDT (at which time I fully anticipate they will tell us to expect another update by 2 PM PDT). The good news is they're doing hardware upgrades, so when the realms come back up, they should be better than before. The affected realms are: Aegwynn, Akama, Aman'Thul, Arathor, Azjol-Nerub, Barthilas, Blackrock, Bloodscalp, Bonechewer, Boulderfist, Bronzebeard, Caelestrasz, Chromaggus, Crushridge, Daggerspine, Darkspear, Dath'Remar, Draenor, Dragonblight, Dragonmaw, Draka, Drak'thul, Dreadmaul, Dunemaul, Eitrigg, Eldre'Thalas, Feathermoon, Firetree, Frostmane, Frostmourne, Frostwolf, Garithos, Gundrak, Gurubashi, Hakkar, Jubei'Thos, Khaz Modan, Khaz'goroth, Kil'jaeden, Kilrogg, Korgath, Kul Tiras, Malorne, Mug'thol, Muradin, Nagrand, Nathrezim, Ner'zhul, Perenolde, Proudmoore, Rexxar, Runetotem, Saurfang, Scarlet Crusade, Sen'jin, Shadow Council, Shadowsong, Silver Hand, Silvermoon, Skywall, Smolderthorn, Spirestone, Stonemaul, Stormscale, Suramar, Terenas, Thaurissan, Thorium Brotherhood, Tichondrius, Uldum, Vek'nilash, and Windrunner. All other realms should be available for play now. We will keep you posted as soon as we hear more on when the realms in question will be brought up. Update: As predicted, they have updated to let us know that they still don't know when these realms will be back up, and they will have another update for us at 2 PDT. Update 2: Blizzard has announced that they expect these realms to be available for play by 2:30 PDT.
Dozens of realms under long maintenance tomorrow
There will be two kinds of maintenance tomorrow.The first kind will be from 3:00 a.m. PDT until 11:00 a.m. PDT. This is the "normal" maintenance time. This will apply to all realms that are not on the list after the break.The second kind of maintenance will be from 12:00 a.m. PDT until 12:00 p.m. PDT. The realms after the break will be undergoing this maintenance.It is likely the Wintergrasp changes we just broke will go live tomorrow. There's a bit of uproar about them, and it'll be interesting to see exactly what the changes are. There is no indication if patch 3.1.2 will be dropping tomorrow or not.The list of realms down for half a day after the break.
European extended weekly maintenance: 6th May 2009
Good morning, my fellow EU players. Welcome to Wednesday. Yes, despite the May Day bank holiday this week and that Tuesday feeling, I assured you it's once again the middle of the week and patch day to boot. As with the last couple of weeks, we've got an extended period of maintenance. Now I know things on the EU servers are a heck of a lot more stable than those of our friends across the pond, after all, they are our guinea pigs, but we're want them to stay that way right?Once again, realms are down between 5:00am and 11:00am CEST. The downtime might change depending on how well or badly the maintenance goes so just bear that in mind come the top of the hour. However there's plenty to do during the down time, so check out Daniel's post from yesterday for some suggestions. Me? I'm going to read up on how to get the School of Hard Knocks achievement while I sit in the dentist's waiting room.
Maintenance extended by two hours
Not that this should be a surprise to anyone...But maintenance has been extended until 1:00 p.m. PDT / 4:00 p.m. EDT. There is no indication why the maintenance has been extended, but that's the norm as well.You can find out what's in the patch over on the Patch 3.1.1 Patch Notes and Bug Fix List, as well as by checking out our updated Guide To Patch 3.1. We'll update this post with the latest news / server status when we have it.
Tuesday Morning Post: Varian Wrynn is my copilot in Patch 3.1 edition
People never believe me when I say the Horde is my favorite of the two factions and that most of my characters are only Alliance because that is the faction my friends play. Of course, this evening, it's easy to see why I sometimes have a hard time convincing them of this fact, as I have spent the last few hours gushing about King Varian Wrynn to anyone who will listen and even a few people who won't. Seriously, if you are in a place that allows the streaming of video and sound, you should watch the new Ulduar trailer. Varian is so amazing, I almost needed a change of pants after I finished watching. But hey, only some of us are lore nerds, and I'm sure a lot of you are here looking for some prime patch 3.1 gameplay and feature information, what with extended maintenance and said patch 3.1 going live today. Luckily, you're in luck. You lucky person you. Expect loads of patch 3.1 information articles and roundups as the day progresses, including dual spec information and galleries showcasing the new sights and sounds of the new patch. In the meantime, you can start your reading with our official constantly updated Guide to Patch 3.1 and this roundup of some of the hottest news from the past week:
Extended maintenance for Tuesday April 14th
The server alert tonight is letting us know that there will be extended maintenance for all realms from 3:00 a.m. PDT / 6:00 a.m. EDT to 11:00 a.m. PDT / 2:00 p.m. EDT. However, there are several realms listed after the break that will be down starting at 1:00 a.m. PDT / 4:00 a.m. PDT instead.There is no official announcement yet of patch 3.1 dropping tomorrow, but as we said before (and as is being confirmed by the recent flurry of new information), many folks both publicly and privately are telling us it's dropping tomorrow.Stay tuned tonight as the WoW Insider staff will be staying up all night to bring you the very latest, and don't forget to check out the WoW Insider Guide to Patch 3.1 for all the patch information.
Realms are up
The extended maintenance has ended, and it appears most (if not all) realms are up and available for use.Today's extended maintenance was particularly painful for me. I had to do the following, in order: Wake up and write The Queue Work on a couple other things for WoW Insider Clean the cat's box Go out to Barns & Noble and buy season 3 of Weeds and a couple books Pickup a Strawberry and Cream drink from the Starbucks at B&N Come home and take a nap Wake up from said nap with my cat stepping on my liver Make this post Phew! But now that the realms are up I can get back to the thing I really love... riding in circles around Dalaran on my mount for hours as I wait for groups to form.
