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Public Test Realms Closed
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...
Two Upcoming Raid Changes
Tigole has announced two changes to dungeons that we should see in patch 1.11. These aren't live on the test realms yet, but should be in a few days. The release timer is being removed for players in instances. This should come as welcome news for anyone who has ever died at the beginning of the Nefarian encounter. To prevent exploits, players will no longer be able to zone into an instance during certain encounters ("almost entirely raid bosses," explains Tigole).
PTR Naxxramas Changes
The test realms haven't been up for long, but Naxxramas bug fixes are already starting to show up. Also, to help testers, a vendor has been added to Naxxramas that will offer free repairs, free resurrection sickness removal, spell reagents, tome of tranquilizing shot, and rogue poisons. So if you're interested in checking out Naxxramas, it's been easier. However, character transfers to the test realm still seem to be down, so if you didn't copy a character when the PTRs were first brought online, you're going to have to wait a while.
Test Realms Come Up, Test Realms Go Down
As seems to be the usual pattern, after the public test realms were brought online they were immediately slammed with traffic, bringing them offline again. As of writing this, the only test realm that seems to be up is the RP-PVP realm. The character transfer system suffered a similar fate, and was officially taken down yesterday. There seems to be no news about when we can expect transfers or the test realms themselves to be back online, but as soon as I find out anything, I'll pass it on.
Now Online: Public Test Realms
The test realms have been brought up with the 1.11 content patch. Check out the patch notes here and copy a pre-made character (character transfers are usually not available on weekends) from here. So get copying!While the changes are mostly as we expected, there are a few pleasant surprises: The cost to respec one's talents will now decay over time, going down by 5 gold per month, to a minimum of 10 gold. Rogue's Detect Traps skill is now passive. Warlock's Shadow Ward has a new rank to be found as a drop. Warrior's Shield Slam functionality has been changed. To quote... "This ability now costs 20 rage to use and the damage it does is modified by attack power (normalized to 2.2 speed). However, the base damage has been reduced. It generates more threat per rage and more damage per rage than it did previously." Class quest sets in Zul'Gurub and Ahn'Qiraj have been upgraded from superior quality to epic quality. (By my reading, it sounds like this refers to all items, though perhaps it is only some of them.) PvP armor rewards for ranks 7, 8, 10, 12, and 13 have been improved. Light's Hope Chapel in the Eastern Plaguelands is now a full hub, with inn, mailbox, etc. Many new quests in Light's Hope. Class-specific armor sets from Zul'Gurub now no longer require bijous or coins - only a Primal Hakkari item and appropriate reputation. Class-specific enchantments from Zul'Gurub now no longer require librams from Dire Maul. The High Priests of Zul'Gurub now have an additional loot table. Several raid interface improvements, including defualt-UI ability to send messages to the middle of a player's screen and perform ready checks. There will now be a party interface option to reset an instance. Many new flight paths, as well as new flight hubs in Ratchet and Un'Goro Crater.
Coming Up: Patch 1.11
The official under development page for World of Warcraft has been updated today, providing a look into what we can certainly expect to see in the upcoming patch. WoWWiki has a more detailed article covering what changes have been officially mentioned in the forums to date. When can we expect to see this patch? Well, it's always uncertain, but the amount of news we have about what's to be in the patch as well as recent posts in each class forums detailing where to post class-related bugs for live and test realms - makes me think we can expect a public test in the next week or two.
Now Testing: Patch 1.10.2
In an unusual move, Blizzard has opted to bring the public test realm online for a round of testing for patch 1.10.2. To the best of my knowledge, it's the first time a minor patch has been put through public testing, and I suppose we'll see how it works out. The patch seems to be primarily bug fixes, so check out the patch notes - and, as usual, be aware that these may not be final. If you want to copy a character over, start here, but be aware that character copy hours are Monday through Friday, 3:00 AM - 3:00 PM PDT.
