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Tuesday Morning Post: Not the horse edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. With the 5 AM to 11 AM pacific downtime coming our way, it's probably safe to assume we aren't getting Patch 3.3.2 this week. Luckily, that didn't stop Blizzard from releasing the 3.3.2 patch notes over on the Korean WoW site. You'll probably want to give those a look, especially if you're a shaman, warrior, or warlock. On the bright side, the extra week's wait means that means you have at least one more week to master the recently opened Crimson Halls. Be sure to check out our raid boss guide for tips and strats. I'll be honest though, the big story for me this week was the release of the Invincible music. Seriously, this is some amazing music and I can't wait to hear it in game. That said, it better not be about the horse. Seriously, Arthas. I love you and all, but that horse is just dumb. You gotta let it go. It was years ago. No-one liked that horse but you. And seriously, naming it Invincible was just thumbing your nose at fate. No, this had better be a plaintive hymn to the fall of Lordaeron, the loss of innocence, and the beloved prince that you once were, played as the Argent Crusaders and the Ebon Blade carry your body off on a bier while Varian, Jaina, Muradin, Thrall, Saurfang, and Bolvar Fordragon watch solemnly. Yes, I may have put too much thought into this. Anyhow, you didn't come to hear me rant, you came to catch up on your WoW news during the downtime. As such, please find our usual summary of the last 7 days or so below the cut!
Realm maintenance for January 26th
I think at this point it is absolutely safe to say that Blizzard has taken on a stance of giving us more notice about maintenance periods, and everyone here at WoW.com is very appreciative of it. Blizzard representative Draocel hit the forums Sunday evening to let us know that tomorrow's maintenance period will begin at 5:00AM PST and last until 11:00AM PST. As usual, we will be here throughout the maintenance period doing our whole "write blog posts until our fingers bleed" deal. The Tuesday Morning Post will be waiting for you as well, rounding up our best posts of the last week should you need to play catch-up.
Rolling restarts for January 23rd, 2010
It looks like we have some quick play disruption coming our way this Saturday morning, as Blizzard has announced rolling restarts for all realms at 5 AM pacific, or Noon pacific for Oceanic Realms. Judging by Ghostcrawler's words in a recent thread, this is likely meant to jump start the resilience hotfix. Either way, if you're one of those folks weird enough to get up early on a Saturday morning, you may as well grab another hour or sleep or so, since you may not be able to jump on WoW for a 15 minute window. There's still no word on Tuesday's downtime, so maybe we were spoiled by the past couple of weeks. Then again, maybe they're just seeing if they can get that minor patch ready for a release this week too. Either way, keep it here, and we'll keep you informed.
Tuesday Morning Post: Vampire morning edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. As of this writing, the big news of the week is probably the latest Twitter developer chat. If you missed it, we have the transcript. Topics included the fate of Crystalsong Forest, pet scaling buffs, new warlock pets, personal guild banks and other storage issues, and more. Be sure to check it out, it's good reading whether you're focused on Patch 3.3 or on Cataclysm. Coming up, we have the opening of the Crimson Halls, the next wing of Icecrown Citadel. That means lots of vampires. They're blood elf vampires, sure, but blood elves are awesome, so it's all good. And hey, if you dislike blood elves, at least take comfort in the fact that these vampires don't sparkle. Finally, it looks like advance notice for downtime may be the name of the game after all, as we've know about today's downtime for a few days now. It's 3 AM to 11 AM pacific time, if you haven't heard, which means you should have plenty of time to catch up on WoW news. Check out a list of some of our content from the last 7 days below the cut.
Tuesday Morning Post: Anticipation edition
Happy Tuesday Morning, everyone. Today, we have another bout of long expected downtime, with the 5 to 11 AM downtime having been announced way back on Saturday. I'm betting it's to get those Cataclysm alpha servers set up, but we'll see. In fact, in addition to rumblings of new Cataclysm news, these past few days have all been about news of the distant future. Some news about the cancellation of Spiderman 4 might just herald things for the Warcraft movie, for example. In more immediate news, the Plaguewerks have opened up, and people have had a chance to face the new bosses. If you haven't delved in yet, or even if you have, you may find some helpful hints for taking them down right here. Regardless, you have around 6 hours to browse WoW news while you wait for the servers to come back up, so I have the usual list of good stuff to read after the break.
Maintenance announced for Tuesday, January 12th, 2010
When Monday night rolls around, I have a ritual that I follow without fail: I check the official server status forums and the launch tool waiting for any word on the maintenance window for Tuesday mornings over and over again. Most weeks, I'm lucky to get it by 10 PM pacific, if not midnight. Every once in a while there's an early announcement, but that's very, very rare. So it was some surprise to me to see a Saturday afternoon announcement from blue poster Enthati. We'll be having some downtime this Tuesday from 5 AM pacific to approximately 11 AM pacific. This is honestly probably the earliest I can recall ever seeing a downtime announcement go up. This, in turn, makes me wonder if something's up. 5-11 is a pretty short window, not enough to expect a patch, I'd think. Of course, I'm all for earlier advanced notice of downtime, so you won't hear me complain if this early announcement is just a new policy. If nothing else, I'll be able to go to bed earlier on Monday nights. And on Tuesday morning, you can head over here for all the latest news on the server downtime and all the other happenings around the world of WoW.
Tuesday Morning Post: Lift up the gates edition
So here we are. It's been a while since Patch 3.3 started, and we've had a suspiciously early downtime announcement to boot. The holidays are winding down, and most of us, including, one would assume, the Blizzard devs, have finished our eggnog and put our noses back to the grindstone. As of this writing, there's no official word either way, but I'm feeling pretty optimistic about waking up to news of a new section of ICC being opened, or at least a nice mini-patch full of some bug fixes -- say, to certain borked class cooldowns. We can't say for sure, though. All we can say for sure is that the realms are down, and will be for a while, until at least 11 AM pacific time. With that in mind, it's a good time to catch up on the news. As usual, we have a roundup of some of the best articles from the past 7 days or so. We're shaking off the holiday drowsiness and getting into full gear to help you get through the next phase of ICC, find out when we'll see more Cataclysm news, and more. Join us in the server downtime vigil and read on.
Realm maintenance for January 5th [Updated]
This morning we were given a pleasantly early notice regarding tomorrow's maintenance downtime for North American and Oceanic realms. Realms will be going down at 3:00 AM PST, and are expected to be down until 11:00 AM PST at the earliest. Though we haven't seen official word on the topic yet, it's expected that the next wing of Icecrown Citadel, the Plagueworks, will open tomorrow once realms come back online. This wing will include the bosses Rotface, Festergut, and Professor Putricide. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if we also saw a minor bug fix patch tomorrow, but only time will tell. If we hear anymore regarding either of those things throughout the day, we'll be sure to keep you updated. Edit: I know how to use a calendar. Really. I do.
Tuesday Morning Post: Same Old Auld Lang Syne edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. Winter Veil is winding down, and as we here at the WoW.com offices fight over the last carton of eggnog, we've been taking a lot of time to look over the past year and celebrate. Of course, here in the Tuesday Morning Post, we generally look at the past 7 days or so. So yeah, there's plenty of the navel gazing stuff, but there's a good smattering of news too. Nothing too major, I suppose. Even the dev team likes to see their family over the holidays, I guess. But it's there. And in the meantime, a little bit of a navel gazing never hurt anyone. Our navels are pretty awesome anyway. Join me for the last Tuesday morning of 2009 and catch up on your WoW reading. The usual list is after the break.
Tuesday Morning Post: Twas the night before Winter Veil
Happy Tuesday Morning to all good little boys and girls. Ok, and the naughty ones too. Patch 3.3 seems to be coming along relatively smoothly, but with weeks before we see the next section of the Icecrown Citadel open up, we're sort of coasting along. Not that that's a bad place to be, what with the whole holidays thing. Speaking of which, Winter Veil is in full swing, and if you can catch a few moments to log on WoW on the 25th, be sure to pick up your gifts in game. Of course, even if the game itself is settling in to a patch 3.3 routine, we're still hopping in the WoW.com news room. We've got advice on the new raid bosses, advice on the new dungeon finder, and more. And of course, the new year's just around the corner, so we've started looking back at the year both on the site and in the game. As usual, I have a list of some of the best stories from the past 7 days after the break.
Tuesday Morning Post: Patch 3.3 downtime edition
Poor Matt. He was just one week off from keeping his Val'anyr. But seriously, it's finally here. Patch 3.3 is the culmination of the Wrath of the Lich King experience. Informed by everything they've learned so far, in class balance, in mechanics, in lore, this is the crown of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. This is the epic climax of one of the main stories of the universe (Still, one would do well to remember that it is not the main story, and there is plenty more lore to be had. There were two games before the Lich King even came on the scene, after all). And of course, beyond it all lies the promise of the Cataclysm, and I can hardly wait. But before I go into fanboy mode, we'd best move on. There is, of course, a huge downtime coming up in order to facilitate the patch installation, and because of that, you probably have some time to catch up on your reading. I'd definitely recommend you look through our recently and constantly updated Guide to Patch 3.3, which provides a pretty handy roadmap to what's coming. Beyond that, we have our usual roundup of news from the past few days below the cut. Happy reading and Happy Patch 3.3!
Tuesday Morning Post: Stuffed edition
So, Zarhym has more or less confirmed that we aren't getting Patch 3.3 today (unless he's lying, in which case I'm going to look like a fool when you read this), which means the biggest story of the week is probably that whole thing with the Pilgrims and stuff. Of course, it's over now, and if you're like me, you had to comfort yourself with a plain old real turkey and stuffing and spending time with family instead of a new title, which I think is a pretty fair trade. Of course, that doesn't mean I'm not a little bit bummed that I broke my personal holiday completion streak, but hey, at least I still have my drake, right? Anyway, Thanksgiving aside, there's still plenty of other news to be had from around the WoW-o-sphere. As of this writing, there's still no word on a downtime, but chances are it's coming, and even if not, hey, Tuesday's as good a time as any to catch up on the latest news, right? If anything, you're probably still taking it slow at work while you finish recovering from all that turkey. Here's our usual roundup of the past 7 days or so:
More server outages for Whirlwind and Emberstorm [Updated]
There are more server outages hitting this afternoon, unfortunately impacting the same realms that were down for around ten hours last night. The Seattle datacenter was hit with a nasty power outage yesterday, but we currently don't know the reasons for the current downtime. There are no blue responses yet, but my gut says there's some lingering damage that will need to be dealt with this afternoon. Then again, we might be lucky and they'll be back in ten minutes. Who knows with these things? Keep an eye on WoW.com and we'll keep you posted should we hear anything. If you're not sure if you're part of one of these battlegroups, the full list is behind the cut. Update #1: Blizzard is aware of the issue. Not much else at the moment. Update #2: Looks like most servers are coming up. Our poor friends on Quel'Dorei are still down for the count. Update #3: Maintenance on these realms not necessarily 'done' says Malkorix. Update 11:57pm: Both battlegroups went down 12 minutes ago. More as we know it. Update 12:18am: Blizzard says they are working on it and that any compensation will come after the problems have been resolved. Update 3:37am: The servers are up temporarily, but will be intermittently taken down while they continue to resolve the underlying problem.
Updatedx3: Urgent maintenance complete
Blizzard has announced that they are conducting urgent maintenance on several realms. Though the official Warcraft twitter account announced it would only go on until noon PST (the tweet was about account maintenance), the in-game and forum messages state that they do not know how long the maintenance will take. They expect to have more information by 12:30 p.m. PST / 3:30 p.m. EST. The list of affected realms is after the break (which includes Zangarmarsh, the It came from the Blog server). We will keep you informed as the status changes. 3:25 p.m. PST: All realms are (supposedly) online and playable. Update 3 p.m. PST: More info at 3:30 PST. Update: More info at 1:30 p.m. PST.
Tuesday Morning Post: Identity Crisis Edition
So race changes are finally live, and with that, you can change your characters in just about every way possible short of class. Different faction? Go for it. Different gender? Change your face? Change your name? It's all good. Heck, you can do it every three days now. It's suddenly like we're all these crazy mutable nameless faceless blobs changing at will and at random, until we're practically a sea of shapeless shapeshifters. Or not. After all, there's still the whole money charge and stuff. Of course, that's not the only big news this week. Chill of the Throne, Icecrown's version of Sunwell Radiance, has been evoking a lot of discussion and a lot of unrest. Did Blizzard make the right choice in adding this much maligned dungeon-specific nerf back into the game? There's plenty of other issues as well, and as we have a nice 3 AM to 11 AM Pacific downtime, you'll have plenty of time to catch up with it all. You can start with some of the links below:
Maintenance for Tuesday November 3rd
All realms will be undergoing maintenance Tuesday November 3rd from 3:00 a.m. PDT until at least 11:00 a.m. PDT. This is more or less the standard maintenance that we've all come to know and love so much. So hopefully this won't come as a surprise for folks. We need to be diligent here and note that there is absolutely no indication patch 3.3 will drop tomorrow. That event is still at least a few weeks off from all indications coming into WoW.com HQ. Enjoy the downtime if you're not working -- go get some sun, eat a cheeseburger, do something off the game. It'll be leveling up in real life! Fun!
Server maintenance for September 29th
While we were given ample notice regarding last week's server maintenance, this week we weren't so lucky. We were only informed earlier today of tomorrow's maintenance, which will start at 5:00 am PDT and last until 11:00 am PDT. If you're not sure what time that is in your particular time zone, that's what the World Clock is for, you ninnies.As usual, WoW.com will be here all morning and afternoon to keep you busy while you slack off at work during your WoW-less lunch break. Or, if Valve is a benevolent sort and lets us get our grubby, pallid hands on it early, you could just play Left 4 Dead's new map while the servers are down. That's what I'll be doing the whole time.
Server Status: Coming back online
Not that this should surprise any of you, but the servers are not yet up. 11:00 a.m. PDT has come and gone, and many folks are still staring at a blank screen. A large batch of realms will be offline until at least 12:30 p.m. PDT. That list is after the break.If your realm is offline, I suggest reading up on everything in WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2.2. At least that way you'll be prepared for Ony when the time comes.The full list of realms undergoing extended maintenance after the break.Update 12:20 p.m. PDT: Most realms are now coming back online.
Realm status iPhone app sends push notifications for the servers
Reader Jiang sent us a tip about his new iPhone application (App Store link). It's a realm status application that will track your realm's up and down times straight from Blizzard's page so you can check them anytime on your iPhone. And that in itself isn't that amazing -- there are other apps that will do the same thing, and even some that will do it for free (Jiang's app is $1.99). But Jiang's app will also deliver Push notifications for you, and that's something I haven't seen before in an iPhone app. You can set notifications for multiple realms, and then whenever one goes up or down, you'll get a notification on your iPhone about it.A few of the other apps are working on implementing Push notifications, so if you're patient, you might be able to get them for cheaper (or even free, though it usually does cost money to run a notification server). But if you absolutely want up-to-the-minute notifications when servers go up and down and are willing to put a few bucks towards a piece of iPhone software, there you go.
European weekly maintenance: September 2nd 2009
It's nearly the middle of the week once more as well as the start of September. Can anyone else smell autumn yet? The days are getting cooler (thank you!) and the nights, darker. It will be the Harvest Festival in a couple of weeks with free food outside Ironforge and Ogrimmar and there are only so many days till Hallow's End and Christmas/Winter's Veil (sorry, I couldn't resist). However the onset of autumn, as well as being my favourite time of year, also means more time to play WoW. Just not on Wednesdays.This week Blizzard will be taking all European realms offline from 1:00am until 11:00am (CEST). However a selection of realms will be down for longer "to address instance capacity." These realms will be offline from 1:00am to 3:00pm on Wednesday and 3:00am to 7:00am (CEST) on Thursday:Agamaggan, Aggramar, Al'Akir, Arathor, Argent Dawn, Aszune, Azjol-Nerub, Bladefist, Bloodhoof, Bloodscalp, Burning Blade, Burning Legion, Crushridge, Daggerspine (oh boo, that's me), Deathwing, Doomhammer, Draenor, Dragonblight, Dragonmaw, Dunemaul, Emerald Dream, Sunstrider, Twilight's Hammer and Zenedar.
