Ritual-of-Summoning
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Breakfast Topic: Uh, yeah, patch day
Ok, so I didn't call it right. Adam did over chat, though, saying that changes needed to be made client side which indicated a patch. Of course, since I'd written everything up and because I'm lazy and didn't offer to eat my hat, I went ahead and said it's not a patch day. As it turns out, it was a patch day, although most definitely not one of those newfangled patches with bells and whistles and cool new features. It was a patch that resembled an honest-to-goodness patch, the kind that you sew on to holes in your pants. The kind of patch that's intended to cover up something embarrassing.Because Patch 3.0.8 had a few holes that needed some patching, we got a nice little build to fix it yesterday. Like the Warlock's Ritual of Summoning. It really is fixed. How do like that flasher demon thing? Of course, they also nerfed Arcane Mages a little (more like a love tap, really). Is there anything you found in yesterday's, ah, patch that you found interesting? Since it wasn't a big patch, it didn't come with extensive patch notes. In fact, most of the stuff in there you'll probably have to discover yourself. Kind of like a mini-game. So how are you in this post Patch 3.0.8.9506 world?
Ritual of Summoning is actually still broken [Updated]
The article's image expresses how I, and I'm sure many others, feel about this.Ghostcrawler posted last night that Ritual of Summoning would be fixed today. Nethaera posted small, but important, patch notes saying that it had been fixed. "Ritual of Summoning no longer has a 2 minute cooldown and will now function as intended."However people are reporting that it still isn't working correctly.Ghostcrawler now comes out and says that it'll be fixed sometime later today. "We are still on target to get this fixed today (Tue, Jan 27). I did not mean to imply that it would be fixed when the servers came back up."Left hand, let me introduce you to right hand. Right hand says things like "We'll fix this today." Left hand says things like "These are the patch notes for this patch, which is now live." Right hand should tell left hand that not everything is live just yet, and update the patch notes accordingly.Now that I got my tenses all screwed up, we'll update when Ritual of Summoning actually is fixed.Update: It is now fixed, for real this time.
Bug fixes for Hunters, Locks, and Death Knights tomorrow
Ghostcrawler has updated us on the status of three major bugs that have been present since patch 3.0.8 went live last Tuesday. The Hunter Aspect bug, in which aspects are on a global cooldown like mechanism. The Warlock Ritual of Summoning, which had a two minute cooldown implemented to prevent some sort of undisclosed exploit. Howling Blast, which showed to not have a cooldown, but in reality had a five second one. "Assuming nothing comes up at the last minute", Ghostcrawler says, "[these] will be fixed tomorrow."There is no word if these fixes will come in the form of a small patch to the client, or if they are going to be done server side. Since the Howling Blast is a bug that is linked to client data files, I would assume that fixing it necessitates rolling out a minor patch. However that's just an assumption based on the way things were done in the past, and Blizzard could have other technology present to circumvent the need for a full patch.Nonetheless, a couple more bugs will get fixed tomorrow. This is a good thing.
Patch 3.0.8 bug roundup
My favorite time of the patch day is here – looking at all the bugs! At the time of this writing, we're about six hours after the patch and the majority of bugs have been found. We've counted six of them, and will go over each and when the fix is expected after the break.Obviously some are more important than others. The Wintergrasp bug that is currently crashing servers left and right needs to be fixed "nao," as people are clamoring about in trade channels. The game is nearly unplayable for most people.Interestingly there are no bugs about missing mail or other missing items, nor are there reports of extreme lag and other difficulties (other than the severs crashing). The full list of 3.0.8 bugs, and information about their status, after the break.
Minor bugs to appear in patch 3.0.8
Eyonix posted a note about a few minor bugs that will appear when patch 3.0.8 goes live: Ritual of Summoning can only be used once every two minutes. Human females have animation errors when shooting a ranged weapon or using two-handed weapons. Remember that with 3.0.8 Ritual of Summoning will be changed to create a summoning stone. The Warlock will cast Ritual of Summoning, which will drop the stone, which can then be used to summon other party/raid members. We are assuming that it's the actual casting of the spell to summon the stone that can only be used once every two minutes, and not the actual summoning of people.We'll get some video of the animation errors up on WoW Insider as soon as we can, I'm sure there's some potentially funny stuff there.And don't bother asking if 3.0.8 is coming tomorrow. While we think it's definitely possible, god only knows what Blizzard will actually do. I give it a 80/20 chance that it drops tomorrow morning.
Ritual of Summoning revamped
Soul Shards: love them or hate them, they're iconic of the Warlock class. Most choose to hate them, but I think locks are just full of hate in general and need to vent it somewhere. Along with a tantalizing note about "exciting changes to how soul shards might work," European CM Vaneck has just let us know that one common shard-based ability, Ritual of Summoning, is going to be changed Before the 3.1/Ulduar Patch (a promise I'm seeing a lot of lately; we can only hope that patch is soon). Essentially, the new RoS will create a meeting stone-like object. It'll still take two players in addition to the Warlock, as well as one shard, but once the ritual has been cast, the stone can be re-used to summon as many people as desired within its five minute duration, and that summoning action will merely require any two players, just like a meeting stone. You can also summon multiple people simultaneously, and all just for one shard. You won't be able to summon in situations where you currently can't (Netherstorm, battlegrounds, in combat), but this will make summoning much easier, quicker, and less shard-intensive. A great idea.
The strange task of entering Dalaran
Here's a somewhat annoying little problem with the Beta. As of the latest build, you can't just walk into Dalaran, or rather, you can't just use the teleportation crystal go up. Instead, you have to complete a quest to align yourself to Dalaran. But this quest is only available at level 74. In the Outlands, it's not uncommon for a fresh 58 to head through the Dark Portal and right to Shattrath City. Binding in one of the Inns there essentially puts all of the Outlands before you, with flights connecting you easily to where you wish to go. It seems strange that Blizzard has put up this strange quest attunement roadblock to those who wish to alight from the boat to Northrend and head straight to the capital. Perhaps it's a similar decision that caused them to restrict flying mounts to level 77 and above -- they don't want people skimping on exploration and seeing content, so they make you hang around the newbie zones for a while before you can just stick with Dalaran. Luckily, not all is completely lost. Much like with Shattrath before level 58, You can still get teleported or summoned up by a Mage or Warlock before level 74. Still, it's a strange little extra hoop Blizzard's having us leap through to get the to top.
What you really want to know about the patch 2.4 notes
Yeah yeah, the full patch notes are a good read, but why read those when we can pull the good stuff out? Here's what we thought was big in patch 2.4: Sunwell is inc! Also, the island where the Shattered Sun Offensive is fighting is called the Isle of Quel'Danas. There's a Keeper of Time to take players in Shattrath to the Caverns of Time Spell haste changes are in, as well as item casting changes (items that cast spells will do so at player's level now), and more intellect will now regenerate more mana per Spirit Find Treasure doesn't deactivate on death anymore, but there's nothing about Find Herbs, Find Minerals, or any of the other tracking spells Fear Ward usable in Shadowform (meh, say shadow priests) A whole host of spells that weren't penalized at lower ranks are now penalized Earth Shield nerfed-- mana cost lowered and charges dropped from 10 to 6, and Shamans get a default UI totem timer Ritual of Summoning can bring players into instances now Warrior Endless Rage is fixed, and now you can't change into a stance that you're currently in Honor instantly calculated, since there are no diminishing returns Warmasters and marshals in AV now share each other's health, and Horde starting point has been moved south WSG changes: when both flags are held for 10 mins, flag carriers take more damage, increases over time. Also, flag carriers can be tracked after holding flag for 45 seconds. Enchanting: Void Crystal to Large Prismatic, and Defense +15 to chest Rocket Boots nerf is in there-- players carrying flag in WSG will drop it when boots are activated 25man bosses drop more cash and an extra set token No attunments for Hyjal and Black Temple any more (players who've completed Attunement will get "Hand of Ad'al" title) Vashj and Kael can be fought without finishing all other bosses in the instance Undead and Mechanical can bleed, elementals not always immune to poison and disease effects (though nature-based elementals will be immune to nature poisons and effects) Level 70 superior quality PvP items from rep vendors Weightstones and sharpening stones now work while shapeshifted Lots of UI changes, including new options screen Whew! Even as a summary, that's a lot of notes. Players aren't exactly excited about the patch on the forums, but odds are there's something pretty big that affects you in there.
