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SWTOR goes bug hunting with 1.0.2 and prognosticates PvP improvements
With the abundance of bugs and glitches in Star Wars: The Old Republic, fans are looking to James Ohlen's promise of weekly patches to shore up the faults. Yesterday we saw patch 1.0.2 go live with some -- but certainly not all -- of these fixes, as well as an increase in the PvP lockbox rewards and allowing players to emote while mounted. In addition to yesterday's patch, today BioWare plans to roll out an emergency fix to address a few important issues: players crashing to desktop at character select, a problem with the chat channels in which they would stop functioning for some people, and the now-infamous /getdown bug. PvP Lead Gabe Amatangelo also emerged from the BioWare fortress to chat about plans for the future of the game's PvP combat. According to Amatangelo, the team is working on level 50 brackets for warzones, vastly improving open world PvP on Ilum, a new same-faction vs. same-faction warzone, team vs. team queuing, ranked warzone matches, and more. He says that to date, over a million warzone matches have been played, with 39% of those matches played being Huttball and the Empire winning 53% of every match fought.
Microsoft leak reveals hotfix for underperforming Bulldozers
AMD's Bulldozer silicon is enormously powerful, but most software isn't configured to schedule threads for the faux-16 core design. Windows can only see the chip as a quad-core CPU and will randomly assign threads, which ruins the point of Bulldozer's "Turbo Core" design. Microsoft inadvertently revealed it had teamed up with the chipmaker to fix the problem when it prematurely released a hotfix for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Initial tests showed that it could improve performance by up to seven percent, before it was pulled -- Microsoft conceding that it wasn't quite ready for prime-time.
Patch 4.2 hotfixes for Sept. 8
Blizzard has just updated patch 4.2 with some new hotfixes, including confirmation of the dreaded Smouldering Essence-gate that is plaguing the community at this very moment. In case you have been out of the loop, Blizzard is drastically lowering the number of Smouldering Essences that drop off Firelands bosses for the Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest quest line in order to complete the legendary staff. Guilds in 25-man raiding groups were completing the staff too quickly, making it easy for each guild to obtain many of the legendaries. Having multiple legendaries per guild, especially when moving into the next tier of content, is going to be a pain to balance, so Blizzard has put the kibosh on being able to reasonably get multiple staffs per raiding group. Such is the way of things. Hit the jump for all of the new hotfixes.
Patch 4.2 hotfixes for August 16
Blizzard's Zarhym released a new set of hotfix notes tonight. While many of these should be live as we speak, remember that some of these fixes may require a server restart to take hold. Among some of the highlights: Threat generation for all tanks has been increased to 500%, up from 300%. This is in line with today's Dev Watercooler. Occu'thar has come into a larger supply of PVE gear than he previously possessed. The full list of hotfixes is as follows after the break.
Patch 4.2 hotfixes for August 4
It's been awhile since our last hotfix update from the World of Warcraft community managers, but have no fear: Zarhym has been ever-vigilant in recording the ongoing changes to the game. Tonight he has provided us with another update to the hotfix notes, confirming a few things players may have noticed already. Unheeded Warning now grants 1,926 attack power instead of 680 weapon damage. Balloon pets can no longer be sold to vendors. Numerous item, item set, and raid balancing changes are in. Hit the cut below for the full list of recently implemented hotfixes.
Masterwork Elementium Deathblade hotfixed
If you are a warrior, DK or paladin looking to pick up the Masterwork Elementium Deathblade, well, you probably don't care that it is simply hideous. Reusing the same model as pretty much every blue sword outside of the crafted 2H blue Obsidian Executioner (which, in my opinion, had a superior model) was bad enough. But a lot of people were still interested in it due to its stats -- specifically, a slow swing speed of 3.8 and a top-end damage of 3,256. (To give you an idea, the Skullstealer Greataxe, a weapon with nearly 100 more DPS, has lower top-end damage.) Top-end damage is often used to calculate special attacks for various melee classes, making the sword very attractive for the ilevel. However, if you were looking to pick up the MED for that reason, don't bother. As you can see from the original link, its top-end damage has been lowered to 2,769, while its swing speed has been increased to 3.5. Forum posters immediately noticed, and Blizzard's Zarhym soon clarified the change. Now, of course, there's debate raging back and forth about the change and if the sword is even worth crafting anymore. My take on it is yes, it's worth crafting -- it's just not better than Firelands drops for some players anymore. It shouldn't be even close, which it was. If you're crafting or buying this sword, you're still getting a better weapon than drops in normal mode tier 11 raids, and that's fine. It shouldn't outperform heroic tier 11 and be able to compete with tier 12 weapons. It's meant to help you catch up to Firelands, and it will still do that. The news is already rolling out for the upcoming WoW Patch 4.2! Preview the new Firelands raid, marvel at the new legendary staff, and get the inside scoop on new quest hubs -- plus new tier 12 armor!
Tier 11 normal mode raid bosses to give valor points again
Good news for everyone tired of all those trolls: Tier 11 normal modes will once again give valor points. According to Community Manager Daxxarri, raids will receive 35 valor points on 10-man bosses and 45 valor points on 25-man bosses. This hotfix should be live within the next few hours. For the full text of the announcement, check after the break.
Patch 4.2 hotfixes for July 12
Blizzard just updated patch 4.2 with some hotfixes for July 12. Most notably, the Ragnaros encounter at the end of the Firelands raid went through many changes due to the high-end guilds' finally making it to his chamber. Ragnaros' enrage timer was increased, portions of his platform that were being used to dodge mechanics were changed, and the extra phase on heroic difficulty was, hopefully, fixed. The Molten Front and the Regrowth daily questing areas were also hotfixed, with wounded Hyjal defenders now appearing wounded and those pesky Windcallers now appearing a bit more quickly (if you chose the Druids of the Talons). Hit the jump for the full notes.
Firelands crafting recipe drop rate nerfed
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aims to show you how to make money on the auction house. Email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail! The recipes that drop from trash in Firelands have had their drop rate nerfed in a recent hotfix: Hot fixes notes The rate at which crafting recipes drop has been greatly reduced. source This makes sense from a design perspective; these patterns take some pretty rare boss drops to be made and produce gear on par with normal mode Firelands boss gear drops. On most realms, everyone who is getting the recipes is trying to sell them -- at first, for a lot; however, I've been picking them up for a tenth of what they were being listed for yesterday. One of the interesting artifacts of this system before the nerf was that the people most likely to get the recipe were people farming reputation by doing trash runs. The people most likely to be able to craft the items were the ones in the more organized and progression-minded raiding groups. Now that the drop rate has been reduced, in a few weeks when more guilds are making it farther into the instance, it's possible that more recipes will drop into the laps of raiding guilds than trash PUGs. Click past the jump for a list of the recipes that are affected.
Patch 4.1 hotfixes for June 1
Don't make the mistake of thinking that because the patch 4.2 PTR is up that patch 4.1 won't see any changes, because today's round of hotfixes will teach you otherwise. Once again, Blizzard's Zarhym brings us a grocery bag of class, raid, and other fixes, including the following. Warlocks will no longer be able to give people the increased buff from Improved Demonic Tactics when they switch specs or otherwise lose the talent, and their Glyph of Imp will now not affect all warlock pets. Maloriak in BWD is now going to prefer to cast his Flash Freeze on ranged players and won't cast it on a player specced to tank. Tanks can still have it chained onto them, however. Bountiful Bags guild perk will no longer create more keystone items from archaeology finds. The goblin racial Best Deal Anywhere will now only work with vendors you have reputation with and won't stack with exalted guild reputation dealing with guild vendors. The full list of hotfixes after the beep.
Skype pushes update to Mac client for security flaw
As we mentioned Saturday, a critical vulnerability in the Skype 5 client for Mac could have exposed your machine to attack from malicious contacts (the vector for attack is an instant message, which you only can receive by default from people you already 'trust' in Skype). With no exploit active in the wild, the Skype Mac team patched the application to close the hole back on April 14 but did not push out the update to all users. As of today, there's a new hotfix (5.1.0.935) that is being provided for all Skype 5 users; it closes the security holes and also fixes a few bugs, including video issues on high-bandwidth networks. Skype recommends that all users update to the new build. As John Gruber noted, the older 2.8 version of Skype (preferred by many for aesthetic reasons) was never affected by the vulnerability. Thanks to Chasapple for the heads-up.
EverQuest reduces downtime with faster patches and expanded hotfixes
While behind-the-scenes logistical tweaks may not get the glory that other news does, they can and do have a huge impact on the game. This looks to be the case with EverQuest, which has undergone "substantial server side changes" to allow the team to update the game more efficiently. The bottom line is that now Sony Online Entertainment can apply EverQuest updates much more quickly than before while reducing the potential for issues to pop up during file transfers. As a result, players should be seeing reduced downtime in the future during these updates. The changes have also expanded the team's ability to apply hotfixes on the servers without bringing them down for patches: "While we still aren't able to hotfix everything, the hope is this will reduce the number of times we have to bring the servers down between our regular monthly updates." You can read the full notice at EverQuest Players.
Patch 4.0.6 hotfixes for Feb. 25
A new round of hotfixes to patch 4.0.6 were just released over at the official WoW blog. The changes are primarily fixes or nerfs to the heroic Valiona and Theralion encounter in the Bastion of Twilight. A few of the nerfs appear to balance the fight for the heroic 10-man version, while others are all-around nerfs to the damage in the fight. Another change fixes the ressurrection of players in the Twin Peaks and Battle for Gilneas battlegrounds. Patch 4.0.6 Hotfixes - February 25 Dungeons & Raids Bastion of Twilight Blackout will no longer hit players sent down to the Twilight Zone by either Valiona or Theralion. Collapsing Twilight Portal should no longer close faster when a person uses it while on Heroic difficulty. It now has a set duration. Devouring flame maximum damage has been reduced. Theralion's damage should now be more consistent with Valiona's on 10-player Heroic difficulty. Twilight Blast damage has been reduced on 10-player Heroic difficulty. Twilight Protection now lasts 6 seconds, up from 3. Players should now always receive the Twilight Protection buff when entering the Twilight Realm. Twilight Sentries have slightly lower health on 10-player Heroic difficulty. Twilight Zone damage has been lowered slightly. Unstable Twilight's search effect has been lowered to a 1-yard radius, down from 2. PvP Players in Battle for Gilneas and Twin Peaks who are Neutral with the associated factions should no longer experience issues resurrecting at the appropriate graveyards. source World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from leveling up a new goblin or worgen to breaking news and strategies on endgame play.
Patch 4.0.6 hotfixes for Feb. 22
We've got a pretty short list of hotfixes for Patch 4.0.6 this morning, courtesy of Community Manager Zarhym. Included are the hunter changes that have been mentioned several times over -- and for the raiders out there, a small adjustment to Throne of the Four Winds: Zarhym Classes Hunters Aimed Shot damage has been decreased to approximately 160% weapon damage (at level 80+), down from 200%. Aspect of the Hawk now provides 2000 attack power at level 85. Dungeons & Raids Throne of the Four Winds The Catch Fall aura is now removed whenever a player leaves the dungeon. source World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from leveling up a new goblin or worgen to breaking news and strategies on endgame play.
Patch 4.0.6 hotfixes for Feb. 19
Since the release of Patch 4.0.6, we've had a pretty steady stream of hotfix announcements, each one providing fairly substantial lists of changes over the past several weeks. Today, we've got what is less of a hotfix and more of a little note, courtesy of Community Manager Zarhym: Zarhym Classes Hunters The changes to Aimed Shot and Aspect of the Hawk announced yesterday have not yet been applied to live realms and should not go into effect until after the holiday weekend. source The changes referred to are the two hunter hotfixes from yesterday's list. Aimed Shot damage for hunters will be decreased to approximately 160% weapon damage at level 80+, down from 200%, and Aspect of the Hawk will provide an additional 2,000 attack power for hunters at level 85. These changes will presumably go live after Tuesday's maintenance. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from leveling up a new goblin or worgen to breaking news and strategies on endgame play.
Patch 4.0.6 hotfixes for Feb. 18
Blizzard's serving up some weekend hotfixes, included the promised dungeon finder changes from earlier this week. Community Manager Zarhym posted the updated list earlier, and along with the dungeon finder tweaks, we've also got a fairly good list of class changes. Keep in mind, while the dungeon finder changes have been implemented, they will take a realm restart in order to take effect. Some highlights: For hunters, Aspect of the Hawk now provides around an additional 2,000 attack power at level 85. For paladins, Light of Dawn no longer heals targets outside the paladin's party or raid. It correctly heals up to five targets in the paladin's raid. For warlocks, instant-cast Shadowbolts from Shadow Trance (both the talent and Glyph of Corruption versions) should no longer consume charges of Backdraft if both procs are available. Follow us after the break for the full list of hotfixes.
Patch 4.0.6 hotfixes for Feb. 16
Along with a list of hotfixes for the dungeon finder tool and vote kick system, Community Manager Zarhym released an update of hotfixes to other portions of the 4.0.6 patch. While some of these hotfixes go live the moment they're implemented, others will take a realm restart to go into effect. Today's list is just a small handful of class changes, plus one change to Blackwing Descent: Zarhym Classes Druid It is no longer possible for Skull Bash (Bear) to hit two targets at a time. A macro was previously circumventing the intended functionality of this ability. Shaman Purification (Restoration passive) now grants a 25% bonus to healing effects, up from 10%. More information can be found here. Priests In addition to its current effects, the Body and Soul talent now grants 12.5%/25% reduction to the base mana cost of Power Word: Shield. This is not reflected in the tooltip, but is reflected in the amount of mana used when Power Word: Shield is cast by Holy priests who have this talent. The tooltip update will require a client-side patch. Power Word: Shield now costs roughly 34% of base mana, up from 25%. This is not reflected in the tooltip, but is reflected in the amount of mana used when the spell is cast. The tooltip update will require a client-side patch. More information on these changes can be found here. Dungeons & Raids Blackwing Descent Maloriak will no longer cast Flash Freeze on anyone who is tanking Aberrations or anyone who has recently been hit by them. source World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from leveling up a new goblin or worgen to breaking news and strategies on endgame play.
Upcoming healer changes
Neth has just announced some healer changes that will be rolling out in a hotfix soon (likely later today; stay tuned here, and we'll post when the new list of hotfixes is released). The two big things to come out of this are: Power Word: Shield cost is going up by 33%. This nerfs disc priests. Shaman's Purification now increases healing effectiveness by 25%, up from 10%. The full statements are as follows: Nethaera Since the release of patch 4.0.6, we've been keeping an eye on healers and how they are performing and are currently in the process of making some additional adjustments. Priests The cost of Power Word: Shield is being increased by 33%. While we wanted Discipline priests to be able to utilize this spell more often and with better results, we also did not want it to be the main spell (and often the only spell) used while in groups. We don't find this to be a particularly compelling playstyle and have found that it encourages players to avoid using other spells such as Penance. We believe that using a shield in a tight moment is totally appropriate, but we don't want it to be incredibly efficient to do so with more frequency than that. We realize that by making Power Word: Shield slightly more expensive for Discipline priests to cast that it might cause Holy priests to avoid using it. To that end, we are adding mana savings into the Body and Soul talent. The tooltip will not reflect this change until a future patch, however. Ideally, Holy priests should not notice much of a change to the Power Word: Shield costs. Shaman We are also applying a hotfix for Purification for the Restoration shaman passive from 10% to 25%. We think that shaman healing per second is not as competitive with other healers and while we hoped to bring down Holy priest and Holy paladins (in particular) in 4.0.6, which we did, shaman still appear to be behind. In this case, it is simply easier to buff Restoration shaman rather than nerf everyone else or rebalance the encounters. In Addition - Restoration Druids and Restoration Shaman We agree with the sentiment among some players that Restoration druids and Restoration shaman are lacking in the healing cooldown department. The shaman buff and Power Word: Shield adjustment above should bring all healers reasonably close in terms of throughput. The decision on who to bring then might end up being dictated by the strong cooldowns offered by paladins or priests. This isn't the kind of thing we can address via a hotix, but it is something we are looking at for the next major content patch. As always, we appreciate your continued constructive feedback and will do our best to keep you informed of ongoing developments. source And finally, Nethaera says on the ETA of the changes: Nethaera We anticipate having these in relatively soon (possibly as soon as sometime today). We'll do our best to let you know once they're in and we'll be updating the notes on the Hotfix thread as well. source
Patch 4.0.6 hotfixes for Feb. 15
Another round of hotfixes has been announced this evening. Tonight brings us a few hotfixes to raid content, including every engineer's friend, the Cardboard Assassin. Sorry, my cardboard friend. Your days of tanking Cho'gall are over. Hotfixes for Feb. 15 General The amount of guild reputation and guild experience gained from killing a raid boss has been dramatically increased, as the previous rate felt too low compared to the difficulty of progressing through raid content. This change will require a realm restart to take effect, which will be next Tuesday's weekly scheduled maintenance at the latest. Shield of Velen guards in The Exodar are now consistent with other "royal" city guards in terms of health, level, and damage. Classes Mages Arcane Blast now costs 5% of base mana before stacking modifiers, down from 7%. Dungeons & Raids Baradin Hold Argaloth despawns and resets properly if the raid wipes during Fel Firestorm. Blackwing Descent While flying around the Vault of the Shadowflame, Nefarian no longer forces everyone to stand up if engaged. Throne of the Tides It should no longer be possible to summon a mount in certain areas of this dungeon. Items Shard of Woe (Heroic trinket) now reduces the base mana cost of spells by 205, with the exception of Holy and Nature spells -- the base mana cost of Holy and Nature spells remains reduced by 405 with this trinket. Professions Engineering Target Dummies are no longer able to taunt boss-level creatures. source
Herb respawn rates up
While there's been no comment from Blizzard on the matter, it appears that the respawn rate of some herbs has been drastically increased since patch 4.0.6. Now that the Undermine Journal is working again, we can actually see this in effect! Go ahead and search for Whiptail on any realm you want, and scroll down to the second graph under the "Price and Availability History" section.
