Maintenance
Latest
Urgent maintenance for US realms
Blizzard has announced that they need to perform urgent maintenance on select US realms. There's no word on what the maintenance is for -- not that this is a surprise, as it's exceedingly rare that we get any specific reasons for downtime. (Perhaps this is for the best, since detailed info might just wind up being over-our-heads-techspeak.) However it's apparently not critical enough to require immediate downtime, as Blizzard isn't bringing any realms down until early Thursday morning, between 5:00 AM PDT and 7:00 AM PDT. So if you play on any of the following realms, be prepared to have a couple of hours of free time: Antonidas, Anub'arak, Blackwater Raiders, Bladefist, Cenarion Circle, Cenarius, Darrowmere, Drenden, Echo Isles, Farstriders, Fenris, Hydraxis, Hyjal, Korialstrasz, Lightbringer, Maiev, Misha, Mok'Nathal, Moon Guard, Nazgrel, Nordrassil, Quel'dorei, Ravenholdt, Rivendare, Shandris, Shu'halo, Sisters of Elune, The Forgotten Coast, Tortheldrin, Uther, or Vashj.
US authentication system maintenance this Friday
This Friday, from 5:00 AM PDT to 6:00 AM PDT, Blizzard will be performing maintenance on their authentication system. While they predict that this won't affect access to the game, this does mean that the account management system won't be available. Hopefully the maintenance will be as brief and unnoticable as Blizzard plans, though even the best laid plans are sometimes flawed. So if you have any management to do, be sure to get it done before 5:00 AM. For those of you needing a source for this information, I'm afraid I can't give you a link -- there's an announcement on the login screen, but no information on the forums or homepage.
Rolling restarts this week for US realms
Happy Tuesday, everyone! This week's regular maintenance cycle for US realms will be performed via rolling restarts of all realms, starting at 5:00 AM PDT today. What this means, of course, is that we shouldn't expect more than 15 minutes of downtime while the realms are restarted -- though we can't say precisely when the restarts will occur for each realm. (Blizzard will be working their way down the realm list, so your realm could come up right at five o'clock or could be left for last.)In addition to the rolling restarts, Blizzard will also be performing some authentication system maintenance during an unspecified time period today. However, the maintenance shouldn't hinder our ability to log on to the game. So play on, everyone![via Breaking News on the login screen]
Administrative notes for EU players
We've got a couple of notes from the CMs over on the European forums. First up: free character transfers! Transfers opened today allowing players on some of the highest population PvP realms to move to some of the lower population PvP realms. So if you play on the EU realms Grim Batol, Stonemaul, and Warsong -- you can transfer to EU realms Agamaggan, Daggerspine, and Spinebreaker. Transfers will be open until Sunday, July 22nd, so if you're interested in this, you've only got a week to take advantage of it.In less happy news, on July 17th, the EU web page will be offline for maintenance between 03:00 CEST and 09:00 CEST. While you'll be able to play, you won't be able to access the website.
Patch 2.1.3 released
After having had some fun on the PTRs, patch 2.1.3 has gone live this morning. It's still pretty much a small bug-fix patch; here are the notes:World of Warcraft Client Patch 2.1.3General Read in-game mail will now be kept for thirty days instead of three. The Warlock spell Incinerate has had the performance of its graphical spell effect improved. The "Show Launcher" option has changed so that it now defaults to "On". Players will now see the launcher when running WoW by default. User Interface Improved the performance of conditional macros, slightly increasing the framerate. Fixed a crash triggered by many unit frame AddOns. Bug Fixes Fixed an issue with the movement of Archimonde's Doomfire. Fixed the wand missile art on most Shadow based wands to show the correct graphical effect. Infinity Blades will now despawn properly when the encounter with Kael'thas resets after a wipe. Gan'arg Underlings and Felhound Defenders are now properly classified as demons. Enjoy your not crashing as much and your better-performing-graphics Incinerate, when the realms go back up.[thanks, Kompost]
Regular maintenance for all US realms this week
Yep, last week most realms had rolling restarts, which means that this week we have a regular maintenance. This week all US realms (which means AU realms, as well) will have a regularly scheduled maintenance period, starting at 5:00 AM PDT and ending at 11:00 AM PDT. Sure, on good weeks, the realms can come back up early, but it's just as common for them to come back up late. So for those of you who usually play during this period of time, my apologies -- maybe you can join me in my downtime hobby of re-playing the original StarCraft![Information via the login screen -- nope, there's nothing on the official site, or I'd link it]
Why Tuesday mornings?
Maintenance is going on right now on some servers, so now's a good a time as any to ask a question I've never really considered before: why 5 to 7 am PST on a Tuesday morning? Why did Blizzard choose this time to refresh and update the servers every week?The obvious answer is that that's when the least number of players will be bothered, and indeed, that's what the wise and kind Nethaera says. But there's no way that time is always the lowest population every week, and sometimes maintenance, as it will today, runs long anyway. Why not Wednesday morning, or Sunday morning, or Thursday midafternoon, or Saturday evening? Actually, that last one would be a problem. But you're always going to inconvenience someone, so why not move it around a little and give those Tuesday players a break?Neth says they're "always going to choose to do what needs done for the most benefit of the health of the game and servers." Which is fine by me-- back when I worked in retail shifts, I usually had Tuesday mornings off and couldn't play, but with my 9-5 now, it doesn't bother me anyway (and the recent changes to have restarts rather than downtime help, I'm sure). But are you someone who's been screwed out of gametime every Tuesday? And if you're not, would you mind giving up your playtime one week just so the folks on Tuesday morning wouldn't have to deal with the downtime and the restarts?
Some downtime, some rolling restarts for this week's mainteinace
This week in server maintenance, most realms will have rolling restarts instead of downtime (these restarts will be starting at 5:00 AM PDT, and such things usually involve around 15 minutes of downtime per realm), but selected realms will have a longer than usual maintenance cycle starting at 3:00 AM PDT and lasting until 1:00 PM PDT. No word on what the additional downtime is for (perhaps this particular hardware simply needed a regular maintenance cycle this week?), but if you're playing on any of the following realms, expect downtime during this week's maintenance cycle. The list includes: Agamaggan, Alexstrasza, Alleria, Azshara, Baelgun, Balnazzar, Blackhand, Cho'gall, Dark Iron, Destromath, Dethecus, Detheroc, Emerald Dream, Garona, Gorgonnash, Greymane, Gul'dan, Hellscream, Illidan, Kael'thas, Kalecgos, Kirin Tor, Lightninghoof, Maelstrom, Malfurion, Moonrunner, Nazjatar, Ravencrest, Sargeras, Spinebreaker, Staghelm, Stormreaver, Twisting Nether, Ursin, Whisperwind, and Wildhammer.For those of you without downtime tonight, grats. For those of you with extended downtime... well, I can recommend some good books.
Incoming nether drake fix
It looks like the swift nether drake situation is getting fixed sooner rather than later, and they're going to have to bring the realms down for a few early-morning hours to do it. (Edit: early morning for some, but prime time for Oceania!) From the breaking news box:We will be bringing down all realms to implement a fix for the Arena end-of-season rewards, and sending the correct rewards to teams that participated. This maintenance will begin at 5:00 AM PDT, June 22, and will last until approximately 7:00 AM PDT. For more information on this issue and resolution please visit the PvP Discussion forum.Over in the PvP forums, Drysc posted the following:During this maintenance all of the end-of-season rewards will be resent to the correct teams and players. By resending the rewards players who already have an Armored Nether Drake will simply receive duplicates. As these are unique items the new mail messages can only be deleted. The Arena titles will also be applied again, and players will have the correct title available to them after the maintenance. We appreciate everyone's patience in awaiting this resolution, and apologize for any inconvenience or frustration that it may have caused.
Patch 2.1.2 coming this Tuesday!
You know the PTRs are up and running with patch 2.1.2, don't you? So far, patch 2.1.2 is a mix of bug fixes, minor tweaks, and Season 2 arena rewards (for full patch notes, check here -- though note, these are the PTR notes, and there may be some changes on the live realms). And it looks like we have an official release date for it on the live realms! When asked if we could expect the patch to go live this Tuesday, Nethaera replied:The Magic 8 Ball had this to say, "AS I SEE IT YES."She then clarifies:So far things look good. If there is a delay, we'll let people know.As of right now, this means US players should expect this Tuesday to be patch day, and EU players should expect the same on Wednesday.
Known 2.1 issues (and a few more besides)
The realms are down this morning for "scheduled maintenance," and in the meantime, here's a list of what's wrong (and hopefully what's being fixed right now). Blizz QA guy Hortus has posted a list of known issues in 2.1, and I've included it in full after the break.Most of these are pretty inconsequential and/or already known, but a few of them might cause confusion (I had the "grayed out" icon thing happen to me just last night-- the spell looked like it was unavailable, but I could still use it). They all seem easy enough to fix, and so hopefully when the realms go back up today, we won't see them again.Strangely enough, there's no mention of the Hunter bug/feature at all, so Blizzard still hasn't confirmed that one officially (or maybe hunters liked using it so much they just didn't want to report it). And though Neth has confirmed the Spellthread nerf as a bug, it's not on this list either. I guess we'll have to see what drops this morning-- we could get a small post-2.1 patch, or maybe we'll have to wait for further hotfixes to see any of these bugs squashed.
Mini-Review: Power Support Track Pad Film
While attracting dirt and grime is a hazard of owning a notebook, the neat-freak and 'oh my gosh this is expensive computer equipment' portions of my brains have always been bothered by how icky my MacBook Pro can get over time. I've tried a few products that are designed to protect one portion or another of a MacBook Pro from dirt, and Power Support's Track Pad Film is just such a product. It comes as two separate pieces - one for the mouse button and another for the track pad - and Power Support sells them as a two-pack so you get a backup in case you make a mistake or have a friend who could use some track pad protection. Since the Track Pad Film is basically a clear sticker that is designed to allow you to still use your MacBook's track pad, application is pretty simple. Some people prefer to wash the heck out of their hands, while I personally just peel back the underside of the sticker and apply without ever actually touching the film. There isn't much to say about how well the film protects your track pad and mouse button: it's a clear sticker, so those two components are pretty well covered, as long as you applied them properly. 'Nuff said. In terms of the performance of the actual piece of film that covers the track pad, I have a mixed opinion: for the most part, the track pad still responds fairly accurately. I'm a dual-mode notebook mouser myself - I can use a track pad or a USB mouse with almost equal comfort and precision, so I'm not one of those people who's dead in the water if I have nothing but a fingertip to steer with. However, I notice at random times that my trackpad accuracy momentarily goes out the window - for a stroke or two on the pad, it might pick up only half the normal distance the mouse would typically travel, or the mouse might get a little shaky on the screen, as if Mac OS X is having a hard time understanding exactly where my finger is and where I want the mouse to go. Overall, if we had an official rating system on TUAW, I would give the Track Pad Film a 7 out of 10. It's a decent product that can certainly help protect one's track pad from dirt and general wear and tear, but this occasional drop in accuracy is a big ding for this blogging power user. I found Track Pad Film in a Colorado Apple Store for $12.95, but you can also order it for your MacBook/Pro (including a version specific for the black MacBook) from Power Support.
No 2.1 tomorrow
Not that this is particularly surprising, but it seems that we'll be sticking to the new maintenance schedule and doing rolling restarts tomorrow (for most realms), starting at 5:00 AM PST. This means that there will almost certainly be no patch this week, since as far as I know it's absolutely impossible to apply a patch of this magnitude with no downtime. Maybe next week, folks! A few realms are going to be going down, though, according to the in-game "Breaking News:" Area 52 Auchindoun Azuremyst Blade's Edge Blood Furnace Coilfang Exodar Shattered Halls Terokkar The Scryers The Underbog Velen Zangarmarsh Maintenance for these realms is estimated at two hours. Again, I wouldn't have expected the patch to go live this week anyway; they just opened the Black Temple a little while ago and that's going to need a lot of testing.
One of Blizz's ISPs performing maintenance
One of Blizzard's service providers is performing some maintenance. Blizzard thinks that this should not cause any issues for us players, but gives a list of affected realms just in case. I hope there aren't any complications from this; my realm is on the list, and weekends are certainly peak playing time for many people. 74 of WoW's 265 North American realms are listed. From the in-game Breaking News box:We've been informed by one of our service providers that they will be performing a maintenance that may impact some of our servers. We've been told that the maintenance should not affect connectivity, and thus there should not be any disconnections or performance issues from it. However, we're informing those of you on the below realms in the event that they should occur.
The extended maintenance cycle begins! [Updated]
Tseric greets us on this pleasant Tuesday afternoon with the news that today's maintenance cycle has been extended until 1PM PDT for select realms. There is, however, no news as to why the maintenance has been extended -- patch problems, perhaps? Though as far as "select realms" are concerned, I suspect the list of "non-select realms" would be shorter. So if you play on any of the following realms, the wait for uptime just got a little longer: Agamaggan, Aggramar, Alexstrasza, Alleria, Arathor, Argent Dawn, Arthas, Azgalor, Azjol-Nerub, Azshara, Baelgun, Balnazzar, Blackhand, Bleeding Hollow, Bloodhoof, Bloodscalp, Bonechewer, Boulderfist, Bronzebeard, Burning Blade, Burning Legion, Cho'gall, Crushridge, Daggerspine, Dark Iron, Darkspear, Destromath, Dethecus, Detheroc, Draenor, Dragonblight, Dragonmaw, Dunemaul, Durotan, Earthen Ring, Eldre'Thalas, Elune, Emerald Dream, Eonar, Eredar, Feathermoon, Firetree, Frostmane, Garona, Gilneas, Gorefiend, Gorgonnash, Greymane, Gul'dan, Gurubashi, Hellscream, Illidan, Kalecgos, Kael'Thas, Kargath, Kirin Tor, Laughing Skull, Lightninghoof, Lightning's Blade, Llane, Lothar, Madoran, Maelstrom, Magtheridon, Malfurion, Malygos, Mannoroth, Medivh, Moonrunner, Nathrezim, Nazjatar, Perenolde, Ravencrest, Sargeras, Scarlet Crusade, Shadow Council, Shadow Moon, Shadowsong, Shattered Hand, Silvermoon, Skullcrusher, Skywall, Smolderthorn, Spinebreaker, Spirestone, Staghelm, Stonemaul, Stormrage, Stormreaver, Stormscale, Suramar, Terenas, Thunderhorn, Thunderlord, Trollbane, Twisting Nether, Uldum, Ursin, Warsong, Whisperwind, Wildhammer, Windrunner, and Zul'jin. (Wow, that was a mouthful.)Update: Tseric informs us that all realms should be back online in a matter of moments. Huzzah!
Praise the gods, Xbox Live is back up!
It has been a while, much longer than expected, but Xbox Live and Xbox.com are finally back up and running! To be honest, we were getting a little worried to whether or not our beloved online service would even make it through this, but praise the gods she's alive. We're thinking that pulling an all nighter may just be the cure for this18 hour Xbox Live deprivation. And even though the maintenance took longer than expected, we have to thank Major Nelson for for his up to the minute status reports from the field. Okay, enough reading, time to get online and game already!
360 fanboys am cry: Live is down
Gone since last night, Xbox Live is still down for maintenance. All we can say is that Microsoft better hurry up and finish maintaining, damn it! We've got important people to frag. Major Nelson, paragon of wisdom that he is, has assured us that the maintenance should be fixed by 1400 Pacific Time. After some research, we've discovered that 1400 is code for 2:00PM. In other words, we've got a few hours to go. Stay strong fanboys, stay strong.
Another week, another maintenance cycle...
Well, this week we don't quite have live maintenance, but we don't have a full regular maintenance, either. Eyonix informs us that starting at 5:00 AM PDT (or 8:00 AM EST) all servers will be offline for approximately three hours for maintenance to the authentication databases. Most US players won't notice an early morning maintenance like this, but sadly, it still falls right in prime time for Australian players, for whom it starts between 8:00 PM and 10:00 PM, depending on their time zone. Sorry, folks -- I'd be pretty frustrated if regular maintenance hit during my prime time play schedule, too.
Xbox Live maintenance next Tuesday, purely housekeeping
Xbox Live will be down next Tuesday for 14 hours from 3AM until 5PM EST, so you shouldn't plan any marathon sessions of online gaming with your Xbox ... because you'll be a very unhappy camper. Major Nelson said this is only for internal maintenance, and there won't be any new updates to the Dashboard or anything nifty like that happening.So prepare for an all-night session on Monday right up until the plug is pulled if you really want to get your gaming on. Fourteen hours seems like a long time for internal maintenance ... could there be something else going on behind the scenes?
Xbox Live maintenance next Tuesday
Giving plenty of advanced notice, Major Nelson wanted to let everyone know that there is scheduled Xbox Live maintenance coming next week. On Tuesday, March 27th from 3:00AM EST to 5:00PM EST (that's 14 hours) Xbox Live, Xbox.com, and the Xbox Forums will be down and unavailable. Major is also making it clear that this is only internal maintenance and no new dashboard update will be released during this time. Though, we can expect a new dash update later this Spring. Come next Tuesday you'll have plenty of time to clean your room, wax your car, stare at the ceiling or complete a few tasks that Xbox.com recommends. We're scared ... hold us.
