Maintenance
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Official forums going down for maintenance
Where will 8 million plus World of Warcraft players go to complain about class balance when the forums are taken down for maintenance tonight (Wednesday, March 14th) at 11:59 PM PDT? While I'm not certain, I'm sure we'll find out during the extended maintenance period, expected to last for about ten hours (until 10:00 AM PDT, Thursday, March 15th). The details of this maintenance are unknown (forum maintenance isn't terribly common), but it's reasonable to assume that, since no specific changes were announced, that the forums will come back online tomorrow just as we left them today. However, Blizzard has surprised me before...
Live maintenance now semi-permanent
Hey, maybe I should complain about downtime more often. It looks like live maintenance is coming back for real, meaning mere rolling restarts on Tuesdays, but only every other week. This gives them the chance to do whatever it is they need to do when the servers are down, but minimizes downtime otherwise. This schedule will of course get disrupted whenever a substantial patch comes out, if it happens to come out on a "live" day, because they need to bring the realms down to apply the server-side patch. But the next week will reset to live maintenance again, and order will be restored. This is obviously good news, but I'm gonna sort of miss the downtime on "off" Tuesdays. It was nice to wake up, decide to play WoW, and not be able to, a bit. Still, kudos Blizz, and I'm glad this live thing worked out. Drysc's full post is after the cut.
Maintenance goes long to fix "balancing issues," realm splits imminent?
Eyonix posted a short note earlier this evening that tomorrow's maintenance is going a little long-- realms will be offline tomrrow morning at 3AM PST and hopefully back online at 11:00AM PST. The reason for the delay is "a small patch" that's supposed to fix bugs and, here's the important part, "balancing issues."Now, I'd assume Blizzard would give us more notice than that if there were going to officially split realms. But that "balancing issues" phrase worries me a little bit-- we know that they're ready to take steps (mandatory, if necessary) to make sure overpopulated realms balance their population appropriately.Adding fuel to the speculatory fire, you'll also note that the realm transfers are only available until... tomorrow morning at 3 AM (right when the maintenance is starting). Could players log on tomorrow with their alts on completely different realms? I guess we'll know by 11 tomorrow morning.Update: This is just speculation, don't freak out. Sol-El helpfully points out in the comments that Blizzard has previously promised two weeks notice (in-game, too, not just on the message boards) on any mandatory realm splits. Still doesn't explain what "balancing issues" are fixed, but I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.Update2: Clearly, I was out on a limb by myself last night. The updates have hit, and everyone but me seemed to realize that Blizzard meant class balancing issues, not population balancing issues. Wishful thinking on my part, I guess-- with the way lag and spawn camping are on overpopulated realms, I was almost hoping my characters would appear on a less populated server this morning.
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No maintenance this Tuesday
There will be no regular Tuesday maintenance this week. That would be Tuesday, December 26th for you calendar impaired folks. Is this a late Christmas present from Blizzard? Well...sort of. According to Drysc, the retrofits they have been doing to server hardware over the past year have made it possible to go longer than one week in between maintenance periods. Good news! For those of you behind a firewall at work, here is Drysc's post in it's entirety:"Since the game's release, one of our most important service goals has been to reduce the amount of time realms are down for weekly realm maintenance. The various hardware upgrades and retrofits we've done over the past year have put us in a position to begin testing the ability to go longer than a week between maintenance periods. In the upcoming weeks, we will be testing the effect of a live maintenance, where regular maintenance tasks are run during off-peak with realms live. On Tuesday, December 26 there will be no scheduled downtime for weekly maintenance. We will perform all necessary maintenance tasks while the realms are live. We are anticipating the possibility that we may need to perform rolling restarts off-peak if we find that a realm restart is necessary; however the downtime for each realm would be less than 10 minutes if it was required."It would be really nice if this holds and we can make the Tuesday downtime a thing of the past.
Honor gain reduced by 30%
Two days ago: Drysc says if anything, prices of PVP items will drop, not go up.Today, after maintenance: Honor gain has been nerfed by 30% across the board.It's no secret that players were thrilled with the new PVP system. Honor points were plentiful, and PVP gear seemed right around the corner for many players who'd never had the time to grind the system in the past. But Neth says that the effort currently required is "lower than intended," and that the honor gain was reduced (in essence, honor prices were raised by 30% 42%*-- the exact opposite of what we were told two days ago) to counteract that.Players are furious. Ceace, who kindly dropped us a note about this (thanks!), asks why other solutions weren't considered-- why didn't they put a curve on the honor gain, or even a limit on how many points could be earned per day? With rested XP, Blizzard has come up with an innovative way to give a bonus to players who don't play the PVE as often. But the devs seem intent on punishing those who don't play PVP as much. This isn't the end of the world for casual PVPers (honor points don't decay, so you'll still get that gear eventually), but it does seem to be a little out of line, considering how much people liked the new system, and what we were told about the honor prices.At any rate, fallout from this is just beginning. I'm sure you'll find more in the comments below.*Update: A few commenters say this means prices have actually risen by 42.8%. I'm terrible at math-- anyone want to comment below and walk us through the equation?
Let the delays begin!
Of course having the servers back online as scheduled was too good to be true. And at 12:09 PM PST, Blizzard announced that maintenance would be extended by an additional four hours in order to deal with issues arising from the patching process. Yes, that means you shouldn't expect to be online and playing before 4:00 PM PST 5:00 PM PST -- at least if we're optimistic enough to assume this will be the afternoon's only hiccup!Update: Drysc, always trying to outdo me, posted an update by the time I clicked to post this. We are now looking at 5:00 PM PST.Update 2: All realms should be online and accepting players as of 6:00 PM PST.
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A few patch related items
Just a reminder for you guys about a few Blizzard announcements in regards to tomorrow's maintenance... Remember those select free realm transfers? Well, if you want to transfer a toon, do it quickly. Blizzard will be suspending the transfers beginning with the maintenance tomorrow. They anticipate bringing them back online in about a week, but the word "anticipate" doesn't mean definitely, so if you want to transfer, do it soon. If you happen to be using a European Language Pack to change the default language for your UI, you may want to backup your screenshots before applying the new patch, as they will be erased. For those of you uncomfortable with delving into your Windows folders, Blizzard gives instructions on how to preserve your screenies. Finally, the Tuesday downtime has been extended from 1 AM PST until 1 PM PST. Good luck downloading and installing the patch, and see you all in the arena!
Breakfast Topic: Dealing with downtime
We've all had to do it time and time again -- the servers are down for regular or emergency or just plain unscheduled maintenance, and your evening plans are suddenly ruined. So what do you do about it? Spend the evening trying repeatedly to log on to your realm? Troll the forums? Switch to a different realm? Roll a new alt? Fire up a different game? Go out for dinner? Go outside and try to remember what the sun looks like? Or something else entirely?
Downtime for select US realms today
Sixteen US realms are being taken offline for urgent maintenance early this morning -- that is to say, Thursday, November 30th at 5:00AM PST. The maintenance period is expected to last approximately one hour and, no -- there is not the faintest clue as to the reason for the maintenance, other than the indication that it is "urgent." So if 5:00 AM PST falls into your usual playtime, and you play on any of the following realms, you're going to be forced to take a nice breakfast break: Azjol-Nerub, Bloodscalp, Boulderfist, Bronzebeard, Crushridge, Daggerspine, Darkspear, Draenor, Dragonblight, Dunemaul, Feathermoon, Perenolde, Stonemaul, Stormscale, Suramar, and Uldum.
Holy 36-hour downtime, Batman! [Updated]
Yes, I admit, when I ran across the thread titled "Extended Maintenance 11/7/06," my eyes sort of glazed over and I moved on to the next topic. (Hopefully one of some interest...) Another Tuesday, another maintenance cycle. Ho-hum. However, this particular maintenance extention not only effects my own realm -- which I had thought was safe, having come up on the supposed new hardware platform not all that long ago -- but is also planned to last a full 24 36 hours. Oddly enough, Blizzard is also performing this maintenance on the most recently opened realms -- Echo Isles, Blackwater Raiders, Vashj, and Darrowmere, brought online on October 5th. Why? Hardware upgrades! Blizzard will be transfering data onto a new storage solution in preperation for the coming expansion. Hardware upgrades are all well and good, but the necessity of them on such newly opened realms puzzles me a bit. The process is expected to start on November 7th at 12:00 AM PST and end on November 8th at 12:00 AM PM PST -- and if you're on any of the following realms, it's time to make alternate Tuesday plans. Andorhal, Anetheron, Anub'arak, Archimonde, Black Dragonflight, Blackwater Raiders, Cenarion Circle, Cenarius, Dalaran, Dalvengyr, Darrowmere, Dentarg, Duskwood, Echo Isles, Executus, Haomarush, Hyjal, Khadgar, Lightbringer, Mal'Ganis, Norgannon, Scilla, Steamwheedle Cartel, The Forgotten Coast, Thrall, Turalyon, Uther, Vashj, Ysera, Ysondre, and Zuluhed.Update: Maintenance times revised from 12AM through 12AM to 12AM through 12PM the next day -- that adds up to a full 36 hour maintenance window. I swear the first time I looked at Tseric's post it said 12AM to 12AM, but it's possible I was mistaken, too.
A bit of Saturday downtime...
Well, at least everyone hopes it's only a bit. Saturday morning at 4:00 AM PDT, 18 US realms are going offline for database maintenance. I always wonder what exactly they mean when they say things like "database maintenance" without further specifics, but Tseric never acquiesces to my requests for additional info, so it looks like we'll have to get by with the limited news we're given. Maintenance should only last an hour, meaning these realms should be back up by 5:00 AM PDT... so if we have any early birds in the audience who were planning to play at that hour, perhaps you should take the time to get that extra cup of coffee. Realms affected include the following: Aerie Peak, Altar of Storms, Anvilmar, Blackwing Lair, Deathwing, Demon Soul, Doomhammer, Gnomeregan, Icecrown, Jaedenar, Kel'Thuzad, Lethon, Onyxia, Sentinels, Tanaris, The Venture Co., Uldaman, and Undermine.
Greatly extended weekly maintenance for some realms
Do you play on one of the following realms? Azjol-Nerub, Bloodscalp, Bonechewer, Boulderfist, Bronzebeard, Crushridge, Daggerspine, Darkspear, Draenor, Dragonblight, Dragonmaw, Dunemaul, Eldre'Thalas, Feathermoon, Firetree, Frostmane, Gurubashi, Nathrezim, Perenolde, Scarlet Crusade, Shadow Council, Shadowsong, Silvermoon, Skywall, Smolderthorn, Spirestone, Stonemaul, Stormscale, Suramar, Terenas, Uldum, or Windrunner. Well, if so, I feel sorry for you, because your so-called Tuesday maintenance will be stretched out until 12:01 AM PDT Wednesday morning. They're down for hardware upgrades to -- hopefully -- improve server stability, but such extended downtime isn't exactly fun for those looking forward to logging on and playing Tuesday afternoon. As an additional downer, friend and ignore lists will be lost for those on effected realms, and paid character transfers will be offline for the duration of the maintenance period.
What's a Warcraft player do in Second Life?
Why, plan raids of course! This is, apparently, the perfect activity for Tuesday's regular maintenance (or any of those irregular maintenances) -- log on to Second Life and go over strategy with your fellow WoW players while waiting for the realms to come back online. Sounds like fun!
Europeans disgruntled by unreliability
As usual, this Wednesday is maintenance day for European players, and it also marks the second in a batch of hardware upgrades for selected servers -- upgrades which have already caused an extended extended maintenance. These upgrades are long-overdue by many players' reckonings, with plenty of stories of fatal lagspikes during raids or other adventures flooding the forums.Reader Hammer writes in with a few other complaints of note (thanks!): The main wow-europe.com website is frequently down, with many parts of the site either bad links or inaccessible -- including the all-important Account Management section. Several servers are repeatedly experiencing problems and random downtime; poor Draenor is an example. Here's hoping the upgrades help with this. The new forums may look good, but they're often down -- for example, when the EU login server was broken for several hours yesterday, nobody could get on the forums to find out more. The forums, designed for European players, run on American time, adding extra confusion. We Europeans may have been sitting smugly through US players' tales of woe for the last few months, but it looks as if the game's popularity has caught up with itself on our continent as well as across the pond. So, it's not just the Americans and Australians who have material for complaint; Asian players haven't spoken up yet, but we'll give them time.
Wednesday Maintenance on US Realms
Numerous US realms were pulled down starting this morning because of unspecified problems which may be related to the cross-realms battleground system. Tseric only provided us with the information that the realms were remaining offline because they were undergoing battlegrounds testing, but this may have something to do with the problem of missing characters as well (as the final realms offline for maintenance seem to match the realms with missing characters). However, all realms should be back online and running as of 3:10 PM PDT. If you're still having problems, however, you may wish to page a GM or post about it in the customer service forums.
EU Maintenance Extended
Proving that the US isn't the only one with extended weekly maintenance periods, CM Thundgot tells us that EU realms will be down until 16:00 CEST today. Here's to hoping Blizzard figured out something from the many problems with the US patch roll-out and the deployment over the European realms will go more smoothly.
Downtime Compensation for Select US Realms
Blizzard will be providing a 24-hour credit to the realms that were having so much difficulty over this past weekend, which I suppose is better than nothing. However, I must say that their list of affected realms doesn't match mine, or include mine, which was offline or unplayable for a good portion of the weekend. In fact, the list includes the realm Tanaris, which is the realm I rolled a new alt to play on while my usual realm was offline.The realms 24-hour credits are being applied to include the following 31 realms: Aerie Peak, Altar of Storms, Andorhal, Anetheron, Anvilmar, Black Dragonflight, Blackwing Lair, Dalaran, Dalvengyr, Deathwing, Demon Soul, Dentarg, Doomhammer, Executus, Gnomeregan, Haomarush, Icecrown, Jaedenar, Kel'Thuzad, Khadgar, Lethon, Onyxia, Scilla, Sentinels, Tanaris, The Venture Co, Thrall, Turalyon, Uldaman, Ysera, and Ysondre.However, the 20 realms that were experiencing downtime throughout the weekend were these: Andorhal, Anetheron, Archimonde, Black Dragonflight, Dalaran, Daivengyr, Dentarg, Duskwood, Executus, Haomarush, Khadgar, Mal'Ganis, Norgannon, Scilla, Steamweedle Cartel, Thrall, Turalyon, Ysera, Ysondre, and Zuluhed. It looks like they've missed 6 of the original problem realms and added numerous realms that weren't listed as having problems over the weekend. Is anyone else confused?Update: The list of realms has been modified to one that appears to be accurate. The official post on the subject can be found here.
Extra Extended Maintenance for US Realms
It looks like today's maintenance is being drawn out because of "concerns that have arisen with Cross-Realm Battlegrounds" (at least according to the current login message). So instead of coming back up at 11:00 AM PDT, we're looking at a 1:00 PM PDT uptime for all US realms. However, as of the time of this writing, several US realms have already come back online, so if you're wanting to play, it doesn't hurt to check. Online by the usual 11:00 AM are: The Forgotten Coast, Anub'arak, Cenarius, Lightbringer, Uther, Cenarion Circle, and Hyjal. The rest of us are just going to have to wait!Update: While numerous realms have come back online, officially, maintenance has been extended until 4:00 PM PDT.
Extended US Maintenance
After much waiting, the time has finally arrived. Patch 1.12 will be deployed on US realms during Tuesday's maintenance (and presumably on EU realms during Wednesday's maintenance). The maintenance has been extended by two hours to give time to apply the patch, so it should start at 3:00 AM PDT and end at the usual 11:00 AM PDT. However, in addition to the extended maintenance required for patch 1.12, a number of realms will be coming down tonight at 11:00 PM PDT for hardware upgrades - to come back online with the rest of the servers when maintenance ends on Tuesday. Servers coming down early for upgrades include the following: Aggramar, Argent Dawn, Arthas, Azgalor, Bleeding Hollow, Bloodhoof, Burning Blade, Burning Legion, Durotan, Earthen Ring, Elune, Eonar, Eredar, Gilneas, Gorefiend, Kargath, Laughing Skull, Lightning's Blade, Llane, Lothar, Magtheridon, Malygos, Mannoroth, Medivh, Shadow Moon, Shattered Hand, Skullcrusher, Stormrage, Thunderhorn, Thunderlord, Warsong, and Zul'jin.Update: Further proof that this is, in fact, a roll out of patch 1.12 is the fact that the public test realms have been closed.
Additional Downtime for Select US Realms
For some players, this weekend's adventures has had a distinctive theme - downtime. The same twenty realms that have been having problems since Friday are offline again tonight. Some maintenance was done on Saturday morning and afternoon to fix errors with the in-game mail system - but as to what's caused this most recent maintenance, there's no word. On the player side, symptoms were similar to Friday night's trouble, with an inability to rez, zone in, or use skills, peppered with occasional instances of falling through the world. While there's no official announcement, affected realms seem to include the original twenty problematic realms: Andorhal, Anetheron, Archimonde, Black Dragonflight, Dalaran, Daivengyr, Dentarg, Duskwood, Executus, Haomarush, Khadgar, Mal'Ganis, Norgannon, Scilla, Steamweedle Cartel, Thrall, Turalyon, Ysera, Ysondre, and Zuluhed.Update: While the servers seem to be online Sunday morning, players are plagued by difficulty/inability to log on, as well as severe in-game lag (several minutes at times), inability to zone in/out of instances, empty mailboxes, random disconnects, etc. (Did I miss anything?) There are no updates on the fourms, and the message on the login screen is still from yesterday afternoon.Update 2: Blizzard informs us that these are latancy issues that they are working to resolve.
