PublicTestRealms
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Breakfast Topic: Testing, 1, 2, 3...
By now we all know that the PTRs are up and running (depending on your definition of "running" -- according to reports on the PTR forums they're crashing frequently) -- after all, the PTR client is where we got these lovely patch notes from! So, have you copied your characters over? Are you raiding the Black Temple to get the very first look at new content? In short, do you bother with all the tedious testing and bug reporting that's associated with playing on the public test realms? Or do you simply ignore the entire affair and continue playing the game as though nothing were happening?
Don't worry: it's called a "test" realm for a reason
I know that many of us read the new 2.1 patch notes and went into a panic. Paladin's illumination? Mage's sheep and ice block? Priest's shadow weaving? Shaman's elemental focus? There are plenty of changes here that could strike dread into the hearts of players who have picked their classes, talents, and professions for specific reasons that have suddenly vanished out from under them. But is it worth panicing over? I say not yet -- and Tseric agrees with me. The public test realms -- the only place where patch 2.1 is currently deployed -- are brought online for a reason. You guessed it: to test things. While the test realms are online, we can all log on and get a first-hand look at how these changes will impact our characters. From there, we can offer our feedback and opinions. And, while many of you will say that these are never listened to, it's not unheard of for Blizzard to make major changes to a patch in light of public outcry. But for those of you in the audience who are upset or angry about the proposed patch 2.1 changes, I advise you to try to post your complaints calmly and constructively -- all caps typing and angry flames will only serve to get you banned from posting.
PTRs online... well, sorta.
There are obvious downloading issues, so apparently I'll have a more detailed report for you in about 11 hours. However, you can get started downloading your own PTR patch here (though if you could just wait until I've got mine that'd be great). The character copy function (there are apparently no pre-made characters available for copying) is overloaded by traffic and only gives a "server too busy" message.However, lucky reader Mark is further along in the download process -- and managed to snag these screenshots of the patch notes. See page 1, page 2, page 3, page 4, page 5, and page 6 for the full patch notes -- or read on for a transcribed version (via Kyrra on the test realm forums).
Another Week and No Patch?
Hortus (who works, I believe, in QA) has announced that the public test realms will be offline tomorrow between 12:00 PM PDT to 8:00 PM PDT for hardware maintenance. The fact that the realms are scheduled to come back online after Tuesday's regular maintenance window suggests that, yes, we're going another week without 1.12 being deployed on the live servers. Though I suppose that, while unlikely, it wouldn't be impossible for the PTRs to go offline running patch 1.12 and come back online running 1.13 - Blizzard does come out with surprises from time to time, but I'm not getting my hopes up. Drysc's message that "there are no current intentions to announce the release date of 1.12 beforehand" doesn't make me optimistic, either, though.Update: My mistake, the PTR maintenance was Monday evening, not Tuesday evening. The overall point still holds, however.
US PTR Maintenance: Now!
Well, they don't usually give us much warning on these things, so at 4:44 PM PDT we received word that the PTRs were going offline for patch maintenance with no ETA on them coming back online. The fact that the PTRs continue to be updated, despite being online since July 17th, makes me feel that patch 1.12 is still something that's being fine tuned - which lends me to think that the patch going live may still be some time off. Of course... Blizzard has been known to surprise me before, so take this thought with a grain of salt (or two or three). And... since the test realms are still online and going strong - it's a great place to have some fun playing a class you know nothing about!Update: The PTRs seem to have come back online at 7:25 PM PDT.
US Test Realm Maintenance Today
Not long after the live realms come back online, the test realms are scheduled to go offline. They'll be down between 2:00PM and 4:00PM PDT for some maintenance. Also, one of the realms will be moving to the "Oceanic" tab (no news on which realm will be making the move) for further cross-realms battlegrounds testing. Haven't had your chance to test yet? Well, you've got at least another week before there's a chance to roll out the patch on the live realms, and the test realms are a great opportunity to give new talent builds - or entire classes - a good try to see how they work out. Plus, it has the potential to be a lot of fun.Update: The test realms were late coming back online, but they all seem to be back online as of 5:42PM PDT.
My Secret Life as a Rogue: Of Talents and Talent Builds
It's been some time since I wrote about my initial attempts at playing the rogue class. And, no, I haven't given it up yet! I've only reached the fairly puny level of 33, but the rogue changes coming in the next patch have me excited about continued leveling - after all, there's little joy in having half of a talent build. However, my recent efforts have been divided between my own rogue on the live realms and a pre-made level 60 rogue on the test realms. After some initial goofing off - it is, after all, a bit disorienting to jump from a low-30s character in mostly greens to a level 60 character with dual crusader enchants - I set to work trying different talent builds. Of course I've read all of the discussion on possible builds, but sometimes there's just no substitute for experience - and the test realms provide an ideal opportunity to see just what the class is capable of, with all possible talent permutations. And, perhaps, some experimentation could teach me something about how to play my own, lesser rogue a bit better...
Patch 1.12: Undocumented Changes
Another patch, and another set of changes that didn't quite make it into the patch notes. Of course, everything on the test realms is subject to change, but as it stands, this is what you will find on the test realms. This list seems to be updated regularly, so if you aren't planning on playing on the test realms, check back often to see what's happening. Most controversial of these changes seems to be a battlegrounds change that automatically adds everyone to a group upon entering a battleground - a group they cannot leave. As a healer, I am always glad to have a group in battlegrounds in order to be better able to monitor my group's health and step in as needed - but to those who preferred to gain maximum honor per kill by attacking battlegrounds ungrouped, this is the end of the battlegrounds system.
Patch 1.12 PTRs Online!
Well, at least the US public test realms are sort of online... in my experience I get a few seconds of connectivity before getting kicked off and needing to log on again. And of the two pre-made characters I attempted to copy over, one wound up on the PVE test realm and another on the RP-PvP test realm. But, usual technical problems aside, the realms are online. Of special note is the fact that the two world PvP objectives in Silithus and Eastern Plaguelands are not yet up on the PTR, though Blizzard explains they will be patched in later for testing. So what is there to test? Well, you can check out the rogue changes, the cross-realm battlegrounds, and anything else that didn't make it into the patch notes. Head over to the PTR site to download the client and copy a character. Head over to the PTR site to download the client and copy a character.
Patch 1.12: PTR and Patch Notes
The number of available character transfers to the test realm reset sometime Friday evening - usually a sign that the public test realms are coming online soon. The rumors flying around on the forums garnered an official response from Tseric, who said that efforts were made to get the PTR online Friday, but it was likely to be pushed back until Monday. However, a lucky group of people were, apparently, able to download the new patch and find patch notes for it. I know you're curious, so read on for all the details.
Patch 1.11.2 to Be Released to the PTR Today
The test realms will be opened again at 10:00 AM PDT with a bug fix patch. While CM Ordinn describes it as a "small bug fix patch" the list of fixes is quite extensive. And even if you aren't interested in testing, the public test realms serve as a great place to experiment with new characters and builds - or, as with the last phase of the PTRs, PvP on a whole new level.
Public Test Realms Closed
Once again it's been a fun run on the PTRs, but they have, officially, closed. Of course, the real news here is that this means patch 1.11 has been mostly finalized, and that we should expect patch deployment soon - possibly as early as this week. On the matter of a release date, Tigole tells us, "No promises as to when the patch is going live, but if I were you, I'd start working on that Argent Dawn rep by tomorrow -- either that or pillage the guild bank while the pillaging is good." Of course, what that means is up in the air, but if you'll excuse me, I think I need to be getting a Scholomance run together about now...
Two Upcoming Raid Changes
Tigole has announced two changes to dungeons that we should see in patch 1.11. These aren't live on the test realms yet, but should be in a few days. The release timer is being removed for players in instances. This should come as welcome news for anyone who has ever died at the beginning of the Nefarian encounter. To prevent exploits, players will no longer be able to zone into an instance during certain encounters ("almost entirely raid bosses," explains Tigole).
PTR Naxxramas Changes
The test realms haven't been up for long, but Naxxramas bug fixes are already starting to show up. Also, to help testers, a vendor has been added to Naxxramas that will offer free repairs, free resurrection sickness removal, spell reagents, tome of tranquilizing shot, and rogue poisons. So if you're interested in checking out Naxxramas, it's been easier. However, character transfers to the test realm still seem to be down, so if you didn't copy a character when the PTRs were first brought online, you're going to have to wait a while.
Breakfast Topic: Testing!
The public test realms opened late Friday, and despite stability issues, are officially online. With lots of interesting changes, are you interested in checking them out? Perhaps exploring the new Naxxramas dungeon with a pick up group, or just enjoying playing a pre-made and pre-geared level 60 character. So let us know - will we be seeing you on the test realm?
Test Realms Come Up, Test Realms Go Down
As seems to be the usual pattern, after the public test realms were brought online they were immediately slammed with traffic, bringing them offline again. As of writing this, the only test realm that seems to be up is the RP-PVP realm. The character transfer system suffered a similar fate, and was officially taken down yesterday. There seems to be no news about when we can expect transfers or the test realms themselves to be back online, but as soon as I find out anything, I'll pass it on.
Now Online: Public Test Realms
The test realms have been brought up with the 1.11 content patch. Check out the patch notes here and copy a pre-made character (character transfers are usually not available on weekends) from here. So get copying!While the changes are mostly as we expected, there are a few pleasant surprises: The cost to respec one's talents will now decay over time, going down by 5 gold per month, to a minimum of 10 gold. Rogue's Detect Traps skill is now passive. Warlock's Shadow Ward has a new rank to be found as a drop. Warrior's Shield Slam functionality has been changed. To quote... "This ability now costs 20 rage to use and the damage it does is modified by attack power (normalized to 2.2 speed). However, the base damage has been reduced. It generates more threat per rage and more damage per rage than it did previously." Class quest sets in Zul'Gurub and Ahn'Qiraj have been upgraded from superior quality to epic quality. (By my reading, it sounds like this refers to all items, though perhaps it is only some of them.) PvP armor rewards for ranks 7, 8, 10, 12, and 13 have been improved. Light's Hope Chapel in the Eastern Plaguelands is now a full hub, with inn, mailbox, etc. Many new quests in Light's Hope. Class-specific armor sets from Zul'Gurub now no longer require bijous or coins - only a Primal Hakkari item and appropriate reputation. Class-specific enchantments from Zul'Gurub now no longer require librams from Dire Maul. The High Priests of Zul'Gurub now have an additional loot table. Several raid interface improvements, including defualt-UI ability to send messages to the middle of a player's screen and perform ready checks. There will now be a party interface option to reset an instance. Many new flight paths, as well as new flight hubs in Ratchet and Un'Goro Crater.
Testing Raid Content
When Blackwing Lair was released, way back in patch 1.6, it was ridden with bugs. In order to keep the content top secret and preserve fair competition between guilds seeking world firsts on the live realms, it was never released on the public test realms - and its lack of polish showed. For Ahn'Qiraj, Blizzard took the alternate approach, releasing it on the public test realms for all to try. Tigole has already announced plans for an "extended test period" of Naxxramas, but some question whether having the instance available for testing ruins the race for world firsts. What do you think - does testing make enough of a difference to be worth spoiling the surprises?
