realm-status
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Maintenance tomorrow - no patch expected
The opening announcement on the game is currently letting us know that realms will be down for maintenance tomorrow from 5:00 a.m. PDT until 11:00 a.m. PDT. While the realms are going to be down, we are not expecting patch 3.0.2 to drop.Earlier last week it was announced that 3.0.2 would come when season 4 ended. Season 4 was announced to end on October 14th, and thus we are all expecting patch 3.0.2 to come on October 14th.However if for some reason it starts raining cats and dogs and the patch does drop, we'll let you know. But I wouldn't count on it.
Realm Status plugin for Firefox
The realms are back up now, but we've all been through that wait before -- you've got things to do in Azeroth, but Blizzard is doing their updating, so you're stuck browsing around WoW Insider in Firefox. And here's a handy little tool to help you get back in the game as soon as possible -- the Realm Status Tool Firefox plugin will let you see the status of all the realms from right in the browser's toolbar, or even monitor a realm for you, and drop a note when its status changes.Of course, if you just need to see what's up and down, the Realm Status page on Blizzard's site will do it for you, but the plugin will actually put up a popup when your selected realm is back up. So you can browse all you want, and know exactly the right time to log back into the game. It's been around for quite a while, though it's only at version .4, but I haven't had any problems with it yet. And it supports both US and EU realms, so no matter where you are, you can have it keep an eye on what your realm is up to.Thanks, Berg!
WarcraftStat for the iPhone checks realm status for you
Not to be outdone by yesterday's Characters app for the iPhone, Michael Gaines has posted his own WoW app to the iTunes App Store, this one tracking server status easily and quickly in iPhone format. WarcraftStat is as simple as they come -- you get a list of all the servers, their PvP/PvE designation, their population label, and the little arrows found on the usual realm status page showing whether you're good to go for ganking noobs in Westfall, or the realm is still down.Unfortunately, all of the realms are a little much -- I'd kind of rather choose a couple of pertinent realms to me and only see those on the page. And notification of when a realm goes up or down might be nice, too, not to mention that the app is currently US realms only. But as an app that tells you whether realms are up or down, WarcraftStat does its job. It's on the App Store right now, and available for a free download.[ Thanks, Brad! ]
Rolling restarts
A friendly reminder that there will be a number of rolling restarts for U.S. realms this morning starting at 5:00 a.m. PDT, and lasting until 6:00 a.m. PDT. Several realms will be offline for approximately 15 minutes (if everything goes okay). This is a welcomed event as some servers have noticed stability issues in the past couple of days. The U.S. realms that will be restarted are: Arathor, Azjol-Nerub, Bloodscalp, Bonechewer, Boulderfist, Bronzebeard, Crushridge, Daggerspine, Darkspear, Draenor, Dragonblight, Dragonmaw, Dunemaul, Eldre'Thalas, Fethermoon, Firetree, Frostmane, Gurubashi, Nathrezim, Scarlet Crusade, Shadow Council, Shadowsong, Silvermoon, Skywall, Smolderthorn, Spirestone, Stonemaul, Stormscale, Suramar, Terenas, UIdum, Windrunner If there are any major down times that come up, WoW Insider will let you know will all due haste.
Extended downtime for Tuesday May 6th
The announcement on the login screen tonight tells us that the realms will be down for extended maintenance on Tuesday May 6th, from 3:00 a.m. PDT until 11:00 a.m. PDT. It's curious how extended maintenance used to last from five until eleven, but now lasts an extra two hours – from three until eleven.Today we've seen the PTR (Public Test Realm) go down, and then come back up again. Earlier we thought this was a good indication that patch 2.4.2 was going to be released on May 6th, however with the PTR still being up, we don't believe that will be the case. Of course I could be completely wrong here – and we all might get a shiny new download screen tomorrow morning. Only time will tell, and stay tuned to WoW Insider for the latest. We'll also keep you abreast of when the realms come back online, and any lingering issues that may arise.
Many realms still down
The saga of the Rampage and Shadowburn (US) battlegroups continues. All realms in those battlegroups have been down since at least 11:00 AM EDT this morning. Blizzard says they're working on it, but so far all we've seen is an ETA given, which was promptly missed -- that ETA was 1:30 EDT. The new word is to expect an update roughly now; I'll be keeping my eye on it and will update this post if there's any news.Once again, the affected US realms are 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.Zul'Jin is also reportedly down, as well as Burning Legion and Lothar; I'm unsure of the status of the rest of the Ruin and Vindication battlegroups.Update: It looks like Ruin and Vindication are down in their entirety. Meanwhile, Blizzard updated to let us know they're still working on it, and they expect the Rampage and Shadowburn realms to be up by around 1 PM PDT/4 PM EDT.Update 2: Apparently the Ruin and Vindication issues are a hardware problem; Blizzard knows about it and expects to have those realms back up by 3 PM PDT/7 PM EDT.
Maintenance extended for some realms to 12:00 Pacific
Okay, I have no idea who Hello Kitty is. I barely know what Sanrio is because I have nieces. Anyway, for those of us who intent to keep playing World of Warcraft (seriously, Hello Kitty Online? I have to start reading the memos Mike sends out) most of the realms are still down and maintenance is being extended to 12:00 pm Pacific. Like many, I've been haunting the realm status forums since 11 Pacific waiting for news, and I hope Malfurion or Norgannon come up soon.In the meantime I've been reading about a new console version of Molten Core coming out (sounds so sweet, and no downtimes!) and considering whether or not I'll reroll Bard for the expansion. I think not; I'm a warrior till I die, but the "Metal" tree does intrigue me.I have no idea if I'll be making that many more posts here, because I am so not even trying to write the "How to tank with hugs" column.Editor's Note: We apologize for letting this non-HKO post get through. Blogger Matthew Rossi is being dealt with accordingly.
Extended maintenance for April 1st, 2008
There will be extended maintenance today, April 1st, on all the realms from 3:00 a.m. PDT until 11:00 a.m. PDT. Hopefully this will fix many of the issues appearing over the past week – and just give the servers some breathing room. There have been many bugs reported, some of which you can read about in the various hotfixes that have been pushed onto the servers in the past week.Also, this downtime is not an April Fool's joke. It has been expected.Of course, we don't know what the Blizzard April Fool's joke will be yet. When we do find out, we'll get word up right away here at WoW Insider.
PTR is up and running
Good evening ladies and gentlemen (cue the WoW Insider Show intro music). For tonight's entertainment, I present to you a fully functional PTR – complete with Sunwell Plateau and lots of goodies to play around with. Well, at least it's evening if you're up with me at 3:00 a.m. when I'm posting this.But even if you're not a night owl, now is probably your last chance to head over to the PTR and test out all the goodness that is patch 2.4. Blizzard had shut it down until now, possibly to just test out one or two other things before releasing the patch soon. My bet is still on March 25th. I have no little birdie in my ear saying that's a for sure thing, but I just have this gut feeling I'm right. If you've participated in the guess the release date contest, you might be under a week away from winning a nice 60 day game card.I had to apply a couple of patches when logging onto the game tonight. It only took about 10 minutes though. Not too bad. We've looked over the patch notes and in-game items and can't find anything different – although perhaps there are some changes we're overlooking. However with that said, often times Blizzard will make the "undocumented" changes on the PTR right before they release the live patch. Who knows what those are...Happy PTRing!
Massive amounts of realms offline [UPDATED]
The realms were up for a bit, but several have come down rather quickly. There is a news alert when you log on giving a long (very long) list of realms that are offline.Blizzard says that they're performing additional maintenance to resolve some issue. However, unlike most every other time they've taken down realms, this time there is no ETA on when they'll be back up.We can only hope that this will be a quick fix problem. I had a dream that Kaz'rogal will be dropping Kaz'rogal's Hardened Heart for me finally, and I'm going to be mighty disappointed if I can't raid tonight and get some of that phat lewtz.Take a look after the break for the long list of realms that are offline. And remember, stay tuned to WoW Insider, we'll let you know when these realms are back up!Updated 8:01 EST: The realms down are now only as follows: Alextrasza, Balnazzar, Blackhand, Cho'hall, Destromath, Dethecus, Garona, Gorgonnash, Gul'dan, Hellscream, Illidan, Kael'thas, Kirin Tor, Ravencrest, Smolderthorn, Spinebreaker, Stormreaver, Whisperwind. The rest of the realms are back online!
More realm issues today
Bornakk announced today on the general discussion forums (why he didn't do this on the tech support forums, I don't know...) that they are having a number of realms randomly drop people. Indeed, this happened to me over on Eldre'Thalas this morning.If you are having issues, remember that you can go to the Blizzard's tech support forums and ask a question there. You can also check out our guide for solving all these connection issues, if Blizzard doesn't come through with a solution for you.We'll keep you updated on this weekend hiccup – stay tuned to WoW Insider for the latest!
PTR down for maintenance
Wrocas let us know that the PTR servers are currently getting another patch applied to them. They will be down for maintenance between four and six hours today. This means that they should be up around 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. EST.Hopefully this new PTR patch will bring about the reopening on the Sunwell Plateau, which was recently closed due to some large (and still undefined) bug. Other things that might be coming with this new PTR patch include more access to Season 4 gear, new changes and updates to class tweaks, and some spell haste changes.WoW Insider will have the latest for you on patch 2.4 and the PTR. Stay tuned!
Dear Blizzard : Server issues
Dear Blizzard,For whatever reason, your game has been experiencing multiple server related issues in the past few weeks. Many players have seen themselves offline an abnormal amount of time, and for no apparent reason. Some realms have been brought offline for emergency maintenance and stayed that way for nearly a day. Other realms are seeing themselves either reset or become sundered down with mass disconnects that make any serious play almost impossible. Just the other night I was happily grouping with some friends over on Eldre'Thalas, when all of the sudden the server decided to boot me, and only me, from the game. Lo and behold, when trying to log back in I get stuck on authentication. My other two accounts would not work either. What makes this even better is that Eldre'Thalas wasn't even on the list of realms under emergency maintenance.You've been giving us all this downtime lately, so I'm wondering, what are you going to do to fix it? Or baring a fix, at least make our $15 a month worth it.
Tuesday night live!
Live, from Blizzard H.Q., it's Tuesday night!The Blues (official Blizzard forum posters) have given us a few important late night news tidbits, including some new patch 2.4 news. However, they lack the comedy stylings of John Belushi in a bee suit: The World of Warcraft website at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/ will be taken offline for about 90 minutes tonight, starting at midnight PST. There is no reason to suspect this will affect players in the game. On the PTR, Shattrath Flasks will soon work inside the Sunwell Plateau raid instance. Also on the PTR, the transporter to the Caverns of Time will soon require revered reputation instead of exalted. If you notice strange happenings with your sever, you can always checkout the realm status forum on Blizzard's site. And of course, stay tuned to WoW Insider for the latest news.Updated 12:16 a.m. EST: We are getting user reports of Canadians not being able to access either the game or the World of Warcraft website. However, Blizzard has yet to officially comment on this. We'll keep this post updated with anything more we learn.Updated 12:33 p.m. EST: I heard your calls for help! I've written up an article titled Solving recent connection issues, which goes into some details about what you can do, including Blizzard's tech support phone number.
Lots of connectivity issues tonight [Updated]
The world server is apparently going up and down, and many servers are experiencing connectivity issues. Blizzard lists the realms that are not working well at the start up screen. But as I'm finding out over on Anvilmar, the problem has spread there too.According Isradun, multiple realms are being restarted now. There are additional posts on the WoW Realm Status forums that indicate they've already been at this for a while. However, as I've tested, no fix appears to be working perfectly yet.We'll keep this post updated for you with the latest.Update, 12:05 a.m. EST: Apparently the realm issues are subsiding, although no Blizzard update yet. Some reports are still trickling in of issues in the Nightfall and Reckoning battlegroups.Update, 12:18 a.m. EST: Blizzard saw what I said and decided to start crashing realms again. Multiple Tech Support Forum posts report things are not well, again.Update, 1:08 a.m. EST: Everything appears to be working now. Blizzard has removed the opening announcement, and the spam on the forums has quited down. Enjoy the night!
New servers spotted on Realm Status? Think again!
After receiving reports of new US realms, we feel it is our civic duty to inform you of the truth behind these mystery realms. Fairly regularly people see new servers on a realm status report. A name they have not heard, a realm they have not seen. And they announce, breathlessly, that there is a new server. The fact that no one can create a character on the "new server" does not appear relevant. The urge to see a new server is far too great to overcome a simple fact: Blizzard announces new servers. Forum posters do not. And these new servers, for the past year, have never actually become live servers on which we can play. They're testing, configuring, event servers, who knows? Blizzard won't say, that I've seen. But they're not Live and not intended for Live, and in a year they've never gone Live.There's no sense in getting our hopes up for something like that. Blizzard has said there will be no new servers until further notice. A friend on the forum who posts a link to Realm Status showing a previously unseen server is not a Blizzard announcement. This concludes our public service announcement for the day.
Drat! Extended maintenance!
Sure enough, I go to log in to poke around with macros and numbers for tomorrow's Encrypted Text column, and what am I greeted with on the login screen? The dreaded message indicating that the downtime has been extended further. Per the login screen:Extended MaintenanceWe will be extending our regularly schedule Tuesday maintenance for an estimated two hours in order to resolve an issue with our authentication system. We anticipate the realms will be available at approximately 1:00 p.m. PDT, and will provide an update to the situation in approximately 1 hour. Thank you,Blizzard EntertainmentYep. I'm an addict. I love Roguing it up, and I'll admit I was really looking forward to getting back on and playing around with macros and different settings -- as well as checking out a different damage meter mod I just snagged. Is there anything you're looking forward to when you can get back in? Gotten a particularly tasty piece of loot lately that you didn't get to really take for a spin before the server shut down? One of your auctions going to make you a lot of money when you log back in? Or is the ability to log in just the symbol of the end of a day of work, and the start of relaxation time for you? (Hey, that's more than enough of a reason right there!)
Cyclone battlegroup realms down
Another weekend, another batch of server issues. This time it's realms in the Cyclone battlegroup, which are having a whole host of technical problems. Seems like a lot of people are having trouble connecting, and the ones that do connect are falling through the world/getting messages saying their characters don't exist/etc. Blizzard says they're working on the issue, although it's been down for several hours. Realms that may be affected include:
