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PTR 3.0.2 Patch Notes
Patch 3.0.2 will bring with it major changes to the way the game is played, all in preparation for Wrath of the Lich King. Mechanics for virtually all aspects of game-play will change somewhat, and all classes will get new talent trees and spells. The patch notes are long and extensive, and they're not even done.The notes give a clear warning "The current patch notes are incomplete, but will be progressively more comprehensive in each patch." Things are not done. Indeed, these notes even go on to mention that Blizzard is still modifying and balancing the classes.Read below after the break for the complete PTR 3.0.2 patch notes. Sit back with a drink and read over them all, it's going to be an interesting patch!(Psst! Looking for the short version? Check out the TLDR version here.) Patch 3.0.2 "Echoes of Doom" has landed and WoW Insider has you covered. From patch notes to talent guides for every class to fixing your addons to 5 easy achievements you can snag right now. Make sure to check out the latest news.
PTR 3.0.2 client is available for download
You can now begin downloading the PTR (Public Test Realm) client for patch 3.0.2. We reported earlier today that character copies have been made active, and those are going along nicely as far as we can tell (my Warrior copied across with no problem). To download the client and copy your characters over to the PTR, login to your account administration at worldofwarcraft.com.We are expecting a lot of out of this patch. From new talent trees, to class and raid mechanics changes, to the removal of the Amani War Bear. We'll have a lot more on this as we get more information in. Patch notes are not available yet – though we expect to get our hands on them soon. Stay tuned!
Realms are up
Good news, everyone! Several realms are up and running, with more coming online shortly I'm sure. This means you can get your World of Warcraft fix for the week starting now. And lets be honest, for any serious WoW player the week starts on Tuesday afternoon when the servers go up, and lasts until Tuesday morning when they go down.There is no patch 2.4.3 on the live servers yet - expect that in the next couple of weeks. Additionally, if there are any server stability issues to report on throughout the day you'll see a couple posts go up here.Happy Tuesday!And for the record, I've been wanting to use Buddy Christ in a post for a while, but haven't been able to find an excuse yet. Him seeming all happy for something (like the realms being up) felt like a good enough reason for me.
Server prepares for WotLK...in July
I know that I wasn't the only one that did a double take today when I opened up WoW and saw the "Breaking News" maintenance announcement that included a tidbit about the realm Dreadmaul undergoing hardware upgrades for Wrath of the Lich King.I find this interesting for several reasons. First, the expansion hasn't even had a release date announced yet and they're already making hardware changes. Now this is obviously a good practice – getting ready for things before hand – but then again, if it's not going to be released in October / November of this year all these hardware changes could be done later and for much cheaper. No matter if you agree with my pricing analysis or not, it is definitely a bit odd to hear about hardware upgrades when the release date hasn't even been made public yet.
Extended maintenance tomorrow
All U.S. realms will be offline for extended maintenance tomorrow from 5:00 a.m. PDT until 11:00 a.m. PDT. This came from an announcement via the login screen.Servers have been mostly stable this past week after a series of rolling restarts Blizzard did a few days ago. Hopefully this won't cause too many problems for those hoping to enjoy the game Tuesday evening.Stay tuned to WoW Insider for the latest on realm issues and other WoW news.
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.
Bumping your recruitment posts
Many guilds out there have their recruitment posts up on both the realm forums and the global recruitment forums. One of the big keys to a recruitment post is to keep it up on the top of the forums so everyone sees it, and sees it before any other posts. This means that you and your guildies have to bump the post to the top of the list, and bump it quite often.The global recruitment forums recently underwent an upgrade, where the forums were split into Alliance and Horde factions. This has helped a bit with the number of posts per day, and has thus lessened the number of required bumps a recruitment posts needs to keep it on the front page.However, you still have to bump it quite a bit.
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.
PTR goes up
Usually Blizzard is pretty definitive when they take something down. However today they've decided to take down the PTR (Public Test Realm) in the morning, and then put it back up early tonight. I'm reminded of a recent Simpsons episode I watched where Homer is sitting in his hospital bed awaiting a heart bypass surgery and goes "Bed goes up, bed goes down. Bed goes up, bed goes down." PTR goes down, PTR goes up. All of these announcements come from the same person, Hortus, so it's not an issue of him being confused or anything (unless the whirly jig in his head has gotten to him). Hortus does tell us that they've put it up for "some additional testing," which really isn't a surprise given it's a test realm.This probably means that patch 2.4.2 won't go live tomorrow if there is maintenance. Once we know more we'll post and keep you updated.
Patch 2.4.2 notes released
Blizzard has released tonight the patch notes for patch 2.4.2, which means the PTR will probably be up and running sometime soon. Patch 2.4 will likely be the last major patch before Wrath of the Lich King, and we expect to see a couple more of these minor patches before WotLK comes out.Highlights of 2.4.2 include: Changes to the way arena points are calculated - essentially what Drysc talked about earlier. Void Shatter no longer has a cooldown, and other cooldowns have been reduced. Illidan will no longer despawn if a raid wipes during his death speech. If you are sheeped / polymorphed by a mob, you will no longer gain back health (ie: the mass sheep in Aran, which regens your health before he fire blasts the raid). This is a potentially large change. Many main hand weapons are now one hand weapons. A good list of bug fixes, including several problems associated with sounds. Full patch notes for your convenience after the break!
Free character transfers for April 18th
Bornakk announced today that free character transfers are available for the following realms: Illidan Mal'Ganis Sargeras Tichondruis Warsong You can transfer from the above realms to: Azshara Maiev The transfers are available from today at 12:00 p.m. PDT until next Friday April 25th at 12:00 p.m. PDT. Of course, Blizzard reserves the right to shut down the transfers if they meet their internal numbers prior to the close date. They have been known to close down transfers early, so transfer soon if you want to take advantage of this.WoW Insider will always keep you up-to-date on the latest realm news, so stay tuned!
Blizzard tells Oceanic realms they're fixing it
Here's the situation: Many people are experiencing problems with Oceanic realms being offline, having heavy lag, or just general stability issues. These issues have principally appeared after patch 2.4 hit, and are a major pain for those playing over there. Players cannot loot items in a timely manner, they lag out during raids, and playing the new content (or any instance) is sometimes impossible.Players have, for the most part, provided excellent documentation to Blizzard concerning the stability. They have done so in a massive thread over on the Customer Service Forums, and it is actively being monitored and commented on by Syndri, a Blizzard representative. The thread was started on March 31st, with the issues appearing a couple weeks before that, and is still active today. The analysis: There is a lot of Blizzard hate going around about this issue. We've received numerous emails on the subject, and taking a look around the internet and the official forums show the same feelings. This is, in my opinion, unfounded.Blizzard has came out and said that they know the issue is happening, that they're looking into it, isolating it, and attempting to fix it. They're well aware that people are having issues playing the game – and they want to fix that. It's in their best interest as a business, and as good people (the folks working there are good people, remember). However the acknowledgement by Blizzard doesn't seem to stop a horde of people from saying they're being ignored: they're not. Syndri even makes an appeal to the masses: "By all means, vent your concerns and experiences herein; that's what this thread is here for. But don't-and I do ask this sincerely-ignore the attention that this matter has truly received."
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.
Multiple realms up
The realms are starting to trickle online now. Eldre'Thalas is up, and I'm sitting online enjoying a long ride up to Ghostlands to get to the Sunwell Plateau. You'll find a long list of other realms online if you log into the game now. Hopefully one of them will be yours. But if not, don't worry. Blizzard has said they'll be finishing things up by 12:30 p.m. PDT, and it looks like they're set to make that target.Expect things to be bumpy for the next few hours, and then hopefully smooth sailing tonight. If a large amount of realms do go offline, or if everything has to be taken down for additional fixes, we'll have it covered here on WoW Insider.Enjoy patch 2.4! Do you feel the Fury of the Sunwell?
Development servers in live?
With the game updated to patch 2.4, and the servers "scheduled" (I use the term loosely) to come online in 15 minutes, I'm presented with a nice little server selection box when I log in. Complete with a new location (Blizzard's catogorization, not mine) to choose: "Development."What is this?When clicking the name I'm not seeing anything different. It still shows the realms off line. In fact, it's the only option. Now my memory isn't completely clear here, as it's something I've always just clicked on, but for my U.S. account the options there have always been "United States" and "Oceanic." So what's this new tag about? The only time I've seen this has been on the PTR.I have a few guesses.First, and quite likely the most plausible explanation, is that it is an artifact of the servers being upgraded. Blizzard takes the servers down, the put them into a special mode, and they update them as needed. That could be all this tag is about.
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!
Free realm transfers (EU only)
Thundgot, the undead European CM, announced today that there are a few free character transfers amongst realms that will be starting today, and go through March 25th.You can move from Al'Akir, Frostmane, Grim Batol, Outland, or Twilight's Hammer over to Burning Steppes or Spinebreaker. Of course, this only for all our European readers. No U.S. realms are current open for free transfers.If you want to take advantage of this, do so quickly! They often close down these transfers early when they meet their internal goals.Enjoy your new realm!
PTR is down, TTR is up
Hortus, the spinning whirly jig wearing gnome, announced on the forms today that the PTR will be closed until further notice. This closure is in order to encourage more people to test out the TTR, which will remain open for the time being.This is important news. First, it signifies that Blizzard is at least comfortable in stopping the testing of PvE content. This might not be the best news for those that were still engaged in PTR activities; or for those that think there are still serious concerns regarding the content and class changes. We might be seeing the Druid Cyclone nerf stay.Secondly, we can infer that the two stress tests they've held might not have been everything they wanted. If they're asking for more testing we can make an educated guess that Blizzard either did not see the kind of numbers they were hoping for, or they have made additional server changes that warrant additional tests. Judging from the lack luster stress test that went on Wednesday night, I'm leaning towards the former as being the reason for the change.
Wednesday Night Live!
Blizzard is at it again and so are we! We'll be live blogging the stress test event part deux tonight, on the scene with both Alliance and Horde characters. Be sure to give a /wave to any "Insider" you see walking around. We'll be trying to stay where the action is – be it in arena's attempting to best our own 8-1 record, or watching the GMs hand out more 'phat lewts'.Right now the server is up and running, quite smoothly actually. Keep an eye out here and we'll keep you updated with the latest!Check out after the break for all the action.
WoW Insider at the Stress Test, Part Deux
What? Stress Test, Part DeuxWho? Blizzard CMs, GMs, Devs, and the WoW Insider Arena TeamWhere? Tournament Test ServerWhen? Tonight at 5:00 p.m to 8:00 p.m, PST Got all that? Good. Drysc announced last night Blizzard will be holding another round of stress testing on the tournament test realm. Why? Because they want more attention. I for one, am going to give it to them. In fact, WoW Insider will again have a crew on the server covering all the action. We'll all be hopping around on toons named like "Insideradam", "Insideralex", and "Insiderzach". So be sure to drop by and say hello again!If you missed the last stress test, it was a ton of fun. We have a huge gallery of screen shots of just about everything you could want to see. Blizzard devs were there handing out mounts, chicken and gnome costumes, and even teleporting the WoW Insider staff away for some quite alone time with a Brutallus disguised Englewood.If you're lucky enough to see us, just give us a /wave or a /hug and we'll try to snap a screen shot with you for our upcoming Stress Test Part Deux gallery. We'll also be live blogging all the activity on the TTR during the event, so even if you can't make it - you can still see what's happening. Our live blog is also a really good place to check and see if the server is up or down.See you on all over there!
