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Warlords of Draenor's rocky launch saga and Reddit controversy continue
We've heard a lot of "it's a good problem to have" in regards to the struggles that World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor has faced this past week, as a huge influx of players have met laggy servers, lengthy queues, and DDoS attacks. But we're sure that Blizzard would prefer no problems, period, which is why the studio has been updating the community on an hourly basis regarding its efforts to stabilize the game. Blizzard says that it's currently monitoring the servers and has seen an improvement in performance around the world. In the past day, the studio has performed rolling restarts, hotfixes, and increased the population caps on various servers. Massively's own writers have had mixed experiences thus far; while we had to cancel Mike's Friday stream because of queues and the servers were down a large portion of Saturday, by Saturday night queues and lag issues were clearing up on some servers, like Bree's, no doubt thanks to increased capacity. But some gamers are taking their reaction to the extreme. The core moderator of the WoW subreddit shut that subreddit down last night in protest over his personal login difficulties. While the forums have since been restored with apologies from other Reddit mods, participants are still arguing over the events. "r/WoW shouldn't be a hostage," Blizzard bluename Zarhym admonished via Twitter.
Blizzard working to repair ongoing login issues [Updated]
Nethaera has posted on the US forums that Blizzard are working to rectify the login issues currently preventing players from connecting to certain realms. Following today's rolling restarts that may or may not be related to some strange events, many players have had issues gaining access to the game. Nethaera We are currently experiencing an issue after the performed rolling restarts that is affecting the authentication servers. We are currently investigating this issue and will provide further updates within an hour. Updates: 12:17 p.m. PDT - We are continuing to work to resolve the connection issues that many players are experiencing while attempting to log in to the game. We do not have an ETA for when this will be resolved but will provide an additional update at approximately 1:15 p.m. PDT. 1:17 p.m. PDT- Thank you for your patience. The log in issues are being slowly resolved and players are able to log in once more. We will provide updates should any additional issues occur. source [Thanks for the tips!] Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Tuesday Morning Post: Raids with friends edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. The big news of this week is probably patch 4.3.2, which is on the PTR. For the most part, it's bringing us minor balance changes and bug fixes, but there are a few big things in there, including a 64-bit client and the advent of raiding with your cross-realm friends. You still can't raid Dragon Soul with your friends from that PvP server you refuse to roll on, but you can at least do Raid Finder runs, as well as any classic raid your heart desires. Now you can sucker even more people into those legendary farming runs! With a new patch on test the servers and the last of the post-holiday doldrums more or less shaken off, you better believe there's plenty of good news and interesting stuff to read from the past week. Downtime this week is a series of rolling restarts at 10 a.m. PST, which of course gives you time for a nice mid-morning or early afternoon break to catch up on the news. Read on for the usual run-down.
Tuesday Morning Post: Good night, sweet corgi edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. This week has had its share of silence, for sure. I'm not sure if the folks at Blizzard's just enjoying the last bit of the holidays or secretly playing that other game, but either way, they didn't have much to say this week. That's not say there wasn't activity and stuff to discuss, not at all. The Darkmoon Faire's back in town, for one, and we've all been looking back at some of the best and worst stuff to come out of 2011. This is also the week we had to say goodbye to that freaking sweet corgi in the picture above. We can only pray Blizzard gives him back to us a pet some time in the future. If they do not, it shall surely go down in the annals of history as one of the greatest MMO tragedies of all time. Downtime this morning is a series of rolling restarts starting at 10 a.m. PST, so you should have time to dig in to all the retrospectives and guides we have ready for you. Read on for the usual roundup.
Tuesday Morning Post: Vacation's over edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone! Hopefully everyone has successfully roused themselves from their holiday food comas and dug themselves out of piles of wrapping paper. For most of us, today probably marks a return to the good old-fashioned work grind, but hey. We still have a few more days of Winter Veil, and think of it this way: Now that the holidays are over, we can go back to focusing on the important stuff, like figuring out when Mists of Pandaria's going into beta. Downtime this morning is limited to a series of rolling restarts at 10 a.m. PST, but hey, you should still have time to get caught up on the news from the past few days. Don't let the holiday season fool you -- there was a lot of it. Read on to catch up.
Tuesday Morning Post: On the first day of Winter Veil edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everybody, and a very merry Winter Veil. Hopefully you've been celebrating, either by entering our 12 Days of Winter Veil contests or by going for in-game achievements. Then again, maybe you just don't care for that stuff and want to keep doing what you normally do -- and hey, that's cool too. No matter how you celebrate, you'll have to take a short break this morning as Blizzard applies rolling restarts to the servers starting at 10 a.m. PST. Don't worry though, we got lots of stuff for you to read while you wait. Read on after the break for our usual roundup of the last week's content, including some awesome Warcraft gift ideas for you last-minute shoppers.
Tuesday Morning Post: News delivery smorgasbord edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. The biggest news we're likely to see in a while, is, of course, not coming this week. Patch 4.3 will remain on the test servers for at least one more week, as Nov. 29 marks the projected end of the latest PvP season. That said, there's plenty of new to be had this week, from Black Friday sales to more ways to earn conquest points. We have the usual roundup after the break -- but hey, if reading bulleted lists isn't your thing (or even if it is), why not try it in video form? Right up there, our own Mat McCurley delivers the big headlines of the past week, and he looks and sounds prettier than I do while doing it. You can catch him every Friday right here on the site. With that, we pretty much have a way to deliver the news to whichever sense you like. Want to watch it? We have video. Want to hear it? We have a podcast. Want to read it? That goes without saying. We're still working on tasting it, but give us a few years. Whatever way you take your news, downtime today is a quick set of rolling restarts starting at 10 a.m. Pacific, so you'll have at least a little time to get caught up.
Tuesday Morning Post: Guy On A Buffalo edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. While we received notice this past week that PvP season 10 could end as early as today, a later tweet from Bashiok confirmed the actual end date will be Nov. 29. Alas, this means we can't expect patch 4.3 until at least that date, meaning this will end up being the longest half a month ever, and I won't be able to spend my Thanksgiving vacation running End Time until my eyes bleed. In an effort to keep myself entertained in the meantime, I've turned to one man: the Guy on a Buffalo. This man is the paragon, nay, the pinnacle of what humanity can be. Let his power and majesty inspire you, with dreams of his ruggedness filling the nights and days until patch 4.3 drops. ... Also, the song is pretty catchy. Buffalo riding aside, there is a lot of cool stuff going on in WoW news, right from the class balance Q&A to WoW Insider's first children's book and first weekly WoW news vidcast. Downtime today is a quick series of rolling restarts starting at 5 a.m. Pacific, so why not take some time and get caught up? Our usual roundup awaits after the break.
Tuesday Morning Post: End of Hallow's End edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. I hope no one overindulged too much in candy or alcoholic beverages last night -- or if you did, I hope you're not too bad off. Myself, I'm finding that while I avoided getting the con crud, I seem to have picked up the Halloween party pestilence instead. Downtime this morning consists of a series of rolling restarts starting at 10 a.m. PDT. So whether you're fighting off a fall cold, a hangover, or a tummy ache -- or if you're feeling fine, you lucky bum -- you should have some time to read up on the week's news with us. There's a good mix of patch 4.3 and BlizzCon 2011 stuff to review, so you'll probably want to read on.
Tuesday Morning Post: Let's kill Sylvanas edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. While we're all waiting with bated breath for the PTR to drop, there's at least a trickle of patch 4.3 info coming our way. We learned that rogues get to look like Batman, and that the tier 13 set bonuses are sort of weird. It was a pretty slow Monday, however, and as of this writing, we've heard nothing new about when the PTR will open.Hope springs eternal. I'm just hoping the new dungeons are up ASAP, because I can't wait to take out that lady up there, even if it's just as an echo from the future. Downtime this morning is just a quick series of rolling restarts at 5 a.m. PDT, but whether you're waiting out that quick server restart or waiting for news of the PTR, keep it here with us. We'll have all the news as soon as it breaks. In the meantime, you can catch our usual roundup of the past seven days' news, after the break.
Tuesday Morning Post: Scruffy nerfherders edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone! I've been playing the original KOTOR lately, after having it sit in my Steam games library for way too long, and it's strangely awesome. I haven't played an old RPG that's held up this well in a long time. Of course, it's also made me really want to try SWTOR, so there's the downside. Anyway, I have Star Wars on my mind, so when those upcoming Firelands nerfs came up, it got me thinking. Could we call Blizzard developers nerfherders now? And if so, does that mean they are all awesome, roguish smugglers who totally shot first? Because I think I am OK with this. Downtime today is just a quick set of rolling restarts, starting at 5 a.m. PDT. While you wait for those to finish up, there's plenty of juicy news to catch up beyond the break, from new patch 4.3 sneak peaks to patch 4.2 hotfix hijinks. Read on to check it all out.
Tuesday Morning Post: Non-answers edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. Probably one of the most intriguing pieces of news this week was a little quote from Tom Chilton, who was heard to say that the whole "Mists of Pandaria" thing was totally overhyped. Honestly, as much as I used to say that Mists of Pandaria probably wasn't an actual expansion, this answer sort of changes my mind. If Chilton wanted to deny the existence of the Mists as an actual product, this would have been a perfect time to do it. Instead, he gave a perfect, classic little Blizzard non-answer -- sure, he said Mists of Pandaria was overhyped, but he didn't say it wasn't the next expansion. I don't know. Now I'm thinking we are headed to a misty little island somewhere to grind to level 90. Whether you think we're headed to Pandaria for the next expansion or not, there's plenty of new for you to peruse in this week's roundup. While this morning's downtime consists primarily of rolling restarts, a small handful of servers will have some extra downtime from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. PDT, so you'll have at least some time to get caught up. Stay tuned as well for more patch 4.3 news. When it breaks, we'll have it here.
Tuesday Morning Post: Playing dressup edition
So despite the continued lack of a patch 4.3 PTR, the patch 4.3 news came in with a vengeance this week. Not only did threat become trivial, but we're going to see active mitigation for tanks and extra bank storage for your stray item sets and fashion pieces. We found out that cross-realm raiding is in the works. We also learned that Deathwing will be the final boss of patch 4.3. But all that pales in comparison to the #1 news: We're getting cosmetic armor slots. Sure, there are restrictions (some of them more arbitrary than others), but we're finally getting them. I figure it's all about baby steps. Sure, my death knight can't wear an eyepatch for now. My rogue won't be able to wear a Corsair's Overshirt and be a swashbuckler. And I'll have to defer my dreams of my warrior becoming a leather-clad berserker. But sooner or later, maybe Blizzard will realize that it's not a bad thing to offer your players even more choices and that in a game with a distinguished history of poop quests and featuring such NPCs as Mylune, Goblin Hitler, and Linken, maybe a rogue dual wielding fish isn't really all that immersion-breaking after all. All that said, it looks like we're no closer to the patch 4.3 PTR this week, as all we get is a quick set of rolling restarts for downtime, starting at 5 a.m. PDT. While you're waiting for your server to come back up, you'll definitely want to catch up on all the patch 4.3 buzz here. Our usual roundup awaits you after the break.
Tuesday Morning Post: Glimpses edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. It's been a sort of weird week in WoW. Patch 4.2.2 is on the PTR but doesn't seem to provide any major changes other than correcting a few tooltips. It does, however, make us all sort of antsier than ever for patch 4.3, and Community Manager Nethaera only stoked those flames with the release of the above screenshot. She neglected, however, to reveal what it signified. This, of course, has set off a firestorm of comments and theories. Could it mean playable ethereals in the next expansion? Could it be a red herring to distract us from the Pandaren? Could it just be a non sequitur thrown up by a bored CM? Myself, I'm going for the theory that we'll see some new features in patch 4.3 introduced lorewise by Consortium vendors in capital cities. That said, only time will tell for sure. For now, the folks at Blizzard aren't saying any more, and so we wait. On the plus side, you won't have to wait too long for the servers to come back up this morning. We're dealing with some rolling restarts at 5 a.m. PDT, after which we should be free and clear. While you're waiting out the short downtime, be sure to catch up all things WoW with our usual roundup, after the break.
Tuesday Morning Post: Stay awhile and farm edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. So. I'm thinking I quit the day job, write freelance articles by night, and spend all day farming the loot mines of Tristram, pulling out bountiful harvests of Tarnhelms and Stones of Jordan to sell in the great markets. Okay, seriously, I wouldn't personally quit my day job to farm uniques, but it's still sort of an awesome feeling to know the option is out there. Also, given Diablo 3 lead designer Jay Wilson's insistence that PVE will never be balanced on the back of PVP and PVP can just deal with it if a PVE ability imbalances PVP, I am officially in love with the man and wish he would come work on WoW too. Anyway, that's enough Diablo fanboying for one article -- let's get on with the rest of the news. With rolling restarts coming at 5 a.m. PDT, you should have at least a little time to get caught up.
Tuesday Morning Post: One week more
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. It seems like we're all just waiting for patch 4.2 now. Everything's in place. We've been given an explanation of all the class changes. We even have a patch trailer. But as much as we were hoping it would drop this week, we have to wait one more week for them to work out the final kinks. Luckily, there's plenty of other news to keep you busy and keep the buzz going while you wait, such as that whole authenticator change. In addition, the Midsummer Fire Festival begins today, and we have an achievement guide for you. For these and more stories, check out our usual roundup behind the break. We only have to deal with rolling restarts this morning, but you can take those few minutes of downtime to read up, right?
Tuesday Morning Post: Ready! Aim! Firelands!
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. With PvP Season 9 slated to end as early as June 21, and a new patch 4.2 update on the PTR that's marked for release, it's probably safe to say that we'll see the new patch before July comes. This week, we're just seeing some quick rolling restarts, though, starting at 5 a.m. PDT. While you wait for those to pass, why not catch up on the latest news? We have updates on the last few changes to go up on the patch 4.2 PTR, as well a look at what the developers are saying over on the official forums. Read on for all this and more.
Tuesday Morning Post: Archaeology supremacy edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. The patch 4.2 news continues fast and furious, but I'm going to take this opening paragraph to focus a little further. We received the answers to our professions questions for Ask the Devs #7 today, and there were a few doozies in there. Chaos Orbs will be going unbound, for one, perfect news for my two leveling tailors who want themselves tons of Dreamcloth. What really caught my eye, however, was all the archaeology love. As a pretty obsessed archaeologist, I am tickled at the idea of getting awesome dailies, being able to say "it belongs in a museum" instead of vendoring my finds, and being able to focus on those stupid dwarven sites so I can finally get that silly staff for my caster alts. As usual, there's even more awesome news to review from the past week, and not all of it is patch 4.2-related, I swear. Maintenance this morning is limited to rolling restarts at 5 a.m. PDT, but that still gives you at least a few minutes to get caught up. The usual list is after the break.
Tuesday Morning Post: Entire team is hipsters edition
Well, it happened. I was dreading the day, but here it is. On this Tuesday morning, the unthinkable has occurred. According to a Breakfast Topic commenter, the entire WoW Insider team are hipsters. Now, far be it from me to hide away from such accusations. No, I am not the type of man to deny such things. Thus, in interest of full disclosure, I present to you the picture above, which was taken at a concert attended by myself and a friend. I will freely admit that yours truly did, in fact, consume the contents of more than one of the cans shown above. Take from that what you will. That said, you did not come here to investigate the inner life of this humble blogger; you came here for the latest and greatest in WoW news, delivered to you by the finest group of video game hipsters to set hands to keys. This week, we have another round of rolling restarts starting at 5 a.m. Pacific. While you're waiting for your server to cycle, why not check out the news? We have our usual roundup after the break.
Tuesday Morning Post: Rearrangement envy edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. This is a banner week for every WoW altoholic. After years of struggle, a new dawn is upon us. We have learned that patch 4.2 will herald the greatest change ever to grace us in these 6 years. That's right: We get the ability to reorganize our character list. Finally, my poor death knight will not be banished under loads of mules and rarely played or abandoned alts. He can take his rightful position at the head of my list. You hear that buddy? Everything's going to be okay. There's plenty of other juicy WoW news to be had, both from the PTR and elsewhere, and we have a quick roundup of the latest stuff for you as usual. You can check it out while you're waiting for the rolling restarts to get finished. They'll start at 5 a.m. Pacific time and last about an hour. Me, I've decided to spend the downtime watching Gnome Fukkireta over and over again, so I'll see you on the flipside.
