Message from J. Allen Brack - Five Free Days of Gametime, Nov 18 Hotfixes

Update: Added today's hotfixes.

2.1.2 PTR Patch Notes, PTR is Now Live!

Goblins vs Gnomes Card Reveal: Anodized Robo Cub, Fel Cannon, Screwjank Clunker

Hero Rotation for November 18

Message from J. Allen Brack
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
WoW Community:

I know how much everyone was looking forward to this expansion, and once you were able to get in and start having fun, all the comments I've seen indicate that this is one of our best yet. But the quality of the content does not excuse the subpar launch experience we delivered, and I apologize for that.

The first two days of the expansion were not a great experience, with many of you facing high queues or significant gameplay problems. We worked around the clock to tackle the demand issues and technical challenges, and fortunately things started looking better on Saturday. While millions of you were able to get in and play over the weekend, with many already reaching level 100, others still ran into very lengthy queues, particularly on the highest-population realms.

To help address this, we’ve expanded the new instancing tech we used to improve queues on Saturday and we’re continuing the process of applying that to raise the capacity of all realms again. This will result in approximately double the prelaunch capacity on each realm, which should greatly reduce queue times for most realms if not eliminate queues altogether.

In recognition of the difficulties so many of you ran into when trying to play over the first few days, we're adding five days’ worth of extra time to every subscription in the Americas, Oceania, and Europe that was active as of Friday, November 14. Things are already in a much better place than they were going into the weekend, so I hope you’ll now be able to focus on having a ton of fun with this expansion.

I also hope you'll accept my apology and keep your faith in us. The support voiced by many of you as we worked through the challenges was immensely appreciated. We're extremely grateful to be part of such a passionate community. We love World of Warcraft, and we're very proud of this expansion, so stumbling out of the gates like this was very disappointing for all of us.

On behalf of the World of Warcraft development team, as well as everyone at Blizzard, thank you all again for your patience and understanding.

See you in Draenor.

Sincerely,
J. Allen Brack
Executive Producer, World of Warcraft

6.0.3 Hotfixes: November 18
Blizzard is working on a hotfix for Tier 2 Trading Posts not unlocking rep gains with Sha'tari Defense or Laughing Skull.
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Garrisons, Followers, and Outposts
  • Fishing Shack: The building should now correctly still provide a bonus while it's under construction.
  • Frostwall Mine: Fixed a number of True Iron Deposits that were spawning inside of pillars and terrain.
  • Mage Tower/Spirit Lodge: Characters under a shapeshifting effect should now be able to use an Ogre Waygate to return to their Garrisons.
  • Outpost, Nagrand: The building bonus for having a Corral should no longer incorrectly dismount Herbalists while harvesting resource nodes.
  • [Requires a realm restart.] Outpost, Spires of Arak: Bonus for the building should now switch correctly when changing buildings for the outpost.
  • Salvage Yard: The building should now correctly still provide a bonus while it's under construction.
  • Followers
    • Followers that are 3 or more levels below the mission level now receive 10% of the mission XP and bonus XP (up from 0%). Additional information on how Followers and mission level affects their XP gain can be found in a forum thread titled Followers and Garrison Missions XP.

Classes
  • Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
    • Balance
      • Empowered Moonkin's clearcasting effect should no longer be incorrectly consumed if it's triggered while the Moonkin is in the middle of casting a spell.
  • Mage (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
    • Talents
      • Comet Storm should now correctly belong to the Frost school and is no longer usable if that school is locked.
  • Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
    • Talents
      • [Requires a realm restart.] Holy Shield should now correctly deal damage when blocking normal attacks as well.

Quests
  • Bonus Objective: The Forgotten Caves: Gorg the Host should no longer be getting stuck in evade mode.
  • Bonus Objective: The Howling Crag: Further increased the spawn rates of Pale Orcs and Rylak Eggs.
  • For the Children!: Manastorm's Duplicator should now be correctly awarded to characters that complete the quest.
  • Moving In: Characters that abandon the quest should now have an easier time reacquiring the quest and resume their progress on the main quest line.
  • Ogre Diplomacy: Players that have completed Into the Heart of Madness should no longer sometimes be placed into an incorrect phase and be unable to complete the quest.
  • Safety Measures: Increased the spawn rate of bog denizens.
  • Shadowmoon Invasion! is now automatically removed from the character's quest log if they upgrade to a Tier 3 Garrison as this quest is only available for Tier 2 Garrisons.
  • Skimming Off The Top: Increased the drop rates for Volatile Oil.
  • Strike While the Iron is Hot: Blocked off the entrance to the Iron Docks so players won't accidentally wander out of the quest area and wind up getting lost.
  • The Defense of Karabor: Players resurrecting at a graveyard during this quest should no longer be immediately attacked by Iron Horde NPCs.
  • The Iron Wolf: Players should now be able to receive completion credit if they've died and released during the quest.
  • Thunderlord Invasion!: The quest is now automatically removed from the character's quest log if they upgrade to a Tier 3 Garrison as this quest is only available for Tier 2 Garrisons.

Creatures and NPCs
  • Apexis Traders Dawn-Seeker Krek (Alliance) and Dawn-Seeker Alkset (Horde) are now offering Exceptional gear (item level 645) for sale.
    • Developer Commentary: The vendors' offerings were previously tied to the Highmaul raid unlock, but we wanted to make sure that players have useful items to spend their Apexis Crystals on, rather than positioning them exclusively as a catch-up item vendor. The final tier of Flawless gear (item level 655) will now unlock when the Highmaul raid becomes available, rather than when Blackrock Foundry becomes available.
  • Increased the spawn rates for creatures and NPCs in the Skettis Ruins area in Spires of Arak. [Requires a realm restart.] Additionally, resolved an issue where some creatures were incorrectly sharing loot with other players.
  • Grizzled Frostwolf Veteran's icon should no longer persist on the mini map after being defeated.
  • Rangari Jonaa now has a cooldown on their Scatter Shot ability.
  • Rotcap's icon should no longer persist on the mini map after being defeated.
  • Typhon's icon should no longer persist on the mini map after being defeated.

Dungeons, Raids, and Scenarios
  • Characters with Warlords PvP gear that had its secondary item level activated due to being in PvP combat temporarily disqualifies them from queuing for Dungeons and Raid Finder. It can take up to 20 seconds after ending PvP combat before the character will be eligible to queue up normally.
  • Upper Blackrock Spire
    • During the Commander Tharbek encounter, players should no longer be kept in a constant state of combat between waves.

PvP
  • Reverted a hotfix from October 15 that reduced all PvP damage by 25%.
  • Gnomes are now able to increase their reputation with Wrynn's Vanguard.

Items
  • Coil of Sturdy Rope, a Horde quest item should no longer be incorrectly dropping for Alliance characters.
  • Miner's Coffee movement speed buff should now stack correctly with other movement speed buffs.
  • Solium Band rings can now be equipped at level 98 (down from level 100).

Legendary Ring Quest Line and Apexis Crystals
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Here to provide additional clarification on the hotfix note that went out yesterday, November 17.

Quests
  • Draenor's Secret Power: Completion of this quest is now required before being able to move onto the next step of the Legendary quest chain. For characters that skipped this quest, completion of this quest has also been made into a requirement before being eligible for the next upgrade.

This means players that skipped the quest will still have to complete Draenor's Secret Power before being eligible for the next upgrade. That last part wasn't included until now cause I was tunnel visioning on hotfixes and glossed over the supplemental email for the change. Hope this clears any confusion up.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Message from J. Allen Brack - Five Free Days of Gametime started by chaud View original post
Published on 2014-11-18 07:36 PM
201 Comments
Comments 199 Comments
  1. acg137's Avatar
    It's rare to find companies that go this far to give back on WoW time; tbh 5 days is sufficient. Not sure if there's still queue time issues for people (I know I haven't lately and I'm in a high pop realm)

    kudos to Blizz for this.
  1. markdall's Avatar
    It's nice of them but if they really want to make it up to us? Push back the anniversary 5 days, and push back the raid opening 5 days. (I realize there's no way they'd do this, no need to let me know.) Because that's the only thing that's been harmed - some of my guildies beat the queue boss and have been running heroics for two (three today) days. I just qualified for heroics last night and haven't run any yes. I'm behind. I'm behind. 5 days doesn't help me not be behind.

    Starting their other events 5 days later would definitely let me catch up but again that ain't happening.
  1. Anium's Avatar
    Probably spent 5 days in queue so it works out, they really still need to address the q time though on some realms, 4 hours today!
  1. Facerolls's Avatar
    5 days? pft. We should get a Garrison monument, something like "I tanked the queue, never forget". or "I killed ravens before they were cool or respawned"
  1. acg137's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by markdall View Post
    It's nice of them but if they really want to make it up to us? Push back the anniversary 5 days, and push back the raid opening 5 days. (I realize there's no way they'd do this, no need to let me know.) Because that's the only thing that's been harmed - some of my guildies beat the queue boss and have been running heroics for two (three today) days. I just qualified for heroics last night and haven't run any yes. I'm behind. I'm behind. 5 days doesn't help me not be behind.

    Starting their other events 5 days later would definitely let me catch up but again that ain't happening.
    The anniversary content will stay until January 5 so again don't rush it.
    Raid tiers... well tbh I think we're fine currently where we stand - if they delay it they have to push it a full week.
  1. Deathquoi's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Anium View Post
    Probably spent 5 days in queue so it works out, they really still need to address the q time though on some realms, 4 hours today!
    The anniversary lasts for like 3 months. If you can't get to 100 by January, I doubt 5 more days will make a difference...
  1. Shiroh's Avatar
    Nice. Thank you high population realms for those 5 days!
  1. lavajava123456's Avatar
    As gamers (and to expand just people in general) we expect instant gratification and more often than not we don't have the patience or awareness to fully appreciate the current situation. It would have been impossible for anyone to anticipate the kind of bandwidth coming into the game (whether its new/returning/or current subs).

    Before the flames rain down on my post it should be noted that I myself took off of work Thursday/Friday for this release and was excited as all hell to play non-stop from launch until I went back to work Monday. I main on Mal'Ganis and didn't even get to play Saturday except for maybe an hour at night after sitting in queue all day.

    The launch obviously did not go the way Blizzard had intended and the servers could not support the exponential increase of users. Evidenced by a DDOS attack by the amount of its own playerbase! Anyway, the way Blizzard handled the days afterwards in terms of communication and what we call in IT "putting out fires" was nothing less than exceptional. And now they send out this letter and own up to their failures. I applaud them for this level of humility and showing a human side.
  1. MatadorMedia's Avatar
    Five days is way more than anyone expected to receive. That's a great gift. I figured they would do something, although anyone who has played WoW any length of time would have already expected for the long queues and in-game errors. There's still two full weeks before the first raid even opens and the Anniversary event runs into New Years so I can't imagine anyone is "behind" because of the server issues like some peeps are saying.

    This is a huge money hit to Blizz, though, when you think about it. 5 free days for everyone? That's $2.50 worth of time granted to every active account... times that by 7 million accounts and Blizz just lost $17.5 million dollars of potential income. That's a very high bet that your generosity will pay off in the long run.
  1. getupkid55's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Thursley View Post
    Are they actually giving the money back to people though? Or are they extending subscriptions by 5 days? The post says "Adding five days’ worth of extra time to every subscription," which sounds like the latter. If they push back subscriptions by 5 days, as long as you keep paying monthly they aren't losing anything. It's only different if you make use of the LAST 5 days of your subscription, because those are the days you wouldn't have had otherwise. In practice, those last 5 days aren't worth nearly as much as the first few days of an expansion. I'd bet pretty much everyone would happily give up at least that much time at the end of their subscription for a clean launch.

    Your logic is flawed. If you paid for a 60 days, you have now paid for 65 days at the same price. Period. What happens after those 65 days is irrelevant. Blizzard is still losing 5 days of subscription fees.



    Also just so everyone knows, if your account was ACTIVE on Friday (ie. you were able to login and be stuck in queues) you will get this bonus. The status of your subscription or whether you were on pre-paid time is irrelevant. It also has not been credited yet but I imagine will be in the coming few days if not later tonight.
  1. Regalbeast's Avatar
    Bravo, Blizz. And to everyone who is still finding a way to complain about 5 extra days of game time....just please go away, forever.
  1. Masqerader's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Treeh View Post
    I didn't get gametime.... Why?

    It probably hasnt been applied to all accounts. Took a bit for my 7 free days to show up, when they had the promotion weeks ago
  1. Darkwind4357's Avatar
    I love it. I logged right in because I'm not on a high pop server. I had no queue, no issues. Now I get 5 days. Works in my book!
  1. mmoc6d87ea0a45's Avatar
    i will prefer thei fix ashran queue or add the vendor outside battle zone..waiting 2-3hours to get in just to buy a single piece of gear is not funny at all
  1. Adoxe's Avatar
    This just proves people will bitch just about anything. You get 5 free days of gametime and still find things to complain about, wonderful...
  1. Zenfoldor's Avatar
    Great game, terrible launch. I'm glad blizzard is doing this. Probably a couple million in give away revenue just to do the right thing I'm guessing...
  1. Turaska's Avatar
    Respect I guess, they didn't have to give us a thing, they could have just said "Shit happens" and had done with it. /hats off to Blizzard.

    p.s enjoying the expansion, best one to date - please please please please make Garrison's a long term next expansion things.
  1. Puddingcess's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Anium View Post
    Probably spent 5 days in queue so it works out, they really still need to address the q time though on some realms, 4 hours today!
    Being on a less populated server will fix that issue! It's going to be really hard to fix the queue issues on the most populated servers.
  1. Pathagoris's Avatar
    Keep my $2.50 and instead update your technology so that I don't have to sit in a queue to play on my main character. Thanks in advance.
  1. mmoc1376ef233f's Avatar
    And who paid for his sub on saturday... Jup.
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