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. mmocd8f86ed6f0's Avatar
    all I wanted is for an apology and for them to take ownership of the problem.
    They did both, and gave free game time to boot, Cannot ask for more than that. anyone bitching now, is just bitching for bitching sake.
  1. Sainur's Avatar
    This is very nice to see.

    The game was only unplayable for me on launch day, so the 4 extra days are always appreciated.
  1. l33t's Avatar
    Nice. If they'd done this earlier, like, Friday evening, bonus gametime won't be needed at all. Just a honest apology, instead of "overwhelmingly positive" response bullshit.
    Apology accepted, thanks for free time.
  1. Vinterbolt's Avatar
    /clap . Things like this make Blizzard one of the greatest if not the BEST video game industry out there.
  1. deathgrinder's Avatar
    Props, apology accepted
  1. SteveRocks's Avatar
    No apology/gametime necessary, but I appreciate the gesture. Awesome customer service Blizz keep up the good work!
  1. mmoc6f961e454e's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Mission View Post
    I think its Huge and a hello and Thank You Allen Brack for the post, apology and the free game time, appreciate it
    They should stop being greedy fuckers and give 3 days of free game time with every expansion sale in advance as I've been saying for years.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by SteveRocks View Post
    No apology/gametime necessary, but I appreciate the gesture. Awesome customer service Blizz keep up the good work!
    It was, some people don't have a lot of time to game and when they can't when they do it's a big hassle...
  1. mmocda24004b08's Avatar
    How about this, happening now... i.imgur.com/j8oMGkO.png i'll wait for an apology on this too
  1. notorious98's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Sarac View Post
    They should stop being greedy fuckers and give 3 days of free game time with every expansion sale in advance as I've been saying for years.
    Or just give 30 days of free game time to every expansion purchase.

    OT : The added game time was to be expected. It still doesn't excuse their continuous ability to fuck up every launch that involves some necessary online metric.
  1. Donald Hellscream's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by shibolena View Post
    to my memory, they have not done this since vanilla wow. So yeah, it's proof that this launch is one of the biggest fuckups they've ever done. no matter your opinion on the lore, gameplay, etc. it all means jackshit when you can't play the fucking game. Because guess what motherfuckers. pandas may suck, but I could play mysts. But nope, all the blizzard fanboys will defend them still. Why? Because they love them, think people like metzen is their "friend" in real life, and in the end it's a fucking battered house wife syndrome. I still like starcraft 2. And assuming they don't fuck up it's launch like this, I'll play it and enjoy if the writing doesn't suck. But yeah, it just amazes me that people can still defend them after this. They're one of the biggest video game companies on the planet that charges premium for their games. Fuck having "mercy" on them. I'm paying them. If they fucked up, the buck has to stop somewhere.

    And for the record, warlord's lore still sucks ass. And if metzen wrote it, fuck him. Really don't care how nice he is in real life. After all, james cameron is a asshole in real life, but I love his movies. warlords is truly nothing but cheap nostalgia crap for a audience afraid of anything new, when warcraft III was all about having new stuff(could anyone have really predicted the burning legion before warcraft III?). I really do miss that. But I am alone, as always. Because all you fuckers are happy with this shit.
    Did Blizzard murder your dog or something? I mean seriously you might wanna find someone to pull that stick out.

    that Aside why is it necessary for you to be mad at others for enjoying the game? Can't you just ignore it and do something else?
  1. mittacc's Avatar
    Does my account still count as "active" even if I have canceled my sub but still had time during launch? Cause I don't see any more days added to my play time in the bnet client.
  1. notorious98's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by shibolena View Post
    to my memory, they have not done this since vanilla wow.
    They give out extra game time all the time. I remember when they launched ToCr and fucked up the servers somehow, they wound up giving out a day or two of free game time. They just don't announce it. THAT'S the proof this was one of the biggest fuck ups, the fact that they actually told people they were getting free game time instead of just tacking it on.
  1. Repefe's Avatar
    Pretty impressive move. Well done.
  1. Kaamos's Avatar
    apology accepted
  1. mmoc93b0a7f85d's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Keile View Post
    Sooo I just did the math here.

    at $14.99 a month, and a month has on average 30 days (some 31...one 28...using 30 as a nice even number) 5 days of gametime equates to about $2.50 per person that they will not be receiving this month. That may not seem like a lot on a by person basis...but let us look at the bigger picture:

    $2.50 * 7,200,000 (estimate of WoWs current subscription base, based on the last quarter numbers) = $18,000,000 In lost subscription fees due to this incident.

    Assuming I dun did mah maffs right......
    Nope your maffs aren't right. Not every subscription is anything like $15 a month.
  1. OriginZero's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by shibolena View Post
    to my memory, they have not done this since vanilla wow. So yeah, it's proof that this launch is one of the biggest fuckups they've ever done.
    Your memory fails you, or you stopped playing at some point.

    My account has been active, pretty solidly, since 1/28/2005. And I have had a sub with 0 gaps since 7/10/2008, and I received a 3-day credit in 12/2008 for issues in Wrath. Wrath was the last time we received such time from what I can see, but there's not been any major issues since then. Wrath released 11/13/2008 if you're curious. And launch for Cata and MoP were smooth.
  1. Rudypoo's Avatar
    I haven't received the 5 days of gametime, either.
  1. Zoaric's Avatar
    I don't think it's been applied yet.
  1. Keile's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by NigelGurney View Post
    Nope your maffs aren't right. Not every subscription is anything like $15 a month.
    I using the average. I know EU pays more due to a recent price hike but the average price throughout the years has been (the equivalent, or close to) $15/mo.
  1. Jetstream's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by OriginZero View Post
    Your memory fails you, or you stopped playing at some point.

    My account has been active, pretty solidly, since 1/28/2005. And I have had a sub with 0 gaps since 7/10/2008, and I received a 3-day credit in 12/2008 for issues in Wrath. Wrath was the last time we received such time from what I can see, but there's not been any major issues since then. Wrath released 11/13/2008 if you're curious. And launch for Cata and MoP were smooth.
    There have been occasions where people with characters on particular servers got free gametime too. I remember I made a toon on a server that went down a lot once to soak up free time :P
Page 6 of 10 FirstFirst ...
4
5
6
7
8
... LastLast

Site Navigation

Social Media

Services

My Account

Support

Advertise

Resources

Terms of Service

Privacy Policy

Our Communities

© 2023 Magic Find, Inc. All rights reserved.