WoW Servers down - New patch on it's way.

[GreenGoo]

Linkage: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnot ... 17-04.html


Patch text below.

========================================
Major Changes
(detailed information for each below)

Durability

Item durability costs have been greatly decreased for Superior (blue) and Epic (purple) items.



Improved Unstuck

We've added an auto-unstuck feature that you can use prior to petitioning a GM. You can use this feature in situations where you are caught in a part of the terrain and cannot get out. You can find the unstuck option by clicking on the "Help Request" button found on the bottom right hand side of the user interface.



Spirit Healer

Using the Spirit Healer now results in a 25% loss in durability for a player's equipped gear and items in inventory, instead of the previous 100% loss. The length of resurrection sickness suffered from using the Spirit Healer has also been decreased to a maximum of 10 minutes.


Reagents
Reagent requirements have been removed from the following spells:

Druid: Mark of the Wild
Mage: Arcane Intellect
Priest: Power Word: Fortitude

General Changes
(detailed information for each below)

General

The Daze effect has been reworked to have a smaller chance of occurring against players level one to 29. The chance of a successful Daze effect against players 30 and above remains the same.
Talents

The Improved Renew talent has been reduced in effectiveness per rank.
The effect chance of Seal of Command has been reduced slightly.
Redoubt now lasts either 10 seconds or five blocks, whichever comes first.
The effect of Improved Moonfire has been reduced per rank.
Druid

Bear Form has been improved to hold aggro more effectively.
Growl: removed rage cost and global cooldown.
Cower: increased the effect, added a cooldown.
Paladin

Judgment: Moved to level 4.
Divine Protection: Moved to level 6.
Purify: Moved to level 8.
Seal of the Crusader: Now introduced at level 6.
Rogue

Feint: increased the effect, added a cooldown.
Shaman

New Spell: Reincarnation (Level 30). Reincarnation is a passive ability that will give you the option of letting you resurrect yourself once every half hour upon death.
Warlock

Inferno: Now dismisses your pet before casting to allow the Infernal to start Enslaved. Useable outdoors only.
Warrior

Defensive Stance has been improved to hold aggro more effectively.
Taunt: removed rage cost and global cooldown.
Bug Fixes

Night Elf characters in Wisp form will now have correct collision detection.
Damage modifiers will now be calculated before armor points are considered, instead of after.

[GreenGoo]

Servers coming online now. All but the ones I have characters on, it seems

[Odin]

Patch text below.

========================================
Major Changes
Spirit Healer

Using the Spirit Healer now results in a 25% loss in durability for a player's equipped gear and items in inventory, instead of the previous 100% loss. The length of resurrection sickness suffered from using the Spirit Healer has also been decreased to a maximum of 10 minutes.


Reagents
Reagent requirements have been removed from the following spells:

Druid: Mark of the Wild
Mage: Arcane Intellect
Priest: Power Word: Fortitude

This is a perfect example of why I think WoW's early release is putting the game in serious jeopardy. These two "major changes" are simply backing out "major changes" that were implemented in the last patch. Clearly they were a huge mistake and had to be removed. There's so much work left to be done on WoW - how are paying customers going to react to this sort of thing? For instance, let's say that somebody had spent a lot of time, money and storage space to stockpile reagents so they'd always have them. Now suddenly those reagents mean nothing. That sort of thing will piss people off. If this were a unique example of WoW changes, that would be one thing, but this pattern of implementing new rules, then making major changes to them based on player feedback has been common for the last year of testing. With so much left to be done, it seems unlikely to me that the pattern will change now. And everyone who thinks that there's some "perfect" version of WoW on the internal builds that's light-years ahead of what the testers saw, I submit to you that this sort of implement/overhaul approach wouldn't be seen by the testers if that were true.

Blizzard's prior games have always been released "when they're done" and "when they're done" meant they were darn-near perfect. Warcraft Adventures was nearly complete and they scrapped it because it wasn't going to live up to the Blizzard standard. Now, sadly, they're caving to market pressure and releasing an unfinished game. What a sad state of affairs. I think I may reinstall Diablo II.

Sith

[noxiousdog]

I think I may reinstall Diablo II.

That's an interesting idea on how to get through the weekend. I don't know if my clicky finger can stand the trauma though

[warning]

If you do play Diablo II, be sure to use the V+K Middle-Earth Mod. It's sweet.

[Mithridates]

I, for one, am not troubled that the game will require further tweaking. I guess I don't take it seriously enough that I bother to freak out when they make changes(even major ones). I just keep playing and keep having fun.