April Fools Again - Alliance Race

We saw Blizzard's first April Fool's Joke in this post. Now here's another:

We are treated to a whole Wisps-Are-The-Alliance-Race-writeup including:

Racial Traits:

Detonate: Destroys the wisp, dispelling all magical buffs and draining 50 mana from each unit in an area around the wisp.

Gatherer: Skill to herbalism, mining, and skinning increased by 10.

Permanent Death

Treeform: Turns the wisp into a tree for 30 seconds. During this time, spirit is increased by 300. However, the wisp's chance to dodge or parry axes is reduced by 50%.

Even Screenshots:


(Okay, so maybe I added the "Patch," and I stole your bandwidth to do it too.)

p.s. There was also this Press Release on BurgerCraft for more than just WoW April Foolin'.

"Taurens, you've been warned."

April Fool's Post From Blizzard - A preview of Patch 1.11
(thanks broadbandforums!)

Here are five of my favorites:

Night Elves will now lose a small percentage of experience after jumping.

Pets have a small chance to attack the Hunter when hungry.

Fixed bug which allowed Rogues to wield two weapons at the same time.

New level 35 quest series added which teaches players to detect stealth. We feel that by this time, players have lived in fear of Rogues long enough.

Due to the awkward look and feel of Taurens in the Undercity, guards will no longer permit their entry and have been flagged to kill on sight. Taurens, you've been warned.

Background Downloader

I found this little gem of information at wowvault.ign.com and am hopeful that this will help me have a normal patch life. Blizzard is starting something new - a Background Downloader. Here are more details:

Description from wowvault

"With the 1.10 patch we have integrated a new content delivery system called the Blizzard Background Downloader. This program will run seamlessly with World of Warcraft and download upcoming content prior to the release of a patch. With use of this program a minimal amount of data will be needed during the next actual patch release and help to decrease the amount of time spent downloading the patch. The Blizzard Background Downloader uses the same protocols and connection methods as the Blizzard Downloader, some customers may need to configure their various network protection programs and hardware to take full advantage of it."

Blizzard's FAQ

"The background downloader is designed to minimize the amount of time users spend during the patching process. As users play the game the background downloader is automatically launched at a random interval when there is new data available. An icon appears in the system tray or dock to notify players that the download has started. Data is then streamed at a very slow rate into a new folder that is created in the World of Warcraft installation directory. When a patch is released users already have most of new data available and need only to download a very small amount to be able to run the patch. "

Patch 1.10 Results

The blogosphere recorded the history for Patch Day 1.10.

It didn't go exactly as planned:

Teniblue's Snapshot Impressions of 1.10 Patch Day

"...Chatting with friends while at work, and reading LJ here and seeing people getting frustrated at the continued problems that prevented the servers from going up.

...Chatting with friends while at work, and reading LJ here and seeing people getting frustrated at the addons that no longer worked.

...Feeling relieved that I was still at work and was not exposed to all the /tap waiting for stuff.

...Getting home and joining the others in /tap waiting.

...Finally logging in, and addon after addon generating error messages in the game."

Patch Note Comparison - An excellent post that compares the test patch notes to the final patch notes. (via watchingwow)

News of the Delays was reported on the Web. (via Marc's World of Warcraft Blog)

"It's part of the normal process," said Shif, "and unfortunately, it went a little longer than expected today."

Player Compensation (via wowvault and wowinsider)

"An issue occurred while applying the 1.10 content patch yesterday that prevented the realms from going live at the end of our scheduled maintenance window. To compensate players for any inconvenience caused by this extended downtime, we will be issuing a 24-hour time extension to all players with an active account. Thank you for your patience during today's maintenance; we hope you enjoy all the new content in patch 1.10!"

Satire Abounds:

Patch Day! or Big Fun with Blizzard’s Technical People

"Through my connections at Blizzard, a few well-placed bugs, a couple of illegal wiretaps, a clever spycam, the rather plump receptionist I bribed with two Cokes and a ham sandwich, I’ve managed to find out exactly what the hell happened. It’ll be more enlightening if I lay out the evidence for you, piece by piece, a la CSI: Miami. Besides, it’s cooler. "

Weather Report

"All Roads into Azeroth are closed..."

The End Results were exactly as Blizzard Intended:

Biggest 1.10 Nerfs.

"EDIT: To clarify, if you're hit with a snowball just as you take off, you get instantly teleported to your destination. I used to do it to random people in Silithus to make their trip to Gadgetzan shorter (and get much thanks for it :B)"

They knew that Many Mods Would Die to Bring You This Patch

Many Mods Died to Bring You this Patch

Just a few lines(*) in the the Patch Notes such as:

"You are no longer able to modify the Blizzard XML and Lua files."

And there was a great disturbance in the Force...
as if a million voices suddenly cried out in terror as their mods were suddenly silenced...

Addons broken by 1.10.0

ui.worldofwar.net's Blizzard Mod Forum Watch and latest Updated Mods

"What a crazy day it has been on ui.worldofwar.net. Well over 100 updated mods have been uploaded by mod authors, too many to list here, but if you have been experiencing mod issues then make sure you grab the latest versions. Thanks to all the mod authors who have updated so quickly and uploaded their new versions or new mods to the site."

wowinterface.com says:

"The low bandwidth version of wowinterface has been enabled because of the World of Warcraft 1.10 patch. Our site will go back to normal and this made an optional style again once traffic dies down in a couple days. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you."

I would like to tell you what Curse-Gaming says but I can't even get their site to load.

World of Warcraft Interface AddOn Kit released. (Via worldofwar.net)

Customizing the interface is a very technical endeavor, and you should not attempt it unless you have a good working knowledge of XML and Lua.

(* Actually there were a ton of UI Patch changes.)

Tiny Little Patch Changes

You probably know all the major changes for 1.10:

• Weather
• New Enchanting/Herbalism Bags
• Priest Changes
• Armor Sets (<--New Blizzard Page)
• Final Destination Flight Paths
• Gold for Quest xp at Level 60

But let's take note of the little things that might get overlooked (from the patch notes - if you've digested them already you can skip this, particularly since the patch notes have been available for weeks):

• Shift-R will now reply to the last person that you sent a tell to rather than the last person who sent a tell to you.
• Various tooltips updated.
• Reputation will no longer be gained if a pet kills a monster without aid.
• A new level 52 druid quest that takes place in Un'Goro crater has been added.
• (Druid) All shapeshift forms can now use equipped items.
• The drop rate for Essence of Air has been increased.
• Added support for widescreen video resolutions.

I also noticed:

• A lot of changes that appeared to be fixes to problems, exploits, griefing, etc..
• A lot of changes to other classes, particularly Hunter
• A lot of changes that should affect add-ons and mods (See This Link for a list of mods that broke with 1.10)

Level 9 Shaman Video

I haven't posted a video link in a while and this one tickled me. A Level 9 Shaman takes out Level 60s in Gadgetzan. Access the video here at the post where I found it.

Rain Delay - 1.10 Patch Day

The Tip Parade will wait a little bit since today is Patch Day (tomorrow in EU). THE Patch Day actually. 1.10

Here's the post from Eyonix on the forums announcing it: here. (Kudos on the completely hysterical and satirical "F1RST POST!!11!!.")

Also - Caydiem is leaving the forums. Announcement


For your Patchy convenience:

Realm Status Page

Read the official Patch Notes Page to see the Patch details once updated

To remind yourself of what will be in 1.10 check out the test-realm-patch-notes.

Note to self - get the patch here since it would otherwise take you 40 days and nights to try to do it normally.

See you on the other side and don't forget to check your mods!

WoW Tip Parade - /gquit

One of the questions I hear asked in "General" the most is "How do I quit a guild?"

Here's your answer: /gquit or /guildquit.

WoW Tip Parade - Loot All

There are a ton and a half of tips out there. I will distill the ones I know down to just a handful of the best and share them with you in this series: The WoW Tip Parade.

Today's tip is my favorite: SHIFT-Right-click.

Instead of looting your kill by right-clicking it, use your left hand to hit shift while you're doing it. Instead of just opening the loot box, WoW will open it and automatically traansfer all contents to your bags. If you don't have enough room, it will take what it can and then give you an error message.

To make this tip even better is this little factoid - it works with more than just looting. Shift-Right-click to mine your ore and it will do the mining and then open up the window and automatically transfer the contents to your bags. It also works with Herbalism, Skinning, treasure chests and mission gathering as well.

Warning - I do this so often when I'm working solo; it gets hard to mentally turn it off when I'm in a group. But it's important to not do this if there are special looting rules in your group.