Cataclysm: Preparing For Patch 4.0.1

[fuser]

The streaming client/patcher is also working.

So for example of todays and in the past you had to download the full patch and run it before playing (todays 4.76GB patch).

After today you have to download core content (~75MB) and allow that stage to complete "Setup" and enter the game.
During your game play the rest of the patch "Available" and "Playable" streams (1.3GB) where you might experience some "loading or downloading" screens or missing textures/models.

[Paelos]

Part of me wants to experience the clusterfuck. A larger part of me says wait until Thursday.

[lesion]

This is why I mostly play classes with an escape mechanic. I am so ready for this.

[AcidCat]

I was going to wait until closer to Cata, but I'll probably resub this weekend to check it all out - plus I always like the Halloween holiday stuff that's right around the corner.

[Ingmar]

I am planning to try some heroic runs tonight to see how much I suck at tanking now. 

[Setanta]

I am planning to try some heroic runs tonight to see how much I suck at tanking now. 

I'm already dreading swipe on a CD and Maul no longer "next attack". Warrior looks to be the least affected (it's also the youngest of my tanks), Pally (my oldest WotLK tank) is going to take a bit of thought now that 969 is gone, DK I have nfi on and Druid looks like it will still be strong but will be trying to remember how I tanked in TBC.

Mind you, first thing I'm going to do when I log in is jump on the hunter, put 3/4 of my spirit beasts in the new kennels and go get all the pets I had to drop over the years (Rak Shiri, Snarler, Core Hound from MC etc).

Then I might go have a look at my enhance shaman (main until I was needed to tank) and see if I should laugh or cry (RIP sentry totem that I never once used).

[Ingmar]

At least it can be reunited with windwall totem in totem heaven. 

[Lt.Dan]

Brace yourselves for add-on hell.  Lots of addons will not function properly in 4.0 and very few have been updated.  Wowinterface has a good one page list of the most popular addons showing which are 4.0 compatible. 

From mucking around in beta I can say that Dominos works, a knocked down version of Clique works, and that's about it.  Pitbull has a 4.0 version but it's still buggy.  I haven't tested the updated Blizzard raid frames but they're supposed to be sufficient.  Whether that means they're as good as your raid frames of choice is another question entirely.

I'm going to be positive and say it's a good opportunity to streamline my UI but there is going to be pain.

[fuser]

Poking around with the new streaming client with squid and fiddler.

First url on firing it pulls is akamai link. The streaming link isn't an MD5 or SHA from the wow.exe so I don't know where that bit is recorded except for the WoW.mfil file in the same folder.

Looking at the file contents  It looks like the whole contents from the data directory has an entry meaning you can possible to stream the whole game.

I tested it and confirmed by creating a new folder and copying the wow.exe, wow.mfil, and battle.net.dll to it (no need for the other folders as the client self heals and creates them). Give the application a while but it will start the streaming of the whole client to your computer. On a 30Mbit link it took about 20seconds after the WoW icon disappearing to pop up a full screen and another 30 seconds to get the accept the ToS etc. During this time watched the HTTP downloads hit the Akamai mirrors as it was trying to load the minimal amount of data to load the windows etc. It doesn't have a nice front end loader yet but it seems the whole game is completely moved to the old trial and completely stream-able now.


Edit 1: It failed to auth so, You need the battle.net.dll too, so to work it seems like (23Mb) is required:
Wow.exe
WoW.mfil
Battle.net.dll


Edit 2: GUI Download
Seems like its possible to do this via the Launcher too copy four files to a new directory:
Blizzard Downloader.exe
Blizzard Updater.exe
Launcher.exe
Wow.exe

And run the launcher and you will find it starts the nice gui indicator of when the "setup" stage is complete which is around 130MB

Note: I have found the launcher is totally unstable and slower way of patching vs the direct wow.exe

Edit 3: Now that a live server is up, I can confirm it works. Take a look at the highlighted indicators of streaming content

[Rasix]

I'm going to be positive and say it's a good opportunity to streamline my UI but there is going to be pain.

Yep.  I'll just start over.  Good time to remove the boat and see what Blizzard has implemented that may alleviate the need for certain addons.

Good to know, however, that Dominoes and Clique(kinda) work. 

[Merusk]

Note: I have found the launcher is totally unstable and slower way of patching vs the direct wow.exe

Funny, I found the exact opposite during the test server.  I didn't have to wait for the entire patch and just hit "Play" after it updated the few required files.  I was playing within 10 mins of downloading the patcher .exe.  No stability issues and no patching issues.

Then again I'm also in Xp.  The wife's Win7 machine that was upgraded from Vista is another matter.  The win 7 upgrade fucked security rights all around on files I'm STILL finding and having to manually take ownership/ set permissions on.

[fuser]

Funny, I found the exact opposite during the test server.  I didn't have to wait for the entire patch and just hit "Play" after it updated the few required files.  I was playing within 10 mins of downloading the patcher .exe.  No stability issues and no patching issues.

I think its an issue on my end, the patcher tries to talk to an ATT blizzard dist server that keeps timing out. But alas it totally streams fine now and I updated the original post.

[angry.bob]

Ugh, talent changes are ass, suck, and make me feel like the only difference between my toons and everyone else with the same class is what secondary tree we put our leftover five points in.

All the other changes are ass and suck. Pretty much the entire thing feels like they just changed stuff and tinkered around with stuff that's worked for years just because they were bored. There was no real reason behind any of it, and a lot of it seems to be major changes to different aspects of the game.

Fucking two thumbs down for this.

[kildorn]

Ugh, talent changes are ass, suck, and make me feel like the only difference between my toons and everyone else with the same class is what secondary tree we put our leftover five points in.

All the other changes are ass and suck. Pretty much the entire thing feels like they just changed stuff and tinkered around with stuff that's worked for years just because they were bored. There was no real reason behind any of it, and a lot of it seems to be major changes to different aspects of the game.

Fucking two thumbs down for this.

I kind of like some of the changes, but the trees do feel like there's no optional spec paths due to how the points are setup (3 pointer, 2 pointer, 2 pointer, pick 5 points to advance!)

Disc is interesting now.. the paladin changes seem sweeping again.

[Sjofn]

My main issue right now is the lock up of "shit, how should I spec" that I always have when a talent wipe happens. Also I logged in my paladin and ALL MY BUTTONS WERE GONE AAAAAAAHHHH.

[fuser]

I just made 1k in 5mins on glyphs, the market is bananas!

[Bzalthek]

Paladins were found to be too unbalanced with hotkeys and so these were removed.  Also, rogues may no longer move.  Now mobs must come to them to be backstabbed!

All kidding aside, I'm a bit out of my depths and still figuring things out.  My hunter loves having infinite ammo though!

[kildorn]

My main issue right now is the lock up of "shit, how should I spec" that I always have when a talent wipe happens. Also I logged in my paladin and ALL MY BUTTONS WERE GONE AAAAAAAHHHH.

Paladins were redesigned again, as this is a required phase of expansion releases.

[Azazel]

Have two months to figure it out and Fallout: Vegas and the Borderlands rebalance are both very close now.

Borderlands rebalance? More info please?

[Paelos]

Great, the game won't patch and the repair thing tells me I have to reinstall. Ugh, this could take forever.

[Merusk]

Ugh, talent changes are ass, suck, and make me feel like the only difference between my toons and everyone else with the same class is what secondary tree we put our leftover five points in.

All the other changes are ass and suck. Pretty much the entire thing feels like they just changed stuff and tinkered around with stuff that's worked for years just because they were bored. There was no real reason behind any of it, and a lot of it seems to be major changes to different aspects of the game.

Fucking two thumbs down for this.

You'd be correct, and that's deliberate.  The complaint from the encounter designers was "it's too hard" to keep track of all the myriad of specs and do things that are difficult for one spec but impossible for those without it.

Yes, it's BS and yes you essentially just have cookie cutter classes now.  It's EQ2's original system but with talent points instead of a new class name.

 The counter argument is "it was that way before. You had to spec "the one true spec" to DPS/Tank/Heal this just cuts away the bullshit"  

I'll agree that they're just dicking with some things to do it.  This is entirely Ghostcrawler's vision for how classes should be played, and he's always been a fucknut.  I'm reserving total judgment overall until I learn to play my class again, but the way they've talked about everything to this point says that BC era balance and gameplay is their holy grail.   That's great that they have a goal, but the BC era was the least fun I had in the game.  It just wasn't a good time and I'm not as in love with the game now that I'll stick it out.  Particularly since I could give a rats ass about Deathwing and the raid/ lore cycle therein, unlike my desire to see Illidan.   I'm probably just a minority there, though.  I'm in no way doomcasting.

[fuser]

Great, the game won't patch and the repair thing tells me I have to reinstall. Ugh, this could take forever.

See my post above  

I have been playing off of it all night, its slow at first but if you have unlimited bandwidth and a decent connection it's great.

[Sjofn]

new paladin healing

BABY AT LAST WE CAN BE TOGETHER FOREVER

[Ashamanchill]

I already hate this 'patch as you go' thing. I had to relog for a RL thing, and upon trying to log back in I got treated to the patcher bar being pushed way farther to the right then it had been the first time. Fuck you, I dont want to download shit for cataclysm right now I just want to log into the world I had already downloaded multiple times to test my new shit.

[Shrike]

Had to play some admin/downloader-jiggery mumbo-jumbo to get the friggin' patch to get past 99%. Blasted thing.

Installing right now. I'm still going to hold off a day or two on play...I think. Maybe.

Kinda looking forward to DK PvP even more. I was blood with a quasi-tank spec for it. Now I"m looking at unholy and, man, I like what I'm seeing. Unholy/frost PvP. Smells like win. Recovery isn't what I'd call good, but there's all kinds of control and asswhuppin' in those new trees. Lovely.

[Selby]

Eh, my disc priest plays exactly the same with no real issues, and the Mastery aspect gives all the theorycrafters the chance to min\max to their heart's content despite having lousy gear.  I'm kind of tired after logging in to fix 15 different character though...

[kildorn]

new paladin healing

BABY AT LAST WE CAN BE TOGETHER FOREVER

Should I read up on it?

I'm adoring new Disc, but mostly because smite/heal is overpowered as all hell in random heroics right now.

[Azazel]

but the way they've talked about everything to this point says that BC era balance and gameplay is their holy grail.   That's great that they have a goal, but the BC era was the least fun I had in the game.  It just wasn't a good time and I'm not as in love with the game now that I'll stick it out.  Particularly since I could give a rats ass about Deathwing and the raid/ lore cycle therein, unlike my desire to see Illidan.   I'm probably just a minority there, though.  I'm in no way doomcasting.

Nor I. Though everything I see and read says that I'll last for about a month worth of gamecard tickover time once Cata comes out, then back to my random XBox and PC games for a year or two until the suck is mudflated out of the game again.

I'm actually happy enough to play this way though. Keeps MMOGtardness from taking over my life.

[kildorn]

Eh, my disc priest plays exactly the same with no real issues, and the Mastery aspect gives all the theorycrafters the chance to min\max to their heart's content despite having lousy gear.  I'm kind of tired after logging in to fix 15 different character though...

Disc can play the same if you want to. I had no issues with just shield/penance/fheal when randomly needed.

And then I found out that I could just shield the currently way overtanky tanks and smite my life away and randomly pop wings (since hey, I don't need the mana), and wheee.

[Selby]

And then I found out that I could just shield the currently way overtanky tanks and smite my life away and randomly pop wings (since hey, I don't need the mana), and wheee.

Exactly.  Once I actually trained (doh?) it was actually a pretty amusing mix where I was able to actually DPS.

[Rendakor]

Left the patcher on this morning and went to work. Came home to find I'm out of HD space and couldn't patch, so I had to delete some shit and rerun the entire fucking patcher.  2 hours later I get to log in.

Messing around with the DK tank, most of the changes are a wash but...did they increase the CD on D&D? Or remove the talent/glyph that lowered it? Because damn...I'm really feeling that loss in heroics now, losing aggro every other pull simply because D&D isn't up and that's been my go-to AOE threat skill for so long. Ugh. Thank god I don't need to run a ton of these to gear up. Otherwise, the RS on the GCD isn't a huge deal, HS being a 3 target cleave again is kinda cool, and the "runes refresh slower" thing doesn't really bother me much.

[Ingmar]

Once I burn out the heroic strike spam muscle memory I think I'll be fine. Blood and Thunder is a clunky mechanic, otherwise I quite like 'new' protection.

[fuser]

Tanking has totally changed, AoE threat has been nerfed across the board(pallies/bears/warriors, dk haven't looked at). I have been playing the warrior as of late so from testing tonight thunderclap has totally been scaled down and revenge has been scaled dramatically up to cover the DPS difference. I'm running the same rough DPS in overall damage but DPS classes are picking up threat left and right still playing the same crazy AoE fest.

[Rendakor]

Is there a way to turn off the auto-display of Guild Tabards now? Also, how do I turn off that stupid ability queue?

[Setanta]

While it's not the WoTLK standard, the pally Avenging Shield refresh has a hell of a lot of up-time - between that and hammer holding 3 mobs seems do-able as long as DPS don't go nuts. Crusader strike generating holy power (with the hammer) was proccing me 9K shield damage with 3 charges on the boss target dummy.

Feral is really hurting and will do so until we get thrash at lvl 81 - I doubt I'll hang out in heroic HoR on her again as swipe made her the easiest tank in that instance. Maul doesn' feel like it belongs in the priority list/rotation but beserk procs are fun.

I logged the hunter and dropped in a fill the spots up BM spec... I like the kennel options and focus seems to be a lot better than mana ever was (hunter was my main for 90% of vanilla WoW) so I'll be interested to see this class develop. Tossing any trap wherever you want is fantastic as is the new "move to" command for pets... plus spirit beasts got a buff that looks like furious howl/SoE totem.

I haven't logged anything else yet - still trying to work out the DPS versions for my 2 main tanks (Kitty/Ret) s well as glyphs.

Having played with the talents I'm wondering why Blizzard even bothers them. Let me choose mastery and leave it at that - just give me the tools that are going to be cookie cutter anyway.

Time to go see how much more "old school" tanking I can remember - and whether CC classes can find the right buttons.