Singin' the 1.10 blues

[fatboy]

So far, I have been singin the 1.10 blues.

It might be just me, but I have had a lot of frustration thus far with 1.10.  As most of you, I knew (or had a good hunch) that 1.10 was going to be released yesterday.

So, as soon as I got home from work, I fired up WoW to start downloading the patch.  It took me five attempts and about 2 hours to finally get the patch downloaded and installed.  I kept getting errors, slow connections and/or lost connections.  Now, I do understand that there probably 1,000,000 other persons trying to download the same patch at the same tiime as me, so I was *trying* to be patient.

At about 10:00 ET, I was ready to play.  Of course, as most of you know, the servers were down because Blizzard was having "technical difficulties" with the patch and they had no ETA to get the servers back up.

I surfed the net til about 11:00 and tried again.  After a long (but starting to be the standard) authentication process (and a less than 100 queue), I was greeted with the snarling face of my Orc Warrior.  Evidently, although my realm was up, many realms were down, so there were many many people playing on my realm while awaiting for their realm to come up.  The frustration there was because these people kept spamming general chat with "Is <realm name> up yet?".  Like anyone would know on my realm the status of another realm.

The final frustration (so far) came this morning.  I get on for a bit while having my morning coffee before work.  I got to check the AH and then without warning, "Disconnected from Server" appears and I'm booted.

Hopefully, my frustrations are in the minority and not the majority.  I hope all of you were able to play just fine.

[Calantus]

Yeah it sucks. Or, at least I assume it sucks, based on previous experience. The patch I got from here, and I made plans to do something other than WoW during patch day. I still haven't tried playing, just downloaded and installed the patch. It's not really a solution, but I find it's less stressful to try and ignore the inevitable patch fallout than try and play through it. :-(

[Tale]

I've had no problems with it. Patch downloaded fine, servers were back up when I came home from work tonight, and I played without any problems for a few hours. I might have gotten lucky with my Aussie time zone and missed the difficulties. And they haven't even nerfed my source of gold.

[fatboy]

And they haven't even nerfed my source of gold.

Pray tell me where that is?  I'm sure I'm not on your server....  :-D

[Rasix]

I couldn't get on my server last night.  Well, I should qualify that, I tried around 6 for a bit, then every hour after until 9.  Mostly I was playing Oblivion in hour stretches and then hammering away on the login server until someone would say the server was down in vent. Once I realized the day was a loss, I stopped trying.  Playing Oblivion is more fun than slogging through Scholo, Strath, DM, BRD or BRS for a chance at a relic dropping, anyhow.

Raids were called off at around 5pm.  Pity, I like Tuesday's raid, but now it'll just be Wednesday's raid that I'm sure to like. No dying endlessly to those fucking Twin Emps. Hitting content cockblocks head on, especially ones that are so purely technical, aren't a whole lot of fun.

Anyhow, yah, this is probably the worst stability we've seen from a patch in a while.  Most have rough spots, but you don't usually lose an entire night.  And I know patching can be rough, that's why I try to put it up here if at all possible.

Edit: Seems like the buzz is that a lot of encounters are completely busted by this patch.  Onyxia DBs like a machine gun and Chromag's timelapse puts people at 1hp if they get hit with it.  Hooray for kneejerk encounter tuning.  I think this entire week I may just arrive late enough to raids to be waitlisted.

[Dren]

I don't know why you where having problems.  Oblivion worked just fine for me.  :-D

It is sooooo nice to finally have an alternative!

[Merusk]

Yeah they fucked with a LOT in this patch, so it's not really a surprise it bit them on the stability end.   I'm just irritated by the reports I'm hearing that mods aren't allowed to auto-cancel spells anyomore.  That means a LOT of overhealing and a lot of folks running out of their (now 10% smaller) mana pools.  Fuckers.

Ah well.. at least the patch has already netted me 250 gold with the few bits of BOE I'd picked-up and put on the AH this morning.  (And that's with way-underselling the folks who want 200g for a belt that cost 25g a week ago.)  I'm wishing I'd picked-up a few more, I'd have that epic mount in no time.

[Rasix]

Weather effects apparently had the adverse effect of making Ossirian's tornados invisible.

<nelson>Ha ha!</nelson>

[Rasix]

I'm just irritated by the reports I'm hearing that mods aren't allowed to auto-cancel spells anyomore.  That means a LOT of overhealing and a lot of folks running out of their (now 10% smaller) mana pools.  Fuckers.

I never used mana conserve.  Always afraid I'd leave it on for a fight like Vael or Broodlord.  I did an entire BWL run in my FR gear due to forgetting to take it off after Vael (my powers of observation are keen). 

Smaller mana pools, did I miss something in the patch?

[Merusk]

Can't get Spiritual Healing AND Mental Strength anymore. I don't have the gear to allow me to say, "Oh, fuck Spiritual Healing, it's only 196-219 health per G. Heal"  I think I have something like +219 to healing with gear. My current spec adds ~38 from talents because I didn't dump all 5 points into Spiritual Guidance (and with spirit gear getting nerfed in 1.10 as well it didn't seem like a good investment.)

Mana conserve is nice for newblets and lazy people who get bored easy just watching health bars go up and down (Hi!  I miss my hunter in instances.).  Plus, since we're only /just/ into MC, I don't have to worry about the Vael & Broodlord healing issue you're talking about (which I also don't understand because I also haven't looked them up, having not gone near BWL).

[Rasix]

Plus, since we're only /just/ into MC, I don't have to worry about the Vael & Broodlord healing issue you're talking about (which I also don't understand because I also haven't looked them up, having not gone near BWL).

Both mobs with insane spike damage.  Cancelling off heals can mean a dead tank before you have time to react. Plus in the Vael encounter you have unlimited mana.

Loss of 10% mana would be somewhat rough I imagine.  Our priests probably won't have it as bad due to the insane MP/5 most of them are rolling around in and the fact that they're all tier2'd out. Plus, I believe a lot are moving to a gheal build, so they'll be using a more mana efficient spell (am I right?). 

[Train Wreck]

Yeah it sucks. Or, at least I assume it sucks, based on previous experience. The patch I got from here, and I made plans to do something other than WoW during patch day. I still haven't tried playing, just downloaded and installed the patch.

I spent last night rediscovering Master of Magic (I had no idea it would run under WinXP so well).  It might be awhile before I'm back in WoW.

How's the weather?

Is it at least better than UO's snow?

[Merusk]

Both mobs with insane spike damage.  Cancelling off heals can mean a dead tank before you have time to react. Plus in the Vael encounter you have unlimited mana.

Ahh.. so the good ol' EQ heal rotation makes it's return.  I hadden't missed it, the bastage.

Loss of 10% mana would be somewhat rough I imagine.  Our priests probably won't have it as bad due to the insane MP/5 most of them are rolling around in and the fact that they're all tier2'd out. Plus, I believe a lot are moving to a gheal build, so they'll be using a more mana efficient spell (am I right?). 

Yeah, G-heal build FTW all the way. From talents alone, not including gear mods or the +healing from Spiritual Guidance, you can get G. Heal to be 3.8 H/Mana vs Flash Heal's 2.8 H/Mana.  33% more efficiency FTW.   And the MP/5 Gear is great.. I'm at 101 m/5s with pally buffs as it is and I only have 1 piece of Prophecy.

[Rasix]

Ahh.. so the good ol' EQ heal rotation makes it's return.  I hadden't missed it, the bastage.

Nothing quite that exact. We're not exactly timing healing wave/gheal in 1 second intervals or anything crazy like that.  But yah, you got to keep the people topped off, throw down shields and the like.  Drakes + Nefarion also shadowflame, so that's another spike damage you have to mitigate (usually through shields).

Yeah, G-heal build FTW all the way. From talents alone, not including gear mods or the +healing from Spiritual Guidance, you can get G. Heal to be 3.8 H/Mana vs Flash Heal's 2.8 H/Mana.  33% more efficiency FTW.   And the MP/5 Gear is great.. I'm at 101 m/5s with pally buffs as it is and I only have 1 piece of Prophecy.

Fuckin' pallies. How are you getting that high?  How much of that is straight mp/5 off gear? Just seems rather high for admittedly not great gear.

[Merusk]

I sacrifice a lot of mana.  I'm at 5.6k right now.   I could be off on the total regen, that's the number I remember some mod or another telling me I'm at, though. 

Truefaith Vestments, Mindtap Talisman, both rings from ZG, Belt of Prophecy, Abyssal legs of Healing, Shadowy Laced Handwraps and Royal Seal of whatever are the items I can remember with mp/5.  Tack on the 15% spirit regen talent and the 35 from Pallies and you're sitting on a lot of regen.

[Nija]

STOP THE PRESSES! MMORPG BREAKS ON PATCH DAY!

NERDS REFRESH PAGE AT LEAST ONCE PER 5 MINUTES FOR 7 HOURS, GET INCREASINGLY PISSED, THEN MAKE FORUM POSTS ABOUT IT.

Some things will never, EVER


change.

[Typhon]

followed by the obligatory post from someone who wants to show they've heard it all before and that is so last weeks/months/years mmo bitch...

followed by...

I've got an idea, break the chain.  Next time this same thing happens, if you don't have anything to add other then "been there, done that, I've heard that complaint before, I'm so uberjaded", just move along.

[Phred]

Anyone have Vael go down way faster this week? Not sure if it was all the priests chain holy nova'ing but he dropped in half the time this week.

[Fabricated]

I did the first "Tier 0.5" set upgrade, which is most likely deceptively easy. Get 15 blood samples from frostsabers/bears in Winterspring, turn those in with 20 gold and your bracers for the upgrade. Took no time even with all the camping going on. Got a marginally better pair of bracers with +3 defense. Better than nothing I guess.

[Merusk]

Yes, very deceptivly easy and relativly cheap.

http://www.wowwiki.com/Tier_0.5

That's the full quest line.  If you don't have the mats (or a guild to help you) then you're going to be paying probably around 300+ gold to get all the stuff you need.  But hey, the casuals have their purples now.. even if they're really just minor upgrades to the blue-quality with the added expense of purple repairs. ;)

[Fabricated]

Yes, very deceptivly easy and relativly cheap.

http://www.wowwiki.com/Tier_0.5

That's the full quest line.  If you don't have the mats (or a guild to help you) then you're going to be paying probably around 300+ gold to get all the stuff you need.  But hey, the casuals have their purples now.. even if they're really just minor upgrades to the blue-quality with the added expense of purple repairs. ;)

I dunno, the epic pieces are pretty fucking good for most of the sets while the blue upgrades are basically just decent blues. The Priest set in particular is a nice upgrade.

Also, much less retarded looking than the majority of the Tier 1/2 shit. Might and Wrath are so stupid I'm almost glad I'll never have any.

[SurfD]

from what i have been told, you are probably looking at closer to 1k gold for the full upgrade questline.  Heck one of the items needed sells fo r 133g alone off of the Argent Dawn.

[Morfiend]

We had major trouble with Razorgore tonight. Wierd aggro shit going on all over the place. Mobs aggroing on totems from super far away. Mobs breaking off from kiting and hitting random people all the way across the room. Very wierd shit.

[Calantus]

I'm not liking the mana conserve change. With close attention I can achieve the same overheal as with the mana conserve, only problem is I have to concentrate. Gone are the days I eat my dinner while spamming heals on a tank.

[Jayce]

Edit: Seems like the buzz is that a lot of encounters are completely busted by this patch.  Onyxia DBs like a machine gun ...

I can confirm the deep breath bug/tweak/whatever.  I can't read the wow boards from here - did anyone from Blizzard clarify whether it's intentional or not?

If they meant to make the encounter harder, they succeeded.  Now you have to keep moving while she's in the air and have someone who's on the ball calling out where to be to avoid the next one.  AND there is a greater tendency to stay more bunched up and susceptible to the AOE fireballs.

We usually put her down with ease but we wiped twice last night then started losing people because it's usually only a 45 minute commitment.

[Fabricated]

from what i have been told, you are probably looking at closer to 1k gold for the full upgrade questline.  Heck one of the items needed sells fo r 133g alone off of the Argent Dawn.

I wasn't aware you needed anything from the Argent Dawn. I know you need to sneak your way to a demon and buy some rod for 50g or something, but the only thing that'll be a bitch for my little guild to get are the Flasks of Supreme Power and the Stonescale Oils (since no one fishes).

Dark Iron/Mooncloth/Arcanite Converters are annoying, but doable.

[Merusk]

Had some guildies running through Scholo last night.  Apparently they didn't tune the instance down at all.  They wiped a bunch of times and left without killing the Baron, much less Gandling, because everyone's equipment was red.

   Now, part of their problem is they were using an out-of-guild tank who didn't play often, had a bunch of greens, no idea how to control aggro and he was the only plate class. (Lock, mage, rogue, priest, war) But hey, that's every pickup group.  Casuals are kinda fucked for getting their set bits, it would seem, unless they take an optimal group.  Optimal groups suck because it leaves a lot of classes (druids, hunters, pallys/shaman, rogues & locks) fighting for the same 3 spots. Ow.

Oh, also, no idea if this is a bug or not, but none of the mini-bosses were dropping their green/ blue mini-set items.  So after struggling to AOE the exploding-corpse room, and all that other garbage, they got runecloth and coin off the mini-bosses.  The cussing in TS about 'not even a fucking green to DE?' was profound.

[Rasix]

World boss mobs (at least the green dragons) were popping up like crazy last night.  We ended up killing 5 of them with the newly formed uber Alliance guild (split off two uber guilds that weren't uber enough for the people that left) killing at least 3.  On our server it's now a definite rush to engage. Viva the EQ style dragon race.

It (the spawn times) should be nerfed, unless Blizzard is really trying to get everyone caught up with their NR gear.  And multiple copies of the same dragon were spawning in different areas (kinda breaks immersion, eh?). I think we had a Taearar respawn within minutes of dying. Hell, the Nightmare Encrusted Object (results in 17stam 20nr ring) nearly got destroyed once and a several went to rot loot for initiates and apps to gobble up.

Battleguard Satura encounter has been buffed beyond the improved 20% enrage.  Bitch seemed to have a lot more HP.  Either that or we were just really off our game last night (still beat her).

[kaid]

My guild ran scholo last night other than the typical one random death for our mage it was just as easy as ever. I have no purples but 5 maning scholo with a decent group is a cakewalk.

One odd thing I have noticed though is the sub bosses around gandlings area and the barron were dropping jack and shit. They dropped 1 corruptor stone and one dark rune and that was it. If anything we seemed to get less gear than previously. There deffinatly was some good blues that we saw but unfortunatly it was all leather bop stuff and nobody in the group could use it.

kaid

[Morfiend]

The only thing Blizzard has said about any of the raid issues is that they are looking at Chromaggus, and have a hot fix in the works. Wether this hot fix will fix all the other problems, they didnt say.

[Simond]

I'm beginning to suspect a 1.10.1 patch on Saturday with "Gotcha!" as the sum total of the patch notes.

[Rasix]

Thank the risen Jeebus for Oblivion.  This patch borked so much raid content it's almost easier to list what hasn't changed. 

[Strazos]

At least it hasn't seemed to have broken anythng I actually care about, so far.

Though the rapid-morphing druids are still annoying.

[Tale]

Smaller mana pools, did I miss something in the patch?

I don't think you missed anything. I think people are just fucking retarded and have entered mass erroneous hysteria over:

Healing Touch - Mana cost on all ranks reduced approximately 9%.

and

Lesser Heal - Mana cost dropped approximately 9%.

i.e. healing is cheaper now. There was no mana pool reduction unless this refers to something in the priest talent change I don't know about (I'm a druid). They also added +healing and +mana regen to a shitload of non-epic items, so we are far better off now. The only real change is that healbots must now become healers.

And they haven't even nerfed my source of gold.

Pray tell me where that is?  I'm sure I'm not on your server....  :-D

http://home.earthlink.net/~thalen/wow/elemental.htm as a druid, with water form and mining. I have the spawns of the pools figured out, and all RTVs mapped, and I go clockwise. :)

[Merusk]

i.e. healing is cheaper now. There was no mana pool reduction unless this refers to something in the priest talent change I don't know about (I'm a druid).

There is.. I posted it right after Rasix asked the question :p   The new talents move the Holy +10% to healing talent (Spiritual Healing) down to a 25-point talent(1).  The +10% to base mana talent in Discipline (Mental Strength) is a 20-point talent, meaning you can't get both of these now, where you could before very easily.  Net effect is priests have to decide if they want most, more mana or more healing per cast.

1) With no bonus to it, so priests didn't get better at healing it's just more expensive (talent-wise) to be as good as before, meaning more priests that want to heal will be 30-Holy.  No biggie, because it keeps shadow priests and discipline priests from healing as well as holy priests, unlike before.  I'm sure many priests who only watch damage meters will whine that they didn't get a healing boost like druids did and druids still outheal them on the bars.