Stress test on October 21: times, access and the rest of Weekly #4

The stress test: when, where and who could join

Blizzard first announced the stress test for October 19, then corrected the date to October 21 on October 16. Each region had its own start: 7 PM Central European Summer Time in Europe, and 2 PM Pacific Daylight Time in the Americas and Oceania. It ran on separate regional realms, on the hardware WoW Forever is meant to use at launch. Blizzard described a window of a few hours without a fixed end time, and said it could close earlier or run later.

Anyone with a World of Warcraft account could join, with no active subscription, Game Time, invitation or beta access required. Characters, names and guilds created on the stress test realms were to be deleted afterwards, so nothing made there counted toward launch. Blizzard planned to take the regular beta offline shortly before the test and expected it to return shortly after.

One point needed care at the time. The newer announcement said the beta would return after the test, while the separate September beta article still listed October 21 as the last full day of testing. Neither gave a new final shutdown time when our episode was made; the closing date was confirmed later and is covered in our beta closing report. Early name reservation was always a separate event, from October 27 to November 3, for owners of eligible packs.

Sources: Official forum announcement: WoW Forever stress test, corrected to October 21 · Blizzard article: stress test details · September 17 beta article listing October 21 as the last full day of testing · Claim your WoW Forever character names: October 27 – November 3

The patch and the economy hold in brief

The October 15 development notes made Hunters and wand users stand still for 0.5 seconds before Auto Shot or a wand fires. In practice, a Hunter kiting a melee player now has to work short stops into the movement, although Auto Shot still fires during Aimed Shot or Sniper Shot. Humans, Orcs and Dwarves got racial bonuses that no longer depend on the weapon, Shatter Curse lost its immunity, and Paladins and Mages took the largest cuts. Our separate report goes through all six nerfs and what each class got back.

Blizzard also introduced the Temporary Economy Hold, which can limit trade, mail, guild banks and the Auction House on an account suspected of illicit gold activity while it is investigated. Cleared accounts have the restrictions lifted automatically with no strike. Blizzard acknowledged the new system could produce false positives while being tuned, and as of October 19 neither the US nor the EU announcement gave a maximum duration.

Sources: Beta development notes, October 15 · Temporary Economy Hold announcement

Podcast Episode 4: realms, RP-PvP, Honor and hidden recipes

On the October 15 developer podcast, the team warned players against assuming they could move freely between PvP and PvE realms later, because faction balance has to be protected. Someone who finds they dislike world PvP may have to start again on a PvE realm. Ordinary world PvP, including camping low-level characters, is meant to be handled by players; the developers said they step in when someone uses exploits or cheats.

Asked about RP-PvP, the developers said they would like to say yes but pointed to RP-PvP realms that drifted away from roleplay and to the risk of splitting a small RP community. At that point there were no plans, though they were reading feedback. That position changed a week later, when Blizzard announced an RP-PvP Ruleset for launch.

For battlegrounds, the goal is to make each one worth queuing for Honor: Alterac Valley should give a little less, while Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin and Darkspear Islands should give more. Solo players and small groups should mostly face similar groups, with full premades facing each other. Some profession recipes are being kept out of the game files so they can be discovered, with new recipes and rare materials tied to particular creatures and places at level 60. Layering work continues before and after launch.

Sources: Official WoW Forever Podcast, Episode 4 (October 15), paraphrased

The Forever Open finals and the Hyjal dueling map

The Forever Open, a duel tournament with a $100,000 prize pool, ended on Sunday, October 18, with a final between two Demonology Warlocks. Warlockguy lost to Neepzen in the Upper bracket final, came back through the Lower bracket and won the rematch three games to one. Oddwaffletv, playing a Shaman split between Enhancement and Restoration, won five eliminations in a row in the Lower bracket after his first loss, until another Shaman, Cdewx, stopped him in fourth place.

The finals were played on a map Blizzard prepared for them. When the team reworked Mount Hyjal for questing, it kept the old crater on a separate map because it looked like a good dueling spot, and brought it into the beta early for the second day. The developers said they would like to keep working on spaces like this, without a date for the live game.

Competitors brought engineering gadgets, gear chosen for specific opponents and consumables that did not exist in the original Classic. On the broadcast, one host described a new healing potion that leaves a poison or disease behind, and how players in the qualifiers paired it with ways to remove that side effect.

Sources: The Forever Open finals bracket · Finals broadcast: host on the new healing potion (54:04–55:13) · Official WoW Forever Podcast, Episode 4 (October 15), paraphrased

Around the world and player reports

A quest designer said The Attack! in Stormwind should be easier to finish: it no longer uses an escort, a dialogue option starts the event, and players should be able to accept and turn in the quest while it runs. Pre-storm weather and lightning strikes went live, and players spotted crews on the Skyborne ships. A post-patch hotfix restored the Druid relic drops needed for Cat Form. Blizzard said a group of art assets datamined from the latest build was not intended for Forever. The Paladin class article covered Seals, Judgements and the group-healing tool Light's Vigil, and the full soundtrack was shared on October 13.

Players also reported oddities, all unconfirmed by Blizzard: an angler with Luremaster asking whether the bonus should apply to Iron Bound Trunks, a single mob dropping 14 Pristine Leather at level 13 reported as a bug, and the Violet Sorcerer five-piece bonus not activating across 200 Scorches. One player claimed level 20 without dealing damage, then said the statistics were bugged and the run could not be fully proven. Requests that kept coming up were better rewards along long quest chains and a toggle for more modern skyboxes.

Sources: Quest designer on The Attack! changes · Warcraft: pre-storm weather and lightning · Quest designer on Skyborne ship crews · Hotfix restoring Cat Form relic drops · Blizzard on datamined assets not intended for Forever · Class Deep Dives: Paladin · Warcraft: full WoW Forever soundtrack, October 13