2.4 on background downloader, blue posts

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Patch 2.4 available from the background downloader
The first part of the patch 2.4 is now available from the background downloader on live servers. This could be a sign of imminent release, or just the same thing as everytime with Blizzard trying to make the upcoming patch day as pleasant as possible. Keep in mind that everytime Blizzard did this, we had to wait a few more weeks before the effective deployment of the patch on live servers.

Arena and Battleground PvP
Drysc made a very long post about the state of PvP in WoW.
Quote from: Drysc (Source)
It happens, but I'll try to touch upon each of your points and maybe give some small amount of insight and reassurance that they're all points we're either aware of or actively working to resolve.

Regarding spec viability we would definitely like to see every spec at least partially viable, that doesn't mean however that each spec will be equal in a very cutthroat PvP environment like the arenas. A prot warrior or shadow priest or what have you should though be able to jump into a battleground or arena and be able to do something with some small amount of success. How much success that should be is really the question, but our general philosophy is that we're ok with some specs not being as viable as others, we sort of have to be.

There's a synergy within the classes for PvP, as well as PvE, that doesn't lend itself to a model where every spec is exactly the same, exactly as viable as the other, in every situation. At that point we start watering down classes, watering down abilities, copy and pasting, the focus of the game is lost, dogs and cats are living together... mass hysteria.

Moving on to battlegrounds I don't believe we've ever stated that we have fewer maps to keep queue times short, that's not an issue. The issue is the amount of time it takes to create a battleground, and balancing that work time with other areas of the game. Battlegrounds are very labor intensive, Warsong Gulch which is probably the smallest of the battleground maps still has some terrain issues here and there. Playtesting, balancing, making edits, all require a very large amount of resources to ensure a successful battleground.

Now, that's not to say we aren't willing to put in the time, only that we have an entire game to put resources into, and those resources have to be delegated appropriately. The entire team is now working full force on Wrath of the Lich King, and the new battleground it also includes. Hopefully there will be some time to get additional battleground maps into the mix even after it ships. Personally though I think I'm most excited about Lake Wintergrasp just to see how it turns out.

In any case I'm sure the people you've been playing with have appreciated your time with them in the game, and I think you'll be pretty excited with the stuff going on in Wrath once we get a bit closer and can start revealing more and more. But I hope you had fun, and see you around maybe.




Hairstyles and helmet bugs
If you've got an "unusual" hairstyle, you probably had to deal with a few clipping bugs with your helmets. Hortus explains why you might look funny (and bald) with a few of them, at the moment the best way to fix it is to simply hide your helmet.
Quote from: Hortus (Source)
This is a bug fix to prevent clipping of hair through the front of the helmet. We currently do not have the capability to turn off part of an avatar's hair, it's all or nothing and the item designers make a decision on which one is most attractive to the largest number of hairstyles.

If your particular hairstyle does not look appropriate with the helmet then I would suggest turning the helmet off in your options menu.




Why do we have to install so many patches on PTR ?
We're probably reaching the end of the testing phase of Patch 2.4, and PTR newcomers might be a bit scared by the amount of patch they have to download to get their PTR client up to date, Tigerclaw explains why there are so many of them.
Quote from: Tigerclaw (Source)
The QA process for a "universal" or one-step patch is much more involved and time consuming than for an incremental patch from version X to X+1. During PTR where we may revise the build one or two times a week, that extra testing time might add more delay than we would like. There is a trade off here - if it gets really out of hand then we might just advise PTR testers to delete...




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