WoW Forever's first beta patch: eight fixes already promised, and what players want next

The WoW Forever beta has made it through its first weekend without a single new client build. We checked Blizzard’s patch servers this morning: the beta is still on 1.60.1.69913, with the same build configuration it opened with on September 17. Players on the forums are counting on the first new build arriving now that the working week has started.

What that build should contain is partly known already, because Blizzard said so.

Already fixed, waiting for the next build

The official Known Issues post for the beta marks these as fixed in the next build:

• Waylaid Crates fail on items whose maximum stack is smaller than the quantity the crate asks for;
• Waylaid Crate: Apprentice Curiosities refuses Greater Magic Essence and wrongly accepts Lesser Magic Essence;
• Teldrassil, “Escaping Ban’ethil” — Sentinel Lynessa Duskblossom runs too fast and spams her Strike ability;
• Starshards, the Night Elf priest racial, does not benefit from the Twilight Focus talent;
• Vengeance (Retribution talent) can trigger off periodic critical strikes;
• Holy Strike ranks do not feel meaningful rank to rank;
• Create Firestone ranks 3 and 4 do not show the conjured item on their tooltip;
• Coldridge Valley does not reveal on the map when explored.

Two of those are class changes in disguise. The Vengeance fix will trim Retribution damage, since periodic crits currently count, and Retribution is the spec our first class report found running away with the levelling race. The Holy Strike change makes each new rank worth training.

Still being worked on

The same list has a longer set of problems marked as work in progress, with no promise for the next build. The ones you will notice while playing:

• glancing blows use the wrong chance and damage reduction for casters at every level, and the wrong damage reduction for melee against higher-level targets, so the numbers on the character sheet are off;
• queueing Heroic Strike, Cleave or Raptor Strike switches off your spell queue window;
• Arcane Missiles fires a full-damage bolt if you take damage while channelling;
• consumable and buff armour is multiplied by Bear Form;
• resurrection sickness lasts the wrong time at low levels;
• guild charters can be handed in without signatures for now, because signing them was broken;
• the Cooldown Manager and the pet stats on the character sheet are unfinished.

What players want fixed first

A thread asking what testers hope the first patch brings gives a fair picture of the weekend:

• Addon settings that do not save. Several players say their addons forget every option on relog or /reload, which points at saved variables not being written. Unit-frame and layout addons are hit hardest; one player recommends a community workaround addon, another says it did not help them.
• A memory leak and FPS drops. One tester holding a steady 60 FPS in the Skyborne starting zone reports dropping to 10–15 in Stormwind and Dalaran.
• A working Mac client. Mac players have been posting detailed graphics bug reports since launch; our crash and freeze fixes page collects the workarounds that help today.
• Hunter pets missing abilities, and a bug with the Lone Wolf talent.
• Gamepad layouts that do not save in Edit Mode.
• Cheaper respecs, and on the other side of the argument, a nerf to gear stats, which some players think have inflated too fast.

If you use our own addon, note the saved-variables problem affects it too: the WoW Forever Builds addon remembers your chosen talent guide between sessions, so until this is fixed you may need to pick it again after a relog.

A wave of beta removals

The fastest-growing thread of the night is “Banned from Beta”, which went past 80 replies in two hours. The original poster gave no reason, and most replies assume the usual causes: a character name that breaks the naming policy, or offensive chat. Several players say they have seen others removed for names, and that refunds are unlikely once you have played for a couple of hours. Blizzard has not commented, but the lesson is the same as every beta: pick a name you would be happy to see in a Blue post.

We will check the patch servers again later today and cover the new build as soon as it appears.