Blizzard pushed a new WoW: Forever beta client on 22 September, WoW Forever 1.60.1 Build 69977. It brings fixes for Mac display and stability problems and a pair of gamepad improvements. It arrived in a busy few days on the beta forums: a Hunter bug that has quietly made ranged characters stronger than intended, a quest blocker for one of the new races and a spate of characters that players could not log back into.
This is a client-only update, so you need to exit the beta and update through the Battle.net App to get it. Kaivax listed the testable changes:
A few moments ago, we made a new client build available to Beta testers:
WoW Forever 1.60.1 Build 69977Exit the Beta, go to your Battle.net App, and update your client to this new build to test fixes for:
- Fixed some display issues and stability issues on Macs.
- Controller navigation should now work more properly in the character selection screen if you launch with gamepad active.
- You can now interact with items that give you quests on gamepad.
This client build also includes other fixes for issues that are not testable in-game.
Our next full weekly update is coming on September 24.
Mac and controller fixes
The Mac line is short, but it follows a lot of work from testers. One thread laid out eight separate graphics bugs, each traced to a single setting and each with steps to reproduce it. Kaivax singled it out and said several analyses and potential fixes for Mac issues are underway:
A player wrote:
Where I’ve guessed at a mechanism I’ve said so explicitly.
I just want to thank you and others who have provided us with such incredibly detailed and useful reporting.
We have multiple different analyses (and potential fixes) for Mac issues underway, and posts like yours are extremely helpful.
That wording suggests build 69977 is not the last Mac fix, so if one of your problems survives the update, it is still worth reporting. The gamepad fixes are more specific. Controller navigation on the character selection screen should work better if you launch with the gamepad active, and you can now interact with items that start quests while playing on a controller. The second one was a real blocker for controller players, because a lot of levelling depends on picking up a dropped item and reading it.
The next full weekly beta update is due on 24 September.
Auto-shot and wands are firing too quickly
The most consequential post is about the Hunter. Auto-shot is supposed to have a 0.5-second cast time before each shot, the moment where a Hunter has to stand still. The same applies to wands. Due to a bug, that cast time is currently much shorter.
We’ve been tracking an issue in the WoW Forever Beta where the 0.5-second cast time that precedes a Hunter’s auto-shot or the use of a wand is not functioning properly.
Due to a bug, these auto-shots are currently incurring a much shorter cast time, which in practice means that Hunters and wand users don’t need to stop to shoot for as long as intended.
This is something that we will fix in an upcoming Beta build, hopefully next week.
Hunter
Beast Mastery
Marksmanship
Survival
In practice Hunters and wand users barely need to stop moving to keep shooting. That makes kiting much easier and keeps damage up during movement in a way the game is not balanced around. Priests, Mages and Warlocks who finish fights with a wand get a smaller version of the same benefit. Blizzard says the fix should come in an upcoming beta build, hopefully next week. Until then, treat any beta Hunter damage numbers, and especially any kiting-heavy PvP impressions, with suspicion.
A Firm Response can be completed again
Windshaper Skyborne players starting on Zephras Isle had been stuck on the quest A Firm Response. Talking to Belathaan Brightwish near the Shrine of Akir starts a scripted event. The event would stall after Lorthuna spawned, and the quest could not be finished. Blizzard's first fix a couple of days earlier did not work, but Kaivax says the second one did, and testers are now completing the quest:
Confirming that we implemented fixes for this earlier. The issue was:
The event that takes place during “A Firm Response” would become stuck and Windshaper Skyborne on Zephras Isle could not proceed. You’d walk up to talk to Belathaan Brightwish near the Shrine of Akir on Zephras to start the event and it would then lock up and stall after Lorthuna Spawned.
We attempted a fix a couple of days ago, but it didn’t work. Today’s fix looks like it worked, and we’re seeing testers complete the quest.
Windshaper Skyborne
Elemental InsightDamage dealt versus Elementals increased by 5%.
Wind BlessedIncreases your spellcasting, melee, and ranged Haste by 1%.
Comprehend ScrollDecipher an untranslated scroll.
- Classes
If you parked a Windshaper character at that step, it should be worth logging back in to try again.
"Character with that name already exists"
The messiest issue of the week left some testers locked out of their beta characters after a disconnect, with the game claiming the name was already taken. Kaivax asked anyone affected to include two things in their report: the name of the locked character and, if possible, the exact time they were last playing it before the disconnect. That helps the team narrow its log search.
Hopping onto the most prominent of several threads about this–
When reporting an issue like this, please provide the name of the Beta character that you’re locked out of, and if possible, the exact time you were last successfully playing the character (and got disconnected).
That will help us narrow our log search.
Thank you!
One player suggested Blizzard simply unplug the server and plug it back in. Kaivax replied that a Senior Game Producer had said that same day that he wanted to restart the beta realms:
A player wrote:
maybe blizzard can take an hour to just unplug and replug the server
About the same time you posted this, a Senior Game Producer told me that he wants to restart Beta realms today.
Good thinkin’.
When another player asked what Blizzard was actually doing about it, Kaivax said the team is gathering as much information as possible so it can be sure it understands both the issue and the fix:
A player wrote:
What are you doing?
Gathering as much information as possible, so that we can be sure of our understanding of both the issue and our fix for it.
Thank you for your patience. We recognize that Beta testing is very different than playing a live game.
Blizzard has not explained the cause or confirmed a fix yet. Kaivax's own line fits the whole week: beta testing is very different from playing a live game.