Denial of Service

Denial of Service

On Wednesday Battle.net began announcing that a denial of service attack was in progress against internet providers that host World of Warcraft. Apparently WoW wasn't directly targeted. Blizzard advised players to check a twitter feed for additional information, but when I tried to access the feed it had disappeared, probably due to overwhelming response. The assault continued for most of the day. As of this morning, things are back to normal. No further mention of the attack, just the usual ongoing assault of pitching the Legion expansion.

The wait for the faction transfer has slowed both families down. I wish there was a way to check that the authenticator is functioning. The android app installed on the phone continues to display an ever changing string of codes, but that's what it was doing when I was told it wasn't active.

Blizzard keeps announcing that "you can begin preparations for the coming invasion now" for the Legion Expansion. Yes, Legion can be pre-purchased. But it doesn't get released any earlier or cost any less for subscriber's who buy early. The Illidari Stalker mount and Nibbles Pet in the deluxe version doesn't get released early, either. Plus, the mount is a ground mount only! Why pay for a hot mount when you can't show it off in the skies of the Broken Isles? Pre-purchasing will give players "early access" to the new Demon Hunter class before the start of the expansion. I wonder how early is early. A week? A day? Nobody is saying.

However, there are some tantilizing reasons to consider a pre-purchase:

(1) Access to the Demon Hunter early could mean that the training period for demon hunters might be completed and ready to go live when the full expansion goes live. The training period seems to be much like what the Death Knight training went through, which was a self-contained bubble independent of the rest of the world.

(2) Pre-purchasing gives IMMEDIATE access to Boost a player to Level 100. Not level 90, level 100. If I bought Legion now, Whisper (or someone else, such as Java, if I change my mind) could be a level 100 the same day.

 That decision rests on completing the faction transfer so that Whisper/other (and Sista for that matter) are properly geared to handle level 100 regions and challenges. I'm reminded of Wild (who should have known better) innocently entering a level 100 combat zone in his 90s and getting his face ripped off. But it's something to think about.