World of Warcraft patches are always met with excitement and sky-high expectations. These patches are typically accompanied by gear grinds and new content. World of Warcraft Patch 12.0.5. has done just the opposite. Players are complaining about game-breaking bugs since the patch dropped.
Patches are supposed to make the game better, not worse. The mounting criticism has drawn an official apology from Blizzard. The developer admits that the update was simply “not up to our standards” and promises to take lessons. Let’s go through everything the Patch brought and what went wrong.
What World of Warcraft Patch 12.0.5. Was Meant To Fix
Nightborne Scholars. Image Credit: Blizzard
The purpose of 12.0.5 was to add to the current expansion’s casual and competitive offerings. This patch brought a much-anticipated Hide-and-Seek game mode, fishing profession enhancements, and additional PvE content to help level players’ gear.
Though the patch notes sounded exciting, the execution upon release was greeted with shock. Rather than enjoying the new content, players had to face a myriad of technical errors.
The “Hide-and-Seek” mode in particular became a community meme overnight, as it was discovered that in the in-game minimap, the positions of all the seekers were displayed in it, which was essentially spoiling the mini-game in the first place.
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What Players Got Instead
Void Elf Spellcaster. Image Credit: WowHead
The problems with Patch 12.0.5 went well beyond the minor mini-game issues. For some players, the game became more difficult to play. Numerous posts about client crashes were posted to the official forums and Reddit, but perhaps the biggest complaints were about class balance.
In particular, some communities were outraged at what they considered “clunky” changes that interfered with gameplay. Moreover, Blizzard apparently neglected to turn off Track Humanoids and other abilities during stealth encounters in the game, allowing some classes to gain an unfair advantage and making the new features useless.
Players expressed that some bugs were discovered 3+ weeks ago when the patch was live on the Private Test Server (PTS). One player added that some of these bugs were so obvious, like walking off the wall for prop hunt. Who would ever approve of going to live with this?
Blizzard Apologizes, Promises To Do Better
Taking into account the “justified frustration” of the community, Blizzard released a statement on its social media accounts and Reddit. The developer acknowledged the launch was simply “not up to our standards.”
They do admit that the patch wastes the time of players. But the team is working 24-hour shifts to ensure the servers are back running smoothly. This launch has taught the team a lesson, Blizzard says.
Screenshot of the Official Apology. Image Credit: Blizzard
They have also made a promise to be more transparent in the future. They say they will release information in an open and frequent way in case further launches fail. Blizzard is hoping that they can win back the trust of players who feel that they have been wasting their time on a subpar product.
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What’s Next for WoW Players?
Blizzard has already begun to work on a series of hotfixes to fix some. The hotfixes will address more pronounced bugs, including the Bonus Roll and map visibility bugs in Hide-and-Seek. With Patch 12.0.7, Blizzard looks to return World of Warcraft players to a rewarding, fluid gameplay experience.
