The latest patch 8.3 “Visions of N’Zoth” in World of Warcraft is less than a week old, but there are already loud complaints. Many players are dissatisfied, with some even calling it the buggiest patch of all time.
What is wrong with patch 8.3? Since the release of patch 8.3 “Visions of N’Zoth”, complaints about bugs and issues have been piling up on Reddit, in the official forums, and in the game itself. Players seem to be facing new errors repeatedly.
The YouTuber BellularGaming even refers to patch 8.3 in his video description as the “buggiest patch released yet.” We have embedded his video here:
Indeed, he seems to address a sore point, as the video received 7617 upvotes within two days (against 395 downvotes as of January 19). But what is there to it?
The problems of patch 8.3
These errors exist: We already showed a list of known bugs shortly after the release of patch 8.3. However, there are now new bugs that significantly ruin players’ enjoyment or even make the game nearly impossible to play:
- The reward chests for the invasions (“Chest of the Black Empire”) could be dropped multiple times for some players, leading to automatic bans for exploiting the mechanic. Similar situations seem to apply to the “large chests,” which require fragments to open.
- Items sold via the revamped auction house since patch 8.3 sometimes do not grant gold to the seller.
- Disturbing visions can sometimes fail seemingly without reason or be interrupted by disconnects, causing the necessary vessels to disappear without reward.
What is Blizzard doing about it? Some problems have already been fixed via hotfixes. The pending bans are supposed to be lifted. However, the vessels of the disturbing visions cannot be refunded according to statements.
The missing gold is said to have not been lost according to a GM, as everything is recorded accurately. However, when and how a refund will occur is still unknown.
Players are disappointed and complaining
This is bothering the community: Many players are quite annoyed by patch 8.3 at the moment. Bugs are not the only focus of the complaints:
- reddit user Papier4 writes: “I find it crazy how little there is to do in patch 8.3. Mechagon had more content than the entire [patch] 8.3”
- reddit user Armadros finds the new daily tasks generally annoying. On high population servers, they are hardly manageable.
- User Puzzlin in the official forum expresses harsher words: “This is terrible, and every employee at Blizzard should be ashamed of the product they have released.” Much of his criticism, however, has been rebutted by the community.
- reddit user Gankeros states: “Patch 8.3 is a flight simulator – not enough rare enemies or enemies at all. How could new content be released in such poor condition?”
The auction house bug also summons negative reactions. The Twitch streamer derBehla, who primarily plays WoW for the economy and to earn gold, told us in a conversation: “Not finding any gold from sales is the worst for me. It’s just not fun that way.”
Some players wrap their criticism in somewhat humorous teasing. One player mentioned in a public chat that the bugs of patch 8.3 were intentional – after all, N’Zoth wants to drive us insane.
This is still popular: Despite the critical voices, there are also many players who are satisfied with the content or demand something positive from patch 8.3. Especially the new allied race of Vulpera delights many fans, who react with memes and pictures:
MeinMMO reader EliazVance says:
I also quite like the patch so far. I also really liked Mechagon with 8.2 – I appreciate a bit of grind as a way to achieve progress step by step at my own pace. A relatively linear path with few dependencies.
Returning to old areas is an absolute highlight for me.
Also, Cortyn is having more fun with patch 8.3 than expected. The storyline told seems to be working well. And the upcoming raid Ny’alotha could smooth things over again. It will be released on January 22 in normal and heroic versions.
Where do all the problems come from?
This could be the cause: Following the many problems, discussions have also arisen about where all the bugs actually originate. Bellular is sure in his video: It’s due to the lack of employees.
Activision Blizzard laid off nearly 800 employees in March 2019. In recent months, several other key individuals have also left the company, including:
- CEO Mike Morhaime left in January 2019
- The popular German community manager Toschayju has left
- Shortly after, several CM positions were likely eliminated
According to Bellular, Blizzard simply lacks the manpower to quality-check patches like 8.3. Game Director Ion Hazzikostas still has deadlines he must meet. The result is half-baked patches that even the employees probably can’t be happy with.
Is patch 8.3 really the worst patch?
It looked like this in the past: Patch 8.3 is not the first patch with problems, and certainly not the one with the biggest problems. In the history of WoW, there have already been bugs that have wiped entire cities or otherwise broken the game. A list of the 5 funniest bugs of this kind can be found here.
Nevertheless, many players are currently keeping a critical eye on Blizzard. Battle for Azeroth apparently did not meet expectations entirely, the takeover by Activision is troubling to many hardcore fans, and the recent China shitstorm contributes to players being more critical.
In principle, however, it may also be irrelevant whether or not it is actually the worst patch of all time. Once this opinion has taken root, it will be hard to fight it. What Blizzard will do about it remains to be seen. In the meantime, you might want to get a better picture of patch 8.3:
