Raid Testing Schedule - March 4

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Game Designer
#1 - March 3, 2016, 11:06 p.m.
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On Friday, March 4, we will continue our Legion Alpha raid testing of Heroic encounters.

Remember that Heroic difficulty scales for any group size between 10 and 30 players, so feel free to assemble and bring a group of any size within that range. Our general plan is to test every encounter on Heroic difficulty first, and then test sections of the raid on Normal and Raid Finder, alongside targeted Mythic tests. Apologies for the short notice, but we needed to ensure build stability. If you can't make this testing window, these bosses will be retested, likely more than once, in the future.

Friday, March 4

Chronomatic Anomaly - Heroic Suramar Raid
13:30 PST (16:30 EST, 22:30 CET)

Trilliax - Heroic Suramar Raid
14:30 PST (17:30 EST, 23:30 CET)

As always, this testing schedule is very fluid and subject to the realities of an alpha environment. We might have to change the time of a testing session, change the boss being tested, or cancel a test entirely, due to bugs, server hardware issues, etc. Keep an eye on this forum for the latest information, and thank you in advance for testing and providing feedback.

Q: How do I get into the raid zone?

A: In Dalaran, Orgrimmar, or Stormwind, you may speak to Nexus-Lord Donjon Rade Sr. in order to teleport into the raid zone while it is open for testing. (The option to teleport into a zone will not be available when the zone is not open for testing.)

Q: What character should I use to test the raid?

A: Whichever you prefer. We will be scaling players' effective level to 110 for raid testing, and their item level to an appropriate threshold for the encounter(s) being tested.

Q: How long does testing last?

A: The primary purpose of testing is to give us the information we need to balance the encounters, evaluate how mechanics are playing out in practice, and identify bugs. Once we're satisfied that we've received that information for a given boss, we'll be shutting down testing. Usually this takes anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours, but there are no guarantees.
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Game Designer
#2 - March 3, 2016, 11:47 p.m.
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Oh, and to clarify, the test will only be available on the PvE Alpha server.

We will be doing coordinated raid testing with artifacts more fully unlocked in the future, but we're not quite ready for that yet.
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Game Designer
#12 - March 4, 2016, 9:31 p.m.
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Our team is working on the server stability issues. The raid zone should be accessible if you're able to get on (and stay online).
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Game Designer
#18 - March 4, 2016, 9:42 p.m.
Blizzard Post
Our server team will be deploying a fix aimed at the cause of the crash within the next few minutes. We'll keep you updated, and will announce whether we're canceling the test entirely based on the results of the attempted fix.

While alpha is alpha, I realize that many carved time out of their schedules to participate in this test, and I apologize for the inconvenience. Stability issues unfortunately often don't surface until hordes of players gather at once.
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Game Designer
#28 - March 4, 2016, 9:59 p.m.
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Alright, we believe the cause of the crashes has been resolved. Fingers crossed.

Thank you for your inadvertent stress-testing of our servers, and now back to our regularly scheduled raid test....