I mean, I understand when there are major issues with applying patches to a ton of servers

I understand that not all bugs or balancing issues won't be found in testing and a lot will be found by the massive amount of people that will use the content once its released

But seriously, what does internal QA do?

You die in the new instance and the game crashes
Conflag didnt' work off its main proc
You claim DKs got a big DW buff, yet failed to give the pre-mades 1H weapons -.-

Seriously, does internal QA miss all of this, or is there just not enough time to fix it before releasing the content to the PTR?

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Q u o t e:
I mean, I understand when there are major issues with applying patches to a ton of servers

I understand that not all bugs or balancing issues won't be found in testing and a lot will be found by the massive amount of people that will use the content once its released

But seriously, what does internal QA do?

You die in the new instance and the game crashes
Conflag didnt' work off its main proc
You claim DKs got a big DW buff, yet failed to give the pre-mades 1H weapons -.-

Seriously, does internal QA miss all of this, or is there just not enough time to fix it before releasing the content to the PTR?

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Please remember that the PTR is part of the patch testing process, and will not always have complete or bug free content. We patch the PTR often, and generally wait to address issues on the PTR with bug patches rather than with a hotfix. We do extensive testing internally to try and provide as much bug free content as possible for the PTR, but the game content is always growing. We have to balance the desire to provide bug free content, with the need to get exposure on new features that are ready for testing. Even though it may seem like your efforts are futile, you are still providing us with valuable error reports so that we can have crashes fixed for the next PTR build.

My best advise for anyone frustrated with crashes and errors on the PTR would be to be as patient as possible, and remember that each content patch goes through a long process of testing that you're helping with.

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Q u o t e:
Wasn't the Trial of the Champion 5 man also made available for testing weeks before it was supposed to be out? I think I recall Daelo saying yesterday that it wouldn't be up for a while, but after we couldn't test the new raid last night and today it suddenly came online. Seems they caved in to pressure and just pushed it out so people wouldn't be mad about not having anything to test.

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We have schedules for content testing that we follow as closely as we can. These schedules often have to be adjusted due to unforeseen circumstances. There can still be valuable testing and feedback completed in the new Argent dungeon, and the errors you receive are necessary to our development process.

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Q u o t e:
However, it would be nice to get a patch that didn't crash the servers for a couple days after it's been deployed.

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Ideally, we want the same thing as you. We want you to be able to test the content and provide bug reports without running into errors and disconnects. At this stage of the PTR testing though, these errors are one of our focuses.

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Q u o t e:
Why dedicate the time and money of recruiting a diverse player test base when you can just give it out to millions of people who'd sell their mother just for a chance to R&D the product for free? Blizz releases the PTR where they make incremental changes, and instead of QA'ing the shiat out of it themselves, they let the player base do it for them since their are some VERY smart people who play this game and can recognize subtle coding errors

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We have a very capable QA staff that works very hard to bring quality content and new functionality to our game. We would be ignorant to think that our players were not capable and willing to provide bugs and feedback during the development cycle. That is not to say that we "farm out testing" to the public, it would be impossible for players on the PTR to test everything.

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Q u o t e:
So what you're saying is, none of the internal QA play a warlock

Because I think it would be pretty hard to "miss" the fact that one of the classes major damaging spells... you know.....doesn't work

Granted, we are a few builds behind, but the bloody thing still doesn't want correctly and its been what, 2-3 weeks?

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Unfortunately, every bug cannot be fixed before the next PTR build that is released. The bug is documented, and will be addressed. Not every bug manifests itself before the PTR is released to the public, and there are many revisions of the game on the PTR before the patch development is complete.

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Q u o t e:
I bet that while y'all complain about the 'obvious' things that Blizzard missed, they're shaking their heads and sighing as they count over the thousands of bugs and errors that they caught before you even downloaded the PTR.

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We have a lot of work, and no time to shake our heads. But honestly, we appreciate the passion that our players have about the game and their classes. I personally feel that on some level, the devotion we see from players illustrates the quality of product that we've produced.