As World of Warcraft 12.0.5 hotfixes come thick and fast, Blizzard admits the patch "wasn't up to standard"

World of Warcraft patch 12.0.5 has been a nightmarish experience for players and, I'm sure, devs alike. The MMO's latest update arrived riddled with bugs, impacting core systems like housing, Voidforge bonus rolls, and even class rotations and DPS. It's one of the worst WoW patches I've seen, but Blizzard is, at least, sparing no effort to stabilize the game and fix up the myriad issues currently affecting it. The studio has now spoken up, thanking players for their patience while promising to do better.

"The 12.0.5 patch launch was not up to our standards," Blizzard's statement opens, "and we know this disrupted your time and caused justified frustration." The World of Warcraft dev says "the team has been working around the clock since launch to stabilize the game and fix the biggest issues players were hitting right away."

From a Holy Paladin bug that reduced the amount of justice they could dish out, to an issue that was preventing sockets from being added to Midnight Renown vendor Champion items, the hotfix list is already extensive. A critical housing bug that was causing "unacceptable errors" for some in The Americas and Oceania to the point that the system was temporarily disabled has also been fixed, while Blizzard has promised to refund every Nebulous Voidcore that was spent on Midnight's new bonus roll system before rectifying its loot duplication problem.

The fires may be under considerably better control now, but the big question is how 12.0.5 was allowed to launch in such a state. World of Warcraft has steadfastly maintained its eight-week patch cycle for a hot minute, but it's clear that a little extra slack needs to be made available. Some bugs, such as the Diabolist Warlock Abyssal Dominion issue specified in the hotfix notes, had been reported at the end of March while the update was on PTR. Yet, somehow, it went unremedied.

Blizzard says "the team is taking lessons learned from this launch to help ensure this doesn't happen again." The studio promises better communication going forward, which should, at the very least, help players avoid running into nasty surprises. That being said, I still can't help but worry about the team's capacity, and can only hope this was a freak one-off. Regional price hikes are on the way, and I can't imagine players sticking around if WoW continues to put itself into positions like this.