5.0 patch August 28th*

[KysenMurrin]

EST? Blargh. That's 5am. Was hoping for PST.

[Fetzie]

Midnight pacific time is 9am CEST, which is total win

You sure it is Eastern time? I heard pacific.

[daishan]

Says "September 25 at midnight CEST" on my battlenet account page.

[daishan]

[Flex]

All races will be playable by any expansion level of WoW when 5.0.4 is released.

[halabar]

All races will be playable by any expansion level of WoW when 5.0.4 is released.

Pandas as well?..

[Flex]

Yup: http://blue.mmo-champion.com/topic/2327 ... patch-504/

[Mannstein]

You Europeans with your ridiculous number of vacation days.

*cough* 30 *cough*
and that's not considered much over here

hey... 30 ffs....
24here plus up to two more for good performance/ no sick leave.

[halabar]

Yup: http://blue.mmo-champion.com/topic/2327 ... patch-504/

Well, not quite. The way the blue post reads, Pandas still won't be available until the launch, but, you'll be able to play them without the expac once it launches.

[degre]

When 5.0 hits people will be able to play any race without the relevant expansion, hence you'll be able to play Worgen or Goblin even if you don't own Cata, Draenei and Blood Elves were already available to everyone as, if I remember correctly, TBC is now part of the base pack, while Pandas will be available to everyone, but only when Pandaria officially launches.

[Nikachelle]

EST? Blargh. That's 5am. Was hoping for PST.

What? No. This is wrong. There was the same confusion last expansion. The European expansion will be playable at midnight GMT + 1. So 11 pm for the UKers and 6 pm for ESTers provided you play EU side.

Disregard what it says when you buy the expansion - EU will be playing before US.

[KysenMurrin]

I reiterate my blargh.

[Nikachelle]

I reiterate my blargh.

Yeah was going to say... getting up to play at 5 am would've been more desirable than playing starting around midnight. I was actually really happy with my situation last expansion - got to come home from work, get a run in, then start playing at 6 pm and straight through until 4 am or so before we started to feel like sleep was necessary. Sure beats waiting around till midnight and then crashing shortly thereafter.

[KysenMurrin]

Similar here with the Cataclysm launch on my US server being about 8am GMT (which is why I thought it'd be PST again in the US?).

[Skye1013]

You Europeans with your ridiculous number of vacation days.

*cough* 30 *cough*
and that's not considered much over here

hey... 30 ffs....
24here plus up to two more for good performance/ no sick leave.

US military gets 30, plus all federal holidays and 4-5 "family days" that usually coincide with some of the bigger holidays (Independence Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, couple others) giving us 4-day weekends.

[PsiVen]

Similar here with the Cataclysm launch on my US server being about 8am GMT (which is why I thought it'd be PST again in the US?).

In the US, Cataclysm launched at midnight PST. Mists is launching at midnight PDT (UTC-7) as usual in the US, and midnight CEST (UTC+2) in Europe. Europe will be playing 9 hours earlier; it looks like those on the west coast will be playing at midnight, and the east coast will be playing at 3am once again.

I'd like to add that I'm on Arizona time, so fuck DST and its needless complexity.

[Holyblaze]

Agreed on the DST PsiVen. Here in Alaska its a total PIMA!

[PsiVen]

Just wanted to update here because I was talking about when the expansion would be released.

They've apparently changed their minds, or had a typo, or something. The battle.net page now indicates that the expansion will release at midnight PDT, and there is a countdown on the main WoW site that matches this time. Looks like it will be the same as Cataclysm's launch timing.

[Worldie]

Translate for a time noob, what time will it be playable in europe?

[KysenMurrin]

It's still midnight CET for Europe realms. The EU site has its own countdown. 11pm GMT, which is making me question whether I should bother trying to go for a realm first after all.

[Epimer]

I've already got my launch night routine set out: a nice early night, to be well rested for playing the next day without the hassle of trying to log in on launch night.

[Worldie]

My launch night routine will involve a lot of istancing and pokemon training. ho ho ho

[Nooska]

My launch nigh will involve picking up my physical CE box, installing it, repatching and going to bed, while watching some of the accompanying blu-ray disc, then playing a bit for the next couple of days - I have too many meetings that week .

[PsiVen]

I've already got my launch night routine set out: a nice early night, to be well rested for playing the next day without the hassle of trying to log in on launch night.

FWIW, the Cataclysm launch was extremely smooth. Surprisingly few people actually go out and quest the instant midnight hits, so it's actually way more crowded if you don't start until morning. Logging in right at midnight isn't necessary because the expansion-prep patch is already in place and the server just flips a switch. Don't let Diablo III's launch discourage you, those guys have a completely different system.

[KysenMurrin]

IIRC you do have to log out and back in to be able to gain XP.