In a somewhat controversial move, Blizzard opted to activate the new Ruby Sanctum raid yesterday afternoon for North American realms. Not only was this before EU realms received patch 3.3.5, it was also during a 24-hour maintenance period for 74 North American realms. This act was somewhat contrary to an earlier announcement that seemed to express the desire by Blizzard for more parity when it comes to world and region availability of new end-game encounters. It also allowed guilds on roughly one-third of worldwide servers to have a head start on defeating Halion, both normal and heroic, before the other two-thirds of the servers were even accessible.

Premonition of Sen’jin-US, the guild that happened to be featured at the Live Raid event during 2009’s BlizzCon, managed to get the first kill of heroic Halion in both the 10- and 25-man versions last night. Since then, according to wowprogress.com, there have still only been a few guilds that have downed either version of the heroic mode.

While it’s easy to claim that this kill is not a major deal due to the short instance length and relatively low difficulty when compared to Heroic Lich King, Cataclysm’s trend towards shorter and more accessible raids, along with the combining of 10- and 25-man lockouts, may end up stopping EU realms from garnering as many world-first boss kills as they have in the past. In addition, there are some players who are extremely upset with Blizzard for releasing the new raid during the 24-hour maintenance period, effectively blocking that large handful of realms from even attempting the instance.

I heard from a few players who were on the realms that were down during last night’s Ruby Sanctum Heroic 10-man stream, but I want to hear from more of you. Are you upset about how Blizzard handled Ruby Sanctum? Do you pay attention to world firsts? Do you think it’s all just a bunch of QQ? I really believe all of this will blow over pretty quickly, but I also hope dropping short instances for North American realms to get world firsts doesn’t become a habit for Blizzard.

The Ruby Sanctum: Red Trees, Green Grass, And Phat Purple Lewts.

There are strong signs pointing towards Patch 3.3.5 going live today, slaking the thirst of parched raiders who have drained every last drop out of Icecrown Citadel and (quite likely) their guild in the process. The update, whose major features include the Ruby Sanctum raid and Real ID/Battle.net 2.0 integration, may not be much in the grand scheme of things, but it is something, right?

Also included in 3.3.5 should be the files for the upcoming pre-Cataclysm events which feature the Trolls and Gnomes retaking the Echo Isles and Gnomeregan, respectively. Both areas will be eventually be converted into new starting areas for those races once expansion time comes around.

Do remember the following (disappointing) fact:

In patch 3.3.5, we will be introducing our new Battle.net system, which opens up new communication options for World of Warcraft players and lays the groundwork for integration with future Blizzard games, such as StarCraft II. In order to ensure that the implementation of this major new system goes as smoothly as possible, we plan to release the patch to North American realms first, with Europe, Korea, and the region of Taiwan following approximately one week afterward…

…To help clarify and add to our original announcement, we want you to know that because we are delaying the release of patch 3.3.5 in Europe, Korea and Taiwan but not in the US, the Ruby Sanctum will not actually be open on our US realms when the patch is released over there.

We will keep you updated on when we plan to open the Ruby Sanctum and any other necessary information.

Yeah, sorry I got you all excited. You’ll have to wait on Halion and co. for at least another week.

Infinitely more interesting is the idea that the Cataclysm beta may be coming “very soon,” word that comes from right from a semi-official source. Discounting the fact that he may be far removed from the actual decision-makers, a blue poster working for Blizzard Taiwan had the following to say today:

感謝大家的熱情支持與耐心等候！Beta測試將在近期內展開。（多近期？板主不能透露確切日期，只能說……真的很快就要到了！）屆時使用的客戶端程式將可直接在Battle.net開通Beta資格的介面中直接下載，所以用不到現行的美國客戶端程式。

另外板主要提醒大家，還有許多玩家沒有將你的帳號資料寄到社群信箱來，請不要讓自己的權益睡著囉！請在6/23（三）之前將你的魔獸帳號、論壇暱稱、以及 Battle.net帳號等資訊寄來，否則你的名額我們就會釋出給其他的玩家機會囉！

Wow! Now that’s some incredible news! Wait, what? You can’t read the divine language of our new Taiwanese overlords?! Alright, here’s one translation (hint: not mine, but cleaned up a bit):

So far, no effort has been made to discount the statement, but it’s still a little early in the morning over here on the Pacific Coast, where most Blizzard employees live. One thing to note, though it’s unlikely to impact anyone reading this, is that Taiwanese players would, in fact, have to download the US client to participate. Still, 6/23, huh? The implication seems to be that’s some sort of cut-off date for beta eligibility, and I doubt it’s only for Taiwan.

The Beta Test will start very soon. (How soon? I can’t tell you the exact time but… it’s very soon!) You can download the Cataclysmclient from your Battle.net Beta interface at that time, so you don’t need to download the US client right now. Another reminder, we haven’t received the confirmation email from quite a number of players. If you do not send us the confirmation email by 6/23 (Wed), your qualification for Beta will be passed on to other players.

With updates to the alpha client coming more and more frequently, I’m inclined to accept this as truth. If you haven’t yet applied for beta testing or uploaded your current computer specs, I’d log on to your Battle.net account get on that, or else all your beta-having friends in the coming months will laugh at you.