Beta weekend: login queues fixed, a higher population cap, and whole groups skinning the same mob

The Ruins of Lordaeron loading screen from the WoW Forever client

· ForeverDB

Blizzard fixed an issue that filled the beta's login queue and raised the population cap again. Players report that every skinner in a group can skin the same mob, which is already being used for “skinning raids”; Blizzard hasn't commented on that yet.

Login queues fixed, and room for more players

Players on the beta reported a full realm and long queues over the weekend. On September 27 Kaivax replied on the forums:

We looked into this, and found an issue that was causing the queue to fill, and we just fixed the issue. Kaivax, Blizzard community manager

The same day, Executive Producer Holly Longdale announced on X that the beta's population cap has been raised again, as reported by Wowhead. No player numbers were given.

Every skinner in a group can skin the same mob

Player reports, not a Blizzard change or statement. Skinning loot is decided by the server, so it can't be checked in the game files.

Since September 20 players have reported on the beta forums that when several players with Skinning are in the same group, all of them can skin the same mob. Groups are already forming to farm leather this way (“skinning raids”), and players worry it floods the market and leaves solo skinners behind.

One detailed report lists three behaviours:

  • Every skinner in a group can skin the same mob. The poster calls this “EASILY the biggest issue for the profession on beta”.
  • Skinners can skin a mob the player who tagged it hasn't looted yet, as long as that player isn't a skinner and the skinner hit the mob.
  • Now and then, skinning an unlooted mob makes it disappear for the player who still had to loot it, which looks like a plain bug.

An earlier thread reports the same thing with a video. As of September 28 neither thread has a Blizzard reply, and the September 24 notes only changed where you can learn Skinning in Elwynn Forest.

Related: Cultivation and low-level herb farming

The September 24 build gave Tauren's Cultivation a player level requirement per herb (the herb's Herbalism requirement divided by 5, level 60 above 300 skill), and in the beta client files it has a 1-hour cooldown. Players had reported level 5 Tauren, many of them bots, cultivating high-level herbs in zones like Winterspring and Gadgetzan. Blizzard's notes don't say why it changed. More in our September 24 notes write-up.

Sources