World of Warcraft's Season 2 Spark problem is finally entering the cleanup phase.
Last week, some players discovered that their characters had received only two actual Sparks of Tides even though the game's currency tracker behaved as if they had already reached the available cap.
That made catch-up impossible.
It also made crafting a little awkward when the game insisted you owned resources that did not physically exist in your bags.
Blizzard has now started fixing affected characters.
During this week's scheduled maintenance, the developers began returning missing Sparks of Tides to players who received the wrong number.
And Blizzard says more cleanup waves will continue throughout the week.
The accounting department has finally located the missing water.
Players Should Now Be Able to Reach Five Total Sparks
With the latest weekly reset, the intended Season 2 progression has moved again.
Including the additional Sparks made available during last week's catch-up, players should now be able to have earned a total of five Sparks of Tides.
That total should also be reflected correctly by the Tidal Spark Dust tracker.
This is an important clarification because the system has already changed several times during the opening weeks of the season.
Blizzard originally increased the available total to four after some characters gained an unintended early advantage through Midnight: World Tour.
Then another bug appeared.
As we covered in our original report on the Season 2 Spark bug, some characters could reach a tracker state of 4/4 while only possessing two real Sparks.
The counter believed everything was fine.
The crafting interface had questions.
Blizzard Started the Fix During Weekly Maintenance
Blizzard says the first corrections were made during scheduled maintenance.
Affected characters missing Spark of Tides items should begin receiving the Sparks they were supposed to have earned.
But this is not necessarily a single instant fix affecting every character at once.
Blizzard specifically says additional cleanup waves will happen throughout the week.
So if your character is still missing one or more Sparks immediately after logging in, that does not necessarily mean the fix has failed.
Your character may simply be waiting for a later correction wave.
It is not an especially satisfying answer if you planned to craft something tonight.
But it is better than the previous system of staring at a 4/4 counter and trying to manifest two Sparks through positive thinking.
Some Players May Actually Lose Sparks
The cleanup also works in the opposite direction.
While some characters received too few Sparks, others were accidentally granted more Sparks than the intended seasonal cap.
Blizzard says those rare cases will also be corrected during the cleanup process.
That means players who received excess Sparks may see some of them removed.
This is worth knowing before assuming the game has randomly stolen your crafting materials.
Blizzard is trying to bring everyone back to the same intended Season 2 progression level.
Characters below the cap get corrected upward.
Characters accidentally above the cap can be corrected downward.
For once, equality means everybody gets audited.
Why the Missing Sparks Mattered So Much
This was never simply a cosmetic currency bug.
Sparks of Tides are one of Season 2's primary crafting gates.
Most powerful crafted items require Sparks, and larger recipes can require several at once.
That means being short two Sparks during the opening weeks can delay a meaningful gear upgrade while other players with functioning characters continue progressing normally.
The problem was especially obvious for players planning expensive weapon crafts.
When Blizzard originally raised the Spark ceiling to four, one of the major consequences was that two-handed weapon crafting became possible.
A character stuck at two physical Sparks while the tracker displayed four therefore was not merely missing a number.
It could be missing an entire weapon.
The Spark System Has Had a Rough Start
Season 2's Spark progression has now gone through several separate problems.
Early in Patch 12.1, the Midnight: World Tour quest created an uneven situation where some characters could obtain an additional Spark while others could not.
Blizzard responded by raising the maximum available total so everyone could catch up.
Then players encountered the bug where Tidal Spark Dust could count catch-up progress without actually awarding the corresponding Spark items.
Blizzard has also had to fix quests such as Trailing Xal'atath and Midnight: World Tour so they correctly award Tidal Spark Dust.
The latest August 25 hotfixes continue cleaning up those Season 2 Spark-related quest issues.
At this point, obtaining crafting currency has required almost as much documentation as using it.
Check Both Your Sparks and Your Tracker
If you were affected by the bug, it is worth checking your character again after maintenance.
Look at:
- Your actual number of Sparks of Tides.
- Your current Tidal Spark Dust progression.
- Whether the numbers now match the Season 2 total your character should have earned.
As of this reset, the intended maximum available progression should allow players to reach five total Sparks.
If your character is still noticeably behind, Blizzard says further correction waves are planned during the week.
So do not panic immediately.
Also do not spend twenty minutes searching your bank for a Spark that never existed.
The Good News Is Blizzard Is Finally Fixing the Characters
The frustrating part of this bug was always that there was very little an affected player could do.
You could complete the content.
You could check the tracker.
You could submit a bug report.
But if the game believed it had already awarded the Spark, there was no normal catch-up route available to force another one to drop.
That is why this week's fix matters.
Blizzard is now correcting the underlying character progression rather than simply adjusting another quest or increasing another cap.
Players who were missing Sparks should finally receive them.
Players who accidentally received too many may be brought back down to the intended limit.
And, with any luck, the Spark of Tides system can now perform its original function:
being a crafting material instead of a weekly accounting mystery.
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