Tuesday Morning Post: Altoholics Anonymous edition
You know, I was just going to take it easy until Cataclysm, even with The Shattering upon us, even with the new race/class combos. I figured I'd grab a few of the new pets on my death knight and just coast until it was time to start leveling. Then I figured, what the heck, let's roll a gnome priest and check out the new gnome starting zone. You can see from the picture above where that ended up. She's level 39 now and still going strong! I'm not the only one who's rolled a new character, either. I've seen a lot of human hunters and night elf mages around, and I'm hearing horror stories of Orgrimmar drowning in a tide of technicolored troll druids as well.
That's right, The Shattering is upon us, and apparently all it's really shattered for most of us is any boredom with the game. There's a lot of good stuff going on right now -- and we, of course, have it all here. With today's extended maintenance of 3-11 a.m. Pacific time, you should have time to catch up, right? Read on for a roundup of all the latest happenings.
Hot news and features
Nostalgic for the old, old world already? We have a huge picture gallery full of screenshots of the way things were.
If you're more interested in checking out the new shape of things, check out this annotated video map.
Check out the official patch notes for patch 4.0.3a, also known as The Shattering.
There've also been a few hotfixes since the patch dropped.
Frustrated by the meta gem requirements in patch 4.0.3a? They're being reverted.
WoW Rookie explores the Cataclysm troll starting area.
Class news and guides
Scattered Shots looks at hunter changes for patch 4.0.3a.
Totem Talk discusses bringing your restoration shaman back for Cataclysm.
Lichborne offers a guide to the new spell alert system for death knights.
Blood Pact looks at staying mobile as a demonology warlock.
The Light And How To Swing It looks at retribution paladin glyphs and leveling your new tauren paladin.
Spiritual Guidance discusses the latest shadow priest addons.
The Care And Feeding of Warriors looks back at the six-year rollercoaster ride.
Raid Rx discusses the differences between healing a level 80 dungeon and healing a level 85 dungeon.
Encrypted Text takes a last look back at the old pre-Shattering rogue.
Shifting Perspectives looks at why you should or shouldn't play a troll druid and deals with balance problems old and new.
Arcane Brilliance is thankful for things.
Dungeons, items, professions, PvP and more
Patch 4.0.3a bought back some missing glyphs but put the ink trader out of commission for a few weeks.
Enchanting Vellum is now vendor-purchased.
Insider Trader takes a look at the state of inscription as we head into Cataclysm.
Blood Sport looks at awesome arena addons.
The new battlegrounds are now on the in-game calendar.
Addon spotlight looks at the latest iteration of Atlasloot.
Odds and ends
Check out the latest installment of Safe Passage, WoW Insider's weekly webcomic.
Know Your Lore looks at the history of the Dragonmaw clan.
15 Minutes of Fame talks to a group of players who've bought WoW to the iPad.
The Lawbringer discusses the legalities of using fronts in your addons and the problem with suing Deathwing.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it; nothing will be the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion (available Dec. 7, 2010), from brand new races to revamped quests and zones. Visit our Cataclysm news category for the most recent posts having to do with the Cataclysm expansion.
