Tuesday Morning Post: Glimpses edition

Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. It's been a sort of weird week in WoW. Patch 4.2.2 is on the PTR but doesn't seem to provide any major changes other than correcting a few tooltips. It does, however, make us all sort of antsier than ever for patch 4.3, and Community Manager Nethaera only stoked those flames with the release of the above screenshot. She neglected, however, to reveal what it signified.

This, of course, has set off a firestorm of comments and theories. Could it mean playable ethereals in the next expansion? Could it be a red herring to distract us from the Pandaren? Could it just be a non sequitur thrown up by a bored CM? Myself, I'm going for the theory that we'll see some new features in patch 4.3 introduced lorewise by Consortium vendors in capital cities. That said, only time will tell for sure. For now, the folks at Blizzard aren't saying any more, and so we wait.

On the plus side, you won't have to wait too long for the servers to come back up this morning. We're dealing with some rolling restarts at 5 a.m. PDT, after which we should be free and clear. While you're waiting out the short downtime, be sure to catch up all things WoW with our usual roundup, after the break.

Hot news and features

• Check out the latest patch 4.2 hotfixes for Aug. 10.

• Someone's managed to grab the first Tarecgosa's Rest.

• Mat speculates on what the Mists of Pandaria title could tell us about the expansion.

• WoW Archivist looks at some of WoW's hidden Z-axis secrets.

• Tides of War is the working title for the upcoming Jaina Proudmoore novel.

• WoW Rookie deals with disruptive and hate speech.

• Tyrande Whisperwind's leader short story is now up.

Class news and guides

• Totem Talk takes a look at a restoration shaman's optional talent choices. We also have a discussion of critical strike vs. mastery for the enhancement shaman.

• Encrypted Text offers yet another set of rogue tips for Firelands.

• Spiritual Guidance offers a shadow priest's guide to Alysrazor.

• The Light And How To Swing It offers a guide to healing Majordomo Staghelm.

• Scattered Shots discusses marksmanship scaling.

• Shifting Perspectives offers some tips for the new level 85 balance druid. We also have more advice for the feral cat in Firelands.

• The Care and Feeding of Warriors has a guide to the new level 85 tank warrior.

• Arcane Brilliance offers a list of essential mage addons.

• Blood Pact answers your warlock questions.

• Lichborne offers some quick tips to step up your death knight's play.

Dungeons, items, professions, PVP, and more

• Ready Check takes on Majordomo Staghelm.

• Raid Rx discusses rotating your healers.

• Blood Sport talks about having fun.

• Addon Spotlight answers more mail.

• The Overachiever covers mounts you can purchase.

• Zarhym recently waxed philosophical about the concept of the 15-man raid.

• Gold Capped offers tips for making money with enchanting.

Odds and ends

• Know Your Lore begins the story of humanity's greatest hero, Anduin Lothar.

• Be sure to check out the final chapters of Safe Passage.

• About the Bloggers continues with a conversation with Robin Torres.

• World of WarCrafts features some pretty awesome stylized T-shirts.

• The Lawbringer continues looking at what WoW can learn from other MMOs' microtransaction models.