scheduled-maintenance
Latest
Tuesday Morning Post: Glory to the Alliance edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. BlizzCon is over, and we're all recovering here, more or less. However, the news cycle marches on, and we've already received our post-BlizzCon bombshell: In a future content patch, Theramore will be destroyed by the Horde. I'm not going to lie. As a die-hard Alliance player, I'm more than a little crestfallen. Jaina Proudmoore means a lot to me, and so does the city she built. But I have found one surefire way to cure these doldrums. To all my Alliance brothers and sisters, I invite you: Watch that video up there, and remember. This is what we Alliance can do. We didn't need the Horde, and we didn't need the Argent Crusade or the Cenarion Circle or any other neutral organizations. Glory to the Alliance. While you bask in the power of the Alliance, I should also tell you that we have no reported downtime yet for this morning as of this writing. If it comes, though, have no fear. After the break, you'll find a roundup of all the BlizzCon news you may have missed over this crazy weekend, as well as everything else worth knowing about from the past seven days. Read on.
Tuesday Morning Post: Kitten-based economy edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. Once again, Blizzard's let the big news wait until Monday. Yesterday, we learned that the Blizzard store will feature a bind on equip Guardian Cub, allowing you to place it on the auction house. Essentially, you'll be able to spend 10 dollars to buy an unspecified amount of gold. As you can imagine, people have opinions on this. Me, I'm just thinking Cats4Gold was a little ahead of its time. The time of the kitten based economy is upon us. How many cats do you think it'll take to buy a Vial of the Sands? In addition to the cat stuff, we also have more news from patch 4.3 and elsewhere to cover. Downtime this morning is from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. PDT, so you should have time to get caught up. Join us after the break for a roundup of all the best stuff from the past week.
Tuesday Morning Post: PTR news explosion edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. With the patch 4.3 PTR in full swing, this week was just jam-packed with all sorts of news. From first looks at transmogrification to video from the new End Time dungeon, we have a lot for you to digest this morning. Luckily, downtime this morning is from 5 to 11 a.m. PDT, so you should have time to take a breather and get caught up. Check after the break for our usual roundup.
Tuesday Morning Post: Let's kill Sylvanas edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. While we're all waiting with bated breath for the PTR to drop, there's at least a trickle of patch 4.3 info coming our way. We learned that rogues get to look like Batman, and that the tier 13 set bonuses are sort of weird. It was a pretty slow Monday, however, and as of this writing, we've heard nothing new about when the PTR will open.Hope springs eternal. I'm just hoping the new dungeons are up ASAP, because I can't wait to take out that lady up there, even if it's just as an echo from the future. Downtime this morning is just a quick series of rolling restarts at 5 a.m. PDT, but whether you're waiting out that quick server restart or waiting for news of the PTR, keep it here with us. We'll have all the news as soon as it breaks. In the meantime, you can catch our usual roundup of the past seven days' news, after the break.
Tuesday Morning Post: Timelords Edition
It started with a leaked article at The Escapist. Then Zarhym started dropping hints. Then our parent site Joystiq posted a preview. Finally, in the wee hours of Monday morning, the floodgates opened and the patch 4.3 info started flowing. Here are the highlights: Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street dropped some info on the Raid Finder and the new rogue legendary, among other things. He also gave up the scoop on epic gems and the secrets of the Deathwing encounter. Blizzard then posted previews of the new 5-man dungeons. First, we'll travel to the End Time, then to the far past of the War of the Ancients, and finally to Wyrmrest Accord in the present day to strike a blow against Deathwing. I don't know about you, but at this point, I figure you ought to just give me a TARDIS and a sonic screwdriver, because Rhonin doesn't have a thing on me after all this time traveling. Then again, maybe Thrall's the real Timelord and we're just his companions. If so, I get to be Rory Williams. If you're eager to dig into patch 4.3 news, definitely read the stuff I linked above. There's lots of juicy tidbits. If you're holding off on patch 4.3 stuff, never fear. There's a lot of cool non-patch news to peruse as well. Downtime this morning is from 3 a.m. to 11 a.m. PDT, so you'll have plenty of time to get caught up. Be sure to stay tuned as well. When the patch 4.3 PTR finally drops, we'll be there.
Tuesday Morning Post: Scruffy nerfherders edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone! I've been playing the original KOTOR lately, after having it sit in my Steam games library for way too long, and it's strangely awesome. I haven't played an old RPG that's held up this well in a long time. Of course, it's also made me really want to try SWTOR, so there's the downside. Anyway, I have Star Wars on my mind, so when those upcoming Firelands nerfs came up, it got me thinking. Could we call Blizzard developers nerfherders now? And if so, does that mean they are all awesome, roguish smugglers who totally shot first? Because I think I am OK with this. Downtime today is just a quick set of rolling restarts, starting at 5 a.m. PDT. While you wait for those to finish up, there's plenty of juicy news to catch up beyond the break, from new patch 4.3 sneak peaks to patch 4.2 hotfix hijinks. Read on to check it all out.
Tuesday Morning Post: Non-answers edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. Probably one of the most intriguing pieces of news this week was a little quote from Tom Chilton, who was heard to say that the whole "Mists of Pandaria" thing was totally overhyped. Honestly, as much as I used to say that Mists of Pandaria probably wasn't an actual expansion, this answer sort of changes my mind. If Chilton wanted to deny the existence of the Mists as an actual product, this would have been a perfect time to do it. Instead, he gave a perfect, classic little Blizzard non-answer -- sure, he said Mists of Pandaria was overhyped, but he didn't say it wasn't the next expansion. I don't know. Now I'm thinking we are headed to a misty little island somewhere to grind to level 90. Whether you think we're headed to Pandaria for the next expansion or not, there's plenty of new for you to peruse in this week's roundup. While this morning's downtime consists primarily of rolling restarts, a small handful of servers will have some extra downtime from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. PDT, so you'll have at least some time to get caught up. Stay tuned as well for more patch 4.3 news. When it breaks, we'll have it here.
Tuesday Morning Post: Fezzes are cool edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. You'd think it'd be a slow week this time around. Gamescom was last week, and Blizzard doesn't seem to have done much at PAX. Patch 4.3 isn't on the PTR yet. Still, Blizzard managed to get enough news out. The Darkmoon Faire is getting a huge revamp in patch 4.3, with new quests, new games, the ability to semi-powerlevel your professions -- and most importantly, a monkey with a fez. Forget fighting Deathwing; I gotta get me a monkey with a fez. The other good news today is that scheduled maintenance is lasting from 3 a.m. to 11 a.m. PDT. That may not sound great, but that may mean we'll get patch 4.2.2 on live servers, which itself means we're one step closer to patch 4.3. Of course, if I'm wrong about that whole patch 4.2.2 thing, that just means downtime sucks a little more this week. Either way, you should have plenty of time to catch up on all the news you missed in the past seven days, so join us after the break for our usual roundup.
Tuesday Morning Post: Playing dressup edition
So despite the continued lack of a patch 4.3 PTR, the patch 4.3 news came in with a vengeance this week. Not only did threat become trivial, but we're going to see active mitigation for tanks and extra bank storage for your stray item sets and fashion pieces. We found out that cross-realm raiding is in the works. We also learned that Deathwing will be the final boss of patch 4.3. But all that pales in comparison to the #1 news: We're getting cosmetic armor slots. Sure, there are restrictions (some of them more arbitrary than others), but we're finally getting them. I figure it's all about baby steps. Sure, my death knight can't wear an eyepatch for now. My rogue won't be able to wear a Corsair's Overshirt and be a swashbuckler. And I'll have to defer my dreams of my warrior becoming a leather-clad berserker. But sooner or later, maybe Blizzard will realize that it's not a bad thing to offer your players even more choices and that in a game with a distinguished history of poop quests and featuring such NPCs as Mylune, Goblin Hitler, and Linken, maybe a rogue dual wielding fish isn't really all that immersion-breaking after all. All that said, it looks like we're no closer to the patch 4.3 PTR this week, as all we get is a quick set of rolling restarts for downtime, starting at 5 a.m. PDT. While you're waiting for your server to come back up, you'll definitely want to catch up on all the patch 4.3 buzz here. Our usual roundup awaits you after the break.
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.
Tuesday Morning Post: Panda skeptics edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. By now, I'm sure most of you know the big news of the week: Blizzard's registered Mists of Pandaria as a trademark related to computer games. Could this be the title of our next expansion? Can we all expect to be rolling monks or deciding whether to make our new panda on the Alliance or Horde side within the next year or two? It's tough to say for sure. Faked leaks aside, I'm on a wait and see approach. As it is, I don't think this guarantees anything. It could be for something completely different, or it could be a "just in case" thing. I've seen enough trademarked Harry Potter titles that never saw the light of day not to be wary. Then again, it could just be my own bias creeping in. I'm still hoping for an expansion that's pure Alliance vs. Horde. But hey, if nothing else, at least we got that sweet panda sketch from Anne. So we definitely have more Mists of Pandaria speculation than you can shake a stick at, but there's plenty of other news to peruse as well, such as the debut of patch 4.2.0a. Maintenance today will be the usual 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. PDT, so you should have time to browse. Check it all out after the break.
Tuesday Morning Post: Stay awhile and farm edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. So. I'm thinking I quit the day job, write freelance articles by night, and spend all day farming the loot mines of Tristram, pulling out bountiful harvests of Tarnhelms and Stones of Jordan to sell in the great markets. Okay, seriously, I wouldn't personally quit my day job to farm uniques, but it's still sort of an awesome feeling to know the option is out there. Also, given Diablo 3 lead designer Jay Wilson's insistence that PVE will never be balanced on the back of PVP and PVP can just deal with it if a PVE ability imbalances PVP, I am officially in love with the man and wish he would come work on WoW too. Anyway, that's enough Diablo fanboying for one article -- let's get on with the rest of the news. With rolling restarts coming at 5 a.m. PDT, you should have at least a little time to get caught up.
Tuesday Morning Post: Held in thrall edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. This past week has been one of those weird ones; it wasn't exactly quiet, but there were just a bunch of little interesting news stories vying for attention. It's still not clear if any of them was "the big one," but if I had to pick one, I might go with the news out of the San Diego Comic-Con. Technically, all Blizzard did there was announce some new merchandise, but all the same, for us lore nerds, there were tasty little lore nuggets aplenty to be gleaned. That said, if you really want WoW info from of a con, you'll have to wait for BlizzCon. Luckily, the next one is coming up fast, and Blizzard's just released a new official BlizzCon site. If lore nuggets aren't your thing (or if you prefer to stay spoiler-free), have no fear. There's plenty of other news for you to catch up on. Downtime this morning is from 3 a.m. to 11 a.m. PDT again, so why not take the time to read up? We have our usual roundup after the break.
Tuesday Morning Post: Guy Love edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone! I recently unlocked the Druids of the Talon dailies on my main, and while doing the daily quests, I've been getting an extra dose every day of the saccharine sweet friendship of Tholo and Anren. They're the Hyjal dream team, nearly always together, nearly always talking about each other. They've got a bromance going that's so huge you sort of wonder if maybe you should just remove the "b" already. I have to admit, it annoyed me at first. Night elves and tauren being all cuddly like that sort of bothered me. The Horde's evil, man. Tauren will betray you, Anren. They're attacking your home in Ashenvale even now! But you know, now that I've gotten to know them a little better, maybe it's not so bad. They're just keeping up a long tradition in the annals of WoW. There's been Asric and Jaadar, Thassarian and Koltira, and now Anren and Tholo. Maybe we could all learn to love each other a little more, just like them. So go ahead. Bask in the warm fuzziness of the bromance. And once you're done, keep reading for the latest WoW news from the past seven days. Downtime this week is from 3 a.m. to 11 a.m. PDT, so you'll have plenty of time to get caught up.
Tuesday Morning Post: Choosing sides edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. We're a couple of weeks into patch 4.2, and by now, many of us should have made the ultimate choice. Who did you pick first in the battle for the Firelands? Was it the ancient, mysterious order of the Shadow Wardens, or was it the slightly less hippie than normal flying aces, the Druids of the Talon? I admit, it was a hard choice, but as much as I love Thisalee Crow, I had to side with the Shadow Wardens first. They were amazing in Warcraft III, and I have sort of missed them. They remind me of what the night elves used to be. I have to admit, I was sort of hoping Maiev would magically show up to lead them, proud and powerful, with maybe the ocassional dig at Malfurion for how much of a loser his wife is. Alas, it is apparently not be. But I hoped. Whichever choice you made, right now you have no choice but to wait out the usual Tuesday downtime. This week, it's from 1 a.m. to 7 a.m. PDT. While you wait, you can catch up on all the news from the past few days, including guides to some of the new patch 4.2 Firelands and Tol Barad bosses. Check it all out after the break.
Tuesday Morning Post: The week after
It's been exactly one week since the launch of patch 4.2. As we've all come to expect from the high-end raiding community, raiders have already ground Ragnaros into the dust time and time again on normal mode. As of today, we'll start to see legitimate hard mode kills, and it should be interesting to see which guild comes out on top this time around. Most of us are content with much more humble progression, though. My guild finished the week at 3/7, having taken our usual Monday evening raid night off to celebrate some wacky thing called "the 4th of July." I think it's a holiday commemorating Gilneas' shrugging off the hegemony of the Alliance of Lordaeron and striking out on their own? I'm not really sure, honestly. Today's maintenance will be ongoing for a few hours more as of this posting, so if you're feeling particularly bored, don't worry! WoW Insider had some great content this past week that you can catch up on today.
Tuesday Morning Post: By patch day be purged edition
Last week, Ahune busted our instance servers. This week, Ragnaros gets the chance to do the same as we fully expect patch 4.2 to go live as of this writing. Now mind you, I'm not saying servers will crash, but hey -- might as well be prepared, right? Yes, I know that's the wrong raid boss's catch phrase, but I used my only "by fire be purged" joke for the title. As you might expect, downtime is currently scheduled for 3 a.m. to 11 a.m. Pacific time, so even if everything goes smoothly, you'll still have plenty of time to read up on patch 4.2 before the servers come up. I recommend starting with Mat's excellent patch 4.2 roundup. Then you can check after the break for a quick roundup of all the other good stuff from the past seven days. Don't stop once that's done with, though; we'll have plenty more piping hot patch 4.2 news and info for you in the coming days and weeks.
Tuesday Morning Post: Ready! Aim! Firelands!
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. With PvP Season 9 slated to end as early as June 21, and a new patch 4.2 update on the PTR that's marked for release, it's probably safe to say that we'll see the new patch before July comes. This week, we're just seeing some quick rolling restarts, though, starting at 5 a.m. PDT. While you wait for those to pass, why not catch up on the latest news? We have updates on the last few changes to go up on the patch 4.2 PTR, as well a look at what the developers are saying over on the official forums. Read on for all this and more.
Tuesday Morning Post: Mass glee edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone, and welcome to the day after Mass Effect Monday. I have just one word for you: OMNI-BLADE. Okay, now that I have that out of my system, it's back to the WoW stuff. Don't get me wrong -- there's some pretty exciting stuff going on here, too. We have plenty of patch 4.2 news, as well as all the usual class, dungeon, profession, and PVP guides and discussions, waiting for you after the break. Scheduled maintenance this morning is from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. PDT, so you should have plenty of time to read it all.
Tuesday Morning Post: Lazy Monday edition
Happy Tuesday Morning, everyone. As I write this, it is the end of a lazy Monday, where much of the USA is just finishing up some awesome barbeque and maybe a beer or two and generally having a grand old time. As you read this, the same Americans are dragging themselves back to work, grumbling all the way. Cheer up, everyone! Look at this way: Most of you probably only have a four-day work week now, which is actually pretty sweet. The big news this week was, of course, the news that tier 11 normal modes will be nerfed come patch 4.2, to allow more people to run the old content. If that bothers you, don't worry, you can run tier 11 heroics in their original unnerfed glory. If that still bothers you, Ol' Grumpy would like a word with you. Oh, and I guess there was that other story about gold farming prisoners. If you're not concerned about any of that old stuff, don't worry, there's plenty more to read and discuss from the past few days. Blizzard's apparently taking it easy this morning too, as we have nothing more than rolling restarts for downtime this morning. So before you ease back into your work week, why not read on?
