Tuesday Morning Post: PTArgh edition

I think I'm officially declaring this past weekend the weekend of the tease as far as Blizzard and World of Warcraft goes. While we did get some PTR information earlier in the week, it started in earnest on Friday, with a flurry of PTR related activity. The PTR forums went up with current stickies, Character copy went active, and Zarhym and some of the other blues were posting very coyly on the forums when asked about the PTR status.

Then nothing happened.

On Sunday, we were told again that the PTR would be coming in the next week, and probably sooner rather than later. Still, Monday dawned with nothing. By late Monday, the Character Copy queue suddenly started to drop drastically in wait time, making people believe the copies were being loaded on to the PTR in preparation for an evening release. At the last, we got one final tease: The new Argent Tournament, complete with a laundry list of incredibly exciting but incredibly vague features.

But hey, it all paid off in the end. The Patch Notes are out, and the PTR is up.

Seriously though, all this weekend I've been feeling like I'm back in High school and it's almost time for the Sadie Hawkins dance, and the cutest girl in the senior class is flirting with me, except I'm not sure if she's going to ask me out, or go laugh with her girlfriends about teasing the school nerd. But hey, I had my lucky pog and my coolest slap wristband on me, and it apparently all worked out, so it's cool.

Anyway, with all this PTR junk, it's worth noting that we still have maintenance for live servers. An extended 3 AM to 11 AM PST maintenance at that. Luckily, while you're waiting, you have plenty of 3.1 PTR news and analysis to read right here on WoW Insider. Let's look at that and some other stuff from the past week or so.

Hot News and Features

• Once again, you can check out the 3.1 PTR notes here.
• Be sure to check out our patch 3.1 megapage. It will be updated often with links to all the latest 3.1-related news and guides, so keep it bookmarked.
• Now that the PTR's up, if you plan to play there, you may want to make yourself useful.
• If you missed the official site Ulduar preview, check it out!
• It's official, at least for now: Dual Specs costs 1000 gold.
• Don't forget that BlizzCon 2009 has been announced.
• The Arena tournament is now opened for registration.
• There's some staff changes and column shuffling going about here at WoW Insider. Come see what's new in our world.
• Besides 3.1, there's recent been some hotfixes pushed to live servers. Check 'em out.

Class News and Guides

• Curious about the 3.1 mana regen changes? Ghostcrawler broke it down for us.
• We have analysis of the 3.1 PTR changes for shadow priests and the other types of priests.
• Death Knights, be sure to check out our 3.1 PTR Analysis. You can also check out some dual spec musing in the latest Lichborne.
• Druid 3.1 PTR analysis is here, and we also have some analysis of dual specs for Druids.
• We have dual spec discussion for Rogues.
• We have analysis of the Shaman 3.1 changes, as well as some dual spec discussion.
• Warriors got a few changes in the initial PTR notes. You can also check out our guide to DPS Warrior expertise and hit.

Professions, Items, Dungeons, PvP, and more

• Speaking of Ulduar, not everyone is excited for more vehicle combat. But then again, at least time the vehicles scale with gear.
• Hard Mode Raiding isn't going away soon, if you were wondering.
• If you're looking to down Sartharion with 3 drakes before Ulduar, you'll want to check our guide.
• Hey, Rookie! Need Help? We discuss how to get it in game.
• Looking to break into the raid game? Check out our list of 8 things raid leaders like to see from applicants.
• Want to raid faster? Now there's a video.
• If you're a PvPer or an achievement hound, you'll want to check out our Eye of the Storm Achievement primer.
• The blues recently spoke out on instance throttling, and offered some good news besides.
• Insider Trading offers up advice on cloud extracting in Northrend.
• New Glyphs are coming. I'm still pulling for Glyph of the Geist.

Odds and Ends

• Youplayorwepay.com is back, and this time it's... free?
• New WoW figures have been unveiled, and they are pretty hot, and we have pictures to prove it!
• Check out a preview of the latest issue of the WoW comic, with appearances by some old familiar faces.
• Here's a fun time waster: Make your own achievement!
• The new Arthas novel is nearly upon us, and reviews are starting to show up.