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Tuesday Morning Post: The long and short of it edition
I have to say, this is sort of interesting. Downtime today is only 7 AM to 9 AM pacific. 2 hours is slightly worse than plain old rolling restarts, to be sure, but it's better than normal maintenance, if a bit unusual. Of course, those of you who are still after those dumb toothpicks will have a few more hours to curse at Innkeepers for turning you into a ninja instead of giving you a dang sliver of wood so you can get a big purple dragon, so that's always a plus. And of course, for that 2 hour period, you'll need some reading material, which is where we come in. Here's a list of some of the latest and greatest WoW.com news from the Patch 3.3 PTR and beyond:
Tuesday Morning Post: Icecrown and Hallow's End edition
Happy Tuesday morning and happy Hallow's End, everyone. That's right, WoW's coolest holiday's in full swing. Or is when the servers are up. If you're going after the Hallowed title, we have a Hallow's End achievement guide for you. If you're thinking of going after everyone's favorite cackling headless holiday boss, we have a guide to the new Headless Horseman loot. Of course, maybe you just want to do some good old fashioned trick or treating. We have something for that too. Of course, while the revelry continues on live servers, the testing continues on the test servers, and there's been quite a bit of activity.
Tuesday Morning Post: Animal magnetism edition
So. Big news guys: The Three Worgen Moon Shirt is here. Seriously. The Shirt that will change your life, I kid you not. I ordered mine, and I have already sensed the presence of beautiful women gravitating toward the aura of self-assurance and wildness created around me by the very decision made to purchase the shirt.Nah, but seriously. There's been stuff going on this weekend. Mostly, Patch 3.3's been going on, and we've had crack teams poring over the data files and running through the dungeons getting all the latest for you. For example, here's some video footage of some of the team running The Pit of Saron. Also, you're going to need to convert your account to Battle.net pretty soon now.There's much more to peruse of course, so let's get to it. Here's a list of some of our best news and features from the past few days.
Tuesday Morning Post: The Icecrown Cometh edition
What a week for WoW news, eh? Not only did we get a very intriguing sneak preview of the Icecrown Citadel 5-mans, but we also got a fresh new PTR Patch. From there, the patch notes and game files revealed a lot of pretty juicy stuff. Newbies get it ever easier. There's craftable nature resist gear (resist boss fight, anyone?). There looks to be a pretty epic 5-man quest line for the Quel'Delar (Here's a picture of the blade, for the record. Yeah, it's sweet). There's new racial shaman totem graphics. It looks like a Valentine's Day holiday event boss may be in the works. In what may be my favorite development, there's new weekly raiding quests coming. Even the names of datamined NPCs offer their own intrigue.Yeah, anyway, there's a lot of stuff to digest, and with this 5 AM - 11 AM pacific downtime, hopefully you have time to do so. Follow the break for even more news:
Tuesday Morning Post: Cataclysm bombshell edition
So the biggest news from the past week was probably the Cataclysm preview article published in PC Gamer UK, in which more spoilertastic information was revealed about the new races and other storyline minutiae. I have to say, I was surprised. I expected there would be a lot more discussion about the newly revealed level 1-5 stories. Instead, everyone's focused in on one line about... well, some of you probably don't want to be spoiled, so I'll leave it alone. But suffice it to say, if you don't mind being spoiled and you haven't heard the hullabaloo yet, you might want to check out our article and see if you can figure out what has everyone talking. If spoilers aren't your bag, or you already know, don't fear, there's plenty more to keep you occupied as we wait out the 5 AM - 11 AM Pacific maintenance window. For example, you could read up on the week-old Patch 3.2.2 on our guide page. Here's a few more ideas for your browsing pleasure:
Tuesday Morning Post: A long expected downtime edition
Yeah, weirdly enough, we've been expecting this a while. They've announce this week's downtime pretty early, and it's extended: 3 AM to 11 AM Pacific. We still can't say for sure why they announced it that early. As of this writing, we haven't heard any peep on whether or not Patch 3.2.2 will go live today (and despite my gut feeling, there is that whole november thing that keeps going around). You'll know by the time you read this, most likely, but either way, it can't hurt to read up on the new patch while the servers are down, right? Of course, even if Patch 3.2.2 doesn't drop, there's plenty of other things going on. For example, Brewfest is in full swing. If you still haven't gotten in the spirit, check out our Achievement guide and Coren Direbrew loot list for inspiration. Plus, as always, we have even more news and views to get you through the downtime after the break:
European weekly maintenance: 23rd & 24th September 2009
Many of our characters may be lying face down in the snow, beer mug still in hand, at 3am on a Wednesday morning -- but that's not going to stop the weekly maintenance. Normal scheduled maintenance for most realms means an outage between 3am and 11am, Paris time (CEST).As well as this regular maintenance two English Battlegroups (Reckoning and Ruin) will be receiving optimizations to their instance capacity. This will mean an extended outage on Wednesday until 5pm CEST and also a further outage between 3am and 7am on Thursday. I'm sure players on these servers will be glad to finally join those who have already received this optimisation to help resolve the Door Boss issue. Full list of realms impacted after the break.
Maintenance for Tuesday, September 22nd already announced
Yeah, believe it or not, unlike last week, when Blizzard didn't confirm the lack of maintenance until somewhere close to midnight pacific time, this week we already have confirmation. There will be extended maintenance from 3 AM to 11 AM pacific this Tuesday.What does this early announcement mean? To be fair, it could just mean that they already know they're going to need some extra maintenance time to make up for the complete lack of maintenance last Tuesday. Of course, they could also be planning to push out Patch 3.2.2. Don't take my word for it though, I am 100% just going off a gut feeling. We've been a while without a patch, after all.Just in case, you'll probably want to start reading up on Patch 3.2.2 now, and when maintenance day gets here, you'll have plenty to read right here on WoW.com while you wait for your server to come up, or for news on whether or not we're going to see the patch.
No downtime for Tuesday, September 15th
Here's some good news for all of you who play during the early morning hours pacific coast time: There's no downtime this week. Blue poster Wymdar has announced that there will be no rolling restarts and no downtime for the majority of servers, with one exception: the Uther server will experience a quick restart in order to fix an issue with a boat.So enjoy your uninterrupted playtime. Or, if you're at work or school during that time, be jealous that there's other people playing while you slave away. Then read WoW.com to take some of the pain away. But hey, look on the bright side. This means you have at least another week to get that Onyxia achievement or try to farm up a Foror's Compendium before Patch 3.2.2 hits.
Tuesday Morning Post: Not one, but two Heroic Coliseums edition
Good Tuesday Morning, everyone! While we are expecting an extended downtime this morning, Patch 3.2.2 is still in a holding pattern on the PTR and as of this writing does not appear likely to go live this week. But beyond that, We've still had some activity to speak of. With the Crusader's Coliseum's heroic raids unlocked, we've already seen various guilds, such as Premonition, For the Horde, and Paragon claim some of the top achievements. Oh yeah, and the Faction Change Service is up and running, kind of. Also, Blizzard reneged on previous statements and revealed that they do plan to offer straight up intrafaction race changes, eventually.There's more news to catch up on, of course, and with the 3 AM to 11 AM Pacific downtime, you'll have plenty of time to catch up on it. As always, we have a list to get you started after the break.
Power upgrade may affect select realms
Blizzard has just announced that a facility where some WoW realms' servers are located will be undergoing a power system upgrade tomorrow, September 4th, from 8 AM Pacific to approximately 6 PM Pacific. They do not expect the upgrade to have any effect on the realms in question, and they say that they will be working to make sure everything goes smoothly. Of course, the unspoken follow-up here is that there just might be some issues. If you play on any of the realms listed after the break, you might want keep in mind that you may encounter some choppy waters tomorrow, and possibly a full shutdown.
Tuesday Morning Post: Remains of the BlizzCon edition
So BlizzCon 2009 is behind us by over a week now, but don't think its presence isn't still felt. This past week alone we had tons of wrap-up analysis and a few freshly transcribed interviews. We've dug a few new nuggets of news and impressions out our coverage too. Here's something for you: The new Battle.net will allow in game cross faction communication. We also discussed the BlizzCon team's first impressions of the new races. And don't forget our footage of the ultimate raidkiller: Hogger.Of course, in all this BlizzCon and Cataclysm tizzy, don't think we've forgotten about Patch 3.2.2 either. We got some pretty juicy news about that as well. Luckily, you'll have plenty of time to read up on it, since we got a pretty huge chunk of maintenance this morning. Let's take a look at some of the biggest stories from the past 7 days:
Tuesday Morning Post: Calm after the Storm Edition
So BlizzCon is over. We're wrapping up the last bit of fun stuff from the con floor, including a few galleries and interviews, and looking forward to reporting on the new Cataclysm expansion (Which may even drop in 2010) and Patch 3.3 in the coming weeks. We do have a pretty decent amount of maintenance to get through this morning, so if you missed any of our extensive BlizzCon coverage or any of the news to come down the pipe these past few days, now's a good time to get caught up. We have a few links below to get you started.
Tuesday Morning Post: Have I got a leak for you Edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone! By now, I'm sure you've heard the biggest news of the past few days: That's right, we're putting our hat in the ring for the new races. They're coming in Cataclysm, folks. Now, I've already gushed before that I am pretty excited about one of them, but I have to admit, I've been sort of intrigued by the other lately, too. It would be pretty fun to roll up a Priest of Janeiro and have some fun with a Ferengi-like religion of greed that believes that he with the most toys is blessed by Heaven and that not only can you take it with you, you'd better take it with you so that you can bribe your way into a better afterlife.But anyway, leaks aside, there's plenty of other news to read up on this morning during the 5 AM to 11 AM Pacific downtime. Patch 3.2's been out for a week, and if you haven't been able to keep abreast of all the changes, you'll probably want to take a peek at a few of our guides. Check out those and more stories below:
Tuesday Morning Post: Down to the Wire edition
So this is it. A lot of people are saying it, and while there's no word one way or another, it seems like this morning is sort of the deadline. If they don't release Patch 3.2 today, pretty much everyone agrees we'll be lucky to see it before BlizzCon, since they're gonna need to get into gear to get all those special BlizzCon surprises ready for us. Now mind you, by the time you read this, you'll probably know for sure if it's going down. But me, here, on a warm Monday evening, I'm just finishing up some writing before I meet some friends for $2.50 beer night at the local microbrewery. So consider this, if you will, a message from the past, a past where the future was uncertain, but hope reigned supreme; Where we all looked forward to a pleasant evening and a bright tomorrow.Wait? What's that? It is coming out? Oh sweet. Okay guys. Be sure to check out our guide to Patch 3.2 for all the latest new and guides on the new patch content.Also on the list of what is confirmed is that we have extended downtime. All servers will be down from at least 3 AM to 11 AM Pacific time, and a couple battle groups will be down even longer. Considering that, you will probably have some time to catch up recent WoW news, so let me lay it on you:
Tuesday Morning Post: The BlizzCon cometh edition
Good Tuesday morning, everyone! So it looks like we have at least one more week of Patch 3.1. But here's the good news: We're just about to hit August, and August is BlizzCon month! And of course, I know you're all looking forward to the premiere event of BlizzCon, the WoW.com meetup. That's right, we're back and better than ever, and we got a sweet new spot for the shindigs. You can see all the details here and then proceed to make your plans or be jealous as your ability to attend dictates.But seriously, we still got a ways to go until BlizzCon, and hopefully a shorter ways to go until Patch 3.2, but in the meantime, we have a few rolling restarts and a handful of short downtimes to get through. With that in mind, here's some news to keep you busy while you wait for your server.
Tuesday Morning Post: Howling at the maintenance edition
Good Tuesday Morning, everyone. While it seems like the news slowed down a bit this week as compared to the past few, don't think it's been a quiet week by any means. The Background Downloader has started up, which may or may not mean we're pretty close to Patch 3.2 going live, Blizzard is cautioning against wolf-related apparel, and... oh yeah, there was that thing with the Worgen and the Goblins. Could those masks be pointing to next expansion's playable races? Either way, the debate and discussion about them has been jumping all week (I'd totally roll a Worgen Paladin and I hope they keep the running on all fours thing, for the record).But don't be fooled into think that's the only news hitting the presses lately. With downtime coming from 5 AM to 11 AM Pacific time, you probably have time to do some more reading, so here's a few links for your perusal:
Tuesday Morning Post: I believe I can fly at level 60 edition
It's been a week of big news altogether around these parts.Mount changes in Patch 3.2 were probably the biggest news. Not only will we be getting most mounts earlier, but normal flying mounts will gain a pretty sizable speed boost. Of course, this also means that class travel abilities will come earlier as well. And while we're on the whole faster transportation thing, we'll also see new portals to the Dark Portal for both sides, and a new Thunder Bluff Zeppelin for the Horde. And as long as we're on the subject, if you're looking to get a new flying mount because of the Patch 3.2 changes, remember that Mei Francis in Dalaran can hook you up.But there were also a few other big stories and interesting happenings going on in the WoW community this week, and since we're coming up on some downtime from 5 AM to 11 AM pacific this morning, you should have plenty of time to read all about it right here on WoW.com. You'll find our usual 7-day roundup below:
Tuesday Morning Post: Failoc Dodging Edition
Good Tuesday Morning, Everyone! While we're still recovering from the server downtime from last night, we have a whole new patch to muddle through as well, including extended downtime. Not only are all servers down from 3 AM to 11 AM Pacific, but some servers are getting the longer treatment, staying down til 1 PM Pacific. Check here for the list.With that in mind, Tuesday morning is once again the perfect time to catch up on the latest WoW news.Number one story this week was, of course, BlizzCon. Whether for an excuse to take a trip to a Anaheim, to get Grunty, or to (tsk, tsk) just scalp the tickets, thousands of people jumped in the Queue on the morning of May 16th to try to grab those precious tickets. We can say it did at least go smoother than last year, not that's much comfort to those who didn't manage to grab a ticket. Luckily, there's one more sell date on May 30th, and good luck to everyone lining up.Of course, while we continue to see quick hot fixes, we're also expecting a patch to drop soon, Patch 3.1.2, to be exact. Some rumors are placing it at today. Either way, stay tuned to WoW Insider for all the latest throughout the maintenance period and beyond, and while you're waiting for new news, check out the old (but still good) stuff from the last week below:
Tuesday Morning Post: It's Patching Again edition
Welcome to Patch Day! Seems like we were just here, doesn't it? But anyway, it looks like we're headed for 3.1.1 today, which is mostly be bugs fixes that were a bit too involved to be applied via hotfix. That, of course, means we get an extended downtime again, from 3 AM to 11 AM Pacific time. When it rains, it seems it pours! This time, hopefully there won't be any free-playtime-worthy unexpected downtime.While you're waiting for the servers come up so you can continue work on that second champion title or de-arm Kologarn or get started on Season 6, I suggest one of two things: First thing you can do go out and buy Arthas. Unless you won it from us or something. Otherwise, I'd say it's a good morning for catching up WoW Insider. Here's a few suggestions to get you started:
