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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.
Instance servers busted, Lord Ahune to blame
In between the weather knocking out my power here in Milwaukee, WI, I managed to sit in the dungeon queues long enough to discover that ... they're broken! Thanks to Lord Ahune, instance servers are overall stressed beyond capacity despite Blizzard's constant upgrades over the years. Vrakthris It looks like overall it is due to the influx of everyone running the Fire Festival encounter, plus arenas, and normal dungeons. http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2712201373 Our Realm Technicians are looking into it and making what adjustments they can to improve connectivity and performance. If more information becomes available we'll be certain to pass it along. source We have no ETA on when the situation will be resolved, but the most recent post in the above-linked thread was a mere 5 minutes ago as of this writing, so it continues to be an ongoing issue.
Tuesday Morning Post: One week more
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. It seems like we're all just waiting for patch 4.2 now. Everything's in place. We've been given an explanation of all the class changes. We even have a patch trailer. But as much as we were hoping it would drop this week, we have to wait one more week for them to work out the final kinks. Luckily, there's plenty of other news to keep you busy and keep the buzz going while you wait, such as that whole authenticator change. In addition, the Midsummer Fire Festival begins today, and we have an achievement guide for you. For these and more stories, check out our usual roundup behind the break. We only have to deal with rolling restarts this morning, but you can take those few minutes of downtime to read up, right?
EVE Online server offline due to DDOS attack
Just over an hour ago, the EVE Online login and website servers became unresponsive and went offline. A Twitter user purporting to represent the group responsible for the major PSN outage earlier this month is claiming credit for the EVE server outage. According to the user, the DDOS is part of a series of attacks today that has also shut down the Minecraft login servers and The Escapist magazine's website. CCP released an update on Facebook and Twitter stating that the issue is currently under investigation. "EVE Online and related services are currently offline and will return as soon as possible following investigation of some issues." CCP was unable to comment further on the outage but urges players to watch the EVE Facebook and Twitter feeds for further updates as they become available.
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?
Tuesday Morning Post: Gnome more edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. I'm going to be honest here. Downtime this week doesn't bother me. Do you know why? I'll tell you why. It's because I am just going to be mesmerized by gnomes. The gnomes have me in their grip, and they will not let go. Join me. If gnomes aren't your thing, there's plenty of other stuff here on the site to tickle your fancy, such as the unveiling of Nozdormu's (frankly pretty damn hot) mortal form. I want to know when we PCs get to look like him. Of course, downtime is minimal this week, lasting only one hour, but all the same, it's enough time to take a break and skim a few articles. Check after the break for our usual roundup.
Tuesday Morning Post: Archaeology supremacy edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. The patch 4.2 news continues fast and furious, but I'm going to take this opening paragraph to focus a little further. We received the answers to our professions questions for Ask the Devs #7 today, and there were a few doozies in there. Chaos Orbs will be going unbound, for one, perfect news for my two leveling tailors who want themselves tons of Dreamcloth. What really caught my eye, however, was all the archaeology love. As a pretty obsessed archaeologist, I am tickled at the idea of getting awesome dailies, being able to say "it belongs in a museum" instead of vendoring my finds, and being able to focus on those stupid dwarven sites so I can finally get that silly staff for my caster alts. As usual, there's even more awesome news to review from the past week, and not all of it is patch 4.2-related, I swear. Maintenance this morning is limited to rolling restarts at 5 a.m. PDT, but that still gives you at least a few minutes to get caught up. The usual list is after the break.
Tuesday Morning Post: Hot off the presses edition
Happy Tuesday Morning, everyone! The biggest news this week is, of course, the dawn of the Patch 4.2 PTR. The long-awaited Firelands raid is upon us, along with a bunch of other cool stuff. While Blizzard's dialed it back a bit on official previews as compared to last week, the dataminers have found a lot of delicious stuff to hold us over. If you don't want to partake of patch 4.2 just yet, don't worry, we have plenty of news, guides, and features for other things as well, including a nice little speculation post on the cast of the WoW movie and a guide to aging your elf. With downtime stretching from 3 a.m. to 11 a.m. PDT this morning, you should have plenty of time to read it all.
Tuesday Morning Post: Gnome appreciation edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone! As we settle into the first full week of patch 4.1, I feel we should take a break from all the headers full of trolls and troll dungeons to appreciate the other semi-homeless race of WoW, the gnome. The Alliance loves them because they provide the technological backbone we need to fight back the orcish war machine. The Horde loves them because they're bite-sized and puntable. Plus, apparently, they're pretty good at music. If you aren't much into the whole gnome thing, don't worry, there's plenty of news to go around. There's a bunch to discuss about patch 4.1, as well as news about patch 4.2, all waiting for in our usual nice tidy roundup. Downtime this morning is from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. PDT, so you should have plenty of time to read up.
Tuesday Morning Post: Maybe soon edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. With the Rise of the Zandalari trailer out and an official release of the patch notes and major feature descriptions, it seemed pretty obvious that patch 4.1 was dropping today. Then we got an ominous blue post: The PTR is still up. Testing will end "soon." It's unclear what exactly that means, but by the time you read this, hopefully we'll know for sure. In the meantime, we do still appear to have extended maintenance going on from 3 a.m. to 11 a.m. Pacific, so regardless, you'll have time to catch up on the news. There's a lot of juicy patch 4.1 stuff to keep you busy until they finally give us the patch, as well as other stuff, including a few fun interviews and a look at some of our favorite old content. Take a look at it all after the break.
Tuesday Morning Post: Please release me edition
Happy Tuesday Morning, everyone. With the words "release candidate" allegedly showing up on some versions of patch 4.1 over on the PTR, we're all waiting more impatiently than ever for the drop. There are new dungeons to run, there's new loot to grab for the casuals, and there's so much more. Alas, it doesn't look like this is going to be the week. Scheduled maintenance is only from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. Pacific time, far too little for a patch. Luckily, that is more than enough downtime for you to catch up on all the latest WoW news. We got a lot of stuff to cover, from patch 4.1 news and loot drops to BlizzCon tickets and new official lore. Check it all out after the break.
Tuesday Morning Post: Call to Arms edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. By now, I'm sure most people have heard this week's biggest WoW news: Patch 4.1 will bring with it the dungeon finder Call to Arms, which will provide BoA goodie bags to those who fill the most needed role in the dungeon finder queue. I call it a tanking stimulus package. Many of my colleagues prefer to call it a bribe. Whatever you call it, it's the hot topic of the hour and is bound to stay that way for the near future. If you're getting tired of all the hubbub, though, don't despair. There's plenty of other news to review and discuss as well, and we have the usual roundup ready to go. This week marks a return to server downtime starting at 5 a.m. Pacific and continuing until 11 a.m. Pacific, so you should have time to read it all.
Tuesday Morning Post: Entire team is hipsters edition
Well, it happened. I was dreading the day, but here it is. On this Tuesday morning, the unthinkable has occurred. According to a Breakfast Topic commenter, the entire WoW Insider team are hipsters. Now, far be it from me to hide away from such accusations. No, I am not the type of man to deny such things. Thus, in interest of full disclosure, I present to you the picture above, which was taken at a concert attended by myself and a friend. I will freely admit that yours truly did, in fact, consume the contents of more than one of the cans shown above. Take from that what you will. That said, you did not come here to investigate the inner life of this humble blogger; you came here for the latest and greatest in WoW news, delivered to you by the finest group of video game hipsters to set hands to keys. This week, we have another round of rolling restarts starting at 5 a.m. Pacific. While you're waiting for your server to cycle, why not check out the news? We have our usual roundup after the break.
Tuesday Morning Post: Rearrangement envy edition
Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. This is a banner week for every WoW altoholic. After years of struggle, a new dawn is upon us. We have learned that patch 4.2 will herald the greatest change ever to grace us in these 6 years. That's right: We get the ability to reorganize our character list. Finally, my poor death knight will not be banished under loads of mules and rarely played or abandoned alts. He can take his rightful position at the head of my list. You hear that buddy? Everything's going to be okay. There's plenty of other juicy WoW news to be had, both from the PTR and elsewhere, and we have a quick roundup of the latest stuff for you as usual. You can check it out while you're waiting for the rolling restarts to get finished. They'll start at 5 a.m. Pacific time and last about an hour. Me, I've decided to spend the downtime watching Gnome Fukkireta over and over again, so I'll see you on the flipside.
