It's now been one week since patch 3.0.8a was deployed, and things are at least calmer around the game. Whether that's because the bugs were actually fixed or because people are just tired of complaining about them is a whole other issue. But at the least, this week will probably be another uneventful one. Of course, the Month of February itself will actually end up being a bit busy, as you can see in our February event roundup. Whether we'll add a 3.1 PTR to that list of events remains to be seen, but here's hoping.

Whatever else, there's not going to be much going on this morning. downtime is a set of simple rolling restarts starting at 5 AM Pacific. Proudmoore and Tichondrius players do have to suffer through an extra hour's downtime, though. Luckily, you have WoW Insider to browse while you wait. As usual, I've rounded up a list of some of the best stories and content from the past seven days after the break.

Hot News and Features

• Yes, these 3.1 patch notes are fake. We pretty much knew or suspected as much when we posted them. Still, they're relatively well done and fun to discuss.
• But here's some genuine 3.1 news: We have a sneak preview of some of the new Tier 8 armor.
  
• Big Red Kitty had some problems with the latest patch.
• BlizzCast Episode 7, which included an interview with loremaster Chris Metzen, came out this week.
• It's a fact, your Forum Post probably won't get a blue response, and begging for one from a blue probably won't help.
  

Class News and Guides

• Alas, Arcane Mages, you got some nerfs in the latest patch.
• Encrypted Text offers more guidance to new raiding rogues with a gear guide.
• Beastmastery Hunters got the dev team to admit what most them had been saying for weeks: The nerfs were too much. With that in mind, Scattered Shots is once again waxing philosophical on the future of the Hunter.
• Warrior Tanks, we have a guide on hit and expertise for you.
• Warlocks, looking to raid as affliction? You'll want to read last week's Blood Pact.
• Totem Talk is heading back to Enhancement.
• Priests, wondering what secondary stats to stack?
• Lichborne discusses PvE gemming.
• Retadin raiding gets a look in this week's The Light and How to Swing It.
  

Items, Dungeons, Professions, PvP, and more

• The New Arena scoring system continues to mystify. Here's our first attempt at explaining it. Of course, we needed to explain it again after the hotfixes.
  
• Raid RX has returned from retirement to help you fulfill your raid healing needs.
• Insider Trader takes a look at the dark side of tradeskills.
• This Northrend Alliance Flightpoint gallery ends up being strangely pretty, if somewhat abstract.
• Do you have Replenishment in your raid? You may want to get on that, if not.
• New dances are still coming, reports Zarhym, just not very fast.
  

Odds and Ends

• The debate on the employment potential of WoW players continues. This time, BusinessWeek is weighing in in favor of the game.
• Tattooing continues to be one of the ultimate ways to fly your WoW flag proudly, and this last week, we had an alliance Druid tattoo representing.
• Will your computer run WoW? We have a quick guide for finding out.
• Dethklok? In my WoW? It's more likely than you think!
• Is WoW a religion?
• Blizzard continues to rack up the victories against botting, as Glider looks to be headed for shutdown.
• Rossi's headed back to the Horde.
  

Tags: downtime, maintenance, rolling-restart, rolling-restarts, roundup, server-downtime, server-maintenance, tuesday, tuesday-morning, tuesday-morning-post

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Realm Status, Odds and ends, News items