It's Tuesday morning, and you know what that means: downtime. On the plus side, we here on the US Servers don't have any more complicated type of down times with various groups of servers getting extra downtime seemingly at random and so on. Then again, that just means we all get to suffer through extended downtime together, from 3 AM to 11 AM Pacific.

Luckily, there's tons to read about while you wait out the downtime. In probably the biggest PTR news this week, Coliseum testing is now well underway (despite some hiccups at the start), and we were in the middle of it. We have galleries of some of the 5-man loot we discovered and first hand impressions of the place. Check out more news after the break:



Hot News and Features

• Cold Weather Flight for level 68 characters? You better believe it.
  
• As always, count on our guide to Patch 3.2 to keep you up to date on the latest from the PTR. We update it constantly!
• Check out some of the latest changes to the Patch 3.2 PTR. You may also want to check out the latest patch note changes.
  
• Patches of Yesteryear looks at the infancy of WoW. This week: Was Deadmines nerfed for the casuals?
• The Drama Mamas are here to help you avoid the minefield that is WoW Drama.
• Have you ever wanted to get your blog crashed, I mean, linked by WoW.com? Here's a few pointers.
  

Class News and Guides

• Paladins got their class Q&A this week.
• Healers rejoice, Val'anyr will be getting a stat boost in Patch 3.2.
  
• Lichborne discusses the future of Death Runes in Patch 3.2 and the new tank gear coming out of 5-man Crusader's Coliseum.
• Scattered Shots helps the new level 80 gear up for raiding and raid speccing your pet.
  
• Shifting Perspectives is looking to sell you on playing (or not playing) a Druid.
• Totem Talk discusses Spirit and Shamans.
• Arcane Brilliance has whole volumes of Mage issues.
• Speaking of issues, Blood Pact has some with the Warlock Q&A.
  
• Are Hunters dying? The numbers my surprise you.
  

Dungeons, Items, Professions, PvP, and more

• Patch 3.2 will be lowering the cast time for flying mounts.
• Check out our gallery of the new tier 9 Horde plate armor.
  
• The blues officially announced and clarified the raid lockout extension feature coming in Patch 3.2.
  
• Turpster checks out the Northrend Children's Week on the Patch 3.2 PTR.
• Insider Trader is pretty excited for the patch.
• It was the week for Alone in the Darkness. Stars got the Taiwan first and world first (legitimate) kill (and were more than willing to talk about it), followed by Paragon with the European first and Premonition with the US First.
  
• Ready Check takes on Hodir.
• WoW Rookie discusses rares, elites, and looking before you leap.
  

Odds and Ends

• Lorecrafted has some interesting ideas on the content of a Maelstrom expansion.
• Speaking of lore, is it time we lost one of those big lore-based battles?
  
• We discuss the taboo of tab targeting.
• If you can't get enough of WoW Peggle, it's now available as a standalone download.
• World of Warcrafts looks at how one dude gave undead Stratholme a new lease on life with a little bit of sound.
  
• BlizzCon's Fanart and Song contests are open for registration.
  

Tags: downtime, extended-downtime, extended-maintenance, maintenance, roundup, server-downtime, server-maintenance, server-status, tuesday, tuesday-morning, tuesday-morning-post

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