Happy Tuesday Morning, everyone. This morning, we're coming to you earlier than we would have been last week. Or is later? Honestly, this whole time change thing is just making me confused. And sleepy. There's a reason I was never a math major. Luckily, there's nothing like an invigorating round of WoW news to get the blood pumping in the morning. Okay, so technically a cup of coffee would also work, but the machine isn't done percolating yet. Regardless, there's plenty of news to catch up on. There's been some interesting news trickling out of the Game Developer's Conference over in San Francisco, as well as the usual round of Patch 3.3.3 PTR news. Luckily, you'll have time to read it all while the servers are down.

With realm maintenance clocking in at only 6 hours today (from 5 AM to 11 AM Pacific), though, I wouldn't expect to see Patch 3.3.3 actually dropping this week, so you'll have to console yourself with the news and wait at least one more week to cash in all those Frozen Orbs. Check out our usual roundup after the break.

Hot News and Features

• Frozen Orbs will be ninja-proof in Patch 3.3.3, as they'll be made greed only.
• Eyonix offered some insight and clarification into the mastery system.
• Last week's Ask A Faction Leader featured SI:7's Mathias Shaw.
• The Patch 3.3.3 PTR has seen a handful updates and note changes over the past few days, including this one on the 10th and another on the 15th.
• Blizzard's Rob Pardo gave a pretty interesting presentation on WoW's design philosophies at the GDC.
• PC Gamer UK published an article on 50 reasons to play Cataclysm.
• We get the lowdown on what happened with the Tour Guide Addon.

Class News and Guides

• Shifting Perspectives discusses the tree's role in taking on Arthas.
• Scattered Shots has a marksman 101 guide, and an armor penetration guide for marksmen.
• Frost 101 is in session at Arcane Brilliance.
• Blood Pact is teaching demonology 101.
• Lichborne takes a look at the state of the frost tree on the Patch 3.3.3 PTR.
• Totem Talk discusses leveling as restoration.
• The Light and How to Swing it has a paladin healing guide for Valithria Dreamwalker.
• Encrypted Text delves deeps into the nuts and bolts of stealth.
• Spiritual Guidance discusses balancing survivability and DPS for shadow priests.

Dungeons, Items, Professions, PvP, and More

• WoW Rookie looks at basic foreign language communication for cross server groups.
• Blood Sport wonders if racials should be removed.
• Raid Rx looks at healing the Blood Queen.
• Ready Check takes a look at the essential raid buffs.
• Will WoW ever let you DPS to heal? The blues weigh in.
• AddOn Spotlight looks at cast bar addons.
• Gear levels have sort of exploded. We take a look at how they've grown over the course of Wrath.

Odds and Ends

• The Lawbringer tackles European contract law and WoW.
• Big Crits, the new WoW reality show, is recruiting.
• Sorry, console players. WoW still probably isn't coming your way.
• We reveal the deepest darkest secr- *distracted by puppy*

Tags: downtime, maintenance, realm-downtime, realm-maintenance, realm-status, roundup, scheduled-downtime, scheduled-maintenance, server-downtime, Server-Maintenance, server-status, tuesday, tuesday-downtime, tuesday-maintenance, tuesday-morning, tuesday-morning-post

Filed under: Realm Status, News items