Happy Tuesday Morning, everyone! The past few days have been pretty busy as far as shiny new Cataclysm news goes. First we saw the first few class talent previews go up for druids, rogues, priests, and shamans. We, of course, have analysis of all the ins and outs of the new trees, as you'd expect. But the big news of the week was, of course, the Cataclysm press event. We got a massive info dump of juicy information, including interviews with Ghostcrawler. Among some of the other highlights:

• New juicy lore tidbits, including information on the Archeology skill.
• New raid lockout mechanisms.
• A complete overhaul of the guild leveling mechanic.
• The complete scrapping of the Path of the Titans system, and some adjustments to glyphs to compensate.
• Video previews of the new Orgrimmar and Stormwind.
• Confirmation of a War of the Ancients raid.

In addition to that, there's plenty of other awesome news tidbits to catch up on this morning. You'll have the usual 5 AM to 11 AM pacific downtime, so you'll have the time to do some reading. Read on for a list of the latest stuff.

Hot News and Features

• Cataclysm's battleground queues will encompass entire server regions. They are also working on a "war games mode" that will let you challenge other battleground groups directly.
• The Zalazane's fall event now has an official preview.
• Patches of Yesteryear is back as Old School WoW.
• Our Wrath retrospective series continues with a look at the opening raids of the expansion, a look at Ulduar, and a look back at the story and lore of the entire expansion.

Class News and Guides

• Lichborne offers PvP talent, gearing, and gameplay advice for death knights.
• Shifting Perspectives helps you boost your cat DPS and looks at optional talents for balance druids.
• Totem Talk continues looking at restoration addons.
• Spiritual Guidance does a little shadow priest soloing and takes another look at Lightwell.
• The Light And How To Swing It helps new level 80 retribution paladins get geared up and ruminates about plate healer gear.
• Encrypted Text looks at weapon speeds.
• Scattered Shots is serious about pistols for hunters and stacking cooldowns.
• The Care and Feeding of Warriors discusses gear for the fresh level 80 tank. Also, Rossi picks apart some of Ghostcrawler's latest ruminations on warriors.
• Arcane Brilliance discusses some the future of fire spec.

Items, Dungeons, Professions, and PvP

• WoW Rookie rounds up our advice on grabbing emblem gear.
• The OverAchiever tackles heroic Violet Hold achievements.
• Raid Rx helps you shake the bad healer label.
• Ready Check looks back at the changes of 5 years of raiding.
• The Art of War(craft) discusses preparing for rated battleground play.
• Insider Trader discusses the profession tidbits to be found in the latest Cataclysm news.

Odds and Ends

• Video Games Live is coming to PBS this summer.
• Know Your Lore delves into human politics.

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Filed under: Realm Status, News items