Happy Tuesday morning, everyone! You know, I feel like I really should say something. Blizzard, despite all the rockiness, be it the Real ID fiasco or the huge 31-point talent tree changes, I still love you. I don't think anything can tear us apart. You know, except a 24-hour downtime. Luckily, my server's not in today's batch of downed servers, but Zangarmarsh, home of <It Came From The Blog>, is; yours may be as well, so be sure to check the list.

If your realm is listed, that just means you'll have plenty of time to look back all the big news from the past seven days, such as the new 31-point talent trees or the massive Twitter developer chat. And anyway, we do have normal downtime at the somewhat early time of 1-7 a.m. Pacific, so you may still have a bit of a time to read up regardless. With all that in mind, we have the usual roundup of news, opinions and guides from the past seven days ready for your perusal. Once you're done reading those, you can prepare to join all the 24-hour downtime refugees on Shadow Council.

Hot news and features

• Check out the latest Cataclysm beta patch notes.
• Spoiler Alert: Genn Greymane has a voice.
• Even Bigger Spoiler Alert: We have some pretty amazing footage of your entrance into Deepholm. Watch out, it includes at least one major lorebomb.
• Blizzard has more to say about Real ID, including the announcement that the Friend of Friends list will soon be opt-out and that we may see the implementation of unique WoW forum IDs.
• Always be careful of account-stealing scams. One of the latest tricks is trying to convince that you've won a pony.
• The ESRB has apologized for leaking all those emails all over the net.

Class 31-point tree analysis

• Here's our view on the new 31-point warrior trees.
• We have analysis of all three paladin trees.
• We also have an in-depth look at the new mage talents.
• Here's a look at the new hunter talents.
• Here's some analysis of the new death knight trees.
• Here's analysis of the shaman trees.
• Here's analysis of the new priest trees.
• Here's a look at the new warlock talent trees.
• Here's some analysis of the new druid trees.
• Raid Rx discusses the trimming of the healing trees.

Other class news and guides

• Pet classes will get a "move to" command in Cataclysm.
• Scattered Shots has video of some of the new hunter tricks coming with Cataclysm.
• Rossi offers warrior impressions from the Cataclysm beta.
• Encrypted Text looks at how Cataclysm will affect some major rogue abilities.
• Totem Talk has some restoration-focused impressions of Cataclysm beta and a look at the elemental tree revamp.
• The Light And How To Swing It starts digesting that new holy power thing for holy paladins.
• Arcane Brilliance has a beta mage wishlist.
• Lichborne looks at Ruby Sanctum loot for death knights.
• Shifting Perspectives looks at Ruby Sanctum loot for druids and balance druid gameplay in Ruby Sanctum.
• Spiritual Guidance covers priest leveling from 1 to 40.

Dungeons, items, professions, PvP and more

• AddOns 101 continues showing you the hows and whys of interface tweaking.
• Gold Capped looks at a new web resource for auction house players.
• Ready Check remembers what we learned in Karazhan.
• If you're starting a PUG raid, how do you vet your raiders quickly and fairly?
• The Art of War(craft) looks at PvP subspeccing in Cataclysm.

Odds and ends

• I'm just going to leave this here. Don't worry, if it gets stuck in your head, I suggest flushing it with more St. Vincent singing INXS.
• We compare the old voice standard, Ventrilo, against the new kid on the block, Mumble.
• Season 4 of The Guild is under way!
• The new Battle.net site is live.
• WoWathon 2 has begun!

Tags: 24-hour-downtime, 24-hour-maintenance, downtime, extended-downtime, extended-maintenance, maintenance, realm-downtime, realm-maintenance, roundup, scheduled-downtime, scheduled-maintenance, server-downtime, Server-Maintenance, server-status, tuesday, tuesday-maintenance, tuesday-morning, tuesday-morning-post

Filed under: Realm Status, News items