Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. With the Rise of the Zandalari trailer out and an official release of the patch notes and major feature descriptions, it seemed pretty obvious that patch 4.1 was dropping today.

Then we got an ominous blue post: The PTR is still up. Testing will end "soon." It's unclear what exactly that means, but by the time you read this, hopefully we'll know for sure.

In the meantime, we do still appear to have extended maintenance going on from 3 a.m. to 11 a.m. Pacific, so regardless, you'll have time to catch up on the news. There's a lot of juicy patch 4.1 stuff to keep you busy until they finally give us the patch, as well as other stuff, including a few fun interviews and a look at some of our favorite old content. Take a look at it all after the break.

Hot news and features

• Check out the official patch 4.1 patch notes and feature list.
• Check out Blizzard's official look at the patch 4.1 guild finder.
• Noblegarden is ongoing, and we have a guide to all the achievements.
• In the latest dev watercooler, Leads Systems Designer Ghostcrawler talks critical hits.
• If Blizzard needs an idea for the next heroic revamp, maybe it can take a look at our Ahn'Qiraj retrospective for inspiration.
• Rossi introduces us to his level 70 raiding character.
• Mat tells us about how lag changed his game.
• Whitemane and Mograine are going to win this round of Two Bosses Enter -- speaking of which, heroic Scarlet Monastery would be another amazing revamp for Blizzard to undertake.

Class news and guides

• The Light And How To Swing It looks at patch 4.1 for the protection paladin. We also have some holy paladin tips for Nefarian.
• Lichborne takes a look at new death knight gear in patch 4.1.
• Spiritual Guidance has a shadow priest gear list for patch 4.1.
• Shifting Perspectives continues our Total Eclipse, which may or may not be of the heart. Shifting Perspectives has more to say about the Call to Arms feature.
• Scattered Shots has a patch 4.1 hunter loot list.
• The Care and Feeding of Warriors has a patch 4.1 warrior gear list.
• Arcane Brilliance tells mages what to do once patch 4.1 is live.
• Totem Talk covers restoration raiding glyphs and patch 4.1 changes. We also have a look at enhancement leveling glyphs.
• Encrypted Text answers some rogue questions.
• Raid Rx looks at new healing gear in patch 4.1.
• Blood Pact has some suggestions for the destruction tree.

Items, professions, dungeons, PvP, and more

• Blood Sport helps you switch characters for PvP.
• WoW Rookie brings you part two of our guide to becoming a PvP legend.
• We look at the pros and cons of extending raid lockouts.
• Ready Check helps you soothe the savage raider.
• Officers' Quarters looks at retaining your wait list.
• Streamline your professions with Gnomeworks.
• Gold Capped looks at the possibilities of prospectable pyrite.

Odds and ends

• World of WarCrafts interviews Meghan O'Hara, one of the runners-up in the recent Blizzard fan fiction contest. Her story is amazing. You should read it.
• Know Your Lore introduces the guy who should have been the new warchief all along, Rexxar. We also have a look at the Horde's version of the Southern Barrens.
• 15 Minutes of Fame talks to a unique PvP bounty hunter.
• Blizzard's announced the first winners of its Core Hound Pup adoption campaign.
• Blizzard's looking for a few good raiders.

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

Filed under: Realm Status, News items