Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. It seems like we're all just waiting for patch 4.2 now. Everything's in place. We've been given an explanation of all the class changes. We even have a patch trailer. But as much as we were hoping it would drop this week, we have to wait one more week for them to work out the final kinks.

Luckily, there's plenty of other news to keep you busy and keep the buzz going while you wait, such as that whole authenticator change. In addition, the Midsummer Fire Festival begins today, and we have an achievement guide for you. For these and more stories, check out our usual roundup behind the break. We only have to deal with rolling restarts this morning, but you can take those few minutes of downtime to read up, right?

Hot news and features

• If you haven't been asked for an authenticator code lately, don't panic. It's a new feature.
• The Ask the Devs features has officially been scrapped, and will end after the upcoming healer Q&A. Details are forthcoming about something new to replace it.
• Tier 12 bosses now offer more valor points when killed.
• WoW Archivist reminds us of the Dire Maul revolution.
• WoW's leader short stories continue with some gnome power.
• Figureprints now prints your goblin and worgen characters.
• Our Cataclysm post-mortem series takes a look at Vashj'ir.
• Blizzard has an official preview of the new rated battleground mounts.

Class news and guides

• Shifting Perspectives explains why the tank Ask the Devs sucked and builds a better balance druid AOE rotation.
• Totem Talk continues with more restoration shaman raiding advice and enhancement shaman buff talk.
• Spiritual Guidance looks at patch 4.2 trinkets for shadow and healing priest raid applications.
• The Light And How To Swing It has a tankadin's guide to patch 4.2 and a patch 4.2 holy gear guide.
• Arcane Brilliance has a mage guide to patch 4.2.
• Lichborne has some tips for lowbie death knights.
• Encrypted Text talks about setting the pace in PvP as a rogue.
• Scattered Shots suggests some improvements for the hunter marksmanship tree.
• Raid Rx helps you audit your healing team.
• The Care and Feeding of Warriors offers a Cataclysm warrior leveling guide.

Dungeons, items, professions, PVP, and more

• Blood Sport has more advice for learning how to arena from your betters.
• Addon Spotlight has a grab bag of addon goodies.
• WoW Rookie teaches you some raiding lingo.
• Fox Van Allen has reached the gold cap, and now he's sharing his strategies with you.
• Ready Check takes a look back at how the major Cataclysm raid changes have been working out

Odds and ends

• Know Your Lore defines magic and tries to make sense of Spirit Healers and Val'kyr.
• All The World's A Stage answers your timeline questions.
• 15 Minutes of Fame introduces you to (almost) 15 authors who play WoW.
• The Lawbringer looks for the silver lining.

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The news is already rolling out for the upcoming WoW Patch 4.2! Preview the new Firelands raid, marvel at the new legendary staff, and get the inside scoop on new quest hubs -- plus new Tier 12 armor!

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Tags: downtime, maintenance, realm-downtime, realm-maintenance, rolling-restart, rolling-restarts, roundup, server-downtime, server-maintenance, server-status, tuesday, tuesday-morning, tuesday-morning-post

Filed under: Realm Status, News items