Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. This past week has been one of those weird ones; it wasn't exactly quiet, but there were just a bunch of little interesting news stories vying for attention. It's still not clear if any of them was "the big one," but if I had to pick one, I might go with the news out of the San Diego Comic-Con. Technically, all Blizzard did there was announce some new merchandise, but all the same, for us lore nerds, there were tasty little lore nuggets aplenty to be gleaned. That said, if you really want WoW info from of a con, you'll have to wait for BlizzCon. Luckily, the next one is coming up fast, and Blizzard's just released a new official BlizzCon site.

If lore nuggets aren't your thing (or if you prefer to stay spoiler-free), have no fear. There's plenty of other news for you to catch up on. Downtime this morning is from 3 a.m. to 11 a.m. PDT again, so why not take the time to read up? We have our usual roundup after the break.

Hot news and features

• Check out the patch 4.2 hotfixes for July 19.
• Paragon has grabbed the world-first heroic 25-man Ragnaros kill.
• See Blizzard's response to the whole Swifty hullabaloo.
• There are strange things afoot in the Whispering Forest.
• WoW Archivist takes a look back at the patch that brought us the original Zul'Gurub.
• Blizzard's API is getting some cool new stuff.
• Blizzard has offered a sneak peek at the plot of the upcoming WoW novel Wolfheart.
• Brazil will be getting its own version of WoW.

Class news and guides

• Totem Talk has a guide to healing Alysrazor and Majordomo Staghelm and some ideas for fixing that pesky fire elemental.
• The Care and Feeding of Warriors runs down the hows and whys of the DPS warrior in Firelands.
• Spiritual Guidance has a shadow priest's guide to Shannox and advice on leveling a healing priest.
• Lichborne helps you figure out your death knight valor gear purchases.
• Shifting Perspectives takes a look at the Ask the Devs healer edition answers from a restoration druid perspective. We also have an analysis of Firelands gear for feral cats and a guide to killing Shannox as a balance druid.
• Encrypted Text offers tips for ganking in Molten Front as a rogue.
• Scattered Shots offers a guide to hunter community resources.
• The Light and How To Swing It has advice for paladin tanks on improving threat without sacrificing survivability and healing Shannox and Beth'tilac.

Dungeons, items, professions, PVP, and more

• Ready Check offers a guide to taking on Beth'tilac.
• Raid Rx offers a guide to healing Alysrazor.
• The OverAchiever has a guide to Dalaran's silver coins.
• Addon Spotlight helps you automate your game with some automatic addons.
• Blood Sport helps you find your arena PVP playstyle.
• Gold Capped helps you cash in on the Molten Front.

Odds and ends

• That unlicensed Blizzard-themed theme park has opened in China.
• Meet the Bloggers showcases Gold Capped blogger Basil Berntsen.
• Know Your Lore examines the origins of humanity and the origins of a good tinfoil hat theory.
• World of WarCrafts interviews WoW songstress Ember Isolte.
• 15 Minutes of Fame profiles another in-game item collector.
• The Lawbringer digs into the mailbag again.
• All The World's a Stage offers plot ideas for draenei roleplayers.

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Tags: downtime, 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