Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. The steady trickle of blue posts hinting at the possibility of maybe kind of sort of somewhat having some new news about Mists of Pandaria keep coming, but they also speak of a long time before we get something like an alpha test or any meaty updates. And so we are in something of a drought, and it looks like we'll be journeying toward Pandaria for some time yet.

Of course, that's not say we've had no news at all. The Dragon Soul nerf news came down the pipe this week, for example, and as you might expect caused a whole lot of uproar. In addition, the Lunar Festival has started up for the year, and we have our usual achievement guide ready to guide you. We even have an interview with a guy who made 1 million gold and gave it all away. Realm maintenance this morning is a nice, extended 3 a.m. to 11 a.m. PST, so you'll have plenty of time to get caught up on everything. Read on for our usual roundup.

Hot news and features

• Dragon Soul will be getting nerfed starting Jan. 31. As is often the case, Ol' Grumpy's here to set you straight on what it means.
• Lead quest designer Dave "Fargo" Kosak confirmed in a recent interview that patch 4.3 is the last major patch of Cataclysm.
• Cryptozoic has been showing off some pretty sweet artwork from the upcoming Crown of the Heavens WoW TCG expansion. There's also news of new mounts and loot coming with said expansion.
• Want to look like an Orgrimmar guard? We have a transmogrification guide for you.
• Looking forward to the upcoming Tides of War novel? You may have to wait another month.
• Officers' Quarters has a guild wish list for Mists of Pandaria.
• What are the pitfalls and consequences of creating new character models? We examine them.

Class news and guides

• Totem Talk analyzes the value of restoration shaman mastery and set bonuses. We also look at playing enhancement in Dragon Soul.
• Lichborne analyzes some of the top death knight DPS gear of patch 4.3.
• Shifting Perspectives comments on healer balance in Dragon Soul. We also have a feral guide to Fall of Deathwing.
• Encrypted Text looks at the speed of obtaining Fangs of the Father.
• The Light And How To Swing It tackles the Fall of Deathwing for retribution paladins. We also offer an analysis of the pitfalls of block mastery. Finally, we have a look at some essential holy paladin addons.
• Spiritual Guidance looks at the best shadow priest weapons of patch 4.3.
• Scattered Shots helps your hunter top the charts in Dragon Soul.
• Raid Rx plays some mind games with raid healing.
• The Care and Feeding of Warriors looks at fury performance in Dragon Soul.
• Arcane Brilliance examines the mage trinkets of patch 4.3.
• Blood Pact offers six ways to increase your warlock DPS.

Dungeons, items, professions, PvP, and more

• Blood Sport helps you get started with Arena PvP.
• WoW Rookie helps you win Warsong Gulch.
• Addon Spotlight offers up another grab bag of handy addons.
• Gold Capped helps you make cheap Maelstrom Crystals and interviews a guy who made 1 million gold on transmogrification gear -- only to give it all away.
• Ready Check defends the need for difficult raids.

Odds and ends

• Know Your Lore speculates on some future WoW storyline possibilities. We also speculate on the future lore of heroic Scarlet Monastery.
• 15 Minutes of Fames speaks with a 70-year-old GM and raiding grandma.
• World of WarCrafts has some awesome cake creations.
• The Lawbringer digs into the mail bag.
• Our sister site Massively has a guide to SWTOR for the WoW player.

---

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

Filed under: Realm Status, News items