Last Week in WoW: All hail Admiral Slab Beefchest
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Aug 21st 2012 at 5:00AM
Once you're done admiring him, you'll want to catch up on the rest of the week's news. We now that know that the latest PvP season will end on Aug. 28 and that, not coincidentally, patch 5.0.4 will drop on the same day. That means we're only a week away from some massive changes. You can check out our article on what is and isn't changing in patch 5.0.4. Many skill and UI changes from Mists of Pandaria will be going in, but some stuff will still be waiting for the Mists release date, and we'll let you know what's what.
Downtime this week starts at 3 a.m. PDT and lasts for eight hours, so you should have plenty of time to get caught up on everything you need to know. Read on for our usual roundup for news and guides from the past week.
Hot news and features
- In patch 5.0.4, you'll be able to make a new character of any race, regardless of what expansions you own.
- Scholomance and Scarlet Monastery may be changing to their new, revamped forms in patch 5.0.4, so if you need to farm something from the old instances, better do it this week.
- Mists of Pandaria will be lowering the drop rate of heroic raid mounts, so you may want to finish farming them now.
- Now that you've seen the Mists cinematic, you'll want to get the in-game achievement.
- The latest Dev Watercooler explains scenarios in Mists of Pandaria.
- Blizzard also posted a preview of new tradeskill functionality in Mists, including the Spirits of Harmony.
- Blizzard recently released a clarification on how multiple pets will be merged in the upcoming patch.
- Druids now have a unique dance for their upcoming stag form.
- We take you on a guided tour of the Peak of Serenity, the new monk home base in Mists of Pandaria.
- The new Jaina Proudmoore novel Tides of War is almost here, and we have a review. But why, you ask, should you read a WoW novel? Anne has an answer for that.
- New test dummies on the Mists beta servers act more like raid bosses, complete with giving you a full set of raid buffs to better simulate your raiding DPS.
- In the wake of last week's security breach, you can now change your security question if you're on North American servers.
- We show you how to look like one of Ravenholdt's elite assassins.
- We continue our guide to leveling a monk.
- We have a guide to the ins and outs of retribution paladins in Mists of Pandaria.
- Check out our protection warrior 101 guide for Mists.
- Arcane Brilliance previews the patch 5.0.4 mage.
- Lichborne has part 2 of a guide to death knight glyphs in Mists.
- Totem Talk has all the latest restoration shaman news.
- Scattered Shots takes a look at hunter racials in Mists of Pandaria.
- Shifting Perspectives explores the Dream of Cenarius playstyle for ferals.
- Addon Spotlight helps you prepare your UI and addons for patch 5.0.4.
- The Overachiever has a guide to getting your Cloud Serpent mount.
- Blood Sport previews Temple of Kotmogu, one of the new battlegrounds in Mists.
- Blizzard game designer Alex Brazie recently blogged on some of the unique challenges of game designing, including some of his experiences in WoW.
- Michael Gray offers some WoW playing tips for new parents.
- The Instance podcast interviewed Chris Metzen and Christie Golden recently, and they had some insightful and interesting things to say about WoW lore and how players have reacted to it.
- Know Your Lore continues to speculate on the long-term plans of the naaru.
- 15 Minutes of Fame talks to Blizzard forums green poster Alona.
- WoW Archivist looks at one of vanilla WoW's most hidden quest lines.
Filed under: Realm Status, News items
