Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. Today marks the beginning of the end for patch 5.0, as Terrace of Endless Spring, the final raid for this tier, opens up. Sure, we still have the heroic and Raid Finder versions yet to go, but it feels like we're entering the home stretch. Still, there's no release date for patch 5.1 on the horizon either (and no new raids coming with it anyway), so we may be beating down the Sha of Fear for quite some time.

That said, you won't be doing much beating this morning, as downtime starts at 5 a.m. PST and lasts at least 6 hours. Luckily, we're here to keep you busy. Read on for the usual roundup of the past week's news.

Hot news and features

• We take a look at DPS numbers thus far in Mists of Pandaria.
• We bring you more patch 5.1 story spoilers. This time, There's news about Thrall, as well as footage of the Alliance's Lion's Landing.
• The Heart of Fear raid has seen a few heroic boss nerfs.
• In Patch 5.1, you will be able to upgrade your existing gear with justice and valor points.
• Blizzard's made more hotfix tweaks to Conquest Points.
• Patch 5.1 is bringing some changes to weapon enchantments.

• We could see a return to gaining justice points past the valor cap in a future patch.
• Blizzard laid out thier vision for the controversial Brawler's Guild feature coming in patch 5.1.
• The Cinder Kitten pet's sales will benefit Hurricane Sandy relief.
• WoW's subscriber numbers remain over the 10 million mark.
• Wowjuju recently posted a Q&A with some of WoW's developers.
• Blizzard offers on a video on using WoW's parental controls.
• Blizzard's not selling gold any time soon.
• Wonder what's up with those free WoW accounts? Here's what a free account player can and can't do.

Class news and guides

• Totem Talk has some problems with restoration shamans.
• Encrypted Text is interested in breaking a few rogue rules.
• Scattered Shots examines the sorry state of marksmanship hunters.
• Raid Rx offers advice for healing through Gara'jal and the Spirit Kings.
• Arcane Brilliance has a guide to mage raiding gear.
• The Care And Feeding of Warriors discusses racial abilities for warriors.
• Blood Pact helps you use some of your warlock's flashy new group utility toys.

Dungeons, Items, professions, PvP, and more

• Want to get started with pet battles? We have a guide for that.
• Want one of those new Darkmoon Faire trinkets? We have a guide on how to get them.
• Our latest pet battle spotlight focuses on the Tiny Twister.
• Blood Sport talks about the latest Dev Watercooler on PvP.
• Addon Spotlight checks out some maps and navigation focused addons.
• WoW Archivist looks back on the bad old days of limited mob debuffs.

Odds and ends

• The candidate we were all rooting for won last Tuesday. That's right. The orc rogue won.
• Know Your Lore speculates on some patch 5.1 plot points and their relation to the Titans. We also philosophize about dailies and their role in story development.
• Zarhym opines on the role of Community Manager.
• 15 Minutes of Fame talks to a PvP realm guildmaster about the perils of leveling on a PvP server.
• Blizzard is prepared to defend themselves against a recent lawsuit alleging failures in Battle.net security.

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Tags: downtime, last-week-in-wow, 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