Happy Tuesday morning, everyone! This time, we're certain. Patch 5.1 is releasing today. Hopefully by the time you read this, it'll be just waiting for you to download so you can hop on as soon as the servers come up.

As you might expect, patch day means maintenance starts at 3 a.m. and continues for at least 8 hours. Since you won't be playing WoW, that just means you have time to browse through our patch 5.1 articles. We have information on the new reputation rewards, the new gear upgrade system, the new reputation system, and tons of lore tidbits and spoilers, among other things. Read on for a round up of some of the hottest news from the week as well.

Hot news and features

• Check out the last round of patch 5.0.5 hotfixes for November 20.
• Blizzard is resetting all arena ratings over 2200 in order to combat a recent spate of cheating.
• The world first Sha of Fear kills both went to EU guilds.
• If you keep only one vanity item from this expansion, make it Gok'lokk's Shell. Then again, maybe you'd prefer a somewhat dim-witted gnoll friend.
• Ol' Grumpy has a few observations about player behavior and daily mechanics in Mists.
• Blind may still be better than this Gangnam Style WoW machinima, but not by much. This murloc machinima just might beat it though.
• Mike Morhaime recently had some words to say about eSports.
• Artist Michael Whelan has forged a pretty amazing Deathwing painting.

Class news and guides

• Lichborne answers some burning death knight questions.
• Totem Talk talks support totems and haste for restoration shamans.
• Encrypted Text argues for a cheaper Kick.
• The Care And Feeding of Warriors experiments with offspec tanking.
• Blood Pact offers some advice for warlocks raiding Mogu'shan Vaults.

Dungeons, items, professions, PvP, and more

• Blood Sport helps you counter heavy burst damage in PvP.
• WoW Archivist remembers the days of weapon skills.
• We review the August Celestials faction.
• Addon Spotlight checks out some cooldown tracking addons.

Odds and ends

• Li Li's Travel Journal has been updated with part 7.
• Know Your Lore speculates on the origin of the pandaren race. We also continue our lore for dummies series with a recap of the story of the Horde.
• 15 Minutes of Fame interviews the author of a YA novel about a young, transsexual, WoW playing teen.

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Filed under: Realm Status, News items