Last Week in WoW: Patch news overload edition
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Dec 4th 2012 at 9:00AM
Realm maintenance this morning is expected to last 6 hours starting at 5 a.m. PST. With that in mind, there's plenty of news to catch up on from the last week, so let's dive into it with our usual roundup. Be sure to stay here throughout the day for more news and features as well.
Top news and features
- Check out the official patch notes for patch 5.1.
- With a new patch comes new hotfixes. Check out the latest hotfixes for November 27, November 28, November 29, and December 3.
- The Darkmoon Faire is in town, and you can ride the new carousel for an XP and rep buff.
- Patch 5.2 may bring some loosening of transmog restrictions.
- Sorry, warlocks. You'll have to wait until patch 5.2 for green fire.
- Patch 5.2 may bring new changes to your Tillers farm, including making it a rest area.
- Patch 5.1 bought with it some changes to tooltips.
- The Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza is back in patch 5.1, with a few changes.
- Blizzard recently adjusted and clarified event start and end times for patch 5.1.
- We run down the patch 5.1 changes to the pet battle UI.
- patch 5.1 lets you upgrade your gear with valor points.
- In patch 5.1, Raid Finder popups no longer show raid progress.
- Scenario rewards have seen some improvement in patch 5.1.
- Ore and herb node spawn rates have been reduced by 50% in patch 5.1.
- Patch 5.1 has put the brakes on automatic standard BG queueing for more than 5 people.
- We have a few tips for getting the new battle pets dropped in old world raids.
- Want to start on the new Karasang quests? We have some first impressions.
- If you're having trouble getting mounts from achievements, a hotfix is coming.
- Lichborne takes a look at patch 5.1 from the death knight's point of view.
- Shifting Perspectives takes a look at healer balance in tier 14 raids.
- Patch 5.1 bought with it some hunter buffs, and Scattered Shots has a rundown.
- The Light And How To Swing It has part two of a retribution gearing guide and a paean to the tanking encounters of tier 14 raids.
- Spiritual Guidance looks at patch 5.1 for priests.
- The Care And Feeding of Warriors examines the current state of PvE arms warriors.
- Addon Spotlight looks at addons for raid healing.
- WoW archivist looks back on patch 2.1, which added the Black Temple to the game.
- Know Your Lore talks about life back on the homefront and continues the WoW lore for dummies series with a look at some old evils.
- Li Li's travel journal is now up to part 8.
- Blizzard's registered the Project Blackstone domain, but no-one seems to know what that means.
- Druid blogger Lissanna is a researcher in the real world studying autism. 15 Minutes of Fame catches up with her.
Filed under: Realm Status, News items
