Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. We're another week into patch 5.3, but alas, no sign of the patch 5.4 PTR just yet. Still, the news has been coming in copious amounts, so we're probably okay. Of course, the big news is Flexible raids. Now, having 12 signups for 10 raid slots may not mean you need to leave 2 people behind. This, of course, has generated a lot of discussion, much of which is summed up in an editorial by our own Matt Rossi.

There's lots more things, big and small, to cover, and we have the usual roundup of the week's news below. As of this writing, there's not been any announced downtime for this morning, but whether there is or not, a little break to get caught up can't hurt.

Hot news and features

• Check out the latest patch 5.3 hotfixes for June 4 and June 10.
• Hunters got some pretty massive changes in the latest round of hotfixes.
• Legendary questers rejoice. Lei Shen will now always drop Titan Runestones.
• We may have a new Battle.net desktop client coming our way.
• Some people are reporting higher-than-usual latency and disconnects in patch 5.3.
• The Heroic Scenario reward system now won't lock you out of loot just because you ran a normal scenario first.
• Elite PvP gear rewards may once again require a minimum rating in patch 5.4.
• The 2013 BlizzCon Art and Movie contests are now open for submissions.

• The latest WoW novel, Vol'jin: Shadows of the Horde, will go on sale July 2.
• Are the WoW killer games finally on their way?
• Composer Russell Brower talks about the music of Mists of Pandaria.
• The WoW Insider round table discusses the concept of diminishing returns on Valor Points.
• Our own Olivia Grace got to play a few rounds of Hearthstone and speak with the developers.
• Check out the latest Hearthstone shoutcast match. This time, it's druid vs. rogue.

Class news and guides

• Should you be playing a hunter? We'll help you decide.
• Lichborne discusses DPS stats for tanking death knights.
• Totem Talk has a guide to spirit for restoration shamans.
• The Light And How To Swing It covers two great things about the modern retribution paladin. We also have a discussion of ability bloat in the paladin class.
• Encrypted Text explains why rogues will always be hated by other classes.
• The Care And Feeding of Warriors speculates on solutions for some warrior class problems.
• Blood Pact helps warlocks solo Karazhan for fun and profit.

Dungeons, items, professions, PvP, and more

• The Lil' Bad Wolf may be my favorite of the new patch 5.3 battle pets, and we have a guide to using him.
• Gold Capped helps you combat undercutters.
• Need to find a heroic scenario group? There's an Add-on for that.
• WoW Archivist looks back at patch 2.3.

Odds and ends

• Diablo 3 is coming to consoles this September.
• Know Your Lore looks back at some of the lost legends of WoW lore. We also discuss Garrosh's people, the Mag'har.
• Want to live in Stormwind Keep? Apparently, you'd need to fork over a cool 10 million dollars.
• 15 Minutes of Fame interviews a Night Elf guild.
• Rossi discusses how personal bias may cause us to misinterpret how others play the game.

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Filed under: Realm Status, News items