Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. Patch 5.4 probably won't be live any time soon, but it's shaping up nicely, and as a result, we have a lot of news from the servers, along with guides to help you get a leg up when the patch does drop.

Downtime today is limited to rolling restarts at 7 a.m. PDT, but it's still a good excuse to take a break and get some knowledge. Read on for all the latest news.

Hot news and features

• Check out the latest patch 5.3 hotfixes for June 24.
• Check out the latest patch 5.4 PTR note updates.
• Patch 5.4 brings with it some major arena changes. There's no more pre-made teams, and now you can group with (and fight) people cross-realm.
• Check out more spoiler-filled sound files from patch 5.4.
• We preview the Dark Shaman, Immerseus, and General Nazgrim, some of the new raid bosses in patch 5.4.
• Engineers get to make a new Sky Golem mount in patch 5.4. It's a flying shredder, and it allows you to pick flowers while still mounted.
• In Patch 5.4, you get to be a crazy cat lady.

• The For The Alliance achievement may be impossible to get in patch 5.4.
• The final form of Wrathion's legendary reward has been revealed.
• Check out previews of new patch 5.4 tier gear looks for priests, hunters, and shamans.
• Blizzard made an official statement on the recent account hacks.
• Blizzard offered a clarification on the upcoming arena tie-break system.
• Rossi proposes a few more ways to use the new flex raiding system on other stuff.
• The WoW Insider Round Table discusses the upcoming Proving Grounds feature.
• We chat with Michael Stackpole and Mickey Neilson about the new novel Vol'jin: Shadows of the Horde.
• Alex recently got to sit down and play Hearthstone with the devs, and he has a review.

Class news and guides

• We help you decide whether to play a rogue.
• Lichborne reviews the latest patch 5.4 PTR notes for death knights.
• Encrypted Text reviews the rogue tier 16 set bonuses from the PTR.
• The Care And Feeding of Warriors discusses some of the issues around warrior AoE damage and what it means for arms warriors in patch 5.4.
• Blood Pact takes some warlocking lessons from hunters and shamans.

Dungeons, items, professions, PvP, and more

• We have a guide to defeating Wrathion's patch 5.3 legendary challenge as a melee.
• Addon Spotlight helps you monitor buffs with Weak Auras.
• Gold Capped looks forward to cheap Sha Crystals in patch 5.4.
• We have a guide to the lesser Voidcaller battle pet.

Odds and ends

• Know Your Lore discusses some of the implications of the Siege of Orgrimmar. We also have a look at Taran Zhu and the Shado-Pan.
• 15 Minutes of Fame interviews Playboy Gamer Next Door Pamela Horton.
• The World of Warcraft Tribute art book, which is published by UDON Entertainment and features community-created artwork, is available for pre-order.
• The Alliance wins. Grommash Hold is only worth $3.2 million.
• If you're headed to the San Diego Comic Con, you'll have a chance to pick up exclusive Blizzard merchandise.

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Tags: downtime, last-week-in-wow, maintenance, realm-downtime, realm-maintenance, rolling-restart, rolling-restarts, 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