Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. It seems like the entire World of Warcraft is holding their breaths right now, as we are now only a week from patch 5.4. There's still news to catch up on while we wait of course. Downtime today is from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. PDT, so you'll have time to read it as well. Read on for all the latest.

Hot news and features

• The EU Hearthstone beta test is coming soon.
• Battlefield Barrens is ending soon.
• Check out the latest patch 5.4 story spoilers.
• According to Ghostcrawler, the entirety of the Siege of Orgrimmar will be available the first week for normal modes.
• Low level dungeon and raid scaling technology is complete. It remains to be seen how Blizzard will use it.

• The new Bloodsworn graphic novel is now available.
• Dawn of the Aspects will be out in paperback form in November.
• CM Zarhym comments on game design vs. story development.
• The RBG and arena conquest cap bug has been fixed.
• The Warcraft movie will begin filming in 2014.

Class news and guides

• The Care And Feeding of Warriors sums up patch 5.4.
• The Light And How To Swing It offers a tanking paladin's guide to patch 5.4.
• Totem Talk looks at restoration shaman concerns in patch 5.4.
• Should you play a warrior in WoW?
• A brewmaster monk has solo'd heroic 10-man Stone Guard.

Dungeons, items, professions, PvP, and more

• We have a guide to the minimum standards for raiders in WoW.
• Rossi looks at some features that changed the world (of Warcraft).
• Are we killing off all our good villains too quickly?
• The WoW Challenger website aims to help you conquer Challenge modes.
• Are AoE heals too powerful? Ghostcrawler seems to think so.
• Guildox has added a feature to track missing pets and mounts.

Odds and ends

• Know Your Lore examines the positions of the gnomes, draenei, and neutral factions in the wake of patch 5.4. We also wonder where Varian Wrynn has gotten off to during the last few patches.
• 15 Minutes of Fame talks to a player who took all three Stranglethorn fishing contest wins in one day.
• In this week's WoW Archivist, Scott looks back on his days as a newbie hunter back in 2004.
• We have a newbie's guide to the mage class in Hearthstone.

Filed under: Realm Status, News items