Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. Have some chickens to amuse you while we discuss the week's news. With BlizzCon less than a month away, we're hearing more and more news about everyone's favorite gathering. In game, the patch 5.4.1 PTR is upon us, and includes new models for the Crusader Murloc pet and the new hippogryph mount. Alas, it is not the mythical patch 5.5 (which, mind you, may or may not exist at all), but it may bring us closer to said patch.

If neither of those tidbits interest you, fear not. We have plenty of new class guides, lore tidbits, and other guides to keep you busy. Downtime today is limited to rolling restarts at 7 a.m. pacific for most realms, though Black Dragonflight and Skullcrusher will be down from 3 a.m. to 11 a.m. If you're from one of those realms, or just need a break, read on for stuff to keep you occupied.

Hot news and features

• Check out the latest patch 5.4 hotfixes for October 9.
• We show you how to down the bosses of Siege of Orgrimmar Raid Finder wing three with 5 second explanations.
• The BlizzCon online sale is on.
• The official BlizzCon meeting stone will help you find your friends at the con.
• BlizzCon will host the Innkeeper's Invitational for a select group of Hearthstone players.
• The Crowd Chose You, the PvP arena match deciding buff, is gone.
• Black Dragonflight and Skullcrusher are the latest realms to be connected.

Class news and guides

• Should you play a death knight? Let us help you decide. Our Rookie guide has also been updated with more class info.
• Totem Talk has more tips for healing the new raid.
• Encrypted Text looks at combat and subtlety trees in Siege of Orgrimmar.
• The Light And How To Swing It has tanking tips for the first leg of Siege of Orgrimmar.
• Scattered Shots tries out marksmanship in patch 5.4.
• Arcane Brilliance answers some quests about the frost tree and its new mastery.
• Lichborne examines the last bit of raid loot and world boss loot of patch 5.4 for death knights.
• The Care And Feeding of Warriors misses proc weapons.
• Blood Pact examines what makes a good warlock UI.

Dungeons, items, professions, PvP, and more

• Blizzard recently offered some clarification on the current state of diminishing returns.
• How would we define a melee friendly raid? Does Siege of Orgrimmar count?
• Should Proving Grounds be a prerequisite for Raid Finder content?
• Hearthstone Highlight covers one of my favorite basic cards, the Animal Companion. We also take a look at the pure evil in card form that is Sylvanas Windrunner.
• Is it time for generic glyphs?
• We review the Pandarian reputations.

Odds and ends

• Know Your Lore summarizes the Pandaria campaign and looks at the fate of Garrosh Hellscream.
• We review the recently released Trivial Pursuit: Warcraft Edition.
• 15 Minutes of Fame talks to a cosplayer as she prepares for BlizzCon.
• WoW Archivist looks back at some lost spells, beloved and otherwise.
• That Activision Vivendi split may be going through after all.

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Tags: downtime, last-week-in-wow, maintenance, realm-downtime, realm-maintenance, 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