Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. Alas, another year, another Winter Veil without a Corgi of my own to keep forever. The Holidays are mostly behind us, and it's just about time to get back to work in earnest. While we can all hope the expansion news spigot turns on full blast in the coming weeks, don't think the last few weeks have been completely news-free either.

Downtime this morning is only a series of rolling restarts at 5 a.m. PST, but there's enough news here that you may want to take a little longer to get caught up. Read on for all the latest stuff.

Hot news and features

• Check out the latest patch 5.4.2 hotfixes for Jan. 3.
• Check out the latest updates on US and EU Connected Realms.
• Draenei and blood elves are now officially on the list for model updates in Warlords of Draenor.
• Blizzard's warning about a dangerous trojan than could even bypass the authenticator.
• Blizzard CM Lore recently posted a bit about Flex raiding, Raid Finder, and the new dungeon and raid finder tools.

• Blizzard wants you to know that you'll still be able to solo old content past the squish.
• Warlords of Draenor needs a pre-expansion event and a legendary quest chain. We'll explain why.
• The Best of WoW Insider 2013 wraps up with a look at December. Did your favorite article make the cut this year?

Class news and features

• Arcane Brilliance offers some challenge mode tips for mages.
• Blood Pact offers some warlock macros.
• Totem Talk looks back at the year for restoration shamans.
• Encrypted Text laments the loss of some cool unique rogue stuff.
• Scattered Shots puts in a hunter pet wishlist. Personally, I want a Gulp Frog.
• The Care And Feeding of Warriors discusses the future evolution of the warrior.

Dungeons, items, professions, PvP, and more

• Want to PvP? Let us tell you how.
• WoW Archivist looks back on Karazhan.
• The neutral pandaren Doubleagent has hit level 80.
• Blizzard's revamping in-game group finder tools. Should they revamp in-game voice chat to go with it?

Odds and ends

• We chat with Aaron Phillips, VA for everyone's favorite scheming little whelping, Wrathion.
• Know Your Lore sums up more of the lore of Wrath of the Lich King. We also speculate on the identity of the final boss of Warlords of Draenor.
• 15 Minutes of Fame catches up with some of the people we've interviewed.
• Well Fed Buff is cooking up some bacon.
• Just what is World of Warcraft?

---

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