Happy Tuesday morning, everyone. This week was one of those ones in which you don't think much news happened, until you sit down and read. Seriously, we got a lot of excellent tidbits of Warlords of Draenor and patch 5.4.7, along with the usual assortment of handy guides, lore articles, and news.

Read on for the latest. Downtime is limited to rolling restarts at 5 a.m. PST, but trust me, you'll want to know what's cooking.

Hot news and guides

• Love is the Air is underway. Time to start queueing on all your level 90 alts for that rocket mount!
• Check out the latest patch 5.4.7 PTR note updates for February 3.
• Check out the latest patch 5.4.2 hotfixes for February 4 and February 5.
• Check out the latest connected realm and free realm move information for February 6 and February 7.
• World of Warcraft is up to 7.8 million subscribers, an increase from the last figure we heard.
• PvP season 14 has received a two-week warning, which suggests patch 5.4.7 will be here soon.
• Patch 5.4.7 features some Alterac Valley changes that may help the horde turn the tide in that battleground.
• With the devs already playing patch 6.0 arenas, could an internal alpha of Warlords of Draenor already be in play?

• The devs hope to reduce visual clutter from all those raid spell effects in Warlords of Draenor.
• Warlords of Draenor will have new challenge modes and new rewards.
• Mumper offered more words on twitter about Garrisons.
• Siege of Orgrimmar will officially be updated to WoD-style raiding in patch 6.0. That means the highest difficulty changes to 20-man only.
• Allison wonders if tanks could lose raid slots with the upcoming changes.
• Could the new tertiary stats offer a whole new bag space dilemma?
• Blizzard recently asked on twitter how we'd make our garrison a home. They also asked the top 3 things you might like for customizing your character's appearance.

Class news and guides

• Encrypted Text examines Shadowcraft, a tool that helps rogues reach their raiding peak.
• The Care And Feeding of Warriors discusses the problem of too much critical strike dependence.
• Scattered Shots examines the button bloat issue for hunters.
• Blood Pact offers advice for beginning warlocks.
• The Light And How To Swing recounts adventures in trying out a holy paladin from Dan, our retribution columnist. We also discuss protection's aggro issues.
• Lichborne looks for death knight inspirations in other video games.
• How well were certain healers represented in Mists of Pandaria? Healiocentric has examined the numbers.

Dungeons, items, professions, PvP, and more

• Seriously, old raids will not be harder to solo because of the item squish. The devs promise.
• We've updated our WoW rookie guide with new info on addons and guilds.
• Rossi argues against heirloom gear.
• Olivia discusses queuing options for PvP.
• To solve button bloat, should we just roll abilities back to the Cataclysm era?

Odds and ends

• Blizzard needs an IRL hotfix on their street sign.
• Know Your Lore speculates about the true nature of Kajamite, the uplifting of the Goblin race, and why Deathwing really targeted Kezan. We also have a guide to the orc clans of Draenor, some of which we will probably see in the expansion.
• Could Warlords of Draenor herald a clash of the Lich Kings? Anne speculates.
• 15 Minutes of Fame highlights #wowjp, a network of Japanese WoW players.
• Here's 5 stories from the new fanfiction forums you might like.
• Riot Games, the studio that produces League of Legends, has reportedly patented a spectator mode camera.
• Wowhead has added more new features for your searching needs.

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Filed under: Realm Status, News items