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Yeah, believe it or don't, BlizzCon time is nearly upon us. This coming Friday and Saturday, we'll be on the floor of BlizzCon itself, up close and personal with everyone and everything from the new non-computer WoW games to the cast of The Guild. I myself will be leaving on a jet plane early Thursday morning so I have plenty of time to get my ticket and hang out with some of you at the Lost Bar that night.

While we wait for BlizzCon , there's still plenty more news to report on Wrath of the Lich King and the World of Warcraft in general, and considering that WoW's down for maintenance from 5 AM to 11 AM PDT today, you'll have time to read it, right? You can start browsing using the links at right, or check out our roundup of the biggest and most interesting news from the past few days below:

Hot News and Cool Features

• Before you ask, the Echoes of Doom Patch (aka Patch 3.0.2) isn't this week. But it's been more or less confirmed that we'll get it next Tuesday.
• Here it is, the definitive proof: We won't be helping Thrall and Jaina take down Arthas. We'll be helping Wonder Boy and Young Nasty Man.
• Varimathras and Alexstraza are next in line in the parade of model upgrades.
• Patch 3.0.2 is going to bring some pretty interesting changes to BC-era raids. And yes, the changes are official.
• If you're rerolling Death Knight (or any melee class, really) in Wrath, you MUST read this. I'm serious. Go read it.
• Skill Mastery continues this week with skills such as Berserk.
• Dual specs are still coming, says Tigole, though we'll probably have to wait a patch or two after Wrath.

Wrath and 3.0.2 Class news

• Last week it was tanking. This week, Warriors got news of some nice DPS changes.
• Death Knights are too tanks. We got the buffs to prove it.
• Bad news for rerolling Death Knights: For the first few months of Wrath, you can only do it on a server that you have a level 55 character on.
• Okay, so it's still tanking this week. Taunt and Growl got a nice range buff. Now if only they worked in PvP.
• But with all this tank talk, healers need some love too. Check out Matticus' musings on Raid Healing at level 80.
• No, the Mage class is not getting removed. In fact, they're getting buffed, and I don't just mean the new polymorphs.
• Check out some of the latest Priest changes on Beta.
• Healing Paladins got a bit of a concession out of the devs, but there's concern over whether it's enough.
• The Rossi gets hot and bothered over the latest Shaman changes.
• Yeah, it's still nerf time. Warlocks got hit too.
• Good news for Hunter pet enthusiasts: Those annoying Caster stat pets have been buffed back to normal.

Wrath and 3.0.2 Miscellany

• Season 4 will be ending with patch 3.0.2, so you might want to make your final push for that title this week.
• If you're still wondering what to spend your honor points on to beat the point wipe, don't worry about it. They're not wiping honor after all.
• Speaking of honor points, Tigole says they do want to revisit Battlegrounds.

Odds and Ends

• If you'd like to double check if WoW's up again without firing up the game itself or constantly refreshing the official website's status page, try this Firefox realm status plugin.
• Blizzard may never totally win the war against botters, but they're making some pretty good progress: One of the most infamous botmakers has to pay them a cool 6 million.
• Here's an interesting permutation in the world of uberguilds: SK Gaming has splintered along PvP and PvE lines.
• If you're still sort of worried that Comcast might cut you off because of WoW, check this out.

Tags: downtime, maintenance, roundup, scheduled-maintenance, server-downtime, server-maintenance, tuesday-morning, tuesday-morning-post

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Realm Status, News items