Tuesday Morning Post: It's still not patch day, is it?

by Daniel Whitcomb Dec 23rd 2008 at 5:30AM

So we have a 3 AM to 11 AM Pacific downtime today. But honestly, I'm sort of hoping it's not for patch day, because I have a Death Knight column going live later this morning that assumes testing's going to go on for another few weeks. Besides, they just added a few new tweaks to the PTR, so they probably want more time to test them. But just in case today is patch day, here's a pre-emptive mea culpa on that column.

But regardless of whether today is patch day or not, we're still talking at least 8 hours of downtime here, and as usual, I choose to take the optimistic view on it. That's right, it's a perfect time to catch up on your World of Warcraft news.

As usual, you'll find a list of some of the best content from the past 7 days or so here on WoW Insider after the break. Don't be afraid to dive in and start browsing categories or clicking buttons on the sidebars or the menus above, too. You won't break anything. I think.

Hot News and Features

If you care about that sort of thing, Arena season 5 started last week. We have a few answers to your questions and a quick overview of getting PvP gear (Yes, welfare gear is back) to get you started on the road to riches and fame, or at least to a cool title and some resilience gear.
If you like to PvP, but Arenas aren't quite your thing, check out our latest Wrath 101 installment on Wintergrasp. If that's not enough, The Art of War(craft) has even more Wintergrasp info for you.
As always, be sure to check The Queue for the answers to questions varied and sundry, weird and commonplace alike. And remember, if you don't see your big or small WoW question answered yet, you can always ask in the comments of the latest edition of The Queue.
Here's a sort of loaded question: Do WoW players make bad employees? Apparently, some corporate headhunters think so.
But seriously, if you really want some controversy, how about those ads on the official forums?
Okay, one last controversial thing: Is Shoe Shock the answer to Elemental Shaman balance woes?

Class News and Guides

Druid tanks are getting some extra attention from the devs this week. Among the new changes for them is a massive increase to Swipe threat. But is it enough? That's still up for debate.
Encrypted Text this week chats with a few pillars of the Rogue community.
For Shamans, Totem Talk looks at some of the high end Northrend 5-man dungeons through a Shaman's eyes.
Here's some good 3.0.8 news for non-tanking Paladins: Judgment of Light's threat will be going bye-bye. Also in welcome non-tanking Paladin news: Yes, you can has plate healing goggles.
Mages may find this news more of an annoyance than a joy: Slow Fall will be castable on others in 3.0.8.
On that note, Mages, maybe you'd rather just show this Mage gift guide to anyone demanding you cast Slow Fall on them.
Here's some interesting news for Death Knight tanks, and maybe for the odd crazy Fury Warrior: Tanking-oriented 2-handed weapons are coming in 3.0.8.

Professions, Items, Dungeons, and More

Here's a daily you'll want to get good at if you plan to do some raiding: Aces High!
Yeah, Loken's still deadly. If he's got your number, see if Ghostcrawler's tips help you out.
There's been some issues with certain profession mounts acting more like vehicles, which some people find overly burdensome and clunky. Luckily for them, 3.0.8 should change them all back to normal mounts.
Ever wondered what the point of cooking is, or wanted to get into it but weren't sure how? Let us enlighten you.
Engineers looking to get the most out of Northrend Engineering, you'll want to see the latest Insider Trader.

Odds and Ends

If you use Firefox, here's a nice collection of Greasemonkey scripts to help you browse the armory on the sly.
Ever wonder how doctors and paramedics and firefighters unwind?
Do your kids play WoW? WoW Rookie this week discusses limiting their play time -- after all, you need some WoW time to yourself, right?
Winterveil will be over before you know it, so be sure to grab those achievements. WoW, Casually shows you how even a casual player can get in the spirit.
Murlocs? In your lunch box? It's more likely than you think.

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

Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Realm Status, Odds and ends, News items, Wrath of the Lich King

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Anton Dec 23rd 2008 5:44AM

Tuesday Morning Post: We still dont have anything to write about, do we?

Dranaerys Dec 23rd 2008 6:02AM

Apparently, neither do you.

Thyago Dec 23rd 2008 6:15AM

Hahaha, these posts are really not for the everyday-readers, huh? But well, Im trying not to be selfish here, so this might actually be a great post for non-constant readers?

dpak Dec 23rd 2008 1:07PM

Actually, I find this post (and others like it) valuable in that they are nice summaries of past posts, allowing me to see what I may have missed during the week.

Aubrecia Dec 23rd 2008 6:01AM

What's with this? Last week, when it was almost guaranteed not to be the patch, the Tuesday Morning post was "The patch is coming! Today!", and now that the chance of the patch hitting tomorrow is much higher (albeit not nearly 100%), it's "the patch still isn't coming"?

Seriously, how does that work?

I hope it is the patch, because then I'll go blow all my gold on all the mounts I can get just to spite the system that denied my Tauren for so long. (And because I really want that albino drake!)

Aubrecia Dec 23rd 2008 6:03AM

*today. I have an unusual schedule where anything before 6 a.m. counts as Monday to me, so Tuesday is still "tomorrow" in my book. Damn you, night shifts!

Micah Dec 23rd 2008 6:05AM

This may not be the place to ask this, but I've been watching all the stuff they're going to do with the next patch, and I have one question:

Where's the rogue love? I mean, come on. There's what, two changes? Feint and Fan of Knives. And, umm.... yeah, I think that's it. Oh yeah, and a fixed tooltip for Envenom. Whoo.

Debesun Dec 23rd 2008 6:32AM

More love to Rogues?

You Rogues seem to be overflowing in the stuff that you've been more than happy to share the love during my questing and pulling anything with less than plate into bits and pieces at the most inconvenient of moments...

Most Rogue faults are mainly minor flaws or annoyances compared to other classes that are in need of some tuning.

And if there is some major flaw in the current design of Rogues then please take care to remember the countless other class/specs that have waited a fairly large amount of time to get some 'love' (arcane mages, ret paladins, feral cat, moonkins, etc)

Balius Dec 23rd 2008 8:00AM

Rogues are number heavy, and very hard to make changes for without swinging the DPS wildly with seemingly minor changes. When you see rogue changes of any significance, it will be a complete overhaul of the class, not one or two tweaks at a time. I am flat out guaranteeing it.

You'll also rarely see rogues get talked about if you use a blue-tracker, for the same reason. If you do, it's usually going to be "We know you're still there, we're working on you" in very general terms with nothing specific.

Debesun, if you're terrible at PVP, perhaps you should transfer to a PVE server so you can stop whining and enjoy the game you play. Getting "ganked" was your decision when you rolled on a server that allows it and then wandered around alone and vulnerable. Meanwhile, don't comment on classes you don't know jack squat about just because you're playing wrong. You getting killed because you're not preventing it doesn't indicate that rogues are getting "love" from the developers, or that rogue problems are minor across the board. They aren't, rogues do need significant help (especially in PVE raiding, where the most viable rogue spec is really a bug exploit).

Amaxe Dec 23rd 2008 8:25AM

"Rogues are number heavy, and very hard to make changes for without swinging the DPS wildly with seemingly minor changes"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As opposed to the enhancement shaman, where you need a degree in advanced mathematics to determine whether something Blizzard does is worth using or not?

damon Dec 23rd 2008 6:15AM

This was the best server takedown ever for me! I was in warsong hold planting explosives, fighting off nerub'ar and freeing hostages. It was like a tiny war, and at the end i was running up a ramp with a bunch of guys following me while an explosion went off behind me and the server shutdown notice hit 30 seconds. I could almost hear the mission impossible music in the background.

Caledas Dec 23rd 2008 6:23AM

Got ya beat. I was in Wintergrasp taking the keep from the horde as the "server will shutdown in X minutes" scrolled by. It was... nerdly awesome.

Nirtxed Dec 23rd 2008 6:37AM

Tamed Loque'Nahak with 10mins to spare :D

Shixta Dec 23rd 2008 6:20AM

Ugh. I really loath Tuesday mornings. Bleh!
Luckily, we had just finished up a Violet Hold run when it got to
3min left xD

Well, it's still fun to sit back and just talk with guildies for a
bit until they each go to bed.

So, How's every's Winter Break been? (From school, at least. Maybe work)

:)