European CM Ancilorn has revealed that, for next week's EU maintenance, some of the realms will be offline for a whopping fourteen hours. The Blue was keen to ensure players were given enough warning of 15th July's maintenance to make sure that players who have toons on the affected realms had an "opportunity to plan accordingly".

The affected realms are: Balnazzar, Bloodfeather, Darksorrow, Defias Brotherhood, Earthen Ring, Frostwhisper, Genjuros, Haomarush, Hellscream, Laughing Skull, Lightning's Blade, Magtheridon, Neptulon, Nordrassil, Quel'Thalas, Ragnaros, Ravencrest, Runetotem, Shadowmoon, Shadowsong, Shattered Hand, Silvermoon, Skullcrusher, Spinebreaker, Stormrage, Stormreaver, Stormscale, Sylvanas, Terenas, The Maelstrom, The Venture Co, Thunderhorn, Turalyon, Twisting Nether and Vashj.

While the problem seems to be specific to these realms, Ancilorn didn't elaborate on the precise reasons for the extensive maintenance. He only informed readers that these realms will be offline from 3:00am CEST until around 5:00pm CEST. I suggest this might be a very good time to explore the opposite faction on another server, roll a twink or level that long-neglected alt. We'll certainly keep you updated next week and hopefully the maintenance should run smoothly.

It's time once again for weekly maintenance, and not only do we have the standard 5 AM - 11 AM Pacific downtime for most US servers, there's also a handful that are down from midnight to noon today. With all that extra time on your hands, you'll have time once again to read up on WoW news.

The big news, of course, is the Cataclysm. Blizzard went on a trademark registering spree around this word, which has everyone abuzz with speculation. Are we seeing the name of the new, maelstrom-related expansion? Or is this another secret project, perhaps even that new top secret MMO? Only time will tell, but it's fun to guess anyway. Once you're done being all atwitter over that little bit of gossip, here's some more stuff to read until your server comes up:

So we're swimming in news again this week, what with the patch 3.2 PTR well underway (you can check out the latest patch notes right here) and all, but the biggest piece of news for me, remains the faction changes. If nothing else, this should pave the way for me to be able to switch every single one of my characters to the High Elf race once they're finally implemented. Of course, that's not the only race-related news bouncing around this week. It also looks like the Tauren may be looking to make some waves in lore.

But anyhow, we have some nice long maintenance today, so you should have plenty of time to read the above stories and all the awesome news coming out of the PTR while you're at it. Check out a list of some of the highlights of the past 7 days below, and be sure to stick around throughout the day. There's bound to be more patch 3.2 news trickling in.

Once again, we have maintenance off the port bow. You'd almost think this is a weekly scheduled thing, eh?

This week, though, is one of those special extended maintenance weeks, with servers down from 3 AM to 11 AM Pacific. No, despite the extended maintenance, we aren't expecting patch 3.2 yet.

In addition, other servers will be down an extra 2 hours starting at 1 AM Pacific time.

We have the full list of said servers after the break, and it's actually a somewhat long one.

Rolling restarts are currently in progress on many realms, apparently to address a talent issue that cropped up with patch 3.1.3. These restarts shouldn't take more than 2 hours across the board. Meaning that your server shouldn't be down for very long at all, because that two hour window is for the entire process. The battlegroups being hit with these restarts are:

• Ruin
• Vindication
• Rampage
• Shadowburn
• Stormstrike
• Nightfall
• Whirlwind
• Emberstorm
• Retaliation

We're not sure if this will mean the end of today's maintenance woes, but we can hope.

Update: They're still working on getting the downed realms into working order, but don't currently have an ETA. They say an update will come soon.

Another maintenance day, another "surprise"-extended maintenance. According to Bornakk, they've "encountered some issues" causing them to extend maintenance on all realms by two hours. Most realms are therefore expected to be up and running by about 1:00 PM PDT.

Many realms, however, were already undergoing extended maintenance to finish some hardware upgrades. The following realms are currently expected to be playble around 2:00 PM PDT:

Aegwynn, Akama, Aman'Thul, Arathor, Azjol-Nerub, Barthilas, Blackrock, Bloodscalp, Bonechewer, Boulderfist, Bronzebeard, Caelestrasz, Chromaggus, Crushridge, Daggerspine, Darkspear, Dath'Remar, Draenor, Dragonblight, Dragonmaw, Draka, Drak'thul, Dreadmaul, Dunemaul, Eitrigg, Eldre'Thalas, Feathermoon, Firetree, Frostmane, Frostmourne, Frostwolf, Garithos, Gundrak, Gurubashi, Hakkar, Jubei'Thos, Khaz Modan, Khaz'goroth, Kil'jaeden, Kilrogg, Korgath, Kul Tiras, Malorne, Mug'thol, Muradin, Nagrand, Nathrezim, Ner'zhul, Perenolde, Proudmoore, Rexxar, Runetotem, Saurfang, Scarlet Crusade, Sen'jin, Shadow Council, Shadowsong, Silver Hand, Silvermoon, Skywall, Smolderthorn, Spirestone, Stonemaul, Stormscale, Suramar, Terenas, Thorium Brotherhood, Tichondrius, Uldum, Vek'nilash, Windrunner

Whew. In the mean time, you might want to take a look at the notes for patch 3.1.3, which goes live today, or at the new Tauren cat forms.

In a pleasant change of pace, extended maintenance for a group of realms is currently not expected to be further extended today. The following realms, which are receiving hardware upgrades, are expected to be up and playable by 1 PM PDT, as originally promised:

Area 52, Auchindoun, Azuremyst, Blade's Edge, Blood Furnace, Coilfang, Dawnbringer, Exodar, Fizzcrank, Galakrond, Ghostlands, Grizzly Hills, Shattered Halls, Terokkar, The Scryers, The Underbog, Velen, Zangarmarsh

All other realms should be up "in about the next hour," slightly later than the 11 AM PDT goal time.

And now the bad news. There are also some issues with Battle.net account authentication, as is so often the case. Blizzard is aware of the Battle.net issues, and promises to provide further updates by noon PDT.

Update: Further updates on the Battle.net issue will be released at 1:00 p.m. PDT. Most (if not all) Battle.net accounts are unable to log into the game.

In completely unsurprising news, extended maintenance for the realms that were undergoing it has been additionally extended today. These realms were suppose to be brought up at noon PDT today. The latest news is that there is no current ETA for them to come back, but that we should get another update by 1 PM PDT (at which time I fully anticipate they will tell us to expect another update by 2 PM PDT). The good news is they're doing hardware upgrades, so when the realms come back up, they should be better than before.

The affected realms are: Aegwynn, Akama, Aman'Thul, Arathor, Azjol-Nerub, Barthilas, Blackrock, Bloodscalp, Bonechewer, Boulderfist, Bronzebeard, Caelestrasz, Chromaggus, Crushridge, Daggerspine, Darkspear, Dath'Remar, Draenor, Dragonblight, Dragonmaw, Draka, Drak'thul, Dreadmaul, Dunemaul, Eitrigg, Eldre'Thalas, Feathermoon, Firetree, Frostmane, Frostmourne, Frostwolf, Garithos, Gundrak, Gurubashi, Hakkar, Jubei'Thos, Khaz Modan, Khaz'goroth, Kil'jaeden, Kilrogg, Korgath, Kul Tiras, Malorne, Mug'thol, Muradin, Nagrand, Nathrezim, Ner'zhul, Perenolde, Proudmoore, Rexxar, Runetotem, Saurfang, Scarlet Crusade, Sen'jin, Shadow Council, Shadowsong, Silver Hand, Silvermoon, Skywall, Smolderthorn, Spirestone, Stonemaul, Stormscale, Suramar, Terenas, Thaurissan, Thorium Brotherhood, Tichondrius, Uldum, Vek'nilash, and Windrunner. All other realms should be available for play now.

We will keep you posted as soon as we hear more on when the realms in question will be brought up.

Update: As predicted, they have updated to let us know that they still don't know when these realms will be back up, and they will have another update for us at 2 PDT.

Update 2: Blizzard has announced that they expect these realms to be available for play by 2:30 PDT.

There will be two kinds of maintenance tomorrow.

The first kind will be from 3:00 a.m. PDT until 11:00 a.m. PDT. This is the "normal" maintenance time. This will apply to all realms that are not on the list after the break.

The second kind of maintenance will be from 12:00 a.m. PDT until 12:00 p.m. PDT. The realms after the break will be undergoing this maintenance.

It is likely the Wintergrasp changes we just broke will go live tomorrow. There's a bit of uproar about them, and it'll be interesting to see exactly what the changes are. There is no indication if patch 3.1.2 will be dropping tomorrow or not.

The list of realms down for half a day after the break.

Good morning, my fellow EU players. Welcome to Wednesday. Yes, despite the May Day bank holiday this week and that Tuesday feeling, I assured you it's once again the middle of the week and patch day to boot.

As with the last couple of weeks, we've got an extended period of maintenance. Now I know things on the EU servers are a heck of a lot more stable than those of our friends across the pond, after all, they are our guinea pigs, but we're want them to stay that way right?

Once again, realms are down between 5:00am and 11:00am CEST. The downtime might change depending on how well or badly the maintenance goes so just bear that in mind come the top of the hour. However there's plenty to do during the down time, so check out Daniel's post from yesterday for some suggestions. Me? I'm going to read up on how to get the School of Hard Knocks achievement while I sit in the dentist's waiting room.

Not that this should be a surprise to anyone...

But maintenance has been extended until 1:00 p.m. PDT / 4:00 p.m. EDT. There is no indication why the maintenance has been extended, but that's the norm as well.

You can find out what's in the patch over on the Patch 3.1.1 Patch Notes and Bug Fix List, as well as by checking out our updated Guide To Patch 3.1.

We'll update this post with the latest news / server status when we have it.

People never believe me when I say the Horde is my favorite of the two factions and that most of my characters are only Alliance because that is the faction my friends play. Of course, this evening, it's easy to see why I sometimes have a hard time convincing them of this fact, as I have spent the last few hours gushing about King Varian Wrynn to anyone who will listen and even a few people who won't. Seriously, if you are in a place that allows the streaming of video and sound, you should watch the new Ulduar trailer. Varian is so amazing, I almost needed a change of pants after I finished watching.

But hey, only some of us are lore nerds, and I'm sure a lot of you are here looking for some prime patch 3.1 gameplay and feature information, what with extended maintenance and said patch 3.1 going live today. Luckily, you're in luck. You lucky person you. Expect loads of patch 3.1 information articles and roundups as the day progresses, including dual spec information and galleries showcasing the new sights and sounds of the new patch.

In the meantime, you can start your reading with our official constantly updated Guide to Patch 3.1 and this roundup of some of the hottest news from the past week:

The server alert tonight is letting us know that there will be extended maintenance for all realms from 3:00 a.m. PDT / 6:00 a.m. EDT to 11:00 a.m. PDT / 2:00 p.m. EDT. However, there are several realms listed after the break that will be down starting at 1:00 a.m. PDT / 4:00 a.m. PDT instead.

There is no official announcement yet of patch 3.1 dropping tomorrow, but as we said before (and as is being confirmed by the recent flurry of new information), many folks both publicly and privately are telling us it's dropping tomorrow.

Stay tuned tonight as the WoW Insider staff will be staying up all night to bring you the very latest, and don't forget to check out the WoW Insider Guide to Patch 3.1 for all the patch information.

The extended maintenance has ended, and it appears most (if not all) realms are up and available for use.

Today's extended maintenance was particularly painful for me. I had to do the following, in order:

• Wake up and write The Queue
• Work on a couple other things for WoW Insider
• Clean the cat's box
• Go out to Barns & Noble and buy season 3 of Weeds and a couple books
• Pickup a Strawberry and Cream drink from the Starbucks at B&N
• Come home and take a nap
• Wake up from said nap with my cat stepping on my liver
• Make this post
  

Phew! But now that the realms are up I can get back to the thing I really love... riding in circles around Dalaran on my mount for hours as I wait for groups to form.