Good Tuesday morning, everyone! Most of us will be getting away just a quick set of rolling restarts at 5AM PDT today, but there is a handful of servers that will be going down for extended maintenance from 3AM PDT to 11AM PDT. Those servers include Azjol-Nerub, Bloodscalp, Bonechewer, Boulderfist, Bronzebeard, Crushridge, Daggerspine, Darkspear, Draenor, Dragonblight, Dragonmaw, Dunemaul, Eldre'Thalas, Feathermoon, Firetree, Frostmane, Gurubashi, Nathrezim, Perenolde, Scarlet Crusade, Shadow Council, Shadowsong, Silvermoon, Skywall, Smolderthorn, Spirestone, Stonemaul, Stormscale, Suramar, Terenas, Uldum, Windrunner.

As always, for those who play on the affected servers, or those who are unable to play WoW at the moment, let me suggest some articles from the past week. There was certainly a lot of news to discuss, with build 8885 going up on the Wrath Beta servers and a good smattering of con news as well. Let's check it out:

Hot News and Features

• If you haven't done your WoW Crossword for the week yet, it's a perfect way to waste time while waiting for your server to restart.
• 1-60 in 20 minutes? It's no joke. Welcome to the brave new world of WoW leveling, courtesy of Refer-A-Friend!
• It seem like most retailers are expecting Wrath to come out on November 4th. Still, it's best to take any release date not officially announced by Blizzard with a huge grain of salt.
• Ever wondered how much work it is for our characters to run everywhere in Azeroth? These folks hooked up a treadmill to find out for themselves.
• Raid stacking will be getting a huge overhaul come patch 3.0.2. We're talking massive, game-changing stuff here. If you raid or plan to raid at the 10 or 25-man level in the future, you should check it out.
• Breaking News: Bambi invades Wrath of the Lich King! We're serious.
• Tons of new character titles are coming with Wrath of the Lich King.
• Comcast has announced a bandwidth cap, it's true, but don't worry. It probably won't affect your WoW playing.

Good Tuesday Morning, everyone! By now, I'm sure you're all aware of the amazing and frustrating odyssey that has been the attempt to secure BlizzCon tickets, as documented here by Mike. This writer finally managed to buy his ticket only at 9 PM PDT yesterday, despite having been poised at the virtual ticket counter since approximately 7 AM yesterday. The sight of the Fail Murloc and his cousin the Fail SCV (shown at right) have almost been burned into my very retinas. As of this writing, some of my colleagues still haven't managed to get through to buy a ticket.

As a reminder, the store will reopen sometime this morning, and Blizzard has said that there are a lot of tickets remaining.

Despite the hubbub, all this trouble hasn't (completely) dampened our enthusiasm for the wonders of BlizzCon. We've spent the refreshing time tossing around speculations about what we'll see on October 10th. See if our predictions match up with yours.

In other news, it's an extended maintenance this morning, which means downtime goes from 3 AM PDT to at least 11 AM PDT, which means you should have plenty of time to read WoW Insider. There's plenty of news to catch up on, of course, especially with a new build hitting the Wrath Beta servers. Let's take a look at some of it:

Good Morning everyone! It's Tuesday Morning, and as usual, that means maintenance. Downtime is normal this week, from 5am PDT to 11am PDT. That's 6 hours without WoW, and a perfect 6 hours to catch up on WoW news here on WoW Insider. Of course, Wrath of the Lich King news continues to dominate. We've got people in the Beta working hard to bring you all the latest news and views from the testing, and we're scouring the web to find the best tidbits of information on what Blizzard's got planned for the future. Check it out:

Features, Photos, and Hot News

• We'd like to Introduce our newest class column, Lichborne, now appearing every Saturday. For our maiden voyage, we discussed the state of the Death Knight and some of the massive changes in store for the next major Beta build.
• If you've got questions about Beta, we've got answers. Be sure to check out our new daily feature, Ask A Beta Tester, now running every day until we run out of questions. Leave your questions in the comments of the latest installment, and they may be answered in a future article.
• Just in case you were doubtful, it looks like we will get our hot little hands on the expansion before 2008 is done.
• Check out our Illustrated tour of the Howling Fjord, one of the two starting areas in Northrend.
• You'll also want to see our tour of The Dragonblight, home of some familiar faces and lots of Dragons.
• Get hands on with a demo of the new barber shop system! Be sure to check out some of the new hairstyles coming with it too.
• Enjoy this nice and short video tour of Dalaran, the Shattrath of Wrath, and be sure to check out our Dalaran image gallery as well!
• If you need a nice little dose of vanity pet related cuteness to make it through the day, click here.

Good Tuesday morning, everyone. As we announced earlier, it's an extended maintenance day today, which means the servers will be down from 3 AM to 11 AM PDT. However, do not despair. There's plenty of Wrath of the Lich King news to keep you busy, especially with the Beta servers live and a new build having been pushed only yesterday.
Here's a list of some of the major Wrath Highlights from the Beta servers and elsewhere this past week:

Hot news and features

• You got Beta questions? We're aiming to answer them.
• The Calendar system and the new pet and mount skill tabs are now being tested on Beta servers.
• We also have a first look at the new token storage system.
• That whole two specs per character idea that was tossed around at the WWI is still coming, says Bornakk.
• Be sure to check out our hands-on preview of Inscription on the Beta server.
• We're all getting ready to upgrade that old and busted level 70 gear, but the question is, does the new stuff look any good? See for yourself, with a gallery of some of the new green quest rewards in the starting zones.

Good Tuesday morning, everyone. It's a light maintenance week tonight, with nothing but rolling restarts this morning. US Servers will see the restarts at 5 AM PDT, while Oceanic servers will see them at 5 AM AEST. As usual, each server should be down for no more than an hour, and the whole process should be about an hour.

While you're sitting around waiting for your server to come back up, I think this a perfect time to remind you to check out (and maybe bookmark) our Wrath of the Lich King directory page, which is being updated daily with the all our articles, sneak peeks, guides, and analysis from the Beta, which was announced this week. Beyond that, why not take a peek at some of the other stuff we've been working on this week? Welcome to the Tuesday morning roundup!

Need Wrath of the Lich King news? We got it, of course, especially with the Alpha ending, the Beta beginning, and the information floodgates opening. Here's some of our articles from the last week:

While it seems like this would be the perfect time for Patch 2.4.3 to go live -- we have people look to redeem both Tyrael pet codes and new TCG reward codes after all -- there doesn't seem to be any sign that they plan to put the patch out tonight as of this writing, despite the extended downtime of 3am-11am PDT. It still might show up though, so of course we'll let you know if it goes down. In the meantime, how about checking the Tuesday Morning Roundup to see what you may have missed here on the site this week?

We still don't have a release date for WoTLK. For that matter, we don't even have a release date for Blizzcon tickets, where there's a good chance the release date will be announced. That's not kept us from gathering all the WoTLK news and analysis that's fit to print. Here's a selection of some of the best from last week:

• Paladins have been getting a bit restless lately, but the devs are saying that they do have big plans for the class.
• Speaking of restless classes, Arcane Brilliance discusses why Mages might be OK in WoTLK after all.
• For those classes that have already seen some of their changes, you can play around with possible new level 80 builds with Wowhead's WOTLK Talent calculators based off the builds shown at WWI.
• In case you were afraid that all the surprises are already had, Zarhym assured us that there will be more changes coming to the game with WoTLK.
• One surprise that may be coming is a change to how tanking works.
• Zach's pretty excited about Death Knights, as well.
• We've already talked quite a bit about choosing your Death Knight race for roleplay reasons, but what if you just want to know which race will rule the most? Join Eliah for a look at racial skills for Death Knights.
• Join Alex as he prepares his hybrids for WoTLK.

Good Morning everyone. On this Tuesday morning, most of us can rest easy: Just a quick restart at 5 AM PDT, and we'll be good to get back in the game. There a few servers, however, that will have to deal with an extended maintenance period, lasting until 11 AM PDT. You can see the full list of those servers here.

For players on those servers, and those of us who can't sneak in some WoW time at school or work, I bring you the perfect solution: A roundup of some of the best news and analysis from the past week here at WoW Insider. Dig in, and keep it here throughout the day for more breaking news, guides, and analysis.

• Starting your day with a crossword puzzle can be both fun and mentally stimulating. How about giving this WoW-themed one a try?
• Here's a friendly reminder from Nexus Prince Haramad, just in case you forgot last week: be sure to get your gems for July!
• There are an amazing amount of actions that annoy Allison.
• Here's an interesting world first: A multiboxer makes Gladiator in the Arenas.
• If being Myspace friends with a Murloc isn't enough, how about buying your own?
• Blizzard COO Paul Sams is calling out Microsoft on the subject of PC gaming.
• Not only is the Blizzard Authenticator sold out, but some people who made it in under the wire are having trouble actually getting their order.
• Will we ever see the Scourge Invasion event again? Kisirani is hinting that we might finally get a return engagement.
• With tank shortages reaching critical levels almost everywhere, now's a good time to discuss how to build and keep a good tanking corps. Be sure to check part 2 as well.
• The 4th of July was this past week, and nothing says 4th of July like good old fashioned... copyright infringement?
• Is buying your way through tier 6 raid content an insult to those who work hard to take down bosses on their own, or is a win-win situation for rich casuals and guilds in need of reagent and repair money? Join the discussion.

If that's not enough for you, we have fresh Wrath of the Lich King and Worldwide Invitational news waiting after the break.

Good Tuesday Morning everyone! We have a long maintenance ahead of us today, from 3AM to 11AM PDT. This downtime is in part to install new hardware on the Dunemaul realm in preparation for Wrath of the Lich King. Adam speculated a bit on what it may mean for the release date, but what it means in the short term is that those of us who play around now have to find something else to do.

Since we have somewhere in the neighborhood of 8 hours to wait until we can play WoW again, this is the perfect time to do a little bit of browsing on WoW Insider. Here's a recap of just some of the great content from the past week.

The World Wide Invitational was the big event of the weekend, of course, and there we had a team on the convention floor gathering all the news. You can check out our giant WWI roundup for all the liveblogs and reports on the class panel, the PvP panel, the dungeons and raids panel, and the Q&A panel, and event coverage. You'll also find extensive analysis of all the information broken down by class and subject. We also have a peek at the WWI goodie bag and videos from the Turpster! Check the roundup for all of it.

In addition, we posted even more Worldwide Invitational news and analysis on Monday:

• Take a peek at the WWI's playable Death Knight demo, complete with sneak peaks at all 3 talent trees.
• Get a look at the Oculus, one of the instances previewed at the dungeons and raids panel.
• Find out about how championing, coming in WoTLK, will make faction grinds easier. Factions will be more rewarding for tradeskillers too.
• Get a look at the new battleground coming our way in WoTLK.
• A German CM at the WWI may have let WoW's beta release date slip.
• Amanda Dean breaks down the results of the WWI's 3v3 Arena tournament.
• Despite some people's predictions, there was no Wrath cinematic at the WWI. When will it show up?
• The Blizzard Authenticator made its debut at the WWI, and is now for sale online.

While WWI did take up a lot of everyone's time and imagination this past week, there was other non-WWI news to be had... for example, the splash screen that appeared in the days before WWI!

The second half of June has been pretty hopping in the World of Warcraft. Not only is Arena Season 4 finally going live today, but patch 2.4.3 is on the PTRs, and the Midsummer Fire Festival is on the live servers. On top of that, we're scant days away from Blizzard's Worldwide Invitational, and we have a mysterious splash screen that may herald a rather large announcement.

The downtime for today's Maintenance is going to be pretty extensive as well, from 3am PDT to 11am PDT, which means you'll need some reading material while you wait for those servers to come back. Once again, I am here for you, with a round-up of all the best news from the past week here on WoW Insider, organized by category.

Let's start with finding out what's going on with patch 2.4.3:

• You can read the patch notes right here.
• Find out how 2.4.3 can help that bag space problem - wealthy socialite style!
• Feeling like you need a new hat? Try beating up an old man and his dog.
• If you can't log on to the PTRs, get the next best thing with our 2.4.3 eyecandy gallery.
• Yes, Virgina, there are premades on the PTRs this time around (Although only on the US servers, at least for the moment).
• The new TCG Loot is available for testing on the PTR, and we've got video of our own testing run.
• Ponies at level 30? You heard right.
• So you've read about the Cheat Death nerf, but aren't sure what it means? Let us enlighten you.

Happy Tuesday, everyone. Today's Maintenance will actually be pretty painless for most of us. The servers will go down at 5am PDT, about half an hour from now, and should be up by 5:30, according to Bornakk. Aussie servers won't be going down until 5 AM AEST. However, there are a few servers that are getting some extra downtime. They will be going down until approximately 6:30 AM PDT. You can find can a list of the affected servers on the downtime post.

Even if most of us will be cruising past maintenance with minimal downtime, Tuesday morning's as good a time as any to get caught up on WoW news. The biggest news, of course, is that Season 4 is on the way, coming to us on June 24th. Read all about it here, then find out everything you need to know to get started with Season 4 at WoW Insider, starting with these articles:

• If you're still grinding honor for a Season 1 gear set, you better work fast -- or get a tier 4 raiding group.
• If you're unsure of how to start planning for Season 4, let Zach help you out.
• Don't PvP? You might want to take an interest in Season 4 anyway. It may turn out to be rather lucrative for you.
• Will the new gear ratings put the kibosh on point selling? Zach doesn't think so.
• Watch for more Season 4 news and analysis to come as the start date gets closer!

Good Tuesday morning, everyone. As we mentioned earlier, it's a regular maintenance day today. That means at least a good six hours of no WoW, from 5am PDT to 11am PDT. Between that, and those two little dirty things known as school and work, a lot of us aren't going to be able to play WoW for a bit. Luckily, we can still read about the game, right here on WoW Insider. Allow me to guide you through some of the best content of the past week.

As always, we're striving to bring you the best Wrath of the Lich King news and analysis on the web. Here's some of the hottest articles related to the upcoming expansion this week:

• What's that Kalgan? You're doing away with pure spell damage gear?
• Like DoTA? Then you may find a lot to love about WoW's next planned Battleground.
• Everyone's been asking for penguin pets for WotLK. It looks like Blizzard may be delivering.
• You've been rocking the achievements on your XBox 360, I'm sure, but now you might be able to do the same thing in WotLK.
• In the latest Hybrid Theory, Alex tells you why, as a Shadow Priest, he's being cautiously optimistic about WotLK.
• Zach talks about a refreshing change in the way we renew our DoTs.
• The Blizzcast delivered with more news and interviews with the developers about WoTLK. You can read our breakdown of it all here.
• In more minor but still awesome news department, you might want to rock your desktop with some new WoTLK wallpaper.
• Learn about one of the new enemy races, the Magnataur.
• It's not much, but it is something. Class Designer Koraa very cryptically hints that great things should be coming for Shamans.
• But seriously, how excited are you about this expansion?
• And how will badges work in WoTLK again?

Of course, even as we look forward to the expansion, we're still keeping an eye on what's current. For more news and analysis from around the World of Warcraft, check out these articles:

Good Morning, everyone. It's 4:30 PDT on a Tuesday morning, and you know by now that that means maintenance. For now, most of us will be sitting pretty, with only an hour and a half or so of downtime from 5am to 6:30am PDT. 72 servers, however, will be getting the full treatment, and won't be up until at least 11am PDT. You can see a list of those servers in our original announcement post here.

Since we're coming up on at least an hour of no WoW, if not more for 72 servers and for those stuck at a job or schooling that doesn't allow sneaking in some game time, I would like to, as customary, suggest that you read about WoW, here on WoW Insider. I have a list of some of our best content from the past week organized for your viewing pleasure coming right up after the break.

Tuesday morning maintenance has been announced, and most of us can breathe easy -- we're only getting a one hour downtime, from 5am PST to 6am PST. However, there are 72 servers that will be getting a larger amount of downtime, from 5am PST to 11am PST, though there's no word on why. Check after the break to see if your server's going down for a bit.

The list of the servers scheduled for a longer maintenance are as follows:

It's a relatively painless Tuesday Morning this time around for those who play in what are the early morning hours at Blizzard HQ. This time, most US servers will just recieve a quick rolling restart at 5 AM PDT, about half an hour from now, which should result in no more than 15 minutes of downtime. However, there are some servers that will get 2 hours of downtime: Agamaggan, Azshara, Baelgun, Dark Iron, Detheroc, Emerald Dream, Greymane, Kalecgos, Lightninghoof, Maelstrom, Malfurion, Moonrunner, Nazjatar, Sargeras, Staghelm, Twisting Nether, Ursin, and Wildhammer.

Also, here's something that should please a lot of Australian players: Their realms won't get the rolling restarts until 5AM AEST -- which translates to noon PDT. That should translate to lots of time for night owls to finish their raids before the restarts kick them off.

So in that 15 minutes to 2 hours of down time you'll have to go through, or if you're stuck at school or work, here's a few WoW Insider articles from the last week that are worth checking out. First, last week's major news and views:

• The WoTLK Friends and Family Alpha is underway, and we have the leaked patch notes.
• A Vivendi earnings statement gave us the first real official word on WoTLK's expected release date.
• The Hunter Growl and Scare Beast changes from patch 2.4.2 didn't turn out so great after all.
• Raiders rejoice: M'uru got a little easier, and those nasty Archimonde and Eredar Twin bugs got a hotfix.
• Death and Taxes, the premiere US WoW raiding guild, disbanded. That set a few of us to pontificating on the problems of raid guild drama here and here.
• We covered a few more tidbits of WoTLK info, such as Death Knight "reruning."
• Check out sister site BigDownload's interview with Blizzard on that whole eSport thing.
• In Hybrid Theory, Alex soothes your fears about Death Knights taking your jobs.

If these aren't enough for you, there's more after the break.

Good Morning Azeroth! It's Tuesday, May 13, 2008, and that means maintenance. As we mentioned earlier, it's an extended maintenance, from 3 AM to 11 AM PST (That means you have about a half an hour of play time left), and it's looking rather likely that 2.4.2's going to drop. Exciting news, but that still means that you'll have at least 8 hours in which it is impossible to play World of Warcraft.

Of course, this means the perfect thing to do is browse WoW Insider. Since 2.4.2's probably on it's way, why not browse all our 2.4.2 news?

• The original patch notes are posted here.
• We break down the Undocumented changes here -- including pictures of the new mounts added to the game files.
• You can find the latest test realm page notes here. MMO-Champion points out two new changes: Prince Kael'thas will now drop Primal Nethers in Heroic Magisters Terrace, and the Darkmoon Card: Madness' buffs will now last 60 seconds.
• Check out our reports on all the Hunter class changes, Including Growl and Scare Beast, the math problems and controversy surrounding the Growl change among the Hunter community, and getting your own flight-formed Druid pet.
• Good News for Weaponsmiths, with the epic one-handers becoming non-unique.

But enough about 2.4.2, what about the big news? First, of course, is the fact that Blizzcon 08 was announced. Check out the details and look back on some old Blizzcon 07 memories in our announcement post.

You may also recall all the Wrath of the Lich King news that dropped this week. Of course, you know we have it all for you on WoW Insider. Check it out after the break.