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There will be a round of realm maintenance for everyone tomorrow, Tuesday November 10th from 5:00 a.m. PST / 8:00 a.m. EST until 11:00 a.m. PST / 2:00 p.m. EST. This is more or less the "normal" maintenance time we've all come to know and love.

The downtime tomorrow should not be taken as any indication that patch 3.3 is dropping; that event is still a couple weeks away at best. The patch tonight was a "tools patch," that while temporarely screwed things up for the majority of people, wasn't anything that changed things significantly -- at least as far as we all can tell.

If anything else develops of this downtime, we'll be sure to let you know.

Filed under: Realm Status, News items

Robin Torres writes WoW, Casually for the player with limited playtime. Of course, you people with lots of playtime can read this too, but you may get annoyed by the fact that we are unashamed, even proud, of the fact that beating WoW isn't our highest priority. Take solace in the fact that your gear is better than ours, but if that doesn't work, remember that we outnumber you. Not that that's a threat, after all, we don't have time to do anything about it. But if WoW were a democracy, we'd win.

I finally hit 80 on my druid, Freja and since I am in The Spousal Unit's raiding guild, I was immediately able to put on some nice purples to help gear myself up. But gear myself up for what? Raiding has become much more accessible to those of us with limited playtime, but do I really want to go there?

Raiding involves more than just a contiguous block of time during which you can participate in a large group activity. Raids need and expect quite a lot from its members – more than just showing up and downing a few objectives, like you can in AV. If you, like me, are the primary caregiver in your household and have many other pursuits vying for your time, you need to consider many factors before making the decision to wade into the endgame.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Raiding, (Casual) WoW, Casually

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Filed under: Warlock, Analysis / Opinion, How-tos, Leveling, Guides, (Warlock) Blood Pact

I and many tipsters have encountered some issues tonight when trying to launch the game.

Here's what we know:

• The Launcher is downloading something small.
• It is taking much longer than the 2 minutes estimated.
• Sometimes the download fails.
• Once the "something" has been downloaded, some are getting "unable to validate game version".
• Constant attempts to log in appear to make the error go away.
• There is no indication of what has been downloaded.

Here's what we don't know: What was downloaded.

We will update you as soon as we know anything.

Please note: There is no indication patch 3.3 is dropping. NONE.

Update 8:55pm: Blizzard says that the downloading issues are due to "prime time" and gives some advice in this link, mostly suggesting to wait.

Update 8:44pm: Blizzard is calling this a "Tools Patch" and saying that "Safe Mode with Networking" is solving some people's problems. Obviously the issues are not fixed.

Update 8:30pm: Blizzard says they have fixed the issues. Anyone still having problems should take the steps outlined in this link.

Filed under: Patches, Blizzard, News items

The Wrath storyline factored heavily into the official WoW comics, albeit slightly late, and continues to do so with the release of the upcoming Thassarian manga. And now it looks like it's headed on a collision course with the storyline to Cataclysm! Ogre-turned-Liefeldian-monstrosity Cho'gall recites a prophecy in the latest issue related heavily to the Old Gods, Mary Sue shamagadin Med'an, and the Elemental Planes. BlizzPlanet has a pretty good writeup of what the prophecy could mean and its consequences down the road, but I'll give you a brief summary here, too.

Of course, I'll toss it after the jump for those inclined to avoid spoilers. Ready?

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Lore, Cataclysm

World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music and fan fiction. Show us how you express yourself; contact our tips line (attention: World of WarCrafts) with your not-for-profit, WoW-inspired creations.

Not that you really needed more sweets, this close to the hip-padding holiday season -- but these cupcakes from Gixx of Natural Order on US-Farstriders-H look sweet enough to tempt the Alliance into developing a taste for the Horde, don't you think?

"I am new to fondant," Gixx confessed to us, "but it's honestly just fancy Play-Doh. You spend a few years as a kid making fake food with that stuff, you learn a few tricks. I did learn that a paper printout of the Horde symbol will stick to the fondant and make a huge mess, so I had to use an X-Acto knife to slice it out of some thin, clear plastic. That left me with a reusable stencil that I then cut around the fondant with."

Other advice from the chef: Frost normally before decorating for bonus to +taste. Keep fondant covered and sealed until you're ready to use it. Keep the finished cupcakes covered, too, so they stay soft and yummy. For the Horde!

World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music and fan fiction. Show us how you express yourself by contacting our tips line (attention: World of WarCrafts) - not-for-profit work only, please.

Filed under: Fan stuff, Features, World of WarCrafts

We here at WoW.com are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere.

• Mania of Mania's Arcania has some interesting ideas as to what Blizzard should do with Hunter pets to improve them and the whole system around them. I'm glad I'm not the only one that finds Spirit Beasts a little odd.
• Blog Azeroth's shared topic this week is, "Relationships within Azeroth." Check out what many bloggers had to say about it!
• World of Matticus's Mimetir has kicked off a two part series on his 10 golden rules of raid leading.
• You asked, The Stoppable Force answered. What happens when Lil' KT and Mr. Bigglesworth are stuck in a room together?

Filed under: Fan stuff, The Daily Quest

The PTR patch notes for Patch 3.3. have been updated. Some of the significant changes:

• Oculus appears to have been significantly nerfed. Obviously, this was done to facilitate easier random PUGs using the new cross-server dungeon system.
• Divine Intervention: This ability now also removes Exhaustion and Sated from the target. In addition, the cooldown on this ability has been reduced from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Cannot be used in Arenas.
• Lay on Hands: This ability will place Forbearance on the paladin if used on his or herself. It will not place Forbearance on others.
• Bug fixes... 158 of them by my count.

It appears that Blizzard isn't done with the changes to Lay on Hands, which should be particularly noteworthy to Paladins everywhere. I wouldn't be surprised to see LoH go through a few more changes before all is said and done.

The full changes after the break.

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Filed under: Patches, News items

Blizzard finally released the last of its Tier 10 sneak peeks, the long-awaited shaman set, and it did not disappoint. Now that all of the waiting is over -- at least, the waiting for sneak peeks -- we've assembled a gallery of the Tier 10 sets for all classes.

It looks like Blizzard really took their time on these sets. Some I may not like as much as others, design-wise, but they all have top-notch texture work and attention to detail. Check out the wool pattern on the shaman set, or the fiery brands on the warrior set, or the two-toed hunter boots. A lot of the sets are adorned with moving parts, too, like the druid shoulders, which snap and bite periodically. And most of them follow a very cohesive theme -- "stuff we've seen in Wrath up to this point." The warrior set should immediately remind you of King Ymiron, the rogue set is, well, a geist, and the death knight set might as well be called "Arthas Jr."

So, check out what you've got coming in Patch 3.3. With the new Dungeon System, a week or so of heroics will get you a full set of Tier 9 gear and get you all set to face Arthas, if you're up for it.

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Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid arriving soon, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to the Arthas. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.

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Filed under: Druid, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior, Patches, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King

Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky be your host today.

Another week, another Queue. There's a few good questions today, including the first about rested XP and heirlooms.

Let's get into it.

Shibdaddy asked...

"Is the amount of bonus xp received from BOA items effected by whether or not you are in a rested state?"

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Filed under: The Queue