WoW General News

 Details on the Cataclysm prologue chapters surfaced recently, scheduled to be released alongside the 3.9 patch. What wasn't said was how difficult the encounters were to be - after all, World of Warcraft isn't just high-level raiders. Responding to a player question, Blizzard assured that "Players of all levels will be able to take part in some form or another." Good news for players who want in on the action but, for whatever reason, haven't hit 80 yet.

A skilled Death Knight player claimed Shadowmourne earlier today, becoming the first player to complete the difficult and lengthy quest line to rebuild the legendary weapon. Considering it's one of the toughest items to get in the game, it's only natural that its stats be absolutely insane, increasing strength by 228 and critical strike by 114, among other things. Definitely something to drool over.

Riding on the coattails of updated 3.3.3 notes, Blizzard gave some details today about their plans for future content additions, including quests designed to ease players into Cataclysm's storyline.

Patch 3.9, according to the post, will contain the quest line that will neatly set everything in motion for Cataclysm's introduction. In a way, that gives us a timeframe; given the rate at which Blizzard has been deploying the 3.x patches, we'll be seeing this content relatively soon!

Patch 3.3.3 brings a host of UI and under-the-hood game changes, but the biggest news is what it does to the current Battlegrounds system.

PC Gamer UK's special April issue - the MMO issue - is about to hit shelves in England, and apparently has a plethora of info on World of Warcraft's next expansion, Cataclysm. While not officially endorsed by Blizzard, the article should at least contain some good detective work that may at least bring some new speculation forth.

We'll get our hands on a copy and give you details as soon as we can!

Alright, so it's not anything Earth-shattering... or is it? Blizzard let slip the fact that the ever-sought-after Frozen Orbs will become a greed roll only in 3.3.3 - meaning that, finally, everyone will get a fair chance at the useful drop, as opposed to stacking the roll with "need" selections. Check out Blizzard's official comment and thank the heavens here.

See, we told you! It's nearly the end of the week, and patch 3.3.3 is still languishing in PTR purgatory, waiting to be perfected before being pushed live sometime soon (hopefully). There's a reason this update isn't live, though, because changes are still being made to the effects 3.3.3 will bring.

After giving us a rundown of the new Mastery system planned for Cataclysm, World of Warcraft developers answered a few burning questions that players had asked. Naturally, most people seem to be worried about what this means for hybrid classes.

While the patch itself probably won't go live just yet, the initial download for 3.3.3 is now showing up on the Blizzard launcher. We're one step closer to 3.3.3, folks!

Cataclysm's new statistic, Mastery, got a bit of a reveal today. After teasing the new gameplay mechanic a few days ago, Blizzard has outlined some of the changes Cataclysm will bring to the game in greater detail.