So, have you been wondering why exactly Wrathion's made an appearance in Pandaria? Datamining over the course of the past month or so has revealed several legendary quality items, and the possible existence of a quest chain for more details on what those legendary items are for. And of course this all ties back to our dear friend Wrathion, who has apparently been quite pleased with what he's seen so far in Pandaria.

But Wrathion, while a black dragon, isn't necessarily a bad guy. A bit short-tempered, yes. A creature you certainly wouldn't want to cross, absolutely. A black dragon with an agenda that benefits something other than himself? ... well, that actually seems kind of likely. MMO-Champion dug up some voice files for Wrathion and the apparent quest chain for those legendary items. The implications are utterly fascinating, both for current events in Mists of Pandaria, and for future patches as well.

Spoiler Warning: These voice files may contain big spoilers for Mists of Pandaria. If you are avoiding spoiler content, turn away.

Once upon a time when my guild was raiding Icecrown Citadel back in Wrath, we had a few players who were notorious at making excuses for sudden AFK's or calling off. It wasn't the first time I'd heard of this however -- previous guilds had members that also used any excuse in the book to take a break. One raider in an earlier guild I was in was notorious for screwing up achievements for the guild. After wiping our raid for the umpteenth time in the middle of an extremely difficult achievement, he promptly typed into raid chat that he had to go next door and deliver his neighbor's baby.

Now you would think this was ridiculous enough on its own, but he then made a long, detailed, thought-out post on the guild forums about how he was fine and so was the neighbor and she had a little boy and he was just beautiful ... he waxed on and on and on. Someone asked him to post a picture of the child, at which point he promptly made some excuse about scheduling and quietly left the guild. For the next few months, anyone going AFK would blurt "AFK-having-baby" in vent as fast as they could and crack everyone up.

Players all have their own reasons for going AFK, or even calling off to a raid. But sometimes the excuses are just that -- excuses. And that's where the Warcraft player base seems to shine in creativity. Assisting with childbirth has to be the one of the toppers on my list, right up there with the guild member that went AFK to answer the door with a gun (I ... never really did find out the details on that one, but I don't think I really wanted to know), and "The pool is on fire." So let's hear it guys -- what are the best excuses you've ever heard for calling off or sudden AFK's?

We're currently receiving reports that more Mists of Pandaria beta passes are being issued -- with a twist. Because all Annual Pass subscribers have received their beta invites, this round is going to those that did not purchase an Annual Pass. If you've registered your interest in beta access on your WoW account, you may have gotten in as well. Please note: if you receive an email notification that you have a beta invite, don't click any links in the email. Just go to Battle.net, log in, and check your accounts to see if you indeed have beta access.

And if you are granted beta access, you may want to check our gigantic amount of Mists of Pandaria beta coverage to catch up on what's changed, what's gone, what's new, and what's incredibly cool.

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It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!

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I love comics. I have a monstrous stash of comics carefully bagged, boarded, boxed and stacked in my closet. It runs in the family -- my father collected comics when he was a kid, and he has a particularly painful tale of how he collected Superman from day one. He actually owned Action Comics #1. However, when he left home and joined the military, his mother (bless her heart) decided to throw away all his old comics while cleaning house. Sometimes my dad looks at what that #1 issue sells for today, and he gets a little sick to his stomach.

However, while I do enjoy reading Marvel, I have to say I'm a DC comics girl at heart -- much to my father's dismay. Last time, we looked at ways to transmogrify characters into beloved comic book figures and tried our hand at transmogrifying looks for some of the Avengers. Well this week, it's the ladies turn. While we can't get exact replicas of many of the DC comics sets, I've tried to put together three looks here that recall some of DC comic's most heroic and devilish women.

Every Monday evening, WoW Insider brings you a long list of WoW podcasts that were published the week and weekend before. If you don't see your favorite World of Warcraft podcast listed, just let us know in the comments. Be sure to leave a link to it, and we'll pick it up next week.

All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. In World of Warcraft, that player is you! Each week, Anne Stickney brings you All the World's a Stage with helpful hints, tips and tricks on the art of roleplay in WoW.

Are you ready for Pandaria? I don't think I can really repeat it enough: Pandaria is beautiful. The locations are gorgeous, and the amount of detail that went into simple things like leaves and trees is just phenomenal. Even if I don't have any quests to complete, simply running around and soaking in all of the scenery while snapping as many screenshots as possible is a lot of fun, particularly since there are hidden shrines with bits of lore all over the place now!

Since last week's jaunt into the wilds of Pandaria seemed to go over well, I decided to point out a few more places that are suitable for roleplay. Only this time, we're going to take a look at some really large areas where guilds or groups could hang out or large events could take place. Group events can be a lot of fun, even if they're a little harder to coordinate. Having the perfect backdrop for an event makes it even more fun -- and Pandaria is full of perfect backdrops.