Testing for the big bad raid of the Mists of Pandaria expansion is not quite ready to begin, Ion "Watcher" Hazzikostas tells us, but we're getting close. There will be a few more PTR patches to take care of some stability issues, and then Blizzard will be ready to open up the Siege of Orgrimmar to testing groups. Blizzard is going for two major schedules for SoO testing: one at 10:30 am Pacific time, aimed toward EU players, and one at 4:00 pm Pacific time, aimed toward North American players, though all regions will be open to testing during both scheduled windows.

Normal and heroic 10-player modes will be tested first before proceeding to 25-player normal and heroic modes. LFR and flex raiding will be available for PTR testing as well, and will be unlocked once a raid wing has completed testing in normal mode, with a longer time frame for testing as well.

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Filed under: News items, Raiding, Mists of Pandaria

If you live in the EU and love to dress up your toons, you might be interested in this new game announced by community manager Meldheron: the transmogrification race! According to Meldheron it will be a monthly mini-contest in which players are prompted with a transmog theme on the WoW forum. Reply to the thread with a list of the pieces for use in your outfit, and upvote your favorites. The five most popular will be featured on the World of Warcraft facebook page.

I know we've got lots of transmog fiends around, so if you're in the EU this might be a fun way to share your ideas with fellow WoW players and even get a little bit of attention for your sartorial efforts. Have fun, and I look forward to seeing the top contestants!

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Filed under: News items, Transmogrification

If Withers, the Ruby Sapling, and the Teldrassil Sapling just aren't cutting it in terms of tree pets for you (and how could you not want another tree pet? I'm stumped at the very thought!) then you're in for a treat. Blizzard has just added the Blossoming Ancient to its digital store for $10. The Blossoming Ancient is a miniature version of the great Ancients that protect and guard Azeroth's forests and natural landscapes. If you don't think it's cute enough on its own, get this: it changes with the seasons. You can check out previews of the seasonal forms on the purchase page.

If you haven't yet made the foray into digital pet purchases, now might just be the time to branch out! ... Okay, I just really wanted to make that pun. As with all digital pet and mount purchases, the Blossoming Ancient will be available to all the characters on your account. Take good care of your little Ancient, hero of Azeroth!

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Filed under: News items

Today, Blizzard has some pretty big announcements about their upcoming game Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. The post is full of changes and additions that are being made to the game, many of which are based on the fan feedback so far. The biggest thing that jumps out at me right away is the fact that the game will now use gold as currency to buy new card packs. You earn gold through--get this--completing daily quests. Ha! And you thought you'd escaped those!

Other announcements include the ability to level the different class cards and the addition of a friends feature that allows you to add people to your friends list in order to battle or chat with them. There are also new card frames color-coded by class, as well as a number of updates to existing card functions and abilities. Make sure to jump on over to the Hearthstone page for the complete list! Oh, and before you ask -- no, there's still no news on when the beta will open up.

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Filed under: News items, Hearthstone Insider

Any given class in WoW has a ton of different spells and abilities. More than I can reasonably hotkey to my decidedly un-fancy two-button mouse and $5 thrift shop keyboard, in any case. I do my best with keybinding and click modifiers, but inevitably there are some things that just aren't going to make the cut. Fortunately, these abilities usually present themselves without a whole lot of deliberation.

For example, on my druid, I don't remember the last time I used Soothe. The other ability I find gathering dust in my spellbook is Hibernate. I know I used Hibernate to help with crowd control for trash packs in Ulduar and Ruby Sanctum during Wrath of the Lich King, but since then? Nope. Hibernate does not live on my bars.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion

Last November, Blizzard announced that they were working on testing updates to Battle.net's communication and login functionalities. That testing is ongoing and has now been moved to an open beta. Blizzard is looking for interested players to help them test a new desktop application designed to improve the launcher and login experiences for all Battle.net users.

If you're interested in being a part of this beta test, you can head on over to your account page and opt-in to a Blizzard game universe beta test. As is usual, invites will go out in waves, so you might not get yours right away. Happy testing!

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Filed under: News items

Many of you may be familiar with Video Games Live, a concert series celebrating the music and art of video games. Music from Blizzard's games has been featured in other Video Games Live concerts, but this is the first time the event will be held in Blizzard's home town of Irvine, California, and the planners are well aware of the games giant in the performance's backyard. If you use the promo code "Blizzard" when you purchase your ticket, you'll get a 20% discount on the price.

The show will be performed by the Pacific Symphony, along with video footage, synchronized lighting, and live-action interactive performances. If you are lucky enough to have the opportunity to attend, tickets are now currently on sale for the show on July 17th.

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Filed under: News items

Many lore fans have been anticipating the latest World of Warcraft tie-in novel Vol'jin: Shadows of the Horde for months now, and that wait will soon be over. In a news post today, Blizzard announced that the long-awaited novel will go on sale July 2, 2013, less than a month from now. The article also includes an excerpt from the book wherein Vol'jin experiences an intriguing vision about the Zandalari, their history, and that of his own his people, the Darkspear trolls. It's not much to go on, but the preview points toward a certain fundamental conflict in Vol'jin between his role as protector and leader of his people, and what his history and even religion may demand of him.

This latest book is authored by Michael Stackpole, a familiar name in the worlds of both gaming and sci-fi/fantasy writing. It's exciting to see a new author being added to the ranks of Blizzard licensed fiction writing, and I look forward to reading Vol'jin: Shadows of the Horde.

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Filed under: News items, Lore

The latest update over on the Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft website gives us a new shoutcast of Malfurion Stormrage against Valeera Sanguinar. The match is a great opportunity to show off some interesting cards--especially fun is the Alarm-o-bot, which allows you to swap out another random minion during play and has the potential to bring some heavy-hitters to the playing board relatively early in the game. You can also catch a glimpse of the Orgrimmar set board, though no one in this match seemed inclined to play around with their surroundings while waiting on their opponent's turn.

The match itself lasts about ten minutes, and has quite a dramatic finish, which I won't spoil here. Definitely worth the watch, and I'm glad to see my WoW class of choice in action at last! As if I needed any more reasons to be impatient for the Hearthstone beta.

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Filed under: Hearthstone Insider

The blog Movoto (tagline: "The lighter side of real estate") has done evaluations of fictional properties before. This time, they've set their sites on Stormwind Keep, of our own beloved Stormwind, to try and determine the following:

• How big is it, actually?
• What's its real world equivalent location?
• How much would it cost to purchase, based on the previous two factors?

The answers, in brief, to those three questions are: 47,219 square feet, Caernarfon Castle, Gwynedd, Wales, and US$10,293,472 ($218 per square foot), respectively. Ten million dollars seems like a whole lot to me, but article author Randy Nelson asserts that it's actually rather a pittance for a castle. Then again, he also points out that as far as we can tell, Stormwind Keep only has one accessible floor, and the rest is all for show. Even the Ruins of Lordaeron are bigger than Stormwind Keep. See what you've done, game designers?! You've devalued your own non-existent property!

Back at the blog, Nelson gives an in-depth breakdown of how he came about all the numbers as well as how he determined that Caernarfon Castle was the best approximation of Stormwind Keep in the world. I highly recommend a read of the entire article--don't just stop at the infographic! The whole thing is interesting and fun. I'd love to see more analyses like this, if the blog authors have the time and inclination, if only so that we players could have yet another aspect of our chosen factions and races to argue about.

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Filed under: Humor