Beta testing for the pandaful World of Warcraft expansion Mists of Pandaria will be beginning soon, an announcement on the official WoW blog has revealed. "Annual Pass holders, press, fan sites, friends and family," will be invited, along with other opt-in beta testers.

So how does one opt-in to the beta, exactly? Blizzard explains:

Once you've set up a Battle.net account and have attached at least one Blizzard game, you can choose to opt in to our beta tests from the Beta Profile page. You'll need to select which franchises you'd be interested in helping test, as well as download and run the System Check tool to attach your computer's specifications to your beta profile. Once that's complete it's simply a matter of waiting for an invite.

Invites will be sent via email, but Blizzard offers some precautionary advice about avoiding the potential (even likely) email phishing scams that will launched by nefarious folks trying to steal your login credentials. The Battle.net Security site has some helpful tips for identifying and avoiding such scams, though notes that the best way to determine if an email is genuine is to check your Battle.net account to see if there's a Mists of Pandaria beta license attached, which will help confirm the legitimacy of the invite you've received.

All Annual Pass holders will be invited to the beta at some point during its duration, promises Blizzard, and more folks may be invited based on testing needs. The specific start date and duration of the beta have not yet been revealed.