Usually when preparing for a raid in World of Warcraft, I'd disenchant a bunch of items to get enchants ready for any new gear I won. Every once in a while, I'd get sidetracked and come back to DE a vital piece of epic gear instead of the trash I had intended. Panic usually ensued.

Read more: Sold, disenchanted or destroyed items »

The new patch for World of Warcraft hit servers today with significant customer support interface changes, making it easier for you to report report that player with the offensive name or the one exploiting a safe spot in a Battlegrounds map.

Read more: Right-click and report »

Activision Blizzard is being sued by Worlds Inc., for violating a patent on virtual worlds. The firm claims that games like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft violate its patent, and are requesting "fair compensation."

Read more: Patent covers 'enabling users to interact in a virtual space' »

With the the advances in mobile gaming development, how long will it be before a huge franchise gets a conversion to the little screen? Blizzard has already given it some thought for World of Warcraft.

Read more: Trade skills or pet battles on mobile? »

World of Warcraft is preparing to release its panda monks, and all the tweaks that come with it. Those come with buffs and debuffs, and Blizzard has opened up with its design plans so far to invite feedback from fans.

Read more: Blizzard aiming for more freedom to invite whoever »

In an effort to revive its slowly dwindling numbers, Blizzard is offering players a new reward to bring former players back to World of Warcraft and its current expansion, Cataclysm.

Two new faction specific mounts have been unveiled: the Spectral Gryphon for Alliance characters and the Spectral Wind Rider for Horde characters. To be eligible for these rewards, players send a "scroll of resurrection" to a former player. Once the player accepts and pays for at least 30 days of game time, the referring player will get the reward. Read more »

Gamers are always happy to throw their two cents around to anyone who will listen when it comes to their favorite games. World of Warcraft has those types of gamers in spades and while a few bring up solid points, most of the criticism becomes white noise.

But when a developer of the game takes a critical look at his game, people take notice. Blizzard used its WoW blog on Battle.net to chat with Scott "Daelo" Mercer, WoW's lead encounter designer, about the dungeons and raids in Cataclysm. The interview offered some quality tidbits about some of the most interesting encounters in the game.

Read more: What went wrong with Cataclysm »

World of Warcraft will allow cross-realm raids with patch 4.3.2, Blizzard has announced. Players can already form cross-realm parties with Real ID friends, which serves as the backbone for the new raid functionality. It will also let you use the Raid Finder and jump into any classic dungeon or raid to automatically join an instance.

Read more: No Normal or Heroic Dragon Soul yet »

Deathwing shall fall in World of Warcraft patch 4.3, which launches today. It adds three new dungeons and one new raid, the Raid Finder feature, Transmogrification for items, class balance tweaks, and heaps more.

Dubbed 'Hour of Twilight,' the patch takes players on a quest across a string of dungeons to defeat Deathwing, Cataclysm's main villain, in a climatic raid. You'll visit the future and the past, preparing to defeat the dastardly dragon. Naturally, these bring new loot to covet.

Watch: The Hour of Twilight falls »

Have you remembered to get World of Warcraft a present for its birthday? For shame! Blizzard's MMO adores its players so much, it's actually giving players presents to celebrate the seventh anniversary of its launch on November 23. Now, don't you feel guilty for not returning the thoughtful gesture?

Read more: Free feat and fireworks. With bonus Chuck Norris! »

Details on the 4.3 patch for World of Warcraft have found their way online, with a close examination of the game's upcoming "Transmogrification" technology, brought forth by the Ethereals, that allow for cosmetic customization of certain items outfitting warriors of the Alliance or Horde as well as a number of other additions.

Read more: Face off against Deathwing »

Developer Blizzard sure is good at raising money for charity. Sales of the Cenarion Hatchling, one of World of WarCraft's virtual pets that was created to support Red Cross Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami relief, have generated $1.9 million.

The Cenarion Hatchling was offered through Blizzard's Store, with a $10 price tag. 100% of the proceeds of purchases made before July 31 "will be donated to the American Red Cross's Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami relief efforts."

Read more: Previous WoW charity efforts »

Starting today, anyone with a Battle.net account can play any character they want to in World of Warcraft up to level 20 completely for free. You heard right. World of Warcraft has taken what could be the first step in a move toward going free to play. The new "trial" mode replaces the 10- 14-day free trials originally offered to new players and will now known as World of Warcraft Starter Edition. Players are free to reactivate dormant trial accounts for use with the new model or create characters based on any race and class from the base game, including The Burning Crusade races draenei and blood elf. Read more »

It's always unfortunate in World of Warcraft when a friend chooses, for whatever reason, to play on a different server than you. However, 1up spotted that Blizzard is now working on a feature which will allow you to reunite with your chums on any server to slay monsters together.

A post by World of Warcraft community manager 'Nethaera' on the forums explains that a "cross-realm Real ID party system" will allow players of the same faction on any Realm, who are Real ID friends, to party up and queue to play 5-person regular and Heroic dungeons together. Read more »

Speaking at Activision's earnings conference call last night, Blizzard president Mike Morhaime revealed that the developer is planning to hasten development on World of Warcraft expansions to reduce the amount of subscribers lost--the "churn" rate--once the new content has been exhausted.

"What we have seen so far is that people have been consuming this content very quickly and so the subscriber levels have decreased faster than in previous expansions," Morhaime said, speaking about WoW's latest expansion Cataclysm, which was released in December 2010. Read more »