Here are the preliminary patch notes for the next World of Warcraft update featuring some bug fixes and Hunters, Mages and Priest tweakings.

The following is a list of the newest realms (game servers) opened in the latest month for European and US WOW players.

US players can finally order their copy of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade at the Blizzard online store . Some Collector's Editions are also available.

On his latest blog entry Tobold discusses the new World of Warcraft LFG system. Apparently nobody is using it.
"I am sometimes a bit surprised about how conservative MMOG players are, having problems accepting changes to the interface, even if they are to the better. I would say that new LFG system is quite good, especially in combination with the new functionality of the meeting stones to teleport. You can now easily find somebody for a dungeon group, regardless of their current location, and teleport them to the dungeon instantly, if at least two group members are already there. That should be a lot more popular than it is. I just hope that the expected popularity of the new Burning Crusade dungeons will break the ice."

An update has been released on the WOW servers solving the following problems:

• Regular snowballs will no longer knock down groupmates in a Battleground. This only applies to Battlegrounds. The reason for this is that grouping is forced in the Battlegrounds and players were using the mechanic to cause grief to their teammates.
• "Hardpacked Snowballs" -- specific to Alterac Valley -- can only be used against enemy targets. Again, the reason for this was due to negative player issues caused between teammates in Alterac Valley.

The WOW web team has released today a nice page from which it is possible to check daily updated statistics in the following categories: most auctioned items, most crafted items, most dangerous NPCs, most gathered items, most looted items and most completed quests.

Many thanks to Llucas for sending us some very nice screenshots from The Burning Crusade beta test. Check them out in our gallery !

The last World of Warcraft content patch before the launch of The Burning Crusade expansion has been published on the test server. It includes the expected talent trees changes, the new honor system, the PvP arenas and many more changes. Check out the full patch log.

We finally have an official announcement of an expected release time for the World of Warcraft expansion The Burning Crusade. The European website says that "To allow more time for closed beta testers to provide us with valuable feedback, we will be moving the target launch date of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade by a few weeks. This will enable us to take a little extra time to polish the content and ensure that the expansion meets our expectations and those of our players. For more information, click here ."

 

So the expansion should be released for both European and US customers in January 2007.