There is a Battle.net preview up at the official StarCraft II site. While much of it talks of the integration of the StarCraft with the new Battle.net, including new mod functionality and better matchmaking, it also discusses something that affects WoW players: Real ID.

[View Remaining 3 Paragraphs]

Boubouille over at MMO-Champion uncovered two new recolors of the stock deathcharger mount in Patch 3.3.2; one red one, one blue one. There's a summon spell for one of them, the Crimson Deathcharger, corresponding to the red recolored Crimson Deathcharger creature, and while there isn't a spell for the blue one, the files also contain an Azure Deathcharger creature.

[View Remaining 3 Paragraphs]

15 Minutes of Fame is WoW.com's look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes -- from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, from the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.

If James Whitehead II knocked on my door right now, I might not recognize him -- but once I realized who he was, I'd throw my arms around his neck in gleeful gratitude. You see, Jim is the brains behind Clique, the popular click-casting add-on that's saved the aching fingers of healers across the globe. (That's worth a little gleeful gratitude, yes sir. And probably a little foot-washing and maybe even a little toe-sucking, too, truth be told. Not to descend into TMI right here in the intro or anything. Ahem.) He's also the creator of mods like PerfectRaid and TomTom and the author of Hacking World of Warcraft and World of Warcraft Programming: A Guide and Reference for Creating WoW Add-ons, now going into its second edition. He's working on a Ph.D. at Oxford University. He rows competitively, he mods, he knits and crochets, he raids ... Ok, ok, let's invite him in for a chat, shall we?

[Expand 8 Paragraphs]

Each week WoW.com will bring you a fresh look at reader submitted UIs. Have a screenshot of your UI you want to submit? Send your screenshots, along with info on what mods you're using, to readerui@wow.com.

[Expand 4 Paragraphs]

Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.

Today's introduction video is something... special. Since people got a kick out of what I liked to call the Worst Video Ever, I figured I'd let you all see another misadventure is moviemaking from Sunday morning. One of my early attempts at recording the Love is in the Air boss went poorly, to say the least. Alternate title to the above video: When Addons Attack

[Expand 1 Paragraphs]

Welcome to Lichborne, your weekly look into the bloody business of being a death knight. This week, said business is especially bloody as we take a look at the most popular death knight tree.

According to recent armory analysis, blood is the most popular death knight spec. It's not hard to see why, it's a simple yet robust tree that provides lots of power with a minimum of fuss. If you're interested in getting in the DPS side of the tree but aren't sure where to start, or if you're just looking to brush up on the basics of the tree, this is the Lichborne for you. While this guide doesn't necessarily cover some of the more advanced aspects of the tree, it does covers the basic ways to get the most out of your gear, rotation, and spec as a blood DPSer.

[Expand 4 Paragraphs]

Sometimes you'd like to know that there are other MMOs out there, right? Our sister site Massively can provide you with everything you need to know about all those other shiny MMOs! Check out this roundup of the latest news from the wider MMO world.

	Tips for a WoW player in EverQuest II Greetings and fair travels to you, adventurers. Once again it is I, Seccia Ravenloft, here to present this week's look into the world of Norrath. Now, from what these humans on this spiderweb site tell me, some of you are more familiar with other worlds than you are with Norrath. Blasphemy, I say! This week, I wish to mend that little problem of yours by teaching you how to adapt quickly to our world, lest you coddle yourself with the pillow armor other worlds offer you.
	Making it as an MMO blogger: An interview with top community managers Ahh, that eternal debate about what differentiates a gaming blogger from a gaming journalist. We could go on and on about specifics on both sides, but the fact is, we all have the same goals in mind: writing about what we love.
	Free Realms reaches 8 million registered accounts No matter which way you spin it, 8 million accounts is a ton of accounts. Free Realms has recently hit that magical milestone, celebrating a huge amount of fan interest in the game and a recent nomination for Best New Social/Online game in the Game Developer's Choice Awards. In fact, it's the only traditional MMO to be nominated for an award this year (outside of Nexon's Dungeon Fighter Online.)
	Warhammer 40k MMO to be fully revealed this summer Have you been looking forward to the Warhammer 40K MMO for what feels like forever? The people at THQ have been offering up small pieces of information since they announced the game a few years ago -- last April we finally got a release year of 2012, and just in December we were given some beautiful concept art.

	GoonSwarm alliance disbanded in EVE Online political drama In the sandbox of New Eden, rival alliances vie for control of vast swathes of star systems. The lawless nullsec regions of the EVE Online universe are home to violent alliances of all sizes and fleets with hundreds of ships clash on a daily basis. The political machinations of nullsec have produced many stories of wars fought over territory, stations conquered and fleets dismantled by force.
	Cryptic clarifies what one million accounts actually means As Eliot pointed out yesterday, when Cryptic announced that they had reached one million registered accounts, it paid to look at the announcement a bit more closely. What exactly is a registered account? Does a registered account mean that someone purchased Star Trek Online? Is it a beta tester? Maybe just a forum account?
	First Impressions: Global Agenda Global Agenda. This game has been successful in causing quite a stir on our website. It seems almost every single story we do on the game anymore turns into the inevitable "this isn't an MMO" debate. We've even tried to give the MMORTS part of itmore of a perspective in past articles, but that's neither here nor there. This article isn't about the game or if it's an MMO -- it's about how this game plays.
	Keeping an old game new "Guild Wars is an old game." As the game approaches its fifth birthday and Guild Wars 2 continues production, that's a phrase you'll hear more and more. While it's true that the game has been around for a while now, age doesn't necessarily equal stale or boring. On the contrary, it means you've got an established game with an experienced development team behind it, and they've had time to work out all those bugs, kinks, and emergency patches that are so common in new games. Even better, you've got a strong player base that knows their way around.
	The Road to Mordor: Vol III, Book 1 test realm notes analyzed Turbine's Lord of the Ring's Online has just announced the Volume III, Book 1: Oath of the Rangers free content expansion and the patch is already up on their test server, Bullroarer. And with a test patch, comes patch notes. I have to give the normal disclaimers about test notes changing before going live, but given that, let's dig in.

Maintenance has been extended until "approximately" 2:59pm EST. In the official post on the forums, Blizzard recommends looking into your account security and making sure that everything is up to date. I agree and to that end, I'll also link you to the WoW Rookie account security roundup.

[View Remaining 2 Paragraphs]

Putting a call out for a pure resto shaman columnist brought out the best in applicants and this time we came out with a clear winner. We know him as Joe Perez, but you may know him as Lodur, the resto shaman columnist at World of Matticus. He will be joining Michael Sacco and Rich Maloy on Totem Talk in the next week or two when we get him contracted and set up.

[View Remaining 2 Paragraphs]

Nyhm originally released Nerf You in December 2009. This video is a proud continuation of his work through the years. However, I feel like Nyhm's really nailed down a particular dynamic in the lifestyle of playing WoW. Getting nerfed sucks, there's no doubt about it. But for every person who feels like the nerf hammer hit them especially hard, there's probably a few who realize that it was probably for a good reason.

[View Remaining 3 Paragraphs]

Welcome to another edition of the WoW.com Weekly Comic -- Byron the Tauren Rogue!

[View Remaining 2 Paragraphs]

As Valentine's Day approaches, it's important to be sensitive to the needs of those people who have no one special to celebrate with, like Cutaia of <The Cunning Linguists> on Bronzebeard. "After seeing how much the Horde enjoys this holiday, I decided to ditch the hustle and bustle of Stormwind to take a romantic boat ride through the Undercity," he wrote. "Sadly, nobody wanted to join me. I'm so lonely. /cry." Think his guild name might be driving away the ladies?

[View Remaining 2 Paragraphs]

Every week, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week, we are polite, professional, and have a plan to kill everyone we meet.

There's a bit of a gentlemen's wager going on here behind the scenes at WoW.com; the author of the weekly feature that gets the most hits by the end of the month will get cookies from Elizabeth Harper.

[Expand 2 Paragraphs]

It was sort of lost in the shuffle between Love Is in the Air and the fact that we're technically not a sports blog, but this weekend featured one of the biggest events in American sporting, the Super Bowl. Believe it or not, even some of us uber geeks here at WoW.com's world headquarters like sports. Some of us even watched the Super Bowl. Some of us even watched it for a reason other than the commercials. (And honestly, the commercials sucked this year. Except the Google one. That made me melt and go all gooey and squeal with warm fuzzies.)

[View Remaining 3 Paragraphs]

WoW.com has in its possession six copies of World of Warcraft Programming: A Guide and Reference for Creating WoW Addons, Second Edition. And guess what? We're giving them all away to you! Five copies haven't even been cracked open, and one copy is the book that we've used to write the review of the programming guide -- lightly used and still in perfect condition.

[View Remaining 2 Paragraphs]

Over on the EU forums, Slorkuz has clarified a few questions players may have about the new changes coming to normal mode ICC, namely the removal of limited attempts from the final bosses in each wing. While limited attempts will still be in place on heroic mode, they will no longer be in effect on normal mode as of the end of maintenance this morning. To quote:
Q: If you extend your raid lockout this week, will you still lose attempts on Normal after the hotfix?
A: No.

[View Remaining 2 Paragraphs]

It's been a pretty busy week here in WoW. With Patch 3.3.2 live and the Frostwing Halls open, we quickly saw our first 10-man Lich King kill, followed by our first 25-man Lich King kill, followed shortly by a ban, followed a bit later by the first legitimate 25-man Lich King kill. But if you haven't managed to get him down yet, you're in luck. Blizzard's already making it easier to get to him by removing the limited number of attempts on ICC wing bosses in normal mode.

[View Remaining 2 Paragraphs]

Icecrown Citadel Attempts removed on Normal
Quote from: Daelo (Source)After each region's maintenance this week, raids will no longer lose attempts on wipes in Normal mode for Professor Putricide, Blood-Queen Lana'thel, Sindragosa, and the Lich King. There will still be limited attempts in Heroic mode.

We will continue to monitor developments in Icecrown Citadel in the future, especially since the Heroic difficulty has been unlocked by a significant number of raids.
Patch 3.3.2 - Deathcharger Mounts
Patch 3.3.2 introduced a new Crimson Deathcharger mount spell to the game, I'm not really sure where this mount is supposed to drop but I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't fully implemented yet.

[Expand 1 Paragraphs]

One of our readers, Bill, sent us a tip about a WoW account issue on The Consumerist. It seems that the ownership of Anonymous's friend's account is under dispute and Blizzard won't let him use it in the meantime. The ownership became disputed after the account was allegedly hacked, even though there was allegedly a mobile authenticator on the account. His friend has given up on the account, complete with Val'anyr, and has created a new one.

We can't confirm any of the facts in this case. I am willing to believe that Anonymous is truly upset and believes the story he tells to be true, even though he is posting anonymously. There are some serious red flags, however, that seem to point to Anonymous not having all of the facts:

[Expand 3 Paragraphs]

Far earlier than any of us had expected, Daelo has announced that the normal modes of Professor Putricide, Blood-Queen Lana'thel, Sindragosa, and the Lich King will no longer have limited attempts. The heroic modes of these encounters will still have limited attempts, however. To quote: After each region's maintenance this week, raids will no longer lose attempts on wipes in Normal mode for Professor Putricide, Blood-Queen Lana'thel, Sindragosa, and the Lich King. There will still be limited attempts in Heroic mode.

[View Remaining 1 Paragraphs]