If you’ve rolled orcs, trolls and taurens in quick succession in World of Warcraft, you might have gotten tired killing boars and raptors in same old Northern Barrens for those lowbie levels.

But in Cataclysm, the nearby Azshara zone has been re-designed to be an alternative level 10-20 quest hub for the Kalimdor-based Horde races plus their small, green new allies–the Goblins. Continue Reading

If Blizzard has its way, trolls can no longer stay anonymous when posting in the official forums. (And no, I’m not talking about those lanky trolls preparing to take back Echo Isles.)

Blizzard announced on Tuesday that the World of Warcraft forums will be using the Real ID system. Continue Reading

The zhevra mount, both adored and reviled due to its semblance to a fanciful unicorn, is galloping to retirement after Blizzard Poster Bashiok announced a new prize mount for the World of Warcraft’s recruit-a-friend program. There’s no shoot-to-kill order though so current owners can keep their zhevras as a souvenir.

Madagascar no longer exports these horned beauties

In place of the zhevra, Blizzard is giving away the more scrap metal X-53 Touring Rocket. It’s a technical upgrade since it can now seat two toons (for traveling together) and scales to the highest mount skill of the owner, which means up to 310% flying speed if you have a 310% speed mount. The scaling flight speed of X-53 can quicken your travel time across Outland and Northrend as well as in revamped Azeroth when the upcoming Cataclysm expansion allows flight in the old world.

Strap on your seat belts, this one's a wild shark

Speculative trivia: We think the X-53 Touring Rocket mount was named after a modified F/A-18 Hornet (now designated as X-53) used for flight technology research under Boeing and Air Force. Spew out this trivia gem in guild chat whenever a friend trashes your X-53, and we promise a renewed respect for your hunk-o’-metal mount.

Aside from the reward change to X-53 mounts, the recruit-a-friend program in WoW remains the same. It still gives veterans and their recruits linking privileges that help them level up and adventure together. Both veteran and recruit can summon each other to each other’s location–beat that warlocks!–and awards triple experience up to level 60. Of course the bonus xp won’t register if you’re just one-shotting gray mobs at the starting levels.

X-53 will be available anytime soon, so if you want to get your hands on it, hijack a friend to become the next WoW addict. And don’t forget to install seat belts.