Blizzard has announced that they are offering cosmetic character re-customization and name changes for a fee of $15.    Ready for a new look in World of Warcraft, but the barbershop''s just not cutting it? You can now change a character''s gender, face, skin color, and other cosmetic features (such as tauren horn styles or a night elf''s facial markings) using the brand-new Character Re-Customization service. Available at the Account Management page for a flat fee of $15, Character Re-Customization covers all available cosmetic options for a single character and includes an optional name change to go with your new look. For more information, see the FAQ -- or log in to the Character Re-Customization page now to begin the process of reinventing the new you!

Blizzard has announced that they are holding a Question Contest where fans can send in questions to be answered at BlizzCon on the DIRECTV pay-per-view broadcast. Here''s your chance to participate in BlizzCon even if you aren''t able to be there in person. We''re now asking folks to submit their burning questions related to the Warcraft, StarCraft, or Diablo game universes. We''ll sort through them all and pick the best questions to be answered live during DIRECTV''s pay-per-view broadcast of BlizzCon 2008. If your question is selected, you''ll also receive an ATI graphics card and some exclusive BlizzCon merchandise. For submission information, contest rules, and a list of prizes, visit our contest page.

Raiding is going to start for many players soon, if it hasn't already. Hunters, even with the major overhaul of the pet system, every single pet will not maximize your raid potential. While many hunters probably have a gorilla leftover from levelling using the new Volley, that's not really the pet you want for a high level instance. Having just hit 80, and with the call from your guild going out soon, you should probably go ahead and tame that raid pet. This article will show the main pet options and inform hunters where to get them. While pet levelling speed has been increased by 30%, it's still a drag to grind mobs just to help fluffy out. Though if your levelling pet is going to be your raid pet and he's only a level or two behind, there's no reason to not just take him along to the ...

Combat is about. Combat. You go in; you smash or slash face and kill them first before it goes the other way. But seriously, Combat is the tree meant for Rogues who don't want to take the path of the Dagger. It also happens to be the tree with the highest energy regeneration to make up for its few damage-upgrading talents this tree has and improves on a number of your interrupt skills, granting them length or giving them interrupts, making this a suitable tree against casters, though it offers some support against melee classes. Tier 0 Improved Gouge Ranks: 3 Effect: Increases effect duration of Gouge by (0.5/1.0/1.5) seconds. 5 seconds is how long you need to avoid hitting and being hit to get out of combat and reenter stealth. Gouge only gives you 4 seconds. Improved Go ...

Cooking and fishing are two of the secondary professions available to players in World of Warcraft. Many people find these worthwhile skills to raise as one can catch fish, which can then be cooked and turned into a great source for stat buffs. Cooking and fishing are excellent professions to level up together. One catches fish, raising the fishing skill and then cooks them up, raising one's cooking skill. Of course first one must obtain the skill to level up these professions. With the Wrath of the Lich King, there is a new land in the World of Warcraft, Northrend and the maxed out skills in our professions are no longer maxed out. Four fifty is the new three seventy-five.

With the Echoes of Doom update, Blizzard has introduced an achievement system to World of Warcraft. I have to admit I think it was a brilliant move. In the month leading up to Wrath of the Lich King, this new system has introduced freshness to a game that was starting to feel a bit stale. I freely admit, I'm a Girl Scout. I was a scout from Brownies till high school and I always loved earning badges. This new achievement system is just a big badge fest. We don't get a badge sash, exactly, but we get that nice achievement button on our tool bar. Plus, we can compare our achievements with those of others by right clicking on their name bar and choosing the Compare Achievements link. Pretty cool. At present there are 750 different achievements with more to be added in the future. Achievemen ...

With the Echoes of Doom content patch, a new profession has been added to World of Warcraft. Players can now choose to train a character in Inscription, a skill used to create Glyphs and other items. Glyphs are the big new thing in Azeroth. They can be added to a character to enhance a spell or ability to great advantage. Additionally, as the materials to make glyphs are relatively inexpensive (typically 5-10 herbs), it''s not unthinkable that one would change glyphs, depending on the situation. One might equip one set of glyphs to raid and replace them with another set to PvP, much as one would use different potions for different occasions. Glyphs are class specific and can be traded, mailed and sold on the Auction House. There is a new category on the Auction House, labelled Glyphs. If ...

With the Echoes of Doom update, Blizzard has introduced an achievement system to World of Warcraft. I have to admit I think it was a brilliant move. In the month leading up to Wrath of the Lich King, this new system has introduced freshness to a game that was starting to feel a bit stale. I freely admit, I'm a Girl Scout. I was a scout from Brownies till high school and I always loved earning badges. This new achievement system is just a big badge fest. We don't get a badge sash, exactly, but we get that nice achievement button on our tool bar. Plus, we can compare our achievements with those of others by right clicking on their name bar and choosing the Compare Achievements link. Pretty cool. At present there are 750 different achievements with more to be added in the future. Achievemen ...