We're 99% sure that Patch 3.0.2 "Echoes of Doom" will go live after tomorrow morning's maintenance. We know what's coming including:

• The new Inscription profession
• New Arenas
• The in-game Calendar feature
• New Raid buff system
• Barbershops
• Stormwind Harbor
• and of course, new Talents, Spells and Abilities
  

That last one is the tricky bit. We're rolling out feature articles all day today and tomorrow morning that will guide you through the new trees for every class and spec. But is there anything we're missing? Is there something that confuses you about how Patch 3.0.2 affects you or your playstyle? Ask it here and we'll see what we can clear up before the servers come up tomorrow.

The public test realm has just gone live, and if you've got any characters on it (or if you'd like to go copy some), you can head on over to enjoy all of the patchtastic frivolity likely to descend sometime soon.

In case you're catching up to the rest of us, patch 3.0 is another large content patch specifically designed to transition the player base to the upcoming expansion Wrath of the Lich King. We won't be seeing Death Knights or Northrend (or at least, we're pretty sure we won't, unless they're planning on a big surprise). We will be seeing all of the 1-70 class changes, new features added to the default UI, barbershops, Inscription, a raid buff system overhaul, and more, in addition to four European servers closing due to Russian player migration. Read on for a quick guide to what you can expect:

So we're expecting the new pre-Wrath content patch any week now, and with it a whole flood of new mechanics and abilities, such as raid buff stacking. It should be interesting to see how all this new stuff fits in to the current Burning Crusade end game, and how people adapt to it as they prepare to plunge into Wrath. Of course, many will probably get a head start on Inscription, while others may already have a new haircut picked out.

Myself, I'm looking forward to playing around with the new changes to my Hunter. Disengage and the new Freezing Trap mechanics are looking delicious enough to me that I may just see if I can get back into Arenas for a few weeks to check them out. I'm also pretty interested to see how the Aspect of the Viper changes feel on some big boss battles. It'll be nice to have to essentially have no mana regeneration worries ever again, assuming the current version stays as is.

What about you? Given everything we'll likely see in patch 3.0.2, what are you looking forward to doing while you wait for Wrath?

Hold on to your hats, ladies and gentlemen. In a sign that Wrath of the Lich King is quickly moving toward release, Eyonix officially announced today that we will see a new content patch "in the coming weeks."

This patch will introduce a good portion of the old world Wrath-related content and UI improvements, and will probably start the pre-Wrath opening event (If you don't mind spoilers, you can get some info on what that event may entail from us). Check out Eyonix's list of what is being implemented and what it may mean after the break.

The latest beta build has implemented the Barbershops many of us have been waiting so eagerly to see. They're fun for sure, but not complete at all. Regardless, we've put together a gallery for you to see a little bit about how the process works. You can check that out down below.

It's a quirky design and it makes me wonder why only Goblins know how to cut hair throughout all of Azeroth. It was fun to tinker around with, but I became bored pretty fast. The new hairstyles aren't in, so right now it's almost like staring at the character creation screen but a little bigger and there's gold involved. It will be much more fun on the live realms I'm sure, because I am a roleplayer and doing this kind of thing once in awhile should be pretty fun. There's just very little reason to play with it for a long time on the beta realms, I don't much care what my character's hair is like there. For all I care, it could be made of snakes. Hmm, that would be pretty awesome, actually...

Well, I did experiment a little. I decided my Human Priest grew her hair longer since I rolled her in the first days of WoW's launch, so I picked a longer hairstyle, purchased it, then decided I was bored and wandered off. Until I came back to take screenshots for you all, of course. All in all... yeah, boring until the new hairstyles are in or I'm in a spot to care. Bummer.

Salthem has dropped a nice hint about the most unexpectedly exciting feature of the new expansion: hairstyles!

Yep apparently it's not just hair: there will definitely be new hairstyles and colors, but there may also be new jewelry (earrings and noserings, I'd assume), and maybe even tattoos to choose from. And the most interesting piece of news is that the hair changing won't take place outside of the game, in a menu or some such, but at ingame barbershops.

Strange. Will there be a barbershop inbetween the swords and wands shops in Orgrimmar? Or maybe new hairstyles will be confined to the new expansion, and the barbershops will appear in Dalaran only. Either way, Salthem says the design is still being planned, so we're a long way off until getting concrete information on this. Hopefully, Blizzard has gotten clued in to how excited players are about more customization option, and we'll all get something cool when the expansion eventually hits.

Thanks, Kevin!