Here's a promising note for those who enjoyed the Scourge invasion world event a while back. When a player moans on the forums that he thought it was a yearly thing (and that it might never return), world designer Kisirani says not to jump to conclusions: we may be using the Necrotic runes from the event very soon in the future. Rumors have been swirling about a world event for a long time now, and if you've been paying attention to the spoilers (that link is a spoiler, of course), you know that things are going to hit the fan very shortly here.

Though for all of the hints and leaks and files found in the beta, we haven't actually seen an event at work, and it's not completely clear just what will happen. Of course, something has to happen to Naxx for it to move north to Northrend, and we've speculated all along that, without being too spoilery, Arthas would do something to drive the Horde and Alliance to seek him out, and that's exactly what the hints are pointing at. But as for when this event will go down, and what, if any, rewards might come out of it, from Necrotic Runes or otherwise, we don't know for sure. As much as players have learned about how Wrath might kick off, Blizzard is still holding their cards close on this one.

There's a good little tip on the forums for anyone starting out a Horde alt (maybe to take advantage of the new leveling changes)-- do your 10-20 grind in Tranquilien. As long as you're thorough, you can pretty easily get exalted with Tranquilien (the rep flows freely), and there are some incredible rewards for doing so. Tranquilien Champion's Cloak is the best you can get, and +7 Stamina inside of level 20 is amazing.

Just shows how far Blizzard has come in rewarding up and coming players with the items they need to level faster. You've always been able to get rep from other starting areas, and these rewards have been around since Burning Crusade (so this is only news if you're just now starting another alt). But it's cool to look back on all these changes-- increased rep per quest, a new starting area, and better reputation rewards, and see how they all work together to give lowbie characters lots more fun stuff to play with.

Inspired by a forum post that asked readers to quickly list the most helpful hints in the game, both for noobs and hardcores, here's a list:

1) the autorun key is set to numlock by default.
2) if you're mountless and need to get to Raven Hill, it's faster to fly from Darkshire to Sentinel Hill and run there than it is to run the entire way from Darkshire.
3) Roll an alt character and add him to your friends list, and then email this "mule" any items you want to save but don't have space for.
4) Repair your gear. You'll lose it if it gets too damaged.
5) Murlocks like to mob.
6) If you can't see your healer, he can't see you (and therefore can't heal you).
7) If you're pre-60, try to log off at an Inn or in a major city to gain the "rested" buff which doubles the XP you gain from killing monsters.

Of course, there are many more hints. What are your best hints for playing the game?