Welcome to Scattered Shots, where Daniel Whitcomb is totally making plans to walk with rhythm so that he can attract the worm.

So with Wrath less than a week away, we got our work cut out for us, so to speak. Luckily, 3.0's early release has given us time to learn to handle our pets and respec to take advantage of new talents, but now the big push is upon, as 10 levels and a whole slew of new zones opens up for us. When you step off the boat or zeppelin in Borean Tundra or Howling Fjord, where will you go? What will you do?

Here's a few quick Hunter specific tips to getting started in the Wrath of the Lich King.

The latest Beta Build has hit the test servers, and there's a lot to report for Hunters. In particular, many of the announced changes we discussed in the last Scattered Shots went through. Aspect of the Beast now grants a melee AP buff, and Mongoose Bite is unlinked from dodge. Tranquilizing Shot now dispels magic effects, and Arcane Shot does not.

Most of the big notable changes however, center around pets, and specifically Beast Mastery. The 51 point talent is now implemented, and 5 extra talent points work. Chimeras and Devilsaurs are now exotic only. In addition, two new exotic pet families have been found: Worms and Silithids.

You can tame both the Dredge Striker and Dredge Crusher type worms in Silithus and the Jormungar worms in Northrend. For Silithids, only one "warrior" skin seems tamable, while the worker, wasp, and heavy tank type silithids are not tamable. The worms are Tenacity pets who feed on bread, cheese, and fungus and have a family skill called Acid Spit that does nature damage and reduces, while the silithid is a Cunning pet who feeds on meat and fungus and have an ability called Venom Web Spray that roots the target for 4 seconds and does nature damage.

I've added some screenshots of the new pets and their abilities to the gallery above. Also, if you're not impressed with any of the new exotic pet families so far, take heart. We've been told they're still working on the pets themselves.

Unfortunately, the rest of the pet-related news is less than amazing.

I'm sure by now you've heard of the strange splash screen that has appeared on Blizzard's major websites, and seen the progression from day 1 to day 2, and read our report on it here at WoW Insider. As expected, a new splash screen has just appeared on Blizzard's main site.

This time, a large chunk of the ice in the middle of the picture seems to have broken away. Unfortunately, we still can't make out much of anything through the ice, though we've already had a tipster or two comment to say that it may be the night sky. If so, does that mean we're inside some sort of icy tomb or cavern looking out? There's also a new rune located in the bottom left hand corner of the breaking ice. The meaning of the new rune is still up in the air. Diabloii.net points out that it looks a lot like a Protoss symbol found on the official Starcraft 2 site.

You can see the image, as well as the newest piece of that strange purple monster image, in our splash screen gallery below.

The official WoTLK bestiary has been updated yet again with another of the creatures we'll be meeting in Northrend. This time, we're introduced to the Jormungar, a race of massive worms with sharp teeth capable of boring through solid rock. Apparently, they were used by the Nerubians as slave labor to hew out their massive subterranean empire. However, when that empire fell to the Scourge, the Jormungar broke free, and now run rampant, drilling through the permafrost and destroying everything in their path.

It seems likely that the worms themselves are named after the Norse mythological figure Jormungandr, a child of the trickster god Loki, also known as the the World Serpent who surrounds the Earth. In the end times of Ragnarok, he will kill Thor (although Thor will kill him first). Now really, you know that anything bad enough to kill Thor himself is something you have to take notice of, so if these Jormungar are even half as strong as their namesake, it looks like we could have a lot of trouble with them. Maybe we should look to the old massive sandworm Ouro (whose name is likely a homage to another mythical serpent, the Ouroboros), to give us some idea of what we might be facing.

[via MMO Champion]