• Compilation of everything we know of to date about Death Knights, the new hero class we'll be seeing with the expansion.
• The new expansion is now in alpha testing! Read on to find out what this means, as well as what it doesn't mean.

• A great analysis of when arena season 4 might begin.

Scant hours after the false alarms from the Burning Legion and Area 52 servers, it looks like we have a true winner in the race to Phase 4 of the Shattered Sun Offensive on the Isle of Queldanas. Continuing their streak, the Proudmoore Server activated phase 4 early this morning. Currently, it looks like they're the only ones legitimately at Phase 4, with Cenarius 2nd with 86% accord to us.gorgonnash.info.

Congratulations to Proudmoore on continuing your streak. Be sure to check out our Phase 4 daily guides for all the information you'll need to finish strong. The rest of you, check out our Phase 2 and Phase 3 daily guides to get the edge you need to power up to Phase 4 yourself.

Gallery: Badge vendor open for business on Proudmoore

Proudmoore may have been first, but more and more servers are opening up Smith Hauthaa's inventory by the day. As of 9 PM last night, the total shown on Us.gorgonnash.info was somewhere around 45 servers open, with many more servers less than 5% away. You know what that means: precious, precious items.

My server's had the badge vendor for a few days now, so I have already partaken. I got the Tameless Breeches for my Druid (as shown off on the right). As shameful as it is for me to say, I was still rocking the Heavy Clefthoof, so this was a huge upgrade for me. I even ran a Sethekk Halls heroic later that evening (no Reins of the Raven Lord, alas!) and claimed the Primal Nether for a nice Nethercleft Leg Armor for them, so I pretty much have the ultimate Feral tank pants for non-raiders now. Which is awesome.

As far as my Hunter goes, unfortunately she still has 60 badges left to go until she can get her hands on the Crossbow of Relentless Strikes, but I'm trying to stay strong and not blow the badges I do have on a new ring. 2 weeks of Karazhan and a few heroics on the side, that's my mantra.

What about you? I'm sure you've read up up on all our extensive new badge loot guides and already have a pretty good idea of what you're going to go for. If the vendor is open on your server, what did you buy first? If not, or if you're still saving up those last few badges, what's first on your list?

Phase 3 is now upon us! According to us.gorgonnash.info, Proudmoore has now just barely hit the Armory phase of the Shattered Sun Offensive. As of 9:07pm PDT, April 2nd, Cenarius is behind them at 95%, with Zul'jin behind them at 90%. Congratulations, Proudmoore.

Of course, the biggest thing this means is that they've unlocked the quest Making Ready, which will allow them to eventually unlock the new Badge of Justice loot. Good luck to them, and may the unlocking go fast! For everyone who needs to catch up to Proudmoore, be sure to check out our phase 1 and phase 2 quest walkthroughs. For all you Proudmoore inhabitants, and all the rest of you raring to go, be sure to check out our phase 3 walkthroughs for all the information you'll need to forge ahead with the offensive, and look out for the Phase 4 walkthroughs coming soon from Alex.