Bornakk has released details of the Crusaders' Coliseum dungeon that will be introduced in patch 3.2. The coliseum will be located on the Argent Tournament grounds and will contain an epic 10- and 25-player raid dungeon with five encounters that are unlocked one week at a time, as well as a new 5-man dungeon. The raid will have four different difficulty levels: 10-man, 25-man, 10-man Heroic and 25-man Heroic.

The coliseum will also introduce the Crusaders’ Tribute system. According to Bornakk, "Each of the Heroic mode instances has a new tribute system that will limit players on the number of attempts they get in the Coliseum each week to present a greater challenge for the most battle-hardened heroes. Additional rewards can be earned depending on the number of attempts left in the tribute run each week when the final boss is defeated."

A new tier of armor and weapons, which appears to be Tier 9, will be available in the coliseum. You can discuss the Crusaders' Coliseum in this thread in our general forum. Bornakk's full announcement can be found below.

It gives me such pleasure to announce to you the winners of our latest awesome contest here on Allakhazam. Three lucky users will be given a BlizzCon badge upon their arrival at the Arena in Anaheim. Make sure you winners make your reservations now and pack your bags soon, because in August, you will be enjoying one of the most fantastic MMO player gatherings ever: BlizzCon 2009! You lucky dogs, you!

BlizzCon badge winners:

• Sketso
• Gonzi
• crazyrick

Premium subscription winners:

• thechuckface - 12 months
• redxprez - 6 months
• ACLinjury - 3 months

Shortly, as in today, BlizzCon winners will receive an email with an information request, please fill this out ASAP because you only have 24 hours to reply. If you do not reply within the allotted time, another winner will be chosen to go in your place. Our premium winners will have their premium subscriptions added to their account in a few minutes.

I'd like to thank all of you who entered our contest and don't be discouraged! We will have other contests in the future!

Nethaera has posted some detailed information on the Totem Bar, an upcoming shaman-specific interface addition that will be implemented with patch 3.2. The bar, which will be located above the standard toolbar where you find warrior stances and druid forms, will allow shamans to "manage their fire, earth, water, and air totems in a more accessible and convenient way."

You'll be able to assign four totems, one of each element, to the bar for easy access. But that's not all! There will be a button for Totemic Call, which has been renamed Call of Earth, and a new ability named Call of Fire that will drop all four totems at once. The function, which becomes available at level 30, can also be set to drop less than four totems. As you level, you'll get access to Call of Air and Call of Water, which are functions that allow you to set different sets of totems to drop at the same time.

You can read Nethaera's full post after the jump and discuss the topic in our shaman class forum in this thread.

Bornakk has announced on the official forums that epic quality gems will be introduced when patch 3.2 goes live. You'll be able to purchase recipes for cutting them using Dalaran Jewelcrafter’s Tokens, and you can get the raw epic gems by prospecting Titanium Ore, through alchemy transmutations, or by purchasing them with honor or Emblems of Heroism.

Due to the introduction of epic gems, perks in every profession will increase accordingly. You can read the full list of profession updates, which are subject to change, after the jump.

Horsemouth has started a thread on this topic in our general forum, so feel free to add to the discussion.

Twitter user John West (Twitter ID jwest23) is spearheading a community effort to provide a series of Twitter "feedbots" that allow WoW users to receive near-realtime updates of their US and EU server status. The project is still under construction, meaning that not all US and EU realms have their own individual feeds yet (for example, this feed for US-Doomhammer or this feed for EU-Ravenholdt). However, more US and EU realms are being added on a regular basis (you can request individual realms to be added via the author's Twitter page).

The "region-wide" feeds for US and EU servers are complete, which provide a quick snapshot of how many realms are online for each region, listed as a percentage. Check out the "wowrsusall" and the "wowrseuall" feeds for more details (read: WoW-RealmStatus-US-All). Being a fan-created collection of Twitter feedbots, you can never be too certain of the "here today, gone tomorrow" factor, let alone the continued quality control of such a project. But for now, it's proving to be a quick and convenient way for Twitter users to find out their current realm status (or region statistics) on-the-go.

It might not seem like a big deal to PvE-oriented players, but everyone who loves the occasional Battlegrounds can finally rejoice in a long-awaited fix: the faction that begins the first round of Strand of the Ancients will finally be decided by the random "coin toss" mechanic, as announced by Zarhym in the official forums.

"The current plan is to implement the 'coin toss' for Strand of the Ancients in the next major content patch," Zarhym writes. "We know it's been a long time coming, but the solution to the issues preventing us from originally randomizing who starts on offense/defense is in the works right now."

Definitely great news for fans of this Battleground, especially Horde players. Currently, the Alliance always receives the (alleged) advantage of playing the first round; an advantage that Horde players have been complaining about since the Battleground's inception. Zarhym says the coin toss mechanic will go live in the next major content patch (presumably patch 3.2).

If you indulge in even the slightest bit of PvP in World of Warcraft, it's likely you've heard about the many player concerns brought up since Wrath of the Lich King's launch. In-depth responses from Blizzard reps are usually few and far between when it comes to this topic, especially since so much of it seems to be fueled by QQ and forum trolls. But last night on the official WoW forums, Ghostcrawler (a.k.a. Greg Street, lead game designer at Blizzard) posted some interesting news about what the developers are currently considering "PvP problems," and what they're not.

In a thread that originally began as an open-ended question ("What IS a problem in PvP right now?"), Ghostcrawler responded with a total of three posts, citing the main issues that Blizzard recognizes as "problems in PvP."

Earlier this week we reported the new mount changes announced for the upcoming 3.2 WoW patch. However there's been one particular change that seems as if it may have been overlooked by the majority of fans (which was also updated yesterday in a clarification post by Zarhym). We're talking about mount speed cast time, and the fact that it's been reduced to 1.5 seconds, down from 3 seconds.

Not only is a 50 percent drop in mount casting time huge, but the mechanic itself might be a more important feature than many players realize. For years, WoW players have been begging Blizzard to give all classes the ability to instant-cast their mounts, just like Druids are able to (as well as anyone who gets a Magic Broom come Hallow's End). But there's many reasons why Blizzard has stuck to its guns over the years. For starters, most Druid players say it wouldn't be fair to give everyone their special ability. There's also the argument that instant-cast mounting would severely impact the PvP aspect of the game.

In Zarhym's latest update, he clarified that the new 1.5 second cast-time will apply to ground mounts only. What do you think about the upcoming reduced cast time? Or for that matter, the fact that it won't apply to flying mounts? A much-needed update, or a game-breaking "fix?"

Vaneras has posted an interesting discussion topic on the official European forums in response to a player asking if there will be small in-game events in World of Warcraft when StarCraft II and Diablo III launch. The original poster suggested a zerg invasion or having Diablo roam Azeroth may be fun.

According to Vaneras, Blizzard currently does not have an answer to that question, but "this shouldn't stop you from speculating or hoping that something cool might happen in World of Warcraft when Starcraft II and Diablo III will be released." Vaneras asked players to keep submitting event ideas, but only if they fit in with WoW lore somehow.

So what do you think? Should the launch of other Blizzard titles be celebrated in WoW, or should they be kept separate? Also, what are your ideas for such an in-game event?

Now that BlizzCon is officially sold out, thousands of BlizzCon hopefuls continue to look for ways to get into one of the biggest gaming events of the year. Fortunately, ZAM Network and Blizzard Entertainment have teamed up to give you another chance! Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!

From now, until 4:00 PM PT on Wednesday, June 17, 2009, we're asking our users who have an active account created prior to today, to post in THIS THREAD in our World of Warcraft General forum. Users may only enter once by posting in the designated thread. Multiple entries will be deleted and may disqualify you from the drawing. Posts in other threads, forums or user specific journals and wikis do not count as entries into the Sweepstakes.

So what about the prizes you ask? Three First Place winners will each receive First Place Prize: Three (3) First Prize Winners will each receive one (1) entry badge to Blizzcon 2009. Additionally, three runner ups will be receiving Premium Membership Packages (see rules for more details). So what are you waiting for? Head on over to our forums and enter your chance to win a BlizzCon badge!

For full contest rules and regulations, click here. For discussion about this contest, click here.

Good luck to everyone who enters!