We've gotten word from the folks at Blizzard about their awareness of latency issues both in the world servers and in Naxx. The following is an email we received that we thought we'd share with you all.

When patch 3.0.3 was released, players should have automatically unlearned talents that were no longer in the talent trees. Well, that process didn't completely work since some players were still receiving credit for talents that no longer exist in the trees, so Blizzard pushed a hotfix to correct the issue. Affected players will no longer receive credit for having these talents:

• Warlock: Improved Lash of Pain
• Warlock: Fel Stamina
• Shaman: Totemic Mastery
• Shaman: Improved Lightning Shield (Rank 3)
• Paladin: Precision
• Rogue: Fist Weapon Specialization
• Priest: Shadow Focus (Ranks 4 and 5)

UPDATE: Our PTR Patch 3.0.8 wiki page has been updated. You can discuss the patch in our general forum in this thread.

Wryxian has posted an updated version of the PTR Patch 3.0.8 notes on the official European forums. In case you don't feel like reading through the whole thing to pick out what's been added, MMO Champion has compiled a list of all the updates. While there's a bunch, here's one that sticks out:

Mining veins and deposits no longer require multiple hits to receive all the ore. Players will receive around the same amount of ore, stone, and gems they would have received from multiple hits.

Run/fly up to a node, hit it once and you're off! MMO Champion's list of updates to the patch notes can be found here or after the jump. You can discuss the mining change in Warchief Gutler's thread in our WoW general forum.

For as long as I've been playing World of Warcraft, I've always wondered what it would be like to be given the opportunity to interview one of the most popular characters within the game. This week I had that very opportunity and found myself scratching my head in confusion. Thrall wasn't what I expected at all.

Tamat : Hey Thrall! Thank you for allowing me into your private quarters to have a small chat. ....Why are you looking at the ceiling?

Thrall :  Lok'tar human!  As Warchief of the Horde I struggle daily to maintain a balance between our shamanistic ancestry and modern fashion trends.  Do you think "Clefthide Brown" or "Zhevra Gray" would look better in here?

Tamat : Ummm, I don't know. I'm here to interview you, not answer questions about skinned hides! Anyway, what are your thoughts on the semi recent re-discovery of Northrend?

Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street has outlined some possible Warlock PvE changes on the official damage dealing forum. Ghostcrawler said they're "generally happy" with Warlocks for PvE, but they're still looking into a few changes. In my opinion, one of Ghostcrawler's most interesting comments is regarding shards:

"Get shards into a place that is more interesting and less of a hassle. We have two models we're considering. One is very cool, but a huge change to gameplay, which might mean it has to wait. The other is more of a quick fix that we'd do until we can implement the very cool model."

A very cool gameplay-changing shard model? My curiosity is piqued. You can read the rest of the possible changes here or after the jump. They involve simplifying Affliction's rotation, adding quicker damage since fights aren't lasting long enough for DoTs to shine, improving demons and fixing "awkward places" in talent trees.

Did you attend any Wrath of the Lich King midnight release parties in Europe? If you didn't get the chance, Blizzard has posted a video of the festivities.

November 13 marked the release of Wrath of the Lich King, the second expansion of World of Warcraft, and, in true Blizzard style, it was a night to remember. Players gathered at various locations around the world to enjoy the special midnight openings held for the release, and, thanks to them, it was a wonderful success!

You can find this video and others on the movies page of the Official WoW Europe site.

There have been blue posts on both the NA and EU official World of Warcraft forums both yesterday and today discussing how Ulduar will be handled on the PTR. Daelo and Vaneras both basically said the same thing, which is that Ulduar won't be constantly available on the PTR like Naxxramas was in the Wrath of the Lich King beta. It will be enabled only when Blizzard has something specific to test.

That being said, there's going to be a LOT of encounters to test in both 10 and 25 player modes. There will also be a whole lot of "hard modes" and achievements to test. We're shooting for most all of the encounters to have "hard modes" that allow raids to increase the challenge and reward level if they're up to it. We're pretty pleased with how Sartharion and his drakes worked, and we're going to expand on that idea extensively in Ulduar and future raids.

Looks like guilds won't have as much opportunity to completely learn the raid while it's on the PTR, although I'm sure many will use the testing windows to gain as much knowledge as they can on Ulduar.

Happy New Year's Eve! World of Warcraft fans have a lot to look forward to in 2009, including patch 3.1. In addition to dual spec (hopefully), the update will bring with it Tier 8 sets and Ulduar weapons.

Boubouille of MMO-Champion has provided preview screenshots of most of these items in one handy post. Druids, Paladins, Shamans, Warriors and male Rogues are going to need to wait to see their Tier 8 sets, but the rest of the classes are up there.

As Boubouille warns, any of these items could change since they're still in the beta phase. Regardless, what does everyone think about the armor and weapons? Remember, there's no concrete date set for the release of patch 3.1.

Continuing with our interviews with the cast of Project Lore, we sat down with none other than Joshua "Lylelovett" Brentano, the super tank. During the interview we talked about a number of topics ranging from his main project working in television to a possible decline in World of Warcraft.

Tamat : Hey Joshua, thanks for joining me today to talk about Project Lore, Wrath of the Lich King and, Tanks!

Joshua : WoW WotLK FTW!

Tamat : So, a lot of people don't know this but you're actually the Executive Producer on G4's hit TV show "Attack of the Show". How are you able to balance your time between AOTS and Project Lore?

Allakhazam poster Brisin has shared a good cause with us in our World of Warcraft general forum. Katherine Allen, a Blizzard employee, is going to be running in a marathon to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, an organization that provides funding for cancer research and helps cancer patients pay for their treatments.

While this is an important fundraising effort by itself, Allen has sweetened the deal by enticing WoW players with the possibility of receiving one of three 1-year time cards if they donate $25 and leave "For the Alliance!" or "For the Horde!" as a comment on her fundraising page. And one lucky player will get free WoW for life since she broke the $5,500 mark!

Allen's initial goal was to raise $5,000. She's already shattered that and currently sits at $15,555. You have until Jan. 5 to donate if you'd like a shot at the free WoW time. You can read her full post here or below.

Oh, Brisin got this information from Ctrl+Alt+Del, a great web comic for gamers. If you've never read it before, here's one about Wrath of the Lich King to get you started.