Blizzard is unveiling all sorts of World of Warcraft patch 4.3 details at Gamescom. In addition to the officially announced Transmogrification feature that allows players to customize the appearance of their weapons and armor, Lead Game Designer Tom Chilton told Kotaku that 4.3 includes "three dungeons for five-player instances and a new raid instance culminating in the Deathwing fight."

Our friends over at Wowhead summarized all of the 4.3 announcements that have been made in various interviews. Here's the list:

• Deathwing in 4.3: According to Kotaku: "The Deathwing fight will be the most epic boss encounter to date, including a battle phase that takes place on the massive dragon's back as he flies through the sky."
• There will be three 5-player instances: One will be Caverns of Time: War of the Ancients according to Buffed.de. Wowhead's German localizer said Blizzard indicated that another 5-man will be old content revisited. Wowhead's money is on Ahn'qiraj (AQ20/AQ40).
• There will be a cross-realm raid finder.
• From the Video Gamer transcript, apparently there will be a Darkmoon Faire Island with Whack-a-Gnoll.
• There will be armor customization in 4.3: the Ethereal ability to transmogrify a player's armor, reskinning it to look like other armor in the game.
• Purchasable 100-150 bank spaces for old gear: This may also serve as cross-realm storage or multiple character storage. This is unconfirmed but was hinted at; it makes sense, especially with the name "Void Storage."

Remember that ethereal teaser image Blizzard posted last week? It turns out that it's for patch 4.3, which will feature a Transmogrification system that will allow you to customize the appearance of your weapons and armor. Here are the highlights from the preview Blizzard published today:

• Ethereals will offer the service in the capital cities of Azeroth. It will cost gold.
• Visiting a Transmogrifier will present players with a new interface that will allow them to change the appearance of an item while retaining its original stats. For example, you can raid in your paladin tier 12 Immolation set, but look like you’re wearing Lightbringer.
• In general, only items that have stats can be used in the transmogrification process.
• You must be able to equip both items, and you can't change weapon or armor types. You can't make plate look like cloth. Guns, bows, and crossbows will be the exception to this rule.
• Transmogrification encourages players to hold onto items with sentimental or aesthetic value, so the ethereals will be offering a Void Storage service. More details to come.

Keep reading after the jump for Blizzard's full Transmogrification preview and a screenshot of the interface.

In his latest Dev Watercooler blog entry, Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street covers some upcoming changes to threat. A hotfix this week will buff tank threat generation "to where it’s generally not a major consideration." Expect to see the following changes implemented:

• Hotfix: The threat generated by classes in their tanking mode has been increased from three times damage done to five times damage done.
• In an upcoming patch: Vengeance no longer ramps up slowly at the beginning of a fight. Instead, the first melee attack taken generates Vengeance equal to one third of the damage dealt by that attack. As Vengeance updates during the fight, it is always set to at least a third of the damage taken in the last two seconds. It still climbs from that point at the previous rate, still decays at the previous rate, and still cannot exceed the current maximum.

Ghostcrawler goes on to say they "want to shift more tank mitigation to require active management" and suggests that all tanks can use the Death Knight model of managing resources to maximize survivability. You can read the entire entry after the jump.

So what do you think? Are the changes worthwhile or unnecessary? Join the discussion in our WoW general forum.

World of Warcraft's new Real ID Party system is officially live and free to everyone! When the feature entered testing last month, Blizzard said that there would be premium-based aspects of the system, but it looked like they've changed their minds. However, Blizzard mentions in the FAQ that it's always possible they'll add features and functionality with a premium component.

The Real ID Party system allows players to invite Real ID friends of the same faction to a 5-player normal or Heroic dungeon, regardless of what realm their friends are on. To invite a Real ID friend to a party, just open up your friends list and click on the “Plus” button to send an invitation to a Real ID friend. A party leader can invite any combination of Real ID friends from any realm, guildmates from the same realm, or other characters from the same realm to the same party. If the party leader isn’t able to fill up the entire party, the Dungeon Finder can fill in the missing roles.

For more details, check out the FAQ after the jump.

Want to win a trip to BlizzCon? The World of Warcraft Visa card is offering two lucky winners a pair of BlizzCon tickets and $2,000 in Visa gift cards to cover travel and expenses. All you need to do is head over to the sweepstakes page and fill out the form. The contest is open to U.S. residents only. You don't need to apply for a Visa card to enter.

If you do want to apply for a World of Warcraft Visa card, Blizzard is pointing out that you can now display your character on your card. As for the perks of the card, you will receive one month of World of Warcraft game time the first time you use your card within the first three billing cycles after your account is opened. You can also earn a free month of game time for every $1,500 you spend with the card. Be sure to read all the fine print before you apply!

Blizzard just posted the above image on the World of Warcraft Facebook page in a new album titled "Glimpses." The caption simply says, "Interesting..." Community Manager Nethaera posted a link to it on the official forums, saying "Curiouser and curiouser..."

Pretty enigmatic, right? As you can see in the image, three ethereal NPCs are offering services for "Void Storage," "Transmogrifier" and "Arcane Reforger" in a building that looks like Stormwind architecture. It's obviously a teaser, but for what? Patch 4.3? The next expansion? Something else entirely? We'll just have to wait and see if Blizzard decides to offer us more "glimpses." What do you think?

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm patch 4.2.0A is now available on all realms and is comprised of a batch of bug fixes. Here are the official patch notes:

Bug Fixes

• Using an instant cast spell right after a target dies should no longer re-target the dead target’s body.
• Using an ability immediately after switching targets should no longer affect the previous target.
• Resolved a movement error when jumping onto an object while experiencing a low frame rate.
• Mac: Fixed a bug preventing shift and mouse wheel commands from registering properly.
• Resolved issues that were causing client crashes near Beth’tilac in the Firelands.
• Disconnecting while riding as a passenger in a vehicle should no longer cause an error upon subsequent login.
• Entering a password with Japanese Hiragana selected as the keyboard type should no longer cause a crash.
• Resolved an issue that was causing the client to crash under certain conditions when minimizing the game client.
• The tooltip color for heirloom items has been returned to gold.
• A move enforcement issue has been resolved that was affecting the death knight starting area quest Death Comes From on High.
• Tarecgosa's platform during the cutscene from Alignment (Elemental Bonds legendary quest) should now be visible before she lands on it.

The Raid, a documentary on the lives of World of Warcraft raiders, made its world premiere on GameBreaker.TV over the weekend. If you missed it, they're currently hosting the movie until Wednesday night around 7 p.m. PDT. The video includes pre-show and post-show interviews with director Kevin Michael Johnson and Tankspot's Josh "Lore" Allen, who appears in the documentary. In fact, The Raid features Lore's guild, Months Behind!

Watch The Raid below and let us know what you think in the comments or our WoW general forum. Kevin has started answering common questions on the documentary's site, so feel free to post any questions you may have on his blog.

In this week's episode of Legendary, hosts Gary Gannon, ZAM's Mike B. aka Fony and Tankspot's Josh "Lore" Allen talk about the possible next World of Warcraft expansion, Diablo III's real money auction house and WoW's declining subscription numbers. And speaking of the expansion, they managed to obtain the exclusive Mists of Pandaria trailer. Yes, you read that right. Find out all about WoW: MoP below!

BlizzCon 2011 Virtual Tickets are now on sale for $39.99. If you missed out on the chance to pick up a physical ticket (or just didn't like the $175 price tag), you can now grab a Virtual Ticket and enjoy all that BlizzCon has to offer on Oct. 21-22 from the comfort of your own home. Virtual Ticket coverage will be available as a multi-channel Internet stream and also via Pay Per View on DIRECTV in the United States.

So what does the Virtual Ticket give you get for $40? Here's the rundown:

• Access to all BlizzCon panels.
• Watch all the contests and the closing concert. This year's act hasn't been announced yet, but previous acts include Ozzy Osbourne and Tenacious D.
• The ability to watch instant replays of all the coverage up to two weeks after the event ends.
• You will receive this year’s to-be-announced BlizzCon-exclusive World of Warcraft and StarCraft II in-game items.
• Enjoy exclusive interviews with the World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, and Diablo III developers.
• A limited quantity of BlizzCon merchandise is being set aside for BlizzCon Virtual Ticket holders, to be sold in an exclusive merchandise sale occurring in the weeks before the show.
• You'll have the perfect view. Honestly, you'll see things better than the attendees!