In our recent news post regarding Blizzard's fifth anniversary celebration for World of Warcraft, we also mentioned that Pilgrim's Bounty (the new, Thanksgiving-themed in-game holiday) had officially begun. As many players know, this is a brand-new holiday introduced this year; one of several "post-Wrath" holidays (like the recent Day of the Dead) that Blizzard has either created from scratch, or revamped and improved (the upcoming "Love is in the Air," which will feature new content).

Like any other in-game holiday, Pilgrim's Bounty offers exclusive items to be obtained and achievements to be earned. From November 22 to 28, you'll have the chance to get your "Pilgrim" title by completing nine achievements, many of which are―yep, you guessed it―cooking-related. You'll also get the chance to grab your trusty musket and go turkey-hunting, and maybe start a food fight if you're lucky. Check out this link to view all the necessary achievements, including information related to completing each one. You'll also have the chance to learn five new recipes, including such Azerothian delicacies as Pumpkin Pie and Slow-Roasted Turkey. (Tip: apparently you can level your cooking skill from 1 to 300 with only the cheap, vendor-bought mats in the holiday recipes!)

By earning the "Pilgrim" meta-achievement and title, you'll also get a new vanity pet; the Plump Turkey! Pilgrim's Bounty is only running for one week, so you'd better get gobblin' right away, especially if you won't have access to WoW over the holiday weekend. To help give you an inside edge, check out Wowhead's handy Pilgrim's Bounty Guide for step-by-step instructions, quest tips and more.

Monday, Nov. 23 marks the fifth anniversary of World of Warcraft, but Blizzard has already kicked off the celebration by putting an Onyxian Whelpling pet in the mailbox of every player. You'll get the "WoW's 5th Anniversary" achievement just for logging in, so be sure to sign on to each of your characters if you want them to have the Feat of Strength. The Pilgrim's Bounty event also started today and will be held throughout the week.

Blizzard sent every player a letter with the pet in honor of the game's anniversary. You can read the full letter after the jump.

A blue post in the official technical support forum seems to suggest that patch 3.3 isn't scheduled to launch for at least another month. In response to a player complaining about how long it takes to complete the 448MB background download, Datth said, "We only provide mirror links for full client patches. Background downloads do not count. You have around 1+ month to download this file so we're not really worried about your speed."

This comment certainly shouldn't be taken as any sort of official confirmation of the 3.3 launch window. After all, Datth could have just been talking about the timetable for background downloads in general. Regardless, it's just something to think about while we all wait for 3.3 to hit the live servers on one of these upcoming Tuesdays.

It's the time of year for people to put on ungodly amounts of weight in relatively short amounts of time. It's also time for our seventh episode of The BFF Report! In between your gallons of gravy and truckloads of turkey, Fony has prepared a "Black Friday Eve" special episode of his weekly report, and cotinues his delving into World of Warcraft's Halls of Reflection.

In Episode Seven of The BFF Report, Fony takes us through the hallowed halls where he finally gets an up close encounter with the Lich King, dies, and then returns from the grave for a little tank and spank. Add in a segment on Looney Tunes and an Air Jordan reference, and you have BFF7 in a nutshell. 

So don't suck that stomach in any longer, undo your belt a few notches, sit back, and check out Episode Seven of The BFF Report!

Blizzard posted its official preview of the lore surrounding the legendary weapon Shadowmourne a couple days ago, but our friends over at Wowhead have posted something even better: the stats. The two-handed axe can be used by warriors, paladins and death knights and deals 344.1 damage per second at a speed of 3.70. It has +233 Strength, +198 Stamina and three red sockets for a bonus of +8 Strength.

Players who are lucky enough to equip this weapon will also have their critical strike and armor penetration ratings increased by 114. Oh, and "your weapon swings have a chance to drain a Soul Fragment granting you 40 strength. When you have acquired 10 Soul Fragments you will unleash Chaos Bane, dealing 1900 to 2100 shadow damage split between all enemies within 8 yards."

Do you want to get your hands on Shadowmourne? Wowhead has posted the details of the quest chain in their Patch 3.3 guide. You can also discuss the weapon in this thread in our WoW general forum.

Look out World of Warcraft PTR players - Fony is on the loose! The second episode of The BFF Report's sneak peek of WoW's Patch 3.3 is now live, and the hilarity only continues as Fony chronicles his escapades through Icecrown Citadel.

So what's in store for viewers in this episode?

Three words: Pit of Saron. Delving into the next five-player dungeon on his tour, Fony takes a crack at Forgemaster Garfrost, Krick and Ick, and Scourgelord Tyrannus. Last but not least, Fony takes a crack at a gunship battle... but things don't go quite as planned.

Check out all of Episode Six - WoW Patch 3.3 Part Two by clicking here!

Blizzard announced its plan to implement a brand-new "Looking For Group" (LFG) system for World of Warcraft last summer, at BlizzCon 2009, built on a similar mechanic used in PvP Battlegrounds. Developers told the crowd they had finally worked out a way to bring cross-server instances to WoW, allowing players from different servers the ability to run the same dungeons together. Although Blizzard originally stated it would be limited to 5-player dungeons in the beginning, it has since announced that a "Looking for Raid" system will accompany the new system.

The new LFG system is already being vetted on the public test realm, set to roll out to the public in the upcoming patch 3.3. Blizzard designed the system with incentives in mind, offering higher rewards to players that group with more randomly-chosen teammates. Many players already support the idea of the new system, especially casual players who don't get the opportunity to run through as many dungeons as regular, "connected" players. Others have their doubts, anticipating even more failed dungeon runs from the inherent pick-up group (PUG) design of the system.

Lead Encounter Designer Daelo has published a lengthy post on the official forums that outlines Blizzard's plans for access progression in the Icecrown Citadel raid. The citadel will be broken up into four sections, and all of them won't immediately be available when patch 3.3.0 goes live.

"We believe a staggered release of the content will allow players to experience Icecrown Citadel at a sustainable, measured, and ultimately more enjoyable pace," Daelo said. For example, Plagueworks will become available several weeks after the Lower Spire opens. Other elements that will block access include various prerequisites, such as needing to defeat the Lich King in a regular raid before attempting the Heroic versions.

More details on the Icecrown Citadel access progression can be found in the full post after the jump.

While this might come as old news to World of Warcraft data miners around the world, Blizzard has posted an official preview of their newest Legendary weapon to enter the World of Warcraft: Shadowmourne, a 2-handed axe found in Icecrown Citadel.

Within the preview, Blizzard gives some cryptic hints as to what lengths players will have to go to re-forge this giant shiny weapon. In particular, they note that Shadowmourne will need to be "hewn from piles of impure Saronite," and the weapon must be "drenched in the souls of the most potent servants of the Scourge as they are slain, one by one." Finally, the axe must be "adorned with fragments of the Frozen Throne."

Drenching the weapon in souls? Adorning it with fragments? Sounds like players will have the old days of Atiesh grinding to look forward to if they want to get their hands on this legendary 2-handed axe.

You can read the full preview below!

It looks like players are going to get a third chance to PUG with the blues on the PTR realms. Members of the Blizzard development, QA and community teams will be playing on the test realms on Wednesday, Nov. 18, at 4 p.m. PST to test out the new dungeon system, and they want to group with players.

To get the chance to group with a blue poster, all you need to do is queue up for a random heroic through the Dungeon tool. The Blizzard employees will be playing as both Horde and Alliance, so it doesn't matter which side you choose.

Did any of you get the chance to group with a Blizzard employee during the first two events? Are you going to participate in the event tomorrow?