World of Warcraft artwork for the Black Temple raid

[Update #2]: World of Warcraft will finally be adding cross-faction dungeons, raids and rated PvP in Update 8.2.5!

[Update]: Let the squabbling over Warglaives begin - Phase 3 of Burning Crusade Classic has now arrived!

I hope your guild has decided who's getting the almighty Warglaives, because Blizzard has just revealed that Phase 3 of Burning Crusade Classic will be launching on January 27th. With it you can expect to see the arrival of The Black Temple and The Battle for Mount Hyjal raids, as well as the Netherwing daily quest hub with its always delightful Netherdrake mount rewards.

Much like before, in order to even enter the new raids you'll need to first complete the attunement quests. For The Battle for Mount Hyjal you'll need to defeat both Kael'thas Sunstrider in Tempest Keep and Lady Vashj in Serpentshine Cavern, while The Black Temple will have you complete a lengthy quest chain that starts with the "Tablets of Baa'ri" in Shadowmoon Valley. It's a bit of an ordeal, I'm not going to lie, but the heaps of new loot definitely make it an attractive proposition regardless!

In order to help pass the time until Phase 3 arrives, Blizzard will also be launching the third Arena PvP season on the week of January 17th. Once it arrives you'll be able to purchase Season 3 gear from vendors in Shattrath and Nagrand, while Season 2 gear will be sold at a discount from Area 52 vendors.

The final thing worth mentioning is that the mini-update will also add Incubus pets for all Warlocks. They will function exactly the same as the Succubus, and are here purely as a nice little customization option for Warlocks.

Once the Phase 3 update lands onto the live servers I'll make sure to let you know. Until then, you can read a little bit more about it over at the World of Warcraft website.