Revealed at Blizzcon today, this is the new login screen once Cataclysm is released and installed, featuring a very angry Deathwing perched atop a well-torched and crispy Stormwind.

The login music has been changed, of course, and one of the tidbits we’ve picked up from word out of the Blizzcon music panel is that the Stormwind theme has been reworked (finally!) to be a bit more mournful and tragic, which makes sense considering where Deathwing’s first stop after breaking free was.

The video is also available in glorious 720p widescreen – head over to YouTube to see the whole thing.

Steelseries already has the license for the original SteelSeries Special-Edition World of Warcraft Mouse, and while the mouse looks really sharp, it got somewhat mediocre reviews from users and the gaming community for being more flash than substance.

Even so, the mouse was fairly popular, especially with World of Warcraft players looking for gear that reflect our collective favorite hobby. Now, Steelseries is at it again with an updated version of the mouse for Cataclysm, the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Special Edition MMO Gaming Mouse.

The new model features an updated optical sensor on the underside and a redesigned button layout that still gives you 14 programmable buttons, and with 10 programmable profiles that each have their own color – that way you can tell at a glance at the mouse which profile is active. Perfect if you want to program different buttons to different character macros.

Admittedly, the new mouse looks really sharp, but it’ll take a pretty solid effort for Steelseries to overcome the last one and to make a dent in the love that a lot of people have for Logitech’s gaming mice and even Razer’s Naga MMO gaming mouse, which sports over a dozen number buttons on the side just for MMO players.

Oh – it’s worth mentioning that Blizzcon attendees will be able to score one of these long before the rest of us – it’ll be up in the Blizzard store at the con. The rest of us will have to wait for December 7th, when the mouse will show up on store shelves…right next to copies of Cataclysm, no doubt.

From the “jealous I won’t be there” department, news broke yesterday that Tenacious D, Jack Black’s band, will be wrapping up the festivities at Blizzcon next week. Here’s the press release frrom Blizzard PR:

Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced that the greatest band in the world*, Tenacious D, will perform at the closing concert during this year’s sold-out BlizzCon(R). Taking place October 22-23 at the Anaheim Convention Center, BlizzCon is a celebration of the global player communities surrounding Blizzard Entertainment’s Warcraft(R), Diablo(R), and StarCraft(R) game universes. While tickets to the convention are currently sold out, viewers can watch at home by ordering a BlizzCon Virtual Ticket, offering over 50 hours of event coverage (including Tenacious D’s performance) globally over the Internet and also on DIRECTV(R) in the United States.

Tenacious D is made up of musical visionaries Jack Black and Kyle Gass. After forming in 1994, the duo rose to rock god-dom following the release of the HBO cult-hit series Tenacious D: The Greatest Band on Earth. Since then, Tenacious D has released two albums and a pair of live DVDs, sold out arenas around the world, and starred in their own feature-length movie, Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny. At the BlizzCon closing ceremony on October 23, the band will perform an earth-shattering set that includes the debut of new, soon-to-be-legendary songs.

“The best way to wrap up two days of epic entertainment is with an epic rock concert–and few bands fit the bill like Tenacious D,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We’re looking forward to a great show and can’t wait to see what Jack and Kyle have in store for everyone attending BlizzCon and watching from home.”

In addition to serving as a gathering place for the Blizzard Entertainment gaming communities, BlizzCon will have an array of activities, including discussion panels, competitive and casual tournaments, contests, hands-on playtime with current and upcoming Blizzard Entertainment games, and more. Viewers at home can order a BlizzCon Virtual Ticket for $39.95 USD, available as a multi-channel Internet stream around the world (pricing and availability may vary by region) and also via DIRECTV in the United States . Visit www.blizzcon.com for more details and ordering information.

To keep pace with the continued growth of World of Warcraft as well as development on other Blizzard Entertainment games, the company is currently hiring for numerous open positions. More information on available career opportunities can be found at www.blizzard.com/jobs. As BlizzCon draws closer, further details about the show will be announced at www.blizzcon.com.

*Based on internal reports from Tenacious D and key band devotees

Okay, that’s just awesome. And honestly, no one will be able to say that Blizzard doesn’t know how to throw a party. Maybe the only way that show could get any more awesome is if Tenacious D did an unexpected rock battle with the Level 80 Elite Tauren Cheiftains. Now THAT would be awesome.

If you haven’t already registered for Blizzcon and you’re looking for a last ditch way to make it to the conference, this might be one of your last opportunities. SteelSeries, along with partners like Jinx!, BradyGames, and Cryptozoic, are looking to send a lucky pair of pals to Blizzcon next month, and you can sign up right now at the Blizzcon Sweepstakes site!

The winning prize pack will include airfare, hotel, admission to the con, and even $300 bucks in your pocket to spend while you’re there!

Even if you don’t win the grand prize, you may pick up one of the 20 prize packs from the sweepstakes, with goodies inside including the SteelSeries World of Warcraft gaming mouse, gift certificates to Jinx!, Cataclysm strategy guides, mousepads, and even a talking Murloc plush toy!

Hurry – entries have to be in by October 2nd!

I won’t be there, sadly, but I’m curious how many of you fair readers will be headed to the conference?

Blizzcon is only a few tender weeks away, and if you haven’t made your travel plans, or worse don’t even have a ticket, your time is all but running out. The show is October 22nd and 23rd in Anaheim, California at the Anaheim Convention Center, and there’s certain to be big news at the show, including lots of detail about what we can expect in Cataclysm, more stories on how StarCraft II has been doing, and maybe even some Diablo III news for those of us looking forwards to that title.

So what about you? Are you headed to Blizzon? Maybe you’ve purchased a virtual ticket? Or will you – like me – wait for the explosion of news that comes out of the show on various blogs just like this one and absorb it all as it happens? Leave us a message in the comments!

If you’re headed to BlizzCon or you’ve purchased a virtual ticket, you probably already know that BlizzCon attendees get a special pet for coming to the show. Well, the special pet for this year has been announced, and here he is, in all of his adorable, destructive glory: Deathy, the Destroyer Murloc! (I prefer to call him Death-Murky, but whatever.)

From the Blizzcon official site:

“Death will rise from the tide!” Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftain once warned — and at BlizzCon 2010, the band’s dire musical prophecy will finally come to pass. Everyone who attends this year’s BlizzCon or purchases the BlizzCon Virtual Ticket will receive an exclusive set of murlocalyptic in-game items for World of Warcraft and StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. World of Warcraft players will be joined by Deathy, a murloc companion decked out as Deathwing and doing his best to strike fear into the hearts of Azeroth’s crustacean population. You’ll also be able to display your tidal pride in StarCraft II with a Murloc Marine character portrait and a pair of deep-sea decals to emblazon on your units, each with a different terran, protoss, and zerg design.

Even Starcraft II players get in on the action? Sheesh. If you managed to snag a ticket, congratulations! (We’re still waiting on Blizzard to tell us if we can go.) If you didn’t, and don’t think you’ll make it, virtual tickets are still on sale!

So the first day of Blizzcon ticket sales came and went in about a half-hour last night after they went on sale, and there’s only one day left — this Sunday — when tickets will go on sale again and everyone who didn’t get one yesterday combined with everyone who specifically planned on waiting for this Sunday will flood the Blizzard Store to try and get theirs.

So what about you? Are you planning a trip to Blizzcon this year? Have you purchased your ticket already or are you planning on grabbing one Sunday? Shot it out in the comments and let us know!

Have an iPhone or an iPod Touch? Looking for a way to keep tabs on your auctions and things when you’re away from your computer or you’re not logged in to WoW? Well Blizzard will have you covered…soon.

There’s been talk and discussion about a mobile app that would allow you to interact with the game and keep track of your auctions from your phone, but they’ve all been some measure of speculation and rumor up until now. Blizzard officially announced and opened the page for their Remote Auction House iPhone and iPod Touch app (and by proxy, likely the iPad although there may not be an higher-resolution version for it yet), and also announced that the app was already in beta. When it’s released, for the price of $2.99 you’ll be able to obsessively check your auctions from anywhere using items in your bank, bags, or mailbox, collect the gold from those auctions, bid on and buy out auctions up in the auction house.

I imagine the first groups of people to latch on to this app are the ones who make heavy use of the auction house, but I’ll bet the price point and availability of the app will encourage other, more casual auctioneers to use it as well – especially after a long night of raiding and killing trash, it’ll be a great way to head to the office in the morning, put all of your stuff up for auction, and not have to make yourself late in the morning by logging in “just to check the AH.”

I’m being completely selfish here, but here’s hoping for an Android app soon as well! Many thanks to Wow.com for the tipoff, and they have an amazing gallery full of images from the mobile app as well!

Last night Blizzard announced that Blizzcon tickets would officially go on sale on Wednesday June 2nd and Saturday June 5th, for $150 per person.

Tickets will likely go fast, so make sure you’re up and at ’em when it comes time to buy your ticket., and they’ll be sold through the Blizzard Store, the same as last year. If you can’t come, you’ll be able to buy the same DirecTV streaming package as last year as well.

Thanks to WoW.com for the scoop!

Massive changes came down the line in a blue post last night with regard to the way we’ll be buying gear in the future: almost all badges for PvE and PvP gear, and personal ratings for PvP gear will be going away. Instead, there’ll be new point systems based entirely on numbers and not necessarily items that drop from bosses, for example.

Here’s the skinny from Bashiok on the forums yesterday:

We’re continuing to refine the badge/emblem and PvP point systems in Cataclysm and we’d like to share some of those changes with you today. Please enjoy!

Our primary goal when approaching badges in Cataclysm is to address a lot of the confusion that comes with these currency systems. To that end we’re changing badges to a more straightforward point system, similar to the ones we’ve used for a while for Arenas and Battlegrounds. There will be a total of four types of points you can earn in Cataclysm (two for PvE and two for PvP), and these will remain the same even as we introduce new content.

Here’s the breakdown:

PvE
Hero Points — Low-tier, easier-to-get PVE points. Maximum cap to how many you can own, but no cap to how quickly you can earn them. Earned from most dungeons. (most like the current Emblem of Triumph)
Valor Points — High-tier, harder-to-get PvE points. Maximum cap to how many you can own, as well as a cap to how many you can earn per week. Earned from Dungeon Finder daily Heroic and from raids. (most like the current Emblem of Frost)

PvP
Honor Points — Low-tier, easier-to-get PVP points. There will be a maximum cap to how many you can own, but no cap to how quickly you can earn them. Earned from most PvP activities.
Conquest Points — High-tier, harder-to-get PvP points. There will be a maximum cap to how many you can own, and a cap to how many you can earn per week. Earned from winning Rated Battlegrounds or Arenas. (currently called Arena Points)

When a new tier of raiding gear is released or a new PvP season begins, your higher tier of points will be converted into the lower tier. For instance, if a new tier of raid gear is released, your Valor points will be converted to Hero points, and similarly if a new PvP season begins your Conquest points will be converted to Honor points. Of course that means with these new releases you’ll always begin without any of the higher tier of points, and thus be unable to stockpile them.

As noted for Conquest points, the Rated Battlegrounds and Arenas will be sharing this same point type. Because of that, it will in fact be possible to get the best PvP items without setting foot in Arena; however, more powerful armor and weapons will of course require more Conquest points, so players who win their matches more often will still gear up faster. We’re removing personal rating requirements on almost all items; they’re definitely removed for weapons. We might offer a few items to the absolute best players based on personal rating, largely as cosmetic or ‘bragging rights’ type items. And you’ll have the option of purchasing the previous season’s gear with the more readily available Honor points.

We do plan to have a way to convert Honor points (PvP) into Hero points (PvE), and vice versa, at a loss. The conversions will be possible, but it won’t be a 1:1 rate, and you’ll have fewer points after the conversion process. We won’t allow the higher tiers to be exchanged for each other, however.

To explain the reasoning for the weekly cap on points for the higher tiers, this is to provide flexibility in how players choose to earn the points without feeling like they have to do all of the content as often as it is available. If your Valor income from raiding is sufficient, you may not feel the need to run Dungeon Finder every night, or perhaps even at all. Likewise, a PvP player could choose to participate in a lot of Rated Battlegrounds but no Arenas, or focus on both, and still be able to earn the points they want.

We realize that with any changes to progression pathways there are going to be questions. We’re eagerly awaiting any that we may have left unanswered. To the comments!

In the end, there’ll be four different kinds of “points:” hero and valor for low and high-quality PvE items, and honor and conquest for low and high-quality PvP items, respectively. No more badges, no more badge trade-ins, no more marks of honor or honor points and then arena points, no more worrying if one type of badge will be phased out in the next patch, and so on. In the end it’ll be all about collecting those kinds of points by doing the activities that earn them, like heroic versus regular dungeons, arenas versus battlegrounds, and so on.

The changes should make things much simpler, but at the same time it opens the door to oversimplification – considering it’s all virtual, aren’t points the same as badges anyway? Even so, it’ll definitely make the process of getting gear and figuring out how to acquire the gear your really want much much simpler.

What do you think about the changes? Sound it out in the comments!