In this latest Community News, you can check up on our fansite updates from around Europe, see some awesome WoW comics and don’t miss out on the selection of interesting threads that were recently posted on our forums.

Off the coast of Dun Morogh, beneath the sunlit reaches of the Great Sea, swims the arbiter of the deep. Known to many as simply “the whale shark,” this legendary leviathan patrols the sunken ruins of Vashj’ir, casually devouring any inattentive or overzealous adventurers who cross its path.

Merry New Year!

Before you start your New Year celebrations, why not take a look at the last Community News of the year where we sum up the latest fansite updates, some WoW comics from around the web, and a handful of fun threads from our forums.

Azeroth is a large world and it's recently become much larger. There are hills to climb, deserts to explore, fjords to ford, and a vast sea separating the continents. And let’s not forget that beyond Azeroth proper there lies a whole other shattered world -- Outland. Traveling has never been more interesting, and for some, confusing. To help you with getting around, we’ve compiled a list of some of the more common ways you can see the world, meet new creatures, and (likely) be killed by them.

Fortified citadels lay in ruins. Ancient forests burn brightly in the light of the setting sun. Arid stretches of desert, once known to claim even the most hearty of travelers, now house fertile oases teeming with new species of flora. The Shattering changed a great many things. While the landscapes of the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor may have been the most visibly affected by Deathwing's return, many of Azeroth's heroes have also undergone drastic transformations of their own.

The Feast of Winter Veil is still well under way, but there's plenty going on with the WoW community. In this latest Community News, you can check up on our fansite updates from around Europe, see some awesome WoW comics and don’t miss out on the selection of interesting threads from our forums.

We have a lot of players at 85 now doing everything from Heroic dungeons to rated Battlegrounds, and the class design team is starting to prepare our list of items to investigate for our next patch.

With the release of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, new adventurers are joining the ranks of the Horde and the Alliance almost every day. Though these players are able to learn quite a bit through our in-game tutorials and community guides, when you're learning the ropes, nothing really beats the wisdom of an experienced player. That's why each week we'll be reaching out to all of our veterans for tips, tricks, and trade secrets about a variety of different topics to help put new recruits on the path to success. To kick things off, this week's inaugural topic is: questing.

Presents! There's now a presence of presents under the tree near Greatfather Winter in Orgrimmar for Horde, and in Ironforge for Alliance. Be sure to stop by and pick up this year's exclusive gift.

Welcome to Friday's edition of the Community News. Today you can check up on the latest fansite updates, some WoW-related comics from around the web and don’t miss out on the handful of cool and interesting threads that were recently posted on our forums.

You did it! The combined efforts of the Alliance and the Horde have paid off, the final reward on the Your Fortune Awaits page has been unlocked, and the Cataclysm Print Ad and YouTube Commercial Contests have both come to a glorious end!

‘Tis the season once again when good little orcs and humans all over Azeroth hope that Greatfather Winter will bring them that shiny new axe or special non-combat pet (to love and pet and call Spot) for Winter Veil.

The forces of the Alliance return from Northrend, victorious in their battle against the Lich King, but not without casualties. The loss of Highlord Bolvar Fordragon has taken its toll on the forces of the Alliance, most notably on King Varian Wrynn. Unfortunately the sands of time flow without pause, and there is little time for mourning.

From everyone at Blizzard to you and yours, have a safe and happy holiday season! To help celebrate the arrival of Greatfather Winter, we've prepared a special Holiday Card Gallery featuring the Blizzard 2010 holiday card you see below as well as a pair of festive StarCraft II and Diablo III greetings. Enjoy!

BlizzCon presents an opportunity for real-life tailors and engineers to take up their needle and thread, their cardboard and spray paint, to create amazingly realistic recreations of their favorite Blizzard Entertainment characters. We invited the winners of this year’s costume contest to write guest articles on the art of costume-craft for us to share with the community. Here’s the second of three, written by Armando, who won second place for his towering and fearsome reproduction off Illidan Stormrage.

Remember back to when you first set foot in the frozen north, the putrid stench of death and the bitter wind assaulted your unwitting senses. At that very moment did you dare believe that you would actually defeat the Lich King in his own land? Years have passed since that unforgettable day, and now you have returned home, a true hero of the Horde.

Welcome to Tuesday's edition of the Community News. Today you can check up on the latest fansite updates, some WoW-related comics from around the web and don’t miss out on the handful of cool and interesting threads that were recently posted on our forums.

We have just updated our World of Warcraft Wallpapers section, the Blizzard Fan Art Section and the World of Warcraft Classic gallery with some new images!

Welcome to Friday's edition of the Community News. Today you can check up on the latest fansite updates, some WoW-related comics from around the web and don’t miss out on the handful of cool and interesting threads that were recently posted on our forums.

BlizzCon presents an opportunity for real-life tailors and engineers to take up their needle and thread, their cardboard and spray paint, to create amazingly realistic recreations of their favorite Blizzard characters and creatures. After this year’s costume contest, we invited the winners to write an article on the art of costume-craft for us to share with the community. Here’s the second of three, written by Brenna, who won third place

Travelling over land isn't exactly safe these days—have you seen The Barrens lately? Many heroes have come to a sticky end after tumbling over a new cliff face or stumbling into a deadly lava flow. This is why we think it's high time to celebrate the wondrous Zeppelins, wonders of technology and somewhat dodgy engineering, with an EU-exclusive T-shirt from J!NX.

Cataclysm shattered the record for fastest-selling PC game when it was released earlier this month, and we were at the official launch events around the world to capture some of the incredible epic-ness on film. Have a look!

If you or a friend are currently playing Wrath of the Lich King and haven’t yet experienced the content Cataclysm has to offer, you can sign up now to play a 10-day free trial version of this latest expansion for World of Warcraft.

A tank’s job is to protect the group. A big part of that is controlling the enemy. A big part of controlling the enemy is staying alive. Tanks have a lot of tools to stay alive, and mastering those is a major component of learning to play a tank.