Frozen delights abound as we ready this week's Weekend Warrior for QJ.NET's World of Warcraft blog. For one, we've got the arrival of patch 2.4.3, coming in after this week's regular maintenance run. Then there are the reports of an early launch for the Wrath of the Lich King expansion's beta run.

With the Non-Disclosure Agreements gone for both its Alpha and Beta builds, expect the speculation to only grow louder. Well, enough of our introductions - this week's big news awaits below.

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Ahh, yes - WoW's regularly scheduled maintenance runs for the week. While this Tuesday's downtime was routine, its implications were way more far-reaching than a couple of minor bug fixes. This week's maintenance heralds the public launch of WoW game patch 2.4.3. The patch offers up a ton of new stuff (the level 30 cap for one), although some new bugs have appeared. Blizzard's team was quick to address them, fortunately.

Link: World of Warcraft patch 2.4.3 goes live today
Link: World of Warcraft: Scheduled maintenance for July 15
Link: World of Warcraft: Rolling Restarts for U.S. and Oceanic realms
Link: World of Warcraft: Nethaera clarifies on possible clock issues
Link: World of Warcraft: Anetheron's bugged Inferno gets hotfixed

Over at the public test realms, the players are shaking off the post-brew fest hangover in time for the ghastly appearance of Hallow's End. While they certainly have to watch for all sort of tricks (bugs), this year's Halloween will also aims to introduce quite a number of new treats. Can you say "Headless Horseman's mount?"

Link: World of Warcraft PTR: Hallow's End testing commences

 

Talk about fast. Blizzard's just ended the Wrath of the Lich King's Alpha phase, quickly stepping up to make several preparations for the expansion's beta run. We're not sure what's with the sudden quickening of pace, though you may want to double-check to see if you're already part of Blizz's opt-in program.

Link: World of Warcraft WotLK: Alpha testing concluded
Link: World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King unleashes achievements
Link: Wrath of the Lich King: Beta forums and website now available, invites out in Europe

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As you've guessed, the anxiety once again spikes this week thanks to reports that WotLK's beta invites are now in the wild. Some odd news does follow this announcement however, as insiders note that Blizzard's beta launch is a lot quicker than normal. Something is apparently pushing the company to work overtime on WoW's latest expansion, though no further details have been found so far.

For all we know, it might have something to do with their recent merger with Activision. Heck, it might even have something to do with the new mystery MMO Blizz is rumored to be working on. Could the company be hurrying with WotLK so it can divert some much-needed energy into this to-be-announced project? We're not sure, though you'll want to keep an eye out in case Blizz does send their much-anticipated invitational mail.