WoW’s latest update isn’t so much well-rounded as rotund, bulging with new, tangible additions to the game. If PvP is your poison, you’ll be pleased to hear that 5.3 heralds the arrival of a new Battleground in Deepwind Gorge, as well as a new arena in The Tiger’s Peak. If not, you’ve four new scenarios to choose from, all available at the new Heroic difficulty - though you’ll need a pre-made group to weather those particularly vicious storms.

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Yesterday, we learned that World of Warcraft’s subscriber numbers are falling. Again. At its peak, World of Warcraft reached over 12 million subscribers; today, that number is at 8.3 million, and Activision and Blizzard expect subscriber numbers to decrease further.

What’s going on? Why are people quitting WoW, and can Blizzard halt the decline?

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World of Warcraft has seen a significant dip in subscriptions over the last three months. Activision have reported a 1.3 million decline in the financial quarter ending March 31, leaving Blizzard’s MMO with a still-enviable subscriber base of 8.3 million.

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World-famous guild Exodus have decided to drop out of World of Warcraft’s 25-man hardcore raiding race. In a farewell post, Guild member Killars said that the “game isn’t to blame", but rather “the raiding community".

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Thanks to WoW 5.3, the XP chasm between level 85 and 90 is set to become smaller than it’s ever been - and all without recourse to shaman mob farming on the Townlong Steppes, or eBay.

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In homage to the work of J.J. Abrams, Blizzard are introducing a new craftable pet for anyone trained in the engineer profession: the Bad Robot mascot. If you watched Lost, Star Trek, or any other project Abrams had a major part in, you’re likely already familiar with the little guy. If not, I’ve included the logo video below (I’m nice like that).

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When WoW’s lattermost expansion launched, you might remember it was Nightelf Druid Fs who first scaled the dizzy Pandarian heights of level 90. Hours later, however, she was sent packing by Blizzard amid accusations of cheating, and her account was reset to level 87.

Well. Nearly seven months on, Blizzard’s Ent Council have changed their minds.

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Blizzards big reveal at PAX East was Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, a free-to-play collectible card game set within the World of Warcraft universe. We got kind of a hands-on with Hearthstone when we sent Rob to PAX East. He seems to like it. 

Now you can see why: in this video of an example duel, between the renowned mage Jaina Proudmoore and the legendary shaman Thrall. Spoiler: someone loses.

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If you’ve been absent from WoW for any length of time, you won’t know the Brawler’s Guild. Part advanced training ground, part bloodsport, the Guild allows players to develop their DPS against a variety of familiar bosses in arenas beneath Stormwind and Orgrimmar, while other players look on.

WoW patch 5.3 will see the Guild’s most significant shake up to date, say Blizzard, with the addition of two new tiers, a Challenge Card system, and a swanky VIP lounge.

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World of Warcraft’s 5.3 patch is going to be doing more than just giving spectacles to all the game’s pets, it’s also going to make troubleshooting a whole bunch easier: Blizzard are working on a new in-game web browser that will allow you to search through their bug database, seeking out support threads relevant to your problem.

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Forgive the grave accent, but I trust you’ll find the occasion warrants it. As reward for an as-yet unknown achievement related to newly-announced Blizzard CCG Hearthstone - most likely purchasing a card pack during the upcoming beta - World of Warcraft players will become the beneficiaries of flying, flaming nags.

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Blizzard have bought up IGN Pro League tech and assets from its former owners, and hired former IPL staff to form the core of a new San Francisco team focused on producing "high-quality web and mobile content" in support of existing Blizzard games.

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Since last we spoke about this year’s BlizzCon, it’s become a rather different prospect. For one thing, we now know that it’ll play host to the very first instance of the StarCraft 2 World Championship Series Global Finals. And it’s difficult to imagine that the annual Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo gettogether won’t also feature Hearthstone, Blizzard’s newly announced CCG. With that in mind, it might be time to start scraping together spare change to fund a trip to Southern California.

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Easter is done. Finished. Now comes Secretion Monday, when we must solemnly go about the business of hiding the chocolate eggs we received yesterday on top of wardrobes and at the back of cupboards, burying them in nooks, hollows and hideaways around the house to be discovered again sometime in November. But never eaten. Fortunately, the egg business is still a going concern in WoW where, if you’d care to join in, annual festival of life and friendship Noblegarden has only just started.

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With patch 5.2 and all its new nasty boss creatures out in the wild, Blizzard have turned their attention to the World of Warcraft update. Patch 5.3 is set to shake up World of Warcraft’s PvP as Blizzard attempt to close the gear gap between veteran level 90 players and those who have freshly hit the top level.

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We missed this last week, but the perpetual challenge that is keeping WoW’s servers tethered to their ‘not-too-empty, not-quite-full’ sweet spot continues. Queues for Tichondrius, Illidan, and Stormrage have become untenable, and as such Blizzard are offering free one-way transfers for players with characters on any of them.

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After initially disabling World of Warcraft's /follow command in both the Battlegrounds and Arenas, Blizzard are now at least partly reversing their decision after fan feedback warned them that it could penalise blind and visually impaired players.

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Today, World of Warcraft 5.2 launches. It’s got a fancy subtitle and everything: The Thunder King. The centre-piece for the patch is a new raid tier: The Throne of Thunder, where World of Warcraft’s level 90 players can face 12 (13 if you count the heroic hidden one) new bosses. Raids are hard: hard to defeat, and hard to design. Raiding doesn’t feel like anything else in gaming: it requires a level of patience and co-operation that’s rarely found elsewhere. Groups of ten or twenty five players have to come together to defeat some of the hardest challenges in gaming.

I’ve been obsessed with raids in World of Warcraft for a very long time - and I wanted to understand more about how Blizzard design and develop the encounters within. Handily, World of Warcraft’s lead encounter designer, Ion Hazzikostas, was happy to help.

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A World of WarCraft movie’s been on the cards since 2009, though back then it was to be directed by Sam Raimi, maker of the Evil Dead series and the Toby Maguire Spider Man films. Then, in January, after three years of development, Raimi left the project and was replaced by Duncan Jones, director of the excellent Moon.

Speaking to Vulture, Raimi revealed that he left the project not just so he could work on Oz: The Great and Powerful but because Blizzard’s “patience ran out" with him and his script writer Robert Rodat.

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