I had no idea that talents existed in vanilla WoW. I wasn't really stupid -- I just didn't know what talents were or that they were something I should be getting. I expect they were detailed somewhere in the instruction booklet that I didn't bother reading before I started running around Azeroth. I was finally clued in to their existence around level 40 or so on my first character, when a friend asked what spec I was putting points into. My blank "... points?" response garnered an immediate lesson on talent trees.

Talents received a massive overhaul between Wrath and Cataclysm, one that saw a vast majority of talents culled and the trees themselves shortened considerably. It took a little time to get used to the changes, but in the end, the changing of talents wasn't really as huge a deal as I thought it'd be. Choosing talents on a character is still just as easy as it used to be. Don't worry so much about what you pick while you're leveling, and when you reach 85, you'll find plenty of sites online that will tell you the best stuff to grab at max level and why.

Which is sort of the problem, isn't it?

Every Monday evening, WoW Insider brings you a long list of WoW podcasts that were published the week and weekend before. If you don't see your favorite World of Warcraft podcast listed, just let us know in the comments. Be sure to leave a link to it, and we'll pick it up next week.

According to reports by MMO-Champion, the Black Market Auction House is now live on beta realms. Attempts to confirm this by chatting with Madam Goya just kicked back a UI error at me, but there seem to be plenty of people stopping by to check her out. Madam Goya makes her home at the Tavern of the Mists in the Veiled Stair, north of the Valley of the Four Winds. She's not alone, as Wrathion is still quietly hanging out in the tavern as well.

So what's available at the Black Market? A little bit of everything, including rare mounts like the Ashes of Al'ar, pictured above. Also included are pets that require a grind to obtain such as the Sen'jin Fetish, previously available only from grinding out Argent Tournament reputation, and high-level crafting recipes, although we don't have a lot of information on what those recipes are exactly.

However, perhaps the most interesting note to glean from this is that the Black Market Auction House appears to be carrying the original tier 3 sets that were removed from the game when Naxxramas was moved to Northrend and changed from a 40-man raid to a 10- and 25-man raid in Wrath of the Lich King. Obviously, this means that those looking to transmogrify into these rare tier sets can now pay to do so -- provided they've got the gold to fling around.

All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. In World of Warcraft, that player is you! Each week, Anne Stickney brings you All the World's a Stage with helpful hints, tips and tricks on the art of roleplay in WoW.

Maybe you're in the beta, or maybe you aren't -- either way, it's hard to avoid information coming from the beta servers. If you're a roleplayer, spoiler information is one of those double-edged swords. Sure, it's nice to know what's coming ... but at the same time, you don't want advance information leaching into your roleplay, especially if your friends and fellow roleplayers are avoiding spoilers themselves.

Thankfully, today is spoiler-free -- well, unless you count some truly gorgeous screenshots of Pandaria's scenery as spoilers, that is. While Pandaria doesn't really appear to have a neutral capital hub at this point in the beta, most of Pandaria's towns and villages are decidedly neutral. This makes them ideal roleplay hubs for both Alliance and Horde and offers something we haven't seen since the days of Dalaran: locations where both factions can roleplay out in the open and interact. Given the rising tensions between Alliance and Horde, it's an excellent chance to grab some compelling roleplay.

Plus, did I mention Pandaria is gorgeous? Seriously, you guys, once you visit, you'll never want to leave. Let's look at just a few of the locations Pandaria has to offer that are ripe for roleplay.

There seems to be something different about exploration achievement in Mists of Pandaria, and it's different in a really amazing way. To date, all exploration achievements in WoW have involved simply uncovering areas on your map. While that's fine for viewing scenery, it lacks a certain something, doesn't it? Well, the exploration achievements in Pandaria are taking a wholly different path. Hidden away in different areas of Pandaria are shrines like the one pictured above. Each tells a different piece of a story, and each piece that you find unlocks part of the overall achievement.

These don't quite seem to be a replacement for uncovering zone maps so much as an addition to them. The stories found in the different areas involve various parts of Pandaria's history. Considering the fact that Pandaria's been shrouded in mists for 10,000 years, we don't really know a lot of that history at all. These shrines and their associated achievements are a wonderful way for lore hounds out there to find out all they can about Pandaria's past.

What's more interesting is that there seems to be a new tracker for multi-objective achievements like this one. Each time you find a shrine, a faint window will pop up and notify you that you've completed a step in the achievement's objective. Once it's completed in full, you'll get the full-on burst of light that you usually see with an achievement's success.

This is a great way to integrate lore and exploration into something new and fun for players that really love the lore of the game. While these achievements are all marked as Not Yet Implemented, they seem to be tracking progress already. The one and only plaintive request I have is that completing these achievements give the player a specific reward -- a book that contains the full story that they've just completed discovering. What can I say? I like books!

Whether or not these achievements will actually be implemented is up in the air, but I hope that they are. Searching for hidden shrines has become just as much fun as questing through the zones themselves.

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It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!

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Transmogrification isn't just for making your character pretty or wearing old sets. Where's the fun in that? There are thousands of pieces to choose from for your look, and there's no reason you can't make it a distinctive one -- paying homage to video games or popular comics is just as much fun as being pretty.

Today, we've got an iconic foursome of characters who have been staples in Marvel comics for decades and recently made a smashing success with the film The Avengers. Though Warcraft's armor doesn't contain exact replica's of Ironman's iconic armor or Captain America's easily recognizable shield, you can still use transmogrification to compile a look that screams Marvel Comics. Just because the Hulk doesn't wear anything more than a pair of pants in the comics doesn't mean we can't capture his look through some well-placed camouflage. And even though we can't get our hands on Mjolnir, there are more than enough warhammers lying around to find a good replica.

Love to fish? It's not my favorite thing in the world to do, but I think the Anglers may just have changed my mind with the latest set of reputation rewards released on the Mists beta. If you've been wondering where you can obtain the ultra-amazing Water Strider mount, the Anglers offer it to players with exalted reputation. But that's not all you have to look forward to! The quartermaster for the Anglers is none other than Nat Pagle, who couldn't resist a relocation to the quaint coastal village of Angler's Wharf.

Ghostcrawler did a pretty good job explaining the upcoming account-wide achievements, but some players still have questions regarding both achievements and account-wide mounts, as well. Community Manager Zarhym (@CM_Zarhym on Twitter) further clarified the account-wide achievement and mount system earlier, as well as clearing the air about the question regarding account-wide reputation.

Zarhym

We don't want to make reputation account-wide. We think that removes too much of the gameplay of having an alt. Harkening back to the blog, the goal is for players to feel free to play their alts. If you have a cool mount on character A, then that might be an issue. Being exalted on character A so that enchants are easier to buy doesn't seem like the same issue. (What I mean is, it's a short step from there to saying character A has better gear so you aren't going to play B).

We can understand where the desire to have reputations function in this way stems from, however. For this reason faction rep is going to work a little differently in Mists of Pandaria and, we think, will feel better for players with multiple characters.

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While we don't know exactly how faction reputation is going to work as of yet in Mists, it's nice to see that Blizzard is addressing the concerns of those with multiple alts. But the biggest question so far regarding account-wide achievements and mounts is what exactly the definition of "account-wide" is. Is it account-wide or Battle.net-account-wide? The wise floating skull cleared that one up for us, too.

Am I excited about Mists of Pandaria? Oh heck yes, I am! Of course, this is mostly from playing through the story so far. It's been pretty amazing and has just enough twists that I'm chomping at the bit for Blizzard to open the next zone or two. But I was even more excited when I saw that account-wide mounts had been implemented last week -- and for good reason. I'm a collector, and I've got over a hundred mounts on my main character. But my alts are woefully short on the mount front.

With account-wide mounts, all those cool mounts I ride around on with my main will be available to all my alts too. And while I may waffle back and forth on account-wide achievements and whether I'll like them, I'm definitely behind letting all of my characters ride all of the cool things I've farmed up over time. But there is a catch here -- just because we're seeing this feature on the beta doesn't mean it will make it to live. And if it does make it to live, it may look a little different than it does right now.

And right now? Things are just a little weird in spots.