THE BUZZ: Blizzard has started sending out the first wave of beta invites for the next World of Warcraft expansion, Mists of Pandaria.

This first wave is limited to WoW Annual Pass holders, press, fansites, and friends and family. Blizzard plans to invite Annual Pass holders in waves, based on how long you’ve had a World of Warcraft account and when you signed up for the pass.

Blizzard issued a warning against fake invites: ”We’ll send you an email letting you know when you’re selected, but please be aware of phishing attempts. Some unscrupulous individuals send out falsified emails purporting to be from Blizzard, but are in fact meant to steal your login credentials.”

If you’re unsure of an email, log into you Battle.net account and you can see if you’ve been selected there.

EGM’s TAKE: Lots of happy WoW players today as they can get their first taste of the new content. Expect a lot of videos, screenshots and new details to creep online over the next few weeks. Let’s face it at least one person always ignores those NDAs. Make sure you’ve selected to partake in betas, on your Battle.net account if you want a chance to be invited in the future.

You can check out some video of the new zones here.