WoW Mists of Pandaria Preview Blitz

[DoctorFinger]

The upcoming Mists of Pandaria expansion doesn't have a release date yet, but that doesn't mean you can't start learning about all of the changes and additions now.

As you may be able to glean from the name, Mists of Pandaria brings pandas to the battle. Because why not? But there's more to Pandaria than just a desire to bring more cute creatures into the game. The whole continent is infused with a vaguely pan-Asian feel, from the visuals to the story. This also brings the Monk class to the party, which adds a lot of different martial arts styles to the combat mix. The level cap has been bumped up to 90, and there are several new factions for you to join.

Oh, and now they've added pet battles. The fights are turn based and resemble old-school Final Fantasy encounters. The pet battles are an attempt to keep more casual fans hooked.

Oh, and then there are the changes. Every class has been tweaked, some in small ways, others with significant changes. And the entire way you choose and raise Talents has been rebuilt from the ground up. From the previews it sounds like they're trying to make min-maxing less effective in an attempt to get people to make more individual characters. Too many players seemed to all be running the same version of each class, or class-race combo, and Blizzards wants their players to be a little less bound to a formula.

For higher level players, Blizzard has also added Challenge modes: dungeon raids with increased difficulty, with performances put on a leaderboard for all to see.

Blizzard isn't yet saying when Mists of Pandaria will be released, but all three previewers linked here feel the expansion is very far along, and seem to think a beta will start relatively soon, with a release coming this summer.

Sources - PC Gamer; Shacknews, Joystiq

[Narradisall]

I'm well out of WoW and have been for some years, but it's still interesting to watch as it is such a giant of the MMO world, and now it's been running many years it's interesting to watch how they try to evolve it to keep it running.

Panda's have been knocking about since WC3, so I expected it at some point. I can envision 'fight clubs' starting up over the pets, and I think trying to make class builds more unique is a nice idea, although I honestly can't see how it will work.

I'm sure everyone will hate everything about it though and bitch continously all the way to the shop when they buy it.

[MagGnome]

Originally Posted by Narradisall

I'm sure everyone will hate everything about it though and bitch continously all the way to the shop when they buy it.

Clearly you've spent some time on gaming forums.

[Narradisall]

Originally Posted by MagGnome

Clearly you've spent some time on gaming forums.

WoW does seem to get a large amount of ire for changing anything though, patches, talent trees, THEY ALL RUIN THE GAME!!!

[roboninja]

I'll be there at release to check it out. It amazes me how much Blizzard changes the game. You cannot accuse them of playing it safe, at any rate. When it comes to mechanics, the current game bears little resemblance to the one originally released.

[Narradisall]

I think that's a part of why it's lasted so long though, it keeps refreshing itself. I always found it a good thing when I played, kept things interesting. Once you boil the mechanics down on any game and play them for so long it starts to get stale.

[Shjinta]

No fix to the terrible item inflation that's been plaguing the game since TBC is utter laziness. The numbers are going to get so fucking high. I came back to WoW last week after months of rift and I couldn't stand all the high numbers. To me it just looks..weird.

[roboninja]

Originally Posted by Shjinta

No fix to the terrible item inflation that's been plaguing the game since TBC is utter laziness. The numbers are going to get so fucking high. I came back to WoW last week after months of rift and I couldn't stand all the high numbers. To me it just looks..weird.

I find the fact you have an issue with it to be weird. Why does the magnitude of the numbers even matter to you?

It was not "fixed" because most do not find it to be broken.

[Stoke]

Originally Posted by Shjinta

No fix to the terrible item inflation that's been plaguing the game since TBC is utter laziness. The numbers are going to get so fucking high. I came back to WoW last week after months of rift and I couldn't stand all the high numbers. To me it just looks..weird.

Actually they are thinking about the best way to handle it.

[Karmakin]

That's actually a knife that goes both ways. The high numbers matter an awful lot to a lot of people, and that's why they decided not to do the "item squish". I don't understand why big numbers matter to a lot of people either.

The biggest news that wasn't in the news post is that the final boss of the expansion is going to be the current Warchief of the Horde, Garrosh. He goes over the line in the reflaring of the war between the Alliance and the Horde, and both factions decide to remove him. (Probably led by Thrall)

[Ink Asylum]

We get to kill Garrosh? That might actually get me to play again, and I was a Horde player.

[Hawkzombie]

Originally Posted by Ink Asylum

We get to kill Garrosh? That might actually get me to play again, and I was a Horde player.

SAME HERE!

FOR THE TRUE HORDE!!

And...I really shouldn't want to go back...but I always get tempted...I may get in on this but I dunno...

[Widgetcraft]

The Looking For Raid tool brought me back to the game. I can experience content and get tier pieces in a casual manner without having to join a raid guild, or go through the amazing amount of time and frustration it used to take to form a PUG raid. Cross-realm raiding/dungeon running is also a big plus, though they need to work on expanding that.

Hopefully they don't do something terribly stupid like they did with Cataclysm when they decided, "It's time to get hardcore again, let's crank up the difficulty!" I don't play WoW for the challenge, broskis.

[Karmakin]

Yes, and they said they're not going to do it. Too many complaints from meter watching DPS players.

[Widgetcraft]

I don't really see the problem with big numbers. That's kind of been the core of dungeon crawling RPGs since... forever.

[bean]

Originally Posted by Heretic Machine

I don't really see the problem with big numbers. That's kind of been the core of dungeon crawling RPGs since... forever.

It becomes a problem in coding as the macros that handle calculations for smaller numbers are able to cut corners that save processing cycles. Basically, bigger numbers when you consider that there are thousands of calculations being passed between the server and client every second start to become a problem.

Personally, I think the exponential growth isn't really necessary. If people want to skip Hellfire Ramparts (who doesn't really? I get so tired of that fucking level and I've still not seen all of Area 51 and that other high level Outlands map. . . though honestly, I just can't stand Outlands anymore. I have all these level 58-62 alts that I've just not touched) to get to the 3rd "continent" then they should be allowed to do so.

[PathMaster]

Raid tool, really now. I have not played since TBC, that could be interesting..

[Widgetcraft]

Originally Posted by PathMaster

Raid tool, really now. I have not played since TBC, that could be interesting..

Yep, right now it only works for the newest raid, but it's supposed to be expanded over time. You queue up just like the dungeon tool, and it eventually puts you in a group. The LFR raids are the lowest tier of a raid, it still has all the content and items, but the tier pieces are a different color, and the boss mechanics are more forgiving. The equipment is all the same but with slightly worse stats than normal raiding, and even worse when compared to Heroic. You can run LFR, Normal and Heroic in one week, independently.

[PathMaster]

Originally Posted by Heretic Machine

Yep, right now it only works for the newest raid, but it's supposed to be expanded over time. You queue up just like the dungeon tool, and it eventually puts you in a group. The LFR raids are the lowest tier of a raid, it still has all the content and items, but the tier pieces are a different color, and the boss mechanics are more forgiving. The equipment is all the same but with slightly worse stats than normal raiding, and even worse when compared to Heroic. You can run LFR, Normal and Heroic in one week, independently.

Hmm, between that tool, the new loot system, and all the content I have missed, this may pull me back.

[Primus]

The vids they released looked gorgeous.