Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
What is Mists of Pandaria?
  • The goal is to combine new gameplay with most fun parts of the past.
  • The plan is to get people back into the world, instead of having players roam around Stormwind and Orgrimmar all the time once they reach max level.
  • Developers want you to do what you want to do to progress your character. They really want you to feel like you have a menu of content where you can pick whatever you want to do, and you shouldn't feel forced to do something to progress your character. For example, daily quests will reward you with valor points but it will still be faster if you raid of course.
  • Character builds are going to be entirely revamped. Talents were still too cookie cutter, so the developers want to give players more choices in their talents.

Pandaria
  • 5 New leveling zones to explore
  • Single, unified continent
  • Influenced by Asian landscapes
  • AH, Bank, and Central Questing Hub
  • No flying until max level
  • There's 5 leveling zones but they are very large zones, and you won't have your flying mount.


Lore of Pandaria
  • A long, storied history.
  • Magically hidden since The Sundering
  • A new land to explore....
  • Pandaria was discovered during the cataclysm, a naval battle between horde and alliance was taking place close to it.


Pandaren starting zone
  • It's a turtle! It left Pandaria 10 000 years ago and never came back. Pandarens who wanted to discover the world left on that turtle.
  • Story focused with simple mechanics
  • Cross faction, choose Horde/Alliance at level 10.





Creatures of Pandaria
  • The Jinyu are fish-like creatures and will be in a wide number of zones.
  • The Hozu are a monkey-like race, they stand up on their legs and can walk around. They play tons of pranks on the local pandarens and are also in a lot of zones.
  • Verming are ... new kobolds, they kinda look like evil bunnies.
  • Mantid: Whole raids and dungeons around this race. Insect race that has been there since the beginning of ages. They have been seperated by a giant wall. They are starting to go crazy and are going through the wall
  • Mogu: Ancient race, original race on pandaria. The mogu want the island back from the pandaren, they are really mad. You will see them in dungeons.
  • Sha: Manifestation of the evil energies that flow through the earth. If there is any sort of battle these guys pop up.


The Jade Forest
  • This is where Alliance and Horde will be landing. The horde is washing up on the north side, the alliance on the south side. There will be one unified start zone and Alliance/Horde will end up meeting up in the middle.
  • Lush rainforests and stone spires
  • The Alliance will try to become friend with the Hozu, and the Horde with the Jinyu and will try to turn them against each other.
  • Temple of the Jade Serpent will be the dungeon of this zone. It will be your 85-86 Dungeon, it has been taken over by Sha




Valley of the Four Winds
  • Two zones for the price of one! This zone is huge, the whole north side of the zone is pandaren farmlands, the south is a coastal jungle.
  • You will get to choose between the north side and the south side when you arrive. You can go back and switch side if you want the other quests.
  • The dungeon of this zone is Stormstout Brewery.
  • This is where you will have your first interaction with the Mantids, they broke through the wall and are now attacking pandarens villages.
  • This is a level 86-87 zone




New Features
  • The pandarens are the new race.
  • The female model isn't done yet.
  • At level 10, you will get to choose between horde and alliance.
  • Pandaren Classes: Hunter, Mage, Monk, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warrior
  • Racial - Epicurean - Increase the stat benefits from food by 100%
  • Racial - Gourmand - Cooking skill increased by 15.
  • Racial - Inner Peace - Your rested experience bonus lasts twice as long.
  • Racial - Bouncy - You take 50% less falling damage.
  • Racial - Quaking Palm - You touch a secret pressure point on an enemy target, putting it to sleep for 3 sec.




Monk New Class
  • Brewmaster - Tank spec
  • Mistweaver - Healer, a healer who can stand up in melee and will let players experience a "new healing style"
  • Windwalker - Melee DPS
  • This is not a hero class, and it will start at level 1
  • The class is very martial-arts based
  • Lots of monk-only animations, the healer and tanks will have different stances they can stand in, etc ...
  • Monk Races - All of them except Goblin and Worgens



Monk Equipment
  • Leather Armor (Agility or Intellect)
  • They hit a lot with hands and feet
  • They will need weapons for some finishers: Staves, Fist Weapons
  • They will also be able to use 1H Axe and maces, swords
  • Healers will get off-hands, they don't want healers to use shields.

Monk Resources
  • Chi (energy) slowly regenerates and is only used for your Jab and Roll abilities.
  • Jab generates Light and Dark force, which are used for everything else. Some finishing move uses dark force, some use the light force.
  • No auto attack! Devs want you to have this street fighter feel where you punch a lot


Cataclysm Talents
  • Pro - The level 10 specs were really nice and gave you a role early in the game, definitely a keeper.
  • Pro - Removing junk from the talent trees was also a very good move.
  • Pro - Having some kind of choices for optional skills/subspecs worked out pretty well.
  • Con - You had a risk of "skipping" important talents
  • Con - There wasn't enough junk removed
  • Con - There wasn't enough choices, you might have a different final talent point than another combat rogue but it just wasn't enough. The cookie cutter build still persists.
  • Con - No enough customization, no true hybridization (Using a little bit of 2 different trees)
  • Con - Players got grumpy

Talent System 2.0
  • The talent system is gone! Ok, not really, but it's greatly changed.
  • You now have your class abilities, your spec abilities, and your talents.
  • You still choose your spec at level 10, and you get a spec ability at level 10. You will get additional spec abilities later. There are anything that you really need to function, they will just be given to you to make sure you have all the tools you need to have.

Example - Prot Paladin
  • LVL 10 - Avenger's Shield
  • LVL 20 - Hammer of the Righteous (Prot and Ret)
  • LVL 30 - Judgement of the Just (Passive)


Talents
  • There is not talent points or ranks.
  • There is one talent pree per class.
  • You earn talents every 15 levels.
  • You get to choose 1 out of 3 every time you get a new point, you can only pick one of them and can't go back to get the other ones.
  • There will be no mandatory talent. There won't be any cookie cutter build or anything, it will depend on what kind of optional ability you want.
  • You can now change talents as easily as you change glyphs.
  • More info in the Talent Tree Panel at 2:15


PvE Scenarios
  • PvE Scenarios are a way to give new interesting content that doesn't make sense in a dungeon content.
  • Scenarios are more about reusing parts of the world in interesting new ways, and introducing new types of PvE gameplay that we've never seen before like PvE battlegrounds.
  • They are short instances for a few players, the amount of players can vary depending on the scenario, some of them can be for 3 players.
  • You don't need the typical tank/heal/dps setup, you will just be able to enter and play your role no matter what it is.
  • It will be a staged experience where you will try to accomplish some greater goal
  • For example, a scenario might require you to kill 25 kobolds in stage 1, then find and return 4 goldshire children, and then kill the boss.
  • Developers would like to do PvE battlegrounds, where you will have to slay 50 alliance/horde soldiers, destroy 6 towers and the barracks, and then defeat the enemy General.
  • They could replace group quests.
  • It uses the same queue system as the dungeon finder
  • Since there is no role requirements, queues should be instant.



Challenge Mode Dungeons
  • Complete a dungeon in x minutes
  • To earn Bronze, Silver, Gold medals.
  • Gear levels are normalized, all your gear will be brought to the same level to make the competition even.
  • You can't just get better gear to overpower it.
  • It will reward sweet looking gear with no stats, and valor points!
  • Challenge Mode will reward you with very unique looking gear to show off how awesome you are to your friends
  • A new challenge dungeons UI will be added, you will be able to check your medals, your ranking, show what rewards you can unlock, etc ....


Pet Battle System
  • You will be able to collect, level, and battle with companion pets.
  • It will be accessible to all players.
  • Works with almost every pet
  • Pet Customization, you will be able to name your pet, give them visual abilities, etc ...
  • There will be "Wild pets", you can find them in the world and engage in battle with them. You will then be able to get that pet and add it to your Pet Journal.
  • Pets have random stats, some of them will be very good at tanking, some will have a CC ability, etc ...
  • Some pets will only be found during a specific season, while it's raining, or during the day or the night. Some of them will only spawn in the spring, when it's raining, in elwynn forest at night!
  • Most pets will become tradable, even after it's leveled, etc ...
  • Pets will be account wide
  • Your pet journal will display info on all your pets, including stats, skills, and also drop locations and lore info for the pets you don't have yet!
  • Winning battles earns you experience, and levels your pets.
  • You will learn new abilities. Every pet can use 3 abilities in a battle at one time.
  • Every time you level you will also increase the stats of your pet.
  • You will level multiple pets to build your team.
  • You have 3 battle slots, one for each pet in your team.


Pet Battle System - Battle
  • PvE and PvP Battles
  • It will be turn based.
  • A simple combat system.
  • Fight with a team of 3 pets
  • Queuing system, you will be able to find a fight pretty fast depending on the level of your pets.


Pet Battle System - Customization
  • You will finally be able to name your pets, and see that name in battle.
  • Items for your pets, you will have an item slot for your pet and might be able to socket gems in those items, etc ...
  • Individual builds of abilities and different teams.
  • Masters and Masters abilities, there will be different NPC pet masters in the world who will let you earn abilities when you beat them. For example, beating the master of mechanical pets will get you a new ability for your pet!


Dungeons
  • 9 new dungeons in the new expansion
  • 6 dungeons will be on Pandaria
  • Scholomance and Scarlet Monastery (Wings 1 and 2) will be back in Heroic Mode



Raids
3 new Epic raids!
  • They will feature two enemy races, the Mogu and the Mantid.
  • Raid Finder, Normal, and Heroic difficulties will be available for all raids from day 1.
  • World raid bosses will return!
  • More info will be available at the Raids & Dungeons Panel today.

Questing
  • Increased focus on max level content, it will reward you with Valor Points.
  • Incentives for dungeons/raiders to run quests and do outdoor/daily kind of stuff. For example finishing a quest might give you a buff for the day, and maybe that buff will let you roll on a loot that only appears to people with that buff.
  • More quest choices, and a lot less linear
  • No flying until max level, it's much easier to keep people on the ground and create interesting quests when you know people won't just fly away and drop on the boss.
  • Faction improvements, there will be group of factions and they will let you work for all factions from that group to get your rewards. This way you don't have to grind a single faction anymore.


PvP
New Battlegrounds (Not final yet)
  • Stranglethorn Diamond Mines - Payload style gameplay.
  • Valley of Power - Murderball
  • Azshara Crater - DOTA
  • New Arena - Tol'vir Proving Grounds


STV Diamond Mine
  • Goblin Mine below northern STV
  • Payload style gameplay
  • Escort mine cars to depot
  • Multiple tracks, you will get a lot of options and you will be able to decide which way you want the cart to go.
  • First to x resources wins


Valley of Power
  • Located in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms
  • Murderball style gameplay
  • Holding the object earns points
  • Multiple point zones, depending on where you're hiding you will earn more/less points
  • Object deals damage to holder
  • Damage increases over time.


Tol'vir Proving Grounds - Arena
  • Located in Uldum
  • Simple layout based on Nagrand arena
  • Sense of place in the world
  • Just a simple square with 4 pillars/statues, etc ...


Achievements
  • Allow achievements to be shared among all characters on the same Battle.net account, things such as the raid achievements and the ones which are difficult to get.
  • Allows to include new achievements such as "get all the professions to the maximum level"


Major Class Changes
Resilience
  • Devs like the way Resilience works in PvP, and how it gives a nice goal for players looking to progress/upgrade their gear in PvP
  • Resilience is a pretty huge barrier for people who want to start PvPing.
  • Resilience will become a base stat, and will increase a little every time you level.

Ranged Weapons
  • Hunter minimum range is gone!
  • Hunter melee weapon is gone!
  • Ranged slot for all other characters are gone.
  • Relics are gone.
  • Rogues and warriors can now throw their melee weapon
  • Wands become main hand weapons


Warlock
  • Unique resource for each spec.
  • Affliction will keep Soul Shards, they are currently not interesting enough but devs have cool ideas for them.
  • Demonology will get Demonic Fury, you build up Demonic Fury and you metamorphosize when you max your Demonic Fury. More skills will be added to Demon Form, etc ...
  • Destruction will get Infernal Embers. The destruction warlock who keeps getting casting fire spells get hotter and hotter and will eventually deal insane amount of damage, you can build it up pretty quickly and unleash your big spell.

Shaman
  • Buff totems are gone. It just wasn't very interesting to be the buff bitch of the group.
  • All totems are now utility
  • New totem examples:
  • Earthgrab totem - roots
  • Repulsion totem - repels
  • Bulwark Totem - absorbs

Druid
  • They always felt like they had 4 specs, so now they do.
  • Feral - Cat (melee dps)
  • Guardian - bear (tanking)
  • Some overlap between the two
  • All druids can still go cat or bear form.

All classes
  • Spell books cleaned up, got rid of more junk, the goal is to clean up action bars a little more without removing the fun things.
  • Rotations will be improved
  • Spells will be automatically learned, you won't have to go to your trainer anymore.
  • You will get a new spell at level 87, level 90 new talent point.
  • Talent trees should be fun, and you should have more choice than just a cookie cutter build.

This article was originally published in forum thread: World of Warcraft - Mists of Pandaria Preview Panel started by Boubouille View original post
Comments 402 Comments
  1. Killmaim Deathbringer's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by McNeil View Post
    WoW died with Arthas
    But is Reborn with Mists of Pandaria.

    (in my eyes.)
  1. Prag's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by youswas View Post
    lol@all the QQ

    i think this expansion and all these changes look fantastic. you people do realize that the pet battle system isn't a required feature right...? you can partake in aspects that you want to partake in.

    so many morons claiming the game has turned "kiddie" are probably autistic. the game has been kiddie since release. look at the graphics, gnomes, etc. etc.

    you people need to wake up, this is all shit that's been necessary since day 1. talents and glyphs are bad because there are MUST-HAVE talents. they're fucking boring as is. why wouldn't i take +5% damage to my main dps spell? making it this way provides actual choice in your playstyle. as many have said, it's the execution that counts, but they're on the right track

    and for those saying that RIFT/GW2 pioneered the PvE scenarios, you people are misinformed. there was this game called Warhammer: Age of Reckoning that had PvE scenarios in the form of Public Quests.

    i've played a lot of mmos in my day and i've played on and off since release as a hardcore raider. i have NEVER, EVER, been interested in any content outside of raiding in all my time playing this game. i already see several things just from this first day of information that i can definitely see myself doing.

    as far as the diablo 3 free for a year long subscription, you people realize you don't HAVE to take advantage of htis offer, right? it's not like you can't have d3 unless you get a year long subscription. you people need to remove your tin foil hats. let me break it down for you:

    get your year subscription if it's going to save you money in the long run. it's a simple calculation. if you don't know if you will be playing MoP 3 months after the release, then DON'T GET THIS, BECAUSE IT WON'T SAVE YOU MONEY. holy fuck, how hard is it? for those of us who know we will be utilizing our 12 month subscription to the fullest extent thereof, this is basically diablo 3 for free. getting d3 for free is not an incentive to buy a 12 mo subscription if you don't plan on USING that subscription, unless you are a complete fucking retard and you can't do simple math. the only people getting suckered by this offer are the people who deserve it, because they are dumb.
    Yeah, you're right. We don't HAVE TO TAKE PART in the offer... or the pet battle system... or the game itself.

    You do realize how ignorant that line of suggestions is, right? When you push people from an MMO, what do you think will happen?

    You're also very, very naive when it comes to pretty much everything you said about the 12 month subscription. Yeah, Blizzard is ALL ABOUT saving us money!
  1. Saycheese's Avatar
    lol, same deal every time blizz launches a new expansion. So much unnecessary QQ. Just wait until it comes out and play it for yourself to judge. Who knows, it could be the best addition to the game yet!
  1. Deleo's Avatar
    Finally hunters will leave me with my precious.
  1. Puzzlebox's Avatar
    Don't let the door hit ya folks... They have finally gotten creative. They are broadening their appeal, and to all the SWotR groupies out there... This is just the thing they needed to do to ensure enough of the WoW fanbase does not turn to that game. Long Live WoW.
  1. Ragnarokrising's Avatar
    I was hoping that Pandarens would be the new race back before they announced the first expansion that eventually became the Burning Crusade. I can't freaking wait. This is the right thing to do, Blizzard. Thank you Samwise, my favorite Blizzard artist, for creating the Pandarens! Thank you Blizzard for finally putting them in the game!
  1. k1037's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by ClavellBC View Post
    A FOURTH DRUID SPEC JUST FOR TANKING!!! Wow.... (pictures the incoming flood of Druids...)
    Except that specs no longer mean anything because specs WILL NOT HAVE THEIR OWN TALENT TREES. So it's kind of a meaningless thing for Blizzard to say.
  1. mmocbeba583bd0's Avatar
    I love it: new class that can perform all roles using new mechanic, PANDAS!!!, new zones look fantastic. Finally a reason for me to come back to game.
  1. Puzzlebox's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Dunkman View Post
    I mean, seriously, VP for daily quests? I really don't understand, what do people who aren't even going to run 5-mans need epic gear for anyway?
    What do people who are not going to run Heroic raids need raid gear for?

    See it can be done to you as well.

    People want cool neat items. Quit being an elitist towards them.

    The game use to be 5% raid 95% don't.

    Now it is 5% seriously raid and 95% just play easy raids.

    They are expanding the game set to others to enjoy content. Notice they said it would be diminished compared to raiding.

    WTB moar readying comprehncion.
  1. Pojo458's Avatar
    @Blizz SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!!!
  1. MooseLord's Avatar
    Pokemon, DOTA, and World of Warcraft? All in one game? This will be nothing short of amazing.
  1. Evenios's Avatar
    thanks for the nice screencaps I downloaded a few of them on my Ipad to share with people. Fun!!!!!
  1. mmocb8d356e0be's Avatar
    warlock warlock *chant* warlock warlock
  1. Andromedas's Avatar
    Really glad I quit.
  1. McNeil's Avatar
    Poor Kadaffi... if only he lived a few days longer he got to see all the WoW news
  1. lol's Avatar
    Just not sold on the idea, the whole premise of the expansion seems really stupid...
  1. Scrumps's Avatar
    This will be amusing when we are still seeing 99% of the "I'm quitting" crowd still posting here in 18 months time.I'm going to rserve my judgement but so far it seems pretty good to me. Not sure I like the pet battle system but no-one is going to force me to use every aspect of the game.
  1. Jahrastafari's Avatar
    I can boil down all the reactions happening right now into this:

    All the current WoW players that were in elementary/middle school when Pokemon was out are literally pissing themselves with excitement. Everybody else that isn't a Yiff or obsessed with Asian pop culture is looking for the unsubscribe button.
  1. youswas's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Prag View Post
    Yeah, you're right. We don't HAVE TO TAKE PART in the offer... or the pet battle system... or the game itself.

    You do realize how ignorant that line of suggestions is, right? When you push people from an MMO, what do you think will happen?

    You're also very, very naive when it comes to pretty much everything you said about the 12 month subscription. Yeah, Blizzard is ALL ABOUT saving us money!
    you're right, you don't have to partake in the game itself. and i say good fucking riddance. you think i give a fuck if 12 million people play the game i play, or if 6 million people play it? wow could lose half it's subscribers, contentrate its servers, and still feel as vibrant as ever.

    if you ask me, there are too many people playing this game. too many people that just want the world, they want it immediately, and they want it personally catered to their exact playing style. i play more than just WoW, because i know that WoW offers me a certain outlet for certain gaming impulses which i have. i'm not stupid enough to believe that one game can provide for me everything i need to satisfy my desire to play video games.

    and this system of giving d3 away for free, WILL save those of us, who would be getting a 12 month subscription anyway, $60. that is a fucking fact and you can NOT deny that. in this case, blizzard will benefit by getting the cash up front, immediately. THAT is their benefit when it comes to people like me.

    and obviously, they will make money off of retards who pay for a 12 mo. subscription just to get d3 for free when they otherwise wouldn't do so. get that through your head moron.

    go play swtor or any number of other mmo, you'll realize they aren't as good as wow, just as i did. i've played aion, darkfall, warhammer, rappelz, guild wars, warhammer, all extensively, and you know what? they were fun games, and i enjoyed my time there, but i also always came back to wow.

    is wow the perfect game? no. and i don't ask it to be. hence i can enjoy it, by taking it for the pve enjoyment it provides me, then if i want pvp style gameplay, i go play dota, or starcraft 2. if i want a single player experience i play mass effect, fire emblem, or any number of other good games.
  1. depotboy's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by silmarilen View Post
    inb4 this is all one big joke
    Too late, laid claim to it already:

    Quote Originally Posted by depotboy View Post
    This stuff HAS to be a joke. I'm not buying any of it.

Site Navigation