What did I miss?

[camicio]

I quit shortly before the MoP release.

What did I miss? Anything new that's really exciting? Anything worth coming back for?

[Noorri]

Garrosh has become Hitler, a few large raiding tiers that are totally irrelevant to the story so far, the Alliance is now only represented by Varian and Jaina and they both suck, PVP balance is totally whacky (at least that's what I hear, I don't PVP myself), the subscription numbers are going down fairly fast, Blizzard was unable to create any new lore and went back to "old gods and titans everywhere" mode....

I wouldn't come back at this point, wait until the next expansion and see if the theme is to your liking.

[Gimlix]

Garrosh has become Hitler, a few large raiding tiers that are totally irrelevant to the story so far, the Alliance is now only represented by Varian and Jaina and they both suck, PVP balance is totally whacky (at least that's what I hear, I don't PVP myself), the subscription numbers are going down fairly fast, Blizzard was unable to create any new lore and went back to "old gods and titans everywhere" mode....

I wouldn't come back at this point, wait until the next expansion and see if the theme is to your liking.

Most of this is rubbish don't listen to this guy.

Mists of Pandaria, One of the best expansions yet, It's a expansion you must have tried atleast once.
Mists of Pandaria has the best raiding ever in World of Warcraft history, so if that's your cup of tea, get in the game right now.
PvP is alright, it's not in the best stage atm, but it's alright it always could be worse. 5.3 fixed most of the PvP problems.

So, Now what did Mists of Pandaria bring?

1.Brawlers Guild. (Solo Boss encounters for PvE'ers, People can watch someone battle a boss)
2.Scenarios. (3man instances that tell you the lore of a place, all across azeroth, it has instant queue and is really nice and fun)
3.Farm. ( You can make your own Farm, for those who have some farming skills in him)
4.Challenge Mode (This is as hard as Heroic TBC dungeons, it's only for those who are able to do it, casuals are left out mostly, you can get nice mounts/transmog/titles from it)
5.Pet battle (This is just like pokemon all companion pet that were useless in the past are now battle pets, you can duel everyones pet and all around
the world, pretty fun and can be addictive)

These are the main things that are added.

They have added some good raids in Mists of Pandaria . The first strong awesome one (Not counting the first 3 launch raids) is Throne of Thunder, it has 13 bosses, (1 is heroic boss only for the pros) and the raids are harder then WOTLK/Cata raids.
In a month 5.4 will be launched in that patch Siege of Orgrimmar will be in, it has 15 bosses, including the end boss Garrosh Hellscream. I heard it will be as good as ToT.

Blizzard has made the game more to those who time to play, Not those who play for hour and then have full epic set, those days are GONE.
Normal Mode = Easier then TBC. Harder then WOTLK.
Heroic Mode = Harder then WOTLK/Cata.
LFR = is the same as cata.

In 5.4 we also get 3 new features.

Connected Realms, This is a feature that will merge dead realms togheter to form 1 uber server, and everything will be linked. So it's like a real Realm, but you can keep your names and guild and all =)
Proving Grounds, this is a feature that let someone improve his class his skill by having to do some extremely hard challenges.
Flex raiding, this is a new raid difficulty for those who think normal raiding is to hard for them, this is as hard as the WOTLK normal raids, also you can make groups between 10 to 25 people, so let's say you can make a group of 13 people and then the raid will scale down to 13 people.

There are 3 new islands outside the 5.0 pandaria one.

Isle of Thunder = is a massive daily hub and is one of the best zones in game, It has world bosses and alot of cool stuff you need to check out if you return.
Isle of Giants = This is a World boss zone, It has a 450M healthed World boss, and there are dinos all around the zone for those who want to farm their bones for a Feats of Strength.
Timeless Isle = is the new 5.4 isle i don't know much about yet, but heard it's awesome.

And there are 4 world bosses right now, and in 5.4 there will be more World bosses.

PVP has a few new things added.
They got 3 new Battlegrounds.

1. Temple of Kotmogu ( there are 4 orbs in the map if your team hold 1 or more you gain points, the team that gets to the cap of the points wins, really fun!)
2. Silvershard Mines ( You are in a mine, and there are 3 gold mines, u gotta escort them to the end point to gain points.)
3. Deepwind Gorge ( This is a AB/WSG mix, you can get the gold from the others team and bring it to your base, while meanwhile you can cap bases to get points too)

We got also 2 new arenas.

The Talent tree changed along with the glyphs.

We got a new Class, Monk.
We got a new Race, Pandarian.

There is so much stuff, it's worth trying.

[camicio]

Garrosh has become Hitler, a few large raiding tiers that are totally irrelevant to the story so far, the Alliance is now only represented by Varian and Jaina and they both suck, PVP balance is totally whacky (at least that's what I hear, I don't PVP myself), the subscription numbers are going down fairly fast, Blizzard was unable to create any new lore and went back to "old gods and titans everywhere" mode....

I wouldn't come back at this point, wait until the next expansion and see if the theme is to your liking.

Story isn't really a concern for me. They already fcuked it up by killing Illidan, then Arthas. Lore is dead.

Setting on the other hand is... I'm not sure if I can actually take this panda crap.

Is the gameplay still somewhat challenging? I used to play a feral and a shadow priest because of their "complex" rotations. Are normal raids still absolute easy mode and can be cleared by anyone? Do I have to try and get into some hardcore raiding guild to have a challenge in PvE?

wall of text

Thanks for that detailed post.

Sounds pretty amazing actually, didn't expect that from Blizz after what they've done to my Diablo

[vesseblah]

Are normal raids still absolute easy mode and can be cleared by anyone? Do I have to try and get into some hardcore raiding guild to have a challenge in PvE?

Yes, and that is the point.

Those who are in hardcore raiding guilds can do challenging content, those who aren't can do easier content. It wouldn't make any sense other way around, or do you disagree?

I'm not sure if I can actually take this panda crap.

How much worse that is than the endless cow/milk "jokes" regarding the tauren, honestly?

[Gimlix]

Story isn't really a concern for me. They already fcuked it up by killing Illidan, then Arthas. Lore is dead.

Setting on the other hand is... I'm not sure if I can actually take this panda crap.

Is the gameplay still somewhat challenging? I used to play a feral and a shadow priest because of their "complex" rotations. Are normal raids still absolute easy mode and can be cleared by anyone? Do I have to try and get into some hardcore raiding guild to have a challenge in PvE?



Thanks for that detailed post.

Sounds pretty amazing actually, didn't expect that from Blizz after what they've done to my Diablo

Added some extra stuff near the bottom about PvP BG's/arena.

Also, There is alot to come. I Forgot to talk about Wrathion, he is a legendary quest NPC son of Deathwing, he makes you do a long legendary chain to obtain a legendary cloak, it is really fun and took the whole expansion to obtain. It was really fun!

Also, They didn't kill the lore yet.
Blizzard has in-game warned us alot with a new legion invasion, so we will see old enemies return. (Kil'Jaeden/Mal'Ganis) and new ones (game wise) maybe come too (Sargeras, creator of most bosses)

Worth to come.

[Solidsteel]

If you've been off since MoP I would advise you to wait a while longer for the new xpac or just quit for good. MoP has been terrible in my opinion, only a notch above Cata. Raid content this expansion has been boring and MoP's Heart of Fear raid will challenge DS for worst raid ever. If PvP is your cup of tea then the balancing has never been worse.

[Gimlix]

If you've been off since MoP I would advise you to wait a while longer for the new xpac or just quit for good. MoP has been terrible in my opinion, only a notch above Cata. Raid content this expansion has been boring and MoP's Heart of Fear raid will challenge DS for worst raid ever. If PvP is your cup of tea then the balancing has never been worse.

How is raiding boring, It is one of the best raiding tiers ever in WoW history, If you don't like this, then you won't like what is next either.

[slime]

How is raiding boring, It is one of the best raiding tiers ever in WoW history, If you don't like this, then you won't like what is next either.

Opinions... how dare others have them.

[Mister K]

How is raiding boring, It is one of the best raiding tiers ever in WoW history, If you don't like this, then you won't like what is next either.

I beg to differ. Ulduar > Rest (original Naxx was brilliant as well considering the limitations of mechanics at the time).

Edit: Sunwell.

[yuca247]

Gimlix summed it up pretty well. In my opinion MOP has been a great expansion gameplay wise. There's something to do for everyone from the most casual player to the hardcore heroic raider.

Don't listen to the naysayers. No matter what Blizzard does they will never be happy at this point. And no WoW is not losing subs because MOP is horrible it's losing subs because it's about to be a 10 year old game.

[Deleted]

How is raiding boring, It is one of the best raiding tiers ever in WoW history, If you don't like this, then you won't like what is next either.

Ulduar + ICC will be better than ToT and SoO, and yes I dare to say that before SoO has come out, I would even say that the only thing that made ToT better then Firelands is the amount of bosses.

You are 100% right about him needing to try it, so much new things to do outside raiding.

[Gimlix]

Ulduar + ICC will be better than ToT and SoO, and yes I dare to say that before SoO has come out, I would even say that the only thing that made ToT better then Firelands is the amount of bosses.

You are 100% right about him needing to try it, so much new things to do outside raiding.

ICC was easymode, how can that be better then SoO and ToT.

[Deleted]

I will speak from a lore point of view.

On the Horde:
Lor'themar got major character development and is a badass.
Vol'jin got major character development and is a badass.
Garrosh is Hitler on steroids and with a tan. Also in the Old God Gang Westside.
Horde 'split up': the True Horde (garrosh&Co.) and rebels.

On the Alliance:
Varian got further character development and seems like a nice guy (from a hordie's POV).
Jaina is a crazy PTSD revenge-hungry psychopath. (thanks to Garrosh)
Sadly the other Alliance leaders didn't do much. Moira helped out Varian without hesitation though.

Pandarens:
Nice guys, we helped them, they helped us. Their last emperor, Shaohao is their Messiah-figure.

Wrathion:
Had a great ambitious plan in uniting Azeroth against the Legion's possible comeback, says Varian fucked it up. He still gave players uber-cloaks.

Overall story:
It seems that everything comes down to the titan-old god storyline. The mogu (former slave masters of the pandaren) are directly connected to the Titans, kinda dwarf-like, and the 100%-defeated Old God still causes problems. But his voice files are super great so it's okay.


I think it's definitely worth coming back, the gameplay is great too, in addition to the lore.

Edit:

Do I have to try and get into some hardcore raiding guild to have a challenge in PvE?

Well, if you find normal not hard enough, get into a HC guild. We don't know your capabilities. You can only find that out by trying it out.

[judgementofantonidas]

I quit shortly before the MoP release.

What did I miss? Anything new that's really exciting? Anything worth coming back for?

if you played prot pally in the past you missed a real exciting tier of being one of the most fun tank specs to play. sadly the QQ puglic is bringing that to a screeching halt.

[Pancha]

You would have something to do the first month, but it would become rather repetitive and boring after that. I would recommend coming back just in order to see how it all looks. It isn't worse than just paying for 1 month of subscription time and explore your options. Many have found both Brawler's guild and pet battles to be fun and time consuming. I haven't. As such, test it out and see whether the game still has something to give back to you. I rarely play, and when I do I often end up doing the same thing each time I log on.

[Thulvaso]

- - - Updated - - -

As well as the above Mists of Pandaria has to be the best expansion for things to do. Once you hit 90 a whole menu of content can be done.

Battleground, Arena, LFR, Dungeons, Scenarios, Heroic Scenarios, Legendary Quest chain, Isle of Thunder daily quests to progress the zone story, 4 world bosses, 5.1 (escalation) storyline, easily one of my favorite patches ever. What 5.1 brought was a Horde/Alliance hub where if you do the daily quests you gain access to a major story line that send you to Darnassus, Dalaran, a lot of infiltration and backstabbing and bring Garrosh to his true form.

5.3 brought the barrens thing which is the weakest part of the expansion so far, basically kill the mini bosses in the barrens and gain supplies to fuel the revolution which will happen in 5.4. You do get 200 vp or so and is pretty quick.