Hold your Horses, guys.

[Kunker]

I've been looking around these forums since the big news and I've seen a lot of people say stuff like "Oh man I can't wait to play as a Panda" or "Oh, they should be a neutral race and then once you reach level X, you can pick horde or alliance!" or "Monk or Bard is going to be the next hero class!"

Hold your horses, guys. You realize that in no way, shape or form will Blizzard devote the time to making a playable race as difficult as Pandarians (and it would be a fairly hard race to make playable) AND deal with balancing the new class for a new expansion? In terms of a linear progression with class/race, class is up next, so I have no idea why people are hinting are even thinking about being able to play as a Panda. Let's get real guys, this is Blizzard we are talking about, the re-skinning champion of the world.

Which ever class they end up picking is going to be all you get, and IIRC Blizzard as mentioned that they have learned a lot from the introduction of Death Knights, however horrid it may have been, and are looking forward to trying it again? (Don't quote me on that though). So chances are it isn't going to be a race.

Bard, Monk or Flying cannon of death and awesomeness, which ever they end up choosing, is all your gonna go, sorry, no Panda playing for you...

[Bombkirby]

Well they've been accomplishing more and more things each expansion so don't rule out a new race and a hero class next Xpack. They did redo 90% of the quests, landscapes, NPCs, maps, mobs and retuned all the old dungeons while adding new 80-85 zones AND 2 new playable races in Cata. Prior to that they were only able to add (for TBC) 2 races and a few new zones for 60-70. Obviously they've been able to get more done each Xpack.

Although a safe guess is that the Pandas will merely teach the existing races how to be Monks or Brewmasters which will in turn only add 1 new class.

[Profyrion]

The expansions are structured. There's a pattern Blizzard uses.

1. Introduction
2. New races, new level cap
3. New class, new level cap
4. New races, new level cap
5. New class, new level cap

That same list could also be written like this:

1. World of Warcraft
2. The Burning Crusade
3. Wrath of the Lich King
4. Cataclysm
5. Mists of Pandaria

So yes... I think (logically) we won't have playable Pandaren in this expansion. What the Pandaren most likely bring to the table is a new fighting style -- a new player class. What that ultimately is remains to be seen.

Of course all of this is pure conjecture based on a handful of (admittedly solid) facts.

[Kunker]

Well they've been accomplishing more and more things each expansion so don't rule out a new race and a hero class next Xpack. They did redo 90% of the quests, landscapes, NPCs, maps, mobs and retuned all the old dungeons while adding new 80-85 zones AND 2 new playable races in Cata. Prior to that they were only able to add (for TBC) 2 races and a few new zones for 60-70. Obviously they've been able to get more done each Xpack.

Although a safe guess is that the Pandas will merely teach the existing races how to be Monks or Brewmasters which will in turn only add 1 new class.

I personally think that work load from each expansion would be pretty much similar. Yeah in Cata they modified the land A LOT, but it was already there, and yeah they modified they quests, but they were already there. I think that making a continent, quests and NPCs from scratch is equally for even harder than what they did for Cata.

If blizzard really does make both a race and a class, I will be SHOCKED.

[Spoonman]

I think that Blizzard have big plans for this game, still I guess the numbers of subscribers in World Of Warcraft are decreasing (I have no idea if this is true or confirmed).
And they pretty much want to rush things out as fast as possible, Expansions are supposed to be released more faster so why wouldnt they speed up other things aswell?

[Deleted]

No hero class, no new race. I'd rather have them focus on a couple of the current aspects and polish them to the max, before they add anything new. Why add new when old can just do fine, if cleaned up a bit?

[roahn the warlock]

I love how people are finding a pattern when there isn't one, at the moment its Races class races... One can speculate, but only after the 4th expantion can one truly say there is a pattern

---------- Post added 2011-08-03 at 05:06 PM ----------

No hero class, no new race. I'd rather have them focus on a couple of the current aspects and polish them to the max, before they add anything new. Why add new when old can just do fine, if cleaned up a bit?

because people who got tired of the old and quit, will come back for the new. they're a company lets remember

[tehnoobish1]

The expansions are structured. There's a pattern Blizzard uses.
..snip..

Mathematically speaking a sample size of merely 3 expansions cannot reliable point to a pattern. I could just as easily say that the pattern is:

race
class
race
race
race <-starts repeating here
class
race
race
etc. . .

[Jhaalu]

I've been looking around these forums since the big news and I've seen a lot of people say stuff like "Oh man I can't wait to play as a Panda" or "Oh, they should be a neutral race and then once you reach level X, you can pick horde or alliance!" or "Monk or Bard is going to be the next hero class!"

Hold your horses, guys. You realize that in no way, shape or form will Blizzard devote the time to making a playable race as difficult as Pandarians (and it would be a fairly hard race to make playable) AND deal with balancing the new class for a new expansion? In terms of a linear progression with class/race, class is up next, so I have no idea why people are hinting are even thinking about being able to play as a Panda. Let's get real guys, this is Blizzard we are talking about, the re-skinning champion of the world.

Which ever class they end up picking is going to be all you get, and IIRC Blizzard as mentioned that they have learned a lot from the introduction of Death Knights, however horrid it may have been, and are looking forward to trying it again? (Don't quote me on that though). So chances are it isn't going to be a race.

Bard, Monk or Flying cannon of death and awesomeness, which ever they end up choosing, is all your gonna go, sorry, no Panda playing for you...

I think Pandaren will be more like a Hero Race. They start out at a high lvl and can only be the new hero class (Brewmaster i hope). They would be the only race that could be the new class.

And Blizzard is not tied down to some pattern of "new race, then new class, then new race, then new class". If they want to change things up they have the ability.

[DrFeelGood]

please, no new class. rehaul the graphics instead :\

[galdroth]

OP: speculating is half the fun (if not more)

[Jhaalu]

please, no new class. rehaul the graphics instead :\

Here's to hoping that they update the models of the vanilla races in this expansion.

[Profyrion]

Mathematically speaking a sample size of merely 3 expansions cannot reliable point to a pattern. I could just as easily say that the pattern is:

race
class
race
race
race <-starts repeating here
class
race
race
etc. . .

While that's certainly true, you're creating complexity for no reason.

KISS principle, Occam's Razor, etc. If it's a matter of what's more likely in this scenario, considering the subject, the pattern has already revealed itself.

[kremblin89]

Unless they want to loose all of China as subscribers they wont put Pandarians in the game, they had to alter them to be more chinese in WC3 to be allowed to sell in China.

[CookieEater]

The race>class>race>class structure has never been confirmed. It's just what people assume. Adding a new class is a far more complicated issue and for all we know Blizzard is adding extra races again first resulting in a 1-2-1-1-2-1 sequence as opposed to 1-2-1-2.

[mangoarizona]

While that's certainly true, you're creating complexity for no reason.

KISS principle, Occam's Razor, etc. If it's a matter of what's more likely in this scenario, considering the subject, the pattern has already revealed itself.

How can you possibly assume what Blizzard's logic is? "We will never have faction transfers." We now have faction transfers. "We will never have race changes." We now have race changes. "We will never have PvE to PvP server transfers." We now have PvE to PvP server transfers. Diablo will have a real money auction house.

People need to quit assuming anything, because Blizzard can throw you a curve ball the very next day. For all we know, they could add 4 races and no class, or 2 classes and no race. However unlikely things may be, stop stating stuff as fact. Even your opinion is based on something so trivial it shouldn't be taken seriously. NO ONE KNOWS WHAT BLIZZARD WILL DO NEXT.

[Deleted]

Pandas or Pandarens or how are they called, they CANNOT be a part of Warcraft, they aren't even in the lore. Do you think they'll implement this shit and RUIN the lore just because some stupid kids love them ? What a joke.

[Profyrion]

People need to quit assuming anything, because Blizzard can throw you a curve ball the very next day. For all we know, they could add 4 races and no class, or 2 classes and no race. However unlikely things may be, stop stating stuff as fact. Even your opinion is based on something so trivial it shouldn't be taken seriously. NO ONE KNOWS WHAT BLIZZARD WILL DO NEXT.

This is funny in light of today's news/discovery.

People have accurately extrapolated Blizzard's plans ahead of every expansion. Why would this be any different?

Blizzard isn't just some guy off the street. They are a massive corporation working on a billion-dollar product. There will always be reasonable structure and years of planning behind everything they do. You've seen the roadmap, right?

[Sting]

I doubt they'll be introducing a new class, Blizzard already stated that balancing is a nightmare atm + DKs were horribly OP at launch.

[creepygnome]

I am still hoping that Mists isn't an expansion at all. I would rather hear about Warcraft IV. But there is nothing but speculation until Blizz actually decides to tell us what it is. Just have to wait until Blizzcon.