Not gonna touch on everything, but let’s browse a bit.
New Expansion – Mists of Pandaria
The connotation is cool, quiet, reflective, peaceful, and even spiritual. I like it.
Pandas.
…
Pandas.
…
I’ll vote with the “Let’s Wait and See” crowd for the moment. But still… Pandas?
New Class – Monk
Hand to hand combat specialist using Chi? I’d buy an xpac just for this alone.
Level Cap – 90
Duh.
Five Zone Continent (Single Unified Continent)
- Asian Influence
- Auction House, Bank, Central Questing Hub
- No Flying till Max Level
- Scale is 3x bigger then Twilight Highlands
Rock me, sock me, at the launch party ya better not block me. The single greatest thing I’ve ever experienced in WoW was the initial portal into Outland. Gimme that again!
As far as the content itself, I am a huge lover of Chinese movies with English subtitles, so the “Asian influence” is an instant Yes for me.
The Wandering Isle – Giant Turtle Starter Zone
Hijacked from Avatar, the Last Air Bender. I actually really like this cartoon, although the movie was warlock-awful. Let’s hope Blizz goes cartoon, not movie.
First Neutral Race with a One Way Choice to be Alliance or Horde
IS THAT PANDA MY FRIEND OR MY ENEMY?! Aside from that little bugaboo, I love it.
Pandarian can be Hunter, Mage, Monk, Warrior, Shaman, Rogue, Priest
DEAR ELUNE I get to be a Panda Hunter with a Bear pet!! That’s a great big tall frosty glass of Win, right there.
Monk
- Brewmaster – Tank
- Mistweaver – Healer
- Windwalker – Melee DPS
Brewmaster? That’s a Dwarf title! I’m outraged. If this doesn’t get changed, I’ll be surprised. It just doesn’t seem to fit the theme.
Pandarian Racials
- Bouncy: reduces fall damage by half
- Inner Peace: double rested XP
- Gourmand: +15 to cooking
- Epicurean: double stats to food buffs
- Quaking Palm: puts target to sleep for 3 seconds
Bouncy? You could apply this to being a tank as well, couldn’t you? Inner Peace means I’ll actually level this guy. Epicurean I like, but how about making a Sommelier that gets double stats to drink buffs, too?!
New Talent System
I’ve looked at the preliminary talent calculator and I gotta say I’m not impressed, especially with the Hunter tree. Once I get into the Friends and Family Alpha I have more to say about this… although I’ll be NDA’d say I won’t be able to say anything about it. Yes, Blizz is dumbing it down. However, if they can dumb it down while simultaneously making lots of specs raid-viable and reducing the need to run a cookie-cutter spec, I might give the eventual product a thumbs-up.
Pet Battle System
I’m a hunter; I have real pets. You non-combat pet collectors can go talk to yourselves about this.
Dungeons
- Nine New Dungeons
- Six dungeons across Pandaria
- Heroic Update to Scholomance and Scarlet Monastary, Wings 1 and 2
Nothing not expected. I was never a fanatic of Scholomance or SM, so having these updated doesn’t really intrigue me too much. YMMV.
Raids
- Three Raids
- Raid Finder, Normal and Heroic Difficulties
- World Bosses Return!
World Bosses FTW! Raid Finder FTW!
BUT WORLD BOSSES!
…
Yeah, I’m a little over-enthused. But if I can kite world bosses to Goldshire again, then we’ll have something.
Weapon Updates
- Hunter Minimum Range – Gone
- Hunter Melee Weapon – Gone
- Ranged Slot for all others – Gone
- Relics – Gone
- Rogues and Warriors can throw weapons
- Wands become Main hand Weapons
YES, YES*, YES, /blank stare, /blinks, /nods.
* This big YES is dependent upon the melee weapon replacement. Can we have quivers and ammo pouches back that we can manufacture or modify with stats?
As a Leatherworker, it gets tiring making gear that get replaced with the first tier of raid content. Let me make ammo pouches are quivers that replace the melee stat-stick and I’ll be a happy camper.
Overall the expac seems quite thought about thus far. A neutral race is what people have wanted and were hoping for the goblin race. But Pandas? Still…
And Pokemon in my WoW? I’ll stick to my hunter.
Still, it feels like with the launch of the raid finder the game will become even more casual. Which is nice for some people but horrible for others. Let’s see how things turn out in the long run.
Wait … wait. BREWMASTER doesn’t fit the Pandaren theme? The Pandaren Brewmaster was the first playable Pandaren in the WoW-verse. Behold! http://www.wowwiki.com/Pandaren_Brewmaster
He used to thwack people with his barrel of ale and cast a spell called Drunken Haze. And then in the Orc campaign of the Frozen Throne, you could recruit a Pandaren Brewmaster to your party by collecting all of the ingredients for the ale he was brewing.
Looks like Dwarves are going to have some competition
Brewmasters were in the Warcraft 3 expansion as a hero mercenary class.
Pokemon is stupid popular, and adding another game to my MMO just means I’ll have to resub for the expansion.
Talents may be dumbed down but I also like the concept of having actual choices instead of waiting for a spec to pop up that is “best”
Also, I know you’ve probably got an inside man but no comment on the annual pass?
Since every other class is losing their ranged slot they’re buffing the stat allocation to ranged weapons to equal a two-handed melee weapon so each class will experience the same amount of stat loss. They are also considering vanity quivers and ammo pouches that will be visible on your character model.
I’m not sayin’ Brewmaster isn’t Pandarian, I’m sayin’ that it’s more Dwarven than anything. THE PANDAS STOLE MEH TITLE!
/fact
Luckily Dwarves can be Monks, so they too can be Brewmasters! (Of course, they obviously have been masters of the brew for all this time. >.> )
Actually, the world-on-the-back-of-a-giant-turtle myth goes back to the Iriquois:
http://www.cs.williams.edu/~lindsey/myths/myths_12.html
And hello there BRK, nice to see you WoW-blogging again.
I think the turtle land has the ‘four elements’ theme to it, which is more Avatar.
And I, of course, immediately thought of Discworld when they mentioned the starting zone was on a turtle. >.>
The “Melee weapon gone” thing comes down to this: They’re getting rid of the ranged/relic slot for everyone, so our ranged weapons will take the current melee weapon slot just like the wands. As such we hunters will be the only class able to use any guns/bows/crossbows that’ll be kicking around. So I highly doubt they’ll implement stat-boosting quivers/ammo pouches, but they did say something about having them as neat art for hunters in the art panel.
NICE POST BRK!
I agree…any more info on the annual pass?
I plan on getting D3, too, but still not sure if I want to re-up my WoW sub.
The hunter ranged only might have made the decision, though.
Not sure if PvP is your thing, but an amazing hunter, death knight, paladin team came out of left field and stole the lunch money from all the cocky wizard teams at the Blizzcon tournament and took first place.
All sounds good to me. But when is it coming?
Kolan
I am psyched. Already have both my accounts on the annual pass.
Also not very happy with the talents I see for hunter, but I expect you to set them straight when you are in the F&F Alpha. Otherwise win everywhere!
No No NO , trying to resist the calling of coming back but come on PANDA’S for CHRIST SAKE (pardon my language). /head-desk /head-desk /head-desk /head-desk.
Been playing WoW since 2006. Not gonna lie, I’m switching to (gasp) SWOTR for a while. If WoW with a light saber can hold me, I won’t be budging for freakin’ pandas. Add the B team’s seeming inability to keep talents (among other things) balanced, and it does not look enticing. If they go freemium or some sort of hybrid, I might drop back in. Until then, they aren’t seeing my $15.
Dan:
Glad to hear you like A:tLA. I’ve watched it with my kiddo and it’ really very good. There’s a new series that was supposed to start this year but Nick’s pushed it back to 2012.
Random responses:
Pandas — who doesn’t like pandas? love the idea that players start neutral and can go horde or alliance. hope they don’t get too Kung Fu Panda with it.
Monk — sounds good and finally a use for fist weapons. No auto-attack = interesting change — wondering if it’ll come for all existing classes eventually.
Level Cap 90 — too short, we’ll blow through 5 levels in a heartbeat. But I assume it’s all part of some grand plan.
Five Zone Continent; Asian Influence; Auction House, Bank, Central Questing Hub; No Flying till Max Level; Scale is 3x bigger then Twilight Highlands — like, like, like, fine w/ no flying, even 3x Twilight Highlands isn’t that huge if you like exploring
The Wandering Isle – Giant Turtle Starter Zone — Avatar cartoon rocks. On my fav list with Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo.
IS THAT PANDA MY FRIEND OR MY ENEMY?! — I actually like that. Wish they’d let you do that with all races. Blasphemy, I know. Cats and dogs living together. etc.
Pandarian can be Hunter, Mage, Monk, Warrior, Shaman, Rogue, Priest — cmon, just waiting for them to cave in and say “any race can be any class” — does it really matter anymore?
Brewmaster? That’s a Dwarf title! I’m outraged. If this doesn’t get changed, I’ll be surprised. It just doesn’t seem to fit the theme. — enough others have corrected this. Pandaran brewmaster is fine.
Inner Peace means I’ll actually level this guy. — certainly should help the slog from 1-90.
I’ve looked at the preliminary talent calculator and I gotta say I’m not impressed, especially with the Hunter tree. Once I get into the Friends and Family Alpha I have more to say about this… — Yay, counting on you to save hunter talents.
Yes, Blizz is dumbing it down. — Yes, yes they are. Guess I’m ok with it, but will miss the flexibility to create creative, situational specs. Cata talent revamp put a stake through that, Panda will render the coup de grace.
However, if they can dumb it down while simultaneously making lots of specs raid-viable and reducing the need to run a cookie-cutter spec, I might give the eventual product a thumbs-up. — Hmmm, we’ll see. Agree with everything except end of cookie-cutter spec. They will still exist, unless user-selected talents become totally worthless perks. You’ll just done faster moving 6 points.
Pet Battle System — sounds kind of fun, but so did archeology
Still don’t get how this ties into the rest of WoW to impact character or if it’s just a mini-game to kill time when you’re bored
I was never a fanatic of Scholomance or SM, so having these updated doesn’t really intrigue me too much. YMMV. — More recycled content = meh. Still have a soft spot for both places from back in the day, so can’t really complain.
World Bosses FTW! Raid Finder FTW! — Yes!
Hunter Minimum Range gone –- Finally!!!!!
Hunter Melee Weapon gone — Won’t be missed (well, honestly will miss goofy melee items you could equip like the Headless horseman’s sword that summoned pumpkins or the tiger claws)
Ranged Slot gone for all others –- Yay, tanks and rogues with guns were just wrong
Couple items you didn’t mention:
- Annual pass with free Diablo III — know it’s just a shot at TOR, but makes sense to me
- Challenge dungeons and “public quests” a la Warhammer, Rift — more fun
Anyways, thanks for the summary. Again, nice to hear your thoughts on where WoW is going.
Sigh. How the hell am I supposed to wear my Death costume if I can’t wield a gorram scythe now?
Yes, that’s my main objection. What?
[...] Big Red Kitty says a little bit about Mists of Pandaria. [...]
Until they give me more character slots, pandas will follow DK’s, worgen and goblins as unplayable classes/races by me. I have all my slots filled and I’m not deleting a toon to add something. Instead of saying, “Yes, we’ve been asked this alot and it’s something we’re looking into,” just say, “The mechanics are too difficult to implement right now” or “We heard guild leaders were sick of more and more alts” or “Nope. This is the only place we can force you to make a decision on something.”
Brewmaster Pandas. I’ll see your beer and raise you two more. You can’t drink a dwarf under the table because that’s where we start.
I heard level 85-90 was going to be designed to take twice as long as the Cata grind took. The comment, and I can’t, for the life of me find it, is that Blizzard “learned” from the fast grind in Cata, that people got to 85 and found themselves with nothing to do. (**waves**) That forced them into heroic dungeons which were a step back from Wrath’s “e-z mode” and it was not pleasant. We’ll see.
I am sad about losing my melee weapon. One of my favorite world PvP weapons is Old Ironjaw. I still have a quiver on my back. I had made the hunter quiver from Classic about 3 weeks before all the Cata updating. It changed into a 24-slot bag. I don’t see it all the time, but it’s still there.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought “Discworld”. The Hallow’s End creepy box is “the Luggage” for sure.
I too am enthused by the return of World Bosses. I hope one of them is Azuregos. I never got to kill him before he left.
I never played Pokemon. My daughter did. I don’t get the non-combat pets doing battle thing. Guess I’ll just wait and see, like I’ll wait and see about hunter talents.
What strikes me about this expansion is that it seems Blizzard listened to the cries of the masses who play their game and are putting in things those masses have asked for. Whether this is good or bad remains to be seen.
I signed up for the yearly account thing, not because I want Diablo or a beta invite, I don’t, but there was this horsie………
Why is the BRK site remaining stagnant?
Your obviously passionate about Wow still.
/fact
@Confused, I don’t think BRK’s passion for WoW has ever changed, but I think it’s the time commitment that has a lot of us not as “into it” as we once were. Believe me, if I had the time, I would be all over WoW (come on Lottery!!)
Damn I have not played wow for over a year… did not come back for the last expansion but this one might just bring me back. A panda hunter.. all win.
Love the post.
I love the idea of Pandas and the Asian styling. Can’t wait.
Not sure on the new talent trees or the pokemon thing but I’m sure it’ll come good in the end.
BTW “How’d you get Pikachu on a bus?”……….”You Poke-im-on!”
=D
o.0….hmm…curious
Ok, so presumably Pandas can speak to each other between level 1 and 10.
Then you choose Horde or Alliance.
What happened to the TOS/EULA that says you can’t have any communication between the factions?
I guess the Pandas get a brain wipe at level 10 and have to learn a new language?
CRUELTY TO PANDAS!!
was curious…took a peek….nope….no sale….But I still love your blogs.