World of Warcraft : Mists of Pandaria

  • Thread starter Bigbazz
  • 21 comments
  • 1,303 views
Bigbazz

Bigbazz

3,232
Wales
Wales
World-Of-Warcraft-Mists-Of-Pandaria.jpg


So the new World of Warcaft game/expansion is soon to be released, with the pre-patch + ingame events being available next week (28th august) and the full game release coming out on the 25th of september.


Personally I am thinking about going back to the game to give it a try, I love the Chinese culture and style that the game is based on and many of the gameplay features look interesting (challenge modes and pet battle system).

Below is the opening cinematic to the game, shows the incredible animation skills of their art team and gives a light hearted view to the theme of the expansion.



You've ended Deathwing's destructive rampage and saved the dragonflights from extinction. Now you must unlock the mysteries of the lost continent and discover the dark secrets of Pandaria's past. Explore ancient kingdoms hidden since before the Sundering, plunder vast treasures from the depths of the forgotten vaults, and rise to defend Pandaria from the shadow of a long buried evil - before it's too late.
We are pleased to present the opening cinematic for Mists of Pandaria as presented at gamescom 2012. Whether you’re Horde or Alliance, there is one question we all must consider: “Why do we fight?”
Click to expand...

Unleash the Secrets of a Lost Continent
Shrouded in fog since the world was sundered more than ten thousand years ago, the ancient realm of Pandaria has remained unspoiled by war. Its lush forests and cloud-ringed mountains are home to a complex ecosystem of indigenous races and exotic creatures. It is the homeland of the enigmatic Pandaren, a race that celebrates life to the fullest even while under siege by an ancient menace.
The new continent reveals itself to a broken world just as the Alliance and Horde are spiraling ever closer to a war that will consume all of Azeroth. Will the mists of Pandaria part to reveal the world's salvation? Or will the battle to control this rich and breathtaking new land push the two mighty factions over the brink of war and into total annihilation? The answers await within Pandaria's mysterious shores!
Click to expand...

SFPFLA1Q0RJ21344850003293.jpg


Mists of Pandaria features include

New Pandaren Race
Monk Class
Pet Battles (like pokemon)
Challenge modes
New continent/zones/dungeons etc
Lvl90 level cap
 
Last edited:
This is being released tonight, for anybody interested. Still not sure when I'm getting my copy, but I will be playing this at some point. It is available for digital and retail (hard copy) purchase.
 
I've actually considered to get back to WoW after dropping out of it about halfway through WotLK. I've been on and off ever since the game released, much less frequently since the days of Classic have been over, though. Dunno, I've had the 'craving' to play some sort of MMORPG again, as of late. Now, I might try my hand at MoP, but I can't get my friends to pick it up with me. Which might be for the best, who knows... It does consume quite some time, that's for sure.

I'd love to read some honest opinions on whether MoP is actually any good - or whether it#s just a rehash of the same old, same old I grew tired of a while ago.
 
I played the beta a little, when I say a little I do mean a little. but I'l make a few pointers for you.

1. Pet Battles - If you played the pokemon games then this is it, companion pets can now fight in a basically completely ripped off pokemon battle system, you can also travel and explore the world to find and capture new pets in a completely ripped off pokemon catching system, it is completely ripped off and for that reason it's quite good, addictive.

2. Classes have changed a lot, mostly the talents. Now you get all your base skills based on the specialisation you choose (lets say, warrior protection = shield slam and defensive passive abilities etc). The talent system is now a special abilities selection, all specs of a class have a tiered system where they have 3 choices per tier, you choose one of the 3 choices for every tier. What this means is that things like (for example Arms Warrior) Bladestorm are now available to all the Warrior specs, if you choose the ability in that tier.

3. Challenge modes - These are 5man dungeons that have a much higher baseline difficulty, they also scale your gear to a certain level so that you can never outgear them, there will be leaderboards based timed runs and there will be challenges to complete the instance in bronze, silver or gold. If you played heroics in burning crusade, expect that kind of difficulty, maybe harder.

4. Normal/Heroic dungeons - Though I havent tried any, from what I gather they will be of fairly casual difficulty level, designed to be doable in a pug/dungeon finder group. They are going to be very easy when you start to out gear them.

5. Scenarios - 3man instances that require neither a tank nor healer, I'm not sure on what the rewards will be but one was made available temporarily at lvl85 and I did have a chance to do it once. My lvl85 character is well geared and I personally thought I could actually solo it, it was a storytelling instance at theramore island as part of the expansion pack introduction, as of tomorrow that will join the other scenarios as a lvl90 instance. I'm on the shelf, I thought it was a bit pointless but some people enjoyed them, it's possible it will be made more challenging when it is bumped to lvl90.

6. Raids - raids are the same as always... In terms of fight encounters Blizzard has always been the leader in the genre and I doubt that will change, from what I gather it is very well done. But raids will be raids, not much of the core has changed.

10 / 25mans - As far as I know they share a raid lockout, meaning you can only do one or the other, but that is on a per boss basis. You can kill one boss on 25man then come back 2 days later in a completely different group and join a 10man.

Instance design wise... Cataclysm was decent but many people complained that the raids just aren't special anymore. Though most of those people are referring to Ulduar from wrath as the "poster" raid, which is widely considered as the best ever... obviously that is subject to opinion, but I will agree that the final raid of the Cataclysm was a disapointment on the whole, as for MOP I haven't looked into things but I would expect more of a Cataclysm streamlined approach than an "Ulduar" or TBC/Vanilla style raid.

7. Monk Class - Similar to a rogue but different, I played it a little bit on the beta at low level and thought it seemed like an interesting and new class, very unique compared to what has come before and definitely something I will want to try further If I have the time.

8. Pandaria continent - They have seriously stepped up the visuals for this, though it still uses the cartoon style it is really really well done, but as a result it does ask a lot from your computer. From what little i've seen of the island it is beautifully designed with attention to detail, as for the actual content.. I haven't tried it so can't answer that.

9. Account wide stuff - Mounts, Companion Pets, Achievements and Titles are now account wide, there are some exceptions but pretty much everything now is available on all your characters.

Ultimately it is like all MMO's, a rehash of the same old. But fair play to blizzard they have done a lot to change it up a bit, if you enjoy the MMO gamestyle then it is still the smoothest playing and most polished game in the genre, but ultimately it is still World of Warcraft and with Guild Wars 2 out and Star Wars TOR going free to play, there are plenty of other quality titles out there.
 
I came back to WoW in July, after quitting in February to finish my uni projects.

I really hope this expansion will be better than Cataclysm, because Cata's T12 and T13 raids were horribly easy, and the last few weeks have been a pure T13 hardmode borefest farm-mode for gear.

I actually really enjoyed raiding the Tier 11 raid in Cataclysm in a 25-man raiding guild, but unfortunately the guild dissolved right before T12 hit.

Sticking with a 10 man raiding guild for MoP. Neither am I going to rush my shaman to level cap as I did when Cataclysm hit. I'm just taking my time to level cap my shaman, check out the new dungeons and go through the new Pandaren zones on a new character as the Pandaren starting zones seem like a very nice place to level through.
 
Seen that joke made quite often, Pandas in Warcraft goes back more than 10 years, about half a decade before the Kung Fu Panda movie!
 
Thanks for the heads up, Bigbazz!

And also, yes, anyone saying that the Pandaren in WoW are dreived from Kung Fu Panda should get their facts straight - and try to find out who Chen Stormstout in WarCraft III was...
 
I've played the game a little, I will say that for me personally I'm enjoying the leveling questing experience. It definitely is WoW to the core with its questing but they have definitely upped the game and events unfolding and storyline has improved loads, the areas all look beautiful and the music score is exceptionally well done.

Have not done any dungeons but I did 2 levels on the night of release so went through 2-3 of the new zones, for me it is the best high level questing experience that the game has ever offered, I'l hopefully be hitting level 90 sometime on the weekend.


I'l say this, the chinese/pandaren culture is something the game had not explored in WoW, I have to say that it has been really well done and is a breath of fresh air after the Cataclysm expansion. Even if the Pandaren had not existed before the Kung Fu Panda movie this is just simply Chinese culture down to the bone. WoW is a really great game, for me as someone who has played WoW to death in the past it probably isnt something I'm going to go full out on because for the most part it is the same old, but If I was a new player then WoW : MOP would probably be a game that would blow me away completely.
 
I hit level 90 today.

Just trying to figure out how I'm supposed to raise my reputation with all the factions in the Pandaren zones, because using a tabard isn't longer possible to raise your rep. If it solely relies on completing daily quests, earning exalted status with the factions is going to be hard work!

Out of all zones, I must've enjoyed Kun-Lai Summit most. It is such a beautiful zone with the Himalaya kind-of style. Couldn't stop thinking Mount Everest when I was questing in those mountains.
 
So an update, I hit level 90 at somepoint on the weekend and have had a chance to play the game on and off. Personally I think it really is quite great, a lot better than the last expansion and I'm finding there is more depth to the game than I can explore all at once, which I like, there is more for me to delve into than the usual gearfarming grind.

So far so good. I really recommend this game to old players and new players alike. A warning to new players though, this game can and will take up a ridiculous ammount of time if you get too into it, if you can't pace yourself and take it slow then I'd advise you stay away from it, it will eat up your time.
 
Sorry to bump an old thread but this is the most recent WOW thread I have found. I have never played these games but I heard you can play the demo for each character up to level 10?
 
You can play a limited/demo version up to level 20, but you are limited with use of chat channels, ingame mail and maybe the auction house. I'm not 100% sure as they change it now and then. WoW is an excellent game and probably really great as a new player (if you're into that type of thing, open world RPG based around leveling, improving gear etc.

You can play as many chars as you want up to level 20 I do believe, you may be restricted from the Mists of Pandaria content though (Monks/Pandaren).
 
Bigbazz
You can play a limited/demo version up to level 20, but you are limited with use of chat channels, ingame mail and maybe the auction house. I'm not 100% sure as they change it now and then. WoW is an excellent game and probably really great as a new player (if you're into that type of thing, open world RPG based around leveling, improving gear etc.

You can play as many chars as you want up to level 20 I do believe, you may be restricted from the Mists of Pandaria content though (Monks/Pandaren).
Click to expand...
I will check it out in the near future for sure. Sounds like my rigs probably wont be able to play in any high settings but I can check it out anyway. Do you have an official link to the original WOW so I can check that out sometime? Since you said I probably cant play the expansions.
 
CAMAROBOY69
I will check it out in the near future for sure. Sounds like my rigs probably wont be able to play in any high settings but I can check it out anyway. Do you have an official link to the original WOW so I can check that out sometime? Since you said I probably cant play the expansions.
Click to expand...

I think the Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm expansions are all part of the base game now and the content is available in the trial version of the game, only Mists of Pandaria has to be bought seperate, they generally do that as having to buy 3-4 expansion packs to be up to date would be really offputting to new players.

Original WoW being the best is definitely a Nostalgia thing, the game now from an outside perspective is best it has ever been, caters to a much larger audience and is much less focussed around massive time sink grinding style playing. I think a lot of people loved the game back when it was new simply because it was a new experience to them, but by todays standards it would feel like a dinosaur in many ways if it was still as it was in 2005.

Also, the base experience of WoW changes with every expansion, though you're restricted from playing Mists of Pandaria content, the game is still permanently changed to being the Mists of Pandaria game, minus the new content. It hasn't been "original" WoW since 2007, regardless of which expansion packs you own the game you're playing is always the latest version, expansion packs simply grant you access to new areas and unlock the level cap.
 
Last edited:
I downloaded the free demo of WOW on Saturday (took forever) but haven't had a chance to play yet. Anything I should be aware of before I go in?
 
You may not be able to speak in public channels (they do it to control spam from trial accounts), and be careful which server you choose. If it lets you then probably choose one with a medium-high population, it's not fun playing on an overpopulated server and even less fun playing on an underpopulated one, though this issue will soon be a thing of the past. You also have 2 main different server types to choose between.

PVE (also known as normal) : It's where you can play without the opposite faction being able to attack you out in the open world, if you want the option of fighting the opposite faction you can toggle it on. This is seperate from battlegrounds and arena's that are designed specifically for PVP combat, those remain the same.

PVP : Opposite of above, once you have left the initial starting zone PVP will be available and you can attack members of the opposite faction when out in the open world, and they can you. This can sometimes be frustrating as you occasionally get higher levels who take some joy in killing the low levels and new players.


For the trial up to 20 im not sure if you even enter contested PVP anyway, it may be levels 1-20 that are safe zones even on pvp servers.
 
Thanks for the info. I had no interest in speaking anyway. I should have mentioned I have NO interest in PVP. I just want to play against bots with other people on my team. Like I do in League of Legends. You mentioned medium high population. How many people are in a game at once? I should check out some gameplay videos on my lunch break to see what I am getting into.
 
CAMAROBOY69
Thanks for the info. I had no interest in speaking anyway. I should have mentioned I have NO interest in PVP. I just want to play against bots with other people on my team. Like I do in League of Legends. You mentioned medium high population. How many people are in a game at once? I should check out some gameplay videos on my lunch break to see what I am getting into.
Click to expand...

World of Warcraft is a completely different type of game. League of Legends is a remake of a mod named "Defence of the Ancients" or "DOTA" for Warcraft 3 (an RTS game). However World of Warcraft is an adventure/action RPG type game and shares only the franchise theme and visual style of Warcraft.

Essencially in WOW you're placed in a massive open world (and I do mean massive) with a level 1 character/class of your choice. Where you start in the world depends on what race you choose and your adventure begins from there. You generally play through your start zone which will show you the basics of the game, some basic questing and fundimentals and you will be playing a fairly simplistic reprisentation of your class (which will open up more at level 10, and continue to do so as you level).

At level 10 PVP becomes available, PVP is almost entirely against other players, there are some battlegrounds that involve NPC's (such as Alterac Valley) where you must capture towers and defeat enemy troops/bosses as a team but generally all of the PVP is player vs player, there is no option currently to play against bots. The PVP I speak about above is "open world" PvP, this is when you're out in the open world questing and leveling you will be in a world populated by thousands of other players, so occasionally you may see someone from the opposite faction and on a PVP server that means that they can attack you while you're engaged in the "single player" aspects, but this is not possible on a PVE (normal) server.

You have 3 different types of PVP then

1. Open world : spontanious PVP, it's not something you see often.
2. Battleground : These are specific 10/15/20/40 player per side maps with objectives and goals. There are also some open world zones dedicated to this that can result in massive battles.
3. Arena : These are 2v2, 3v3 and 5v5 battle arena style matches where one team must kill the other

You also have what you could compare to pvp verses bots, though it's known as PVE in WoW

Scenario : 3man instance where you must complete objectives against NPC's and defeat bosses
Dungeon : 5man instance like the above but where they are designed around having 1 tank class, 1 healer class and 3 damage classes to succeed.
Heroic Dungeon : Maximum level versions of the above, more difficult.
Challenge Mode Dungeon : More difficult again max level dungeon with a timer to beat, to get gold/silver/bronze achievements and associated rewards, with leaderboards. These normalised your gear so you cannot trivialise it by improving your characters items.

Raid : Large multiplayer instances like the above but with bigger fights with more complex mechanics that require skill and teamwork

They come in a few different flavours/difficulty levels

1. LFR mode : This is where you join up and the game groups you with 24 other random players to make a 25man group, you can leave any time and the system will replace you, you can rejoin later to continue with another group, you can also do this with your friends.

2. Flex mode : This is a group you must make yourself by joining friends or advertising in public chat channels, any number between 10-25 players will do and the difficulty will adjust depending on how many you have in the group. It is a step above LFR mode in overall difficulty.

3. Normal Mode : Again a group you must make yourself like the above, Normal only comes in either 10 or 25man mode, it is a step above Flex in difficulty and requires strong teamwork and solid tactics to beat.

4. Heroic mode : The same as above only considerbly more difficult, this is tuned for the most skilled players with the best gear.





I'm sure this all sounds a bit overwhelming but really the game is very welcoming of new players and it's easy to slip into, but make no mistake World of Warcraft is an MMORPG genre game, it's not remotely the same type of game as League of Legends.
 
The scenario or dungeon sounds like what I want to play. Raid sounds good too but might be out of my skill level.

The only MMO I ever played was Defiance on the 360. It was a great concept but poorly executed. I enjoyed the massive boss battles with 50-100 players all on the screen at once against one huge enemy. That was a great time. It also had a campaign that you could play open world. Other players could come and join you at any time. Then they also had a separate co-op mode with up to 4 players. Usually ending in a boss battle. I am looking for modes like that in WOW.

EDIT: I just watched the first 5 levels of Let's Play WoW with Nilesy. On youtube. I like how there are animals and enemies all around. That's what I meant by bots.
 
Last edited:

Latest Posts

Back