The talent tree has also been revamped and simplified quite a bit, allowing players to quickly enhance their characters in meaningful ways while mitigating the risk of buyer's remorse. In short, it seemed like a class that folks will have a lot of fun checking out.Ĭore WoW players will be happy to note that Mists of Pandaria raises the game's level-cap to 90, includes nine new dungeons to explore, and unveils a host of new races of creatures to fight, ranging from the Mogu-a race of warlike creatures that once ruled Pandaria-to the Hozen, a race of monkey-like creatures that are equal parts filthy and mischievous. I was able to sample a host of different punches, kicks, buffs, other abilities, including the power to roll for short distances. The hand-to-hand combat and animations are different and engaging, and finally give players a chance to create their own personal WoW-themed martial artist with a specialization as either a healer, tank, or damage dealer. You can't really say it's one specific place.'īased on my time playing as a level 85 Pandaren Monk, I'm happy to report that the new race and character class are nice additions to World of Warcraft's stable of choices. So we really have this pan-Asian influence over everything. 'Then we've got rain forests and jungles that feel like Vietnam. And the first zone, The Jade Forest, feels very specifically Chinese,' Stockton said. 'We've got things that feel like Mongolia and the Himalayas in the northern zone. 'There was no way we could do fractured zones again.' 'We knew we had to make a connected continent,' said Lead Content Designer Corey Stockton. There were a number of considerations as to how the new continent would be constructed.

Because of that, the races on the land respond.' All those negative emotions trigger the Shaw: the Shaw of Fear, the Shaw of Hatred, the Shaw of Anger. 'So the Horde and Alliance start warring upon Pandaria, and the Shaw-all those different forces-come to life. 'The land itself reacts to the forces that work upon it,' Lagrave told me. Pandaria's heroes find themselves in a situation where they will need to choose sides in the war for Azeroth.

A force called 'The Shaw' reacts to the host of negative emotions that come along with war, and affects Pandaria's inhabitants in mysterious ways. Pandaria is a neutral land caught between the conflict between the Horde and Alliance, and shares a symbiotic relationship with its denizens. There's no mistaking it for something other than World of Warcraft, but the overarching pan-Asian influences in the areas I saw and explored definitely gave the new continent its own unique flavor. The first thing that struck me about Mists of Pandaria is how pretty it looks. That all changed last week at Blizzard headquarters when a veritable deluge of new details were shared at a press event that Lead Game Producer John Lagrave playfully likened to getting hit with a 'data fire-hose.' A host of brand new game systems and a number of refinements to the World of Warcraft formula are being implemented, with significant attempts to enhance the experiences of both casual and core players. When Blizzard announced Mists of Pandaria-the next major expansion for World of Warcraft-little was revealed, save for the fact that it would take place on a new continent with Asian-influenced aesthetics and feature a new race of Panda-people (Pandarens) and a new playable class (Monk).

World of warcraft mists of pandaria