Pandaria to eschew capital cities for scattered vendors, separate faction hubs
In today's Mists of Pandaria Live Developer QA, a player asked whether we'd see a Dalaran-like capital city on the new continent of Pandaria. Cory Stockton's answer reveals a surprising amount about the new Pandaria paradigm of exploration.
One of the current issues discouraging World pvp is the presence of highly overpowered guards around cities and hubs, 1-shotting anyone who engages in pvp. How will this be in MoP?
We know this is an issue in the current game and we plan to address it in Mists. We want to encourage world PVP, not make it a one-shot game for npc guards. This is one of the main reasons we decided to make two separate player hubs instead of a shared sanctuary.
I was personally pretty stoked to see the separate hubs for each faction, but what's more interesting is the emphasis not only on world PVP (which suggests these hubs may be more village-like, sparsely guarded enough to allow for PVP), but on the idea that many profession, badge, and PVP reward vendors will be scattered across the continent. If you played back in The Burning Crusade, you're already probably familiar with heading to Nagrand or Netherstorm to grab your honor gear, and with the piles of skeletons surrounding the various vendors. Pandaria may herald a return to these days, as people not only get out of capital cities but leave them behind altogether. The days of running circles in Orgrimmar or Stormwind may be coming to a close.
