Mists of Pandaria Beta: Core abilities tab teaches proper play

I don't really play more than one class at a time. Oh, I have alts, don't get me wrong, alts of nearly every class. I just don't really play them very often at all. Part of this is because my playtime is limited and when I am playing, I want to play on my main.

But the other part is that it's hard to keep up on class changes for classes I don't play. I started raiding in vanilla on a priest, and when I switched to rogue, any and all priest changes that happened did so outside of my gaze. I simply wasn't paying attention to them. And with the sweeping changes to classes across the board with every expansion, I never could really pick up my priest again, not in the same intuitive way I played her in vanilla years.

I'm not the only one who has this issue, and in Mists of Pandaria, there's a new feature to help address that to a degree. The Core Abilities tab doesn't break down every spell in your character's spellbook -- but what it does do is point out the core abilities for the class and spec you happen to be playing.

What's a core ability? They're the spells you use the most in traditional play. In the screenshot above, you can see that for an assassination rogue, there are basically five abilities that you use with every single fight you encounter. What the Core Abilities tab does is break down the basics for players trying out a new class, so they know what abilities they should absolutely be focusing on, when they aren't using the other tricks to be found in their spellbook.

And honestly, the feature's extremely useful, both for new players and for those who are simply wanting to try out a new class. Instead of trying to wade through pages of spells and determine what you should always be using, you can check the tab to make sure you're doing it right, and then play with those other little fascinating spells and abilities in between using the correct ones. The Core Ability tab doesn't go as far as most min-maxing guides, but it definitely helps the learning process along, which is incredibly helpful.

It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!