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Know Your Lore: The true end boss of Mists of Pandaria?
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. There will be spoilers for Mists of Pandaria in this post. Also, it's a Tinfoil Hat post, so I'm making stuff up in it -- do not mistake the conclusions of this post for what Blizzard will actually do. We're used to how expansions work. From The Burning Crusade's focus on Illidan (only to pull a switcheroo at the end and toss Kil'Jaeden at us) to Wrath of the Lich King's use of Arthas, and of course Cataclysm and our old friend Deathwing, we have an idea of how expansions build up through their life cycle with dungeons and raids. Sometimes these dungeons and raids are side trips or tangentially related to the final end boss of the expansion as a while. (Ulduar was related to ICC and Arthas in that the end boss of the instance, Yogg-Saron, was a rival to Arthas' status as a "death god," and the old god's blood was being mined from the earth and used as Saronite by the Scourge forces, as an example.) But overall, the expansion aims you squarely at the final confrontation. With Mists of Pandaria, we're heading in a new way of handling the story of an expansion. Rather than each patch serving as a chapter in an overarching story ending in a confrontation with the big bad of the expansion, Mists is aiming for a more episodic feeling, similar to how the story of classic World of Warcraft played out. Each patch of the expansion will seem more sequential, as if the game in patch 5.0 were a movie and then subsequent major content patches its sequels. By comparison, Cataclysm is more like a story with several chapters, a TV show with several episodes, or a comic book miniseries with several issues. All of this has me thinking. We've been told that Garrosh Hellscream's removal as warchief is the big climax of Mists of Pandaria, and then we've been told that not all is what it seems on that score. What if Garrosh is a smokescreen? What if his removal or lack thereof is not, in fact, even the middle of Mists of Pandaria's story?
Mists of Pandaria Beta: New collector's edition pet and mount uncovered
The latest beta build for Mists of Pandaria has uncovered the name of the potential Collector's Edition pet and possible mount as well. The enterprising folks over at Wowhead dug up the latest info from the build, including a change to the placeholder MoP CE pet and MoP CE mount spells. The pet has been updated to a Lucky Quilen Cub, and the mount has been updated to an Imperial Quilen, which changes depending on your riding skill. Please note, these are still labeled as placeholders, so they may not be in the final product. Although we haven't seen any potential models for either of these creatures, the quilen are the lion-like companions of the mogu, one of the villainous races of the new expansion. You can see what the quilen look like in the screencap above. As with just about every new creature I run into in Pandaria, I pretty much wanted to throw a saddle on this thing from the first moment I laid eyes on it, so needless to say, I'm happy with the choice. I didn't really need any more convincing to get the Collector's Edition of Mists of Pandaria. Frankly, the soundtrack pieces I've heard plus the potential of a new art book were more than enough to snag my interest. But the possibility of both a pet and a mount have sealed the deal, so to speak. Edit: Wowhead has now updated their post with a 3D rendition of the model for the mount. Please note, there are no textures for the mount as of yet, but you can get an idea of how the armor sits on it, anyway! 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!
Know Your Lore: As new lore emerges
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. There will be spoilers for Mists of Pandaria in this post. So there's no other way to say this: I am enjoying the heck out of the stories I am being presented with in the Mists of Pandaria beta. I'm actually reading quest text. (To be fair, I do that a lot anyway -- lore nerd and all.) Frankly, as Anne pointed out this weekend, one of the things that's best about this expansion is that everything we experience is new to us. Mists of Pandaria isn't just the story of the pandaren. In fact, while the pandaren are very cool, I find myself absolutely drawn to explore everything else up on the buffet table. The Mogu and their astonishing ruins, the mantid threat in the Dread Wastes, the entirely foreign threat of the Sha -- these are all compelling and fascinating to me. Better still, I'm being presented all new ways to explore these story options. More so than any expansion in the history of World of Warcraft, the Mists of Pandaria are parting to show us an entirely new world, one we know very little about. If you're an old codger like me, that in and of itself is an interesting departure. But it's being backed up by all the innovations and discoveries of the past seven years of quest and zone design. Frankly, this first post-Cataclysm expansion owes a lot to the teachable moments of the massive zone redesign effort made in the previous expansion. The fruits planted then are being harvested now, and the results are in places stunning.
Wowhead previews Townlong Steppes
Townlong Steppes opened up in one of the recent builds of the Mists of Pandaria beta. Normally, the Great Wall of Pandaria separates this zone from the rest of the continent, but the pandaren are investigating what's on the other side due to the attacks from the Mantids. The opposition in Townlong Steppes consists of mobs and quests for players who are 88+. Adventurers won't find any shortage of activities in this zone. Assist the Shado-Pan, who are checking out strange, jeweled camps near their garrison. Fend off the mogu, who are commandeering cloud serpents in the islands north of the Temple of Niuzao. Engage the yaungol and mantid alongside your pandaren allies in the Shallowstep Pass. Head on over to Wowhead to preview the screenshots and backstory of all the different areas. 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!
Mists of Pandaria Beta: First look at the new raid instances
YouTube user WazopVids has dropped some of the Mists of Pandaria beta files into a model viewer and recorded the results -- our first look at the Mogu'shan Vaults and the Mantid raid zones. I must stress that these are works in progress and not running in WoW software, so take all of this with a grain of salt. However, what we have seen so far looks pretty damn promising. Check out the Mogu'shan Vaults up above and the Mantid zone after the jump.
BlizzCon 2011: Dungeons and Raids information
If you're not at BlizzCon, or watching the live stream, then worry not for we're liveblogging the events and the Dungeons and Raids portion of the Mists of Pandaria preview had some interesting news all told. For starters, there will be 9 new dunegons, six across Pandaria itself and three heroic versions of classic instances, namely Scholomance and two updated wings of the Scarlet Monastery. The new dungeons will include the Stormstout Brewery, where you work alongside Chen Stormstout himself. There will also be three raids at launch featuring the Mogu and the Mantid races, and Raid Finder will be integrated into every raid at Mists of Pandaria's launch. World raid bosses will also be included, as Cory Stockton says "There were problems ... we've got solutions to those problems." Stay tuned to the Raid and Dungeons panel which will be liveblogged by us. The news is out -- we'll be playing Mists of Pandaria! Find out what's in store with an all-new talent system, peek over our shoulder at our Pandaren hands-on, and get ready to battle your companion pets against others. It's all here right at WoW Insider!
