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Mists of Pandaria Beta: Male pandaren customization gallery
Last night, we were treated to a beta patch with a bunch of new information, files, items, and more. The brand new character creation screen has gotten some major improvements, and the male pandaren are getting many new skin color and texture options, ranging from older and gray looks to a few red panda color schemes borrowed from the females. Suffice to say, there are a lot of color and fur options for new pandaren players. Check out the gallery of male pandaren fur and skin color choices below. %Gallery-151713% 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: Female pandaren emotes and animation
Wondering what the pandaren female models look like in action? Here's a video of the emotes available so far, as well as some of the female pandaren animations. It's tough to imagine how the female pandaren move just by looking at a still image, but the video should give you a better idea of just how polished and fluid this model is. Mists is still in beta, and not all emotes are available at this time. Some of the female vocals and customization options aren't in place yet, either. Both of these should come with time. For now, despite missing a few emotes, the model is looking pretty finished overall, and I have to say I'm impressed with how amazing they look and act. 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!
Breakfast Topic: Has your opinion about the pandaren changed?
The introduction of the pandaren to World of Warcraft as a playable race has finally arrived, after years of requests. Fans split into different camps. Some love the idea of having the pandaren race in WoW, but others still believe the pandaren to be an April Fool's gag and nothing more. Now that the beta has arrived, we've had a much better look at our new pandaren allies. While not the strongest supporter of the pandaren in the beginning, I was of the mindset that it wouldn't be the most ridiculous thing added to WoW, so I wasn't going to complain. In a world where cow people walk side-by-side with the living dead and green linebackers from outer space, panda people didn't seem like too much of a leap of logic. Actually seeing the implementation of the pandaren, though, changed my mind about them -- the realization of the idea rather than the idea itself is what allowed me to accept the thing. Now that the pandaren are out in the wild, has your opinion about them changed? Were they once a jokey race now elevated to nod-worthy status? Do you need more time to see where Blizzard develops the pandaren story? Have pandaren not moved on your radar?
The Queue: Beta questions make good Queue questions
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mathew McCurley (@gomatgo) will be your host today. We had a lot of fun last night streaming the entire pandaren starting experience. Matthew Rossi, Anne Stickney, Alex Ziebart, and myself hopped on Mumble, fired up the live stream, and spent a few hours rampaging across the Wandering Isle. Witness all the wonder and spectacle of this special band of adventurers, with special guest "I'm Going to do Quests Whatever" Mike Sacco. See lots of pandaren emotes and animations, watch Alex actually having a fun time in WoW, and hear me say something funny with Rossi on occasion. Anne won't stop rolling. I think you'll have fun. In the meantime, I'll do my best to answer as many questions about the practical, boots-on-the-ground beta as we have it now. It feels as if this first initial push is intended to be a systems test. Revynn asked: Are you locked to certain levels and zones like you were in the Cata beta or are people already trekking to 90?
The MMO Report: Aztec pandas make no sense edition
Morgan Webb dethrones Casey this week on The MMO Report, having made the journey to Anaheim to interview Blizzard's reps about World of Warcraft's upcoming Mists of Pandaria expansion. J. Allen Brack and Tom Chilton focus on the philosophy of this expansion and its shift from previous expansions' ominous tone to a more playful theme of adventure, exploration, and oh yeah, the war between the Alliance and the Horde. The pair also highlight changes to underdeveloped zones, pet battles, repurposed classic dungeons, phased farms (actual farms!), and solutions to the faction grind problem. Most interestingly, they tell Morgan that Pandaren came first... and the Asian motif followed. After all, they joke, it just wouldn't have made sense to put Pandaren in Aztec ruins. Get your panda on in the full video behind the break!
23 images of the female pandaren customization
The female pandaren was finally revealed earlier this week for the world to see, and reaction has been fairly positive. Pandaren in general are sharply modeled and animated, and players have been asking for as much information on character customization as possible. We've put together an awesome gallery showcasing many of the female pandaren facial styles and markings, as well as the alternate red panda style with matching tail. As goes the community, so too I go -- I was worried about the female pandaren model. The male pandaren looked so great at BlizzCon that I really didn't think Blizzard could surpass it. Personally, I think it works and fits well. Check out our gallery for lots of shots of the female pandaren. %Gallery-151235% 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!
Pandaren lore and what we know so far
The pandaren are a nation unto themselves. Their history has played out for 10,000 years behind a shroud of impenetrable mist, one that has allowed them to develop their own culture free from interference from outsiders. Now, after 100 centuries, the mists have receded and Pandaria stands revealed. At present, the peoples of Pandaria, from the mogu to the mantid, the virmen and the hozen, are mostly unknown to us. Of these races, the pandaren are most familiar, and even then this is purely due to the actions of one pandaren who came to Kalimdor and walked alongside Rexxar and his allies, Chen Stormstout. But what do we know about the pandaren and their ancient homeland of Pandaria?
Mists of Pandaria: Dave "Fargo" Kosak interview
Dave "Fargo" Kosak, lead quest designer for World of Warcraft, sat down with us at the Mists of Pandaria press event for an interview. We talked about the Horde/Alliance conflict, voice acting, pop culture references, Mists' accelerated production schedule, and more. Check it out! WoW Insider: I guess I'm just gonna start off with some basic stuff. Dave Kosak: Basic stuff is good! Let's start with your overall philosophy for Mists of Pandaria. Well, we're constantly experimenting with quests, and in Cataclysm, we created some pretty linear zones, as I'm sure you might've noticed. Some really big story arcs and big finishes. Certainly like in Mount Hyjal, we phased a huge amount of the zone, which worked because it was a pretty linear zone. A couple drawbacks, though: It was a shame that on your second or third time through, you had to play it exactly the same way. You know, you kinda lose some of that open-world feeling, you lose a little bit of that exploration when it's linear like that. But we loved the storytelling, so what we wanted to do with Mists was keep that kind of storytelling but make sure that you have the opportunity to go out and explore and experience the expansion differently, so ... let's see.
All the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria previews you can shake an empty fist at
In the wee hours of this morning, the press NDA for World of Warcraft's Mists of Pandaria expansion came tumbling down, and our sister site WoW Insider has a bounty of coverage to share. The much anticipated -- and much debated -- expansion is slated for release this year and will include a new continent, the Monk hero class, the Pandaren race, pet battles, a level cap increase, and a massive overhaul of the game's talent system. World of Warcraft players are undoubtedly fixated on the expansion, as January's 4.3 patch was announced to be the last major update to the game before MoP arrives. You can check out all of the juicy info squeezed from the press beta groves after the jump, including hands-on impressions and insights you won't find anywhere else!
Mists of Pandaria: Battlegrounds preview
The Mists of Pandaria previews didn't show us nearly as much PvP content as what we saw of PvE content. We didn't see any of the new world PvP mechanics or anything related to the Arena, but we did see previews of two new Battlegrounds, the Temple of Power and the Silvershard Mine. World of Warcraft's initial Battleground offerings were based around classic competitive game modes: capture the flag, conquest and domination modes from first-person shooters, and so forth. Mists of Pandaria's Battlegrounds are built upon the same concept, borrowing beloved concepts from other games while stepping up to embrace the competitive innovations of more recent titles. The mechanics are a bit more complicated than simply capturing a flag, but they're no less beloved by the gamers who see them in action. Temple of Power Much as Warsong Gulch is set on the border of Ashenvale Forest and Arathi Basin takes place in the Arathi Highlands, the Temple of Power is set in the new zone called the Vale of Eternal Blossoms. The temple contains an artifact that could turn the tide of war should it fall into the hands of one faction or the other, so the Horde and the Alliance have taken to the battlefield to claim it. The artifact sits in the center of the map. Whoever claims the artifact must hold onto it as long as possible -- a difficult task, since not only is the opposing team trying to kill you and recover the artifact for themselves, but the artifact also causes a constantly increasing amount of damage over time to its bearer. The longer you hold it, the more dangerous holding it becomes. Once the bearer of the artifact dies, it falls to the floor and another player of either faction may pick it up.
Mists of Pandaria tries to breathe new life into an old World of Warcraft
Video games these days have a shorter shelf life than ever before. Titles fall out of the top ten within days or weeks (if they ever get there at all), there are awesome new releases arriving every month or so, and even the biggest games are on a yearly (if that) sequel schedule at this point. And yet World of Warcraft has remained a constant. Blizzard's MMO has held millions of players in sway for over half a decade, and those players have killed countless boars, cleared out endless quests, dungeons, and raids, and have vanquished not one but three world-threatening expansion bosses, in the forms of Illidan Stormrage, Arthas the Lich King, and Deathwing and his Cataclysm.So Blizzard is perhaps taking on its hardest task ever with the upcoming Mists of Pandaria expansion. There's no question in the halls of the (recently quieter) Blizzard campus in Irvine, California that the game is at a crossroads of sorts. Blizzard's formula for WoW expansions (define a baddie, and lead a player to gear and level up to the final fight) has worked so far, but it's almost as if the company realizes that the old tricks are getting old.Blizzard needs, then, to take World of Warcraft, one of history's most-played, most-traversed, and most-conquered games, and make it feel new. "This is definitely different fare from any expansion we've tried so far," VP of Creative Development Chris Metzen said in a presentation to assembled press. He then talked about the game on a much longer scale than a few weeks, a few months, or even a Call of Duty-length year. "The big global threat that's coming, to define the next couple years of WoW's gameplay, is really war itself."%Gallery-150969%
Female pandaren model coming March 19
Wondering what the female pandaren are going to look like? You've only got a little bit longer to wait. The official Warcraft Facebook posted the above image earlier with the tagline "She's on her way -- March 19." This is a marked change from earlier expansions, when we waited until what seemed like the last possible minute for a female model in the case of the worgen and the draenei -- and it's a welcome one. Though we've only got a silhouette to work with at the moment, it appears that those worried about a strange-looking, overly skinny pandaren female need not worry; she's got plenty of muscle to throw people around. This announcement lines up quite nicely with the upcoming Mists of Pandaria press event, and if Blizzard's already throwing female models at us, I can't wait to see what else it's got in store. Check out the official Warcraft Facebook page for the full image. World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria is the next expansion, raising the level cap to 90, introducing a brand new talent system, and bringing forth the long-lost pandaren race to both Horde and Alliance. Check out the trailer and follow us for all the latest MoP news!
The Queue: I would not hire Tails
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. It's time for an other episode of Dumb Things From the '90s That We All Loved and Have Nothing to do With World of Warcraft! Sonic Sez! Now on to the Q&A. Bynes asked: If I remember correctly, the devs said we'd come to a point while leveling our Pandaren in MoP where we choose our allegiance to either the Horde our Alliance. Does this mean we'll be able to mail things to these characters from our alts before they choose? Meaning, can both my Orc and Human send them mail before they choose a faction?
Know Your Lore, TFH edition: The true battle between Light and Darkness
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. Even now, the true battle between the forces of Light and Darkness approaches. We will all be called to join, and in the face of this conflict, all mortal suffering will be meaningless. Cataclysm is an expansion about the struggle to stop the end of the world and the struggle between Horde and Alliance. But in the 1-to-60 zone revamps, there are fascinating little bits of lore to be discovered. Most of these involve the Alliance/Horde conflict, but every now and again, you'll find a quest chain that leaves more questions than answers, more mystery than resolution. One of these chains begins for Alliance players in the Swamp of Sorrows, and it seems to be harmless enough. A Broken draenei named Magtoor is on his deathbed, and Anchorite Avuun is desperately looking for a cure. In Magtoor's final moments, Prophet Velen appears and returns Magtoor to the embrace of the Light with a little speech, including the quote above. The quest chain is fairly straightforward ... until we start picking at the potential meanings of that phrase. Today's Know Your Lore is a Tinfoil Hat edition, meaning the following is a look into what has gone before with pure speculation on how it happened. These speculations are merely theories and shouldn't be taken as fact or official lore.
Yak mounts lumbering your way in Mists of Pandaria
Yak mounts? In my Asia-inspired continent? It's more likely than you think, according to Blizzard community rep Bashiok. Today, he confirmed on Twitter that the shaggy beasts of burden we saw in Mists of Pandaria preview screenshots will be available as mounts when the expansion hits. What wasn't indicated was whether or not the yaks are the official pandaren mounts; I'm leaning toward no, but we'll see. We were actually just discussing what the pandaren mount might be when this news came out. Blizzard joked about it at BlizzCon, with its mockup of a pandaren mount as a huge bouncy ball with a seat on top. Mat McCurley's personal opinion is (verbatim) "probably, like, a big frog maybe?" I feel it'll probably be something a little more dignified. Like a rickshaw. World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria is the next expansion, raising the level cap to 90, introducing a brand new talent system, and bringing forth the long-lost pandaren race to both Horde and Alliance. Check out the trailer and follow us for all the latest MoP news!
Possibilities for the Pandaren mount
When it comes to information, Blizzard is pretty tight-lipped. The only things we know about the Mists of Pandaria pandaren racial mount is that it hasn't been decided on yet publicly. Internally, I would wager, there are thousands upon thousands of pandaren riding atop their noble steeds ... whatever steed that may be. While we still don't know exactly what the pandaren mount is going to be, that has not stopped the internet from speculating. Malchome over at mmo-report.com thinks that the pandaren mount should be a keg cart pulled by some sort of mule or yak. Epic versions could be more intricate, much like the goblin trikes gain complexity as their quality increases. There is a wonderful little mock-up drawing of the keg cart in the post as well. I love the idea as a mount in general, not even just for pandaren, especially with the Brewfest connection. Personally, I believe the pandaren mount is going to be some sort of frog or amphibian. We don't have many of those types of creatures as mounts in WoW, and it gives the artists a chance to do some really cool ornamental graphics on some sort of creature. There is a Chinese symbol for prosperity called the Chan Chu, a three-legged frog creature that carries a coin in its mouth, that could be adopted to be the pandaren mount. Giant Chan Chu frogs might share the land with the pandaren, much like the kodo beasts roam the plains of Mulgore with the tauren.
Arcane Brilliance: Top 5 things my mage is looking forward to in Mists of Pandaria
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week, we look forward to our bright post-Cataclysm future. May it be warlock-free and panda-filled. That Super Bowl commercial that inexplicably featured the guy from The Darkness singing that song that I loved back in 2003 reminded me of one thing: The end of the world is coming. We all know it. I mean, come on. When have the Mayans ever been wrong about anything? These are the people who invented basketball! Only instead of baggy shorts, tattoos, and millionaires who can't hit free throws, Mayan basketball features decapitations. I'm fully prepared to declare the Mayans right about everything ever. So with the world coming to an end, what else do we have to look forward to other than a new World of Warcraft expansion? Well, Diablo III, I guess, but we all know that's not going to release before Armageddon (Blizzard's claiming Q2, which we all know is Blizzard-speak for "after the zombies rise up and civilization descends into chaos"). So let's just assume Blizzard's release schedule will somehow outpace the coming apocalypse, and set our sights on what may very well be the last game we'll ever buy: Mists of Pandaria.
Third faction or logistical nightmare?
In the beginning, there was Azeroth and there was Draenor. The two worlds clashed together repeatedly over the course of three RTS games, each with expansions. But it didn't stay Azeroth vs. Draenor -- the orcs of Draenor had made Azeroth their new home, and the feud between the Alliance and Horde was forever etched in Warcraft history. And when World of Warcraft was released, players could choose either side" the native races of Azeroth, united as the Alliance, a group of good guys, or the orcs and other castaway races, thrown together as one motley group of bad guys, the Horde. Each side has its own justifications for what they view as right, just, and honorable. Yet there are races on either side that seem more neutral than anything, whether it be the peaceful draenei, the equally peaceful tauren, or even the blood elves, who have spent time on both sides of the faction fence. These races participate in the battles and bloodshed as readily as any other, but their motives never seem quite in the right place. And that's caused more than one person to wonder: Just what exactly would happen if World of Warcraft created a third faction?
The Queue: Pie party
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mathew McCurley (@gomatgo) will be your host for today. I threw a pie party last night, and I'm still recovering. There were two pumpkin pies, courtesy of my Kitchen Aid stand mixer and me, as well as two Ikea almond cakes, tons of cupcakes people brought, and lots of alcohol. There's this amazing bottle of Septima Malbec sitting on my desk and maybe ... just maybe ... No, seriously, Malbecs are the best red wines. Even people who hate reds love Malbecs. Go purchase, now. Drink responsibly. How about some WoW questions? ZodiacDragons asked: I've been wanting to ask this for awhile because it seems like talk of faction leaders keeps coming up, but didn't Blizz say sometime at the end of wrath that Lor'themar was going to play some sort of role in cataclysm? I think I remember seeing a blue post about it in an article here but can't find it. I think if ANY faction leader needs lore development, it's that guy. At least Velen has that "end of the world" prophesy to fall back on. So my question(s) are: did Blizz say he would play an important role in Cataclysm? If so, what happened with that plan? If not, what are the chances of him having an important role in MoP?
Arcane Brilliance: A preliminary look at the Pandaria talent tree for mages
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week, we engage in wild, baseless speculation and make hasty, groundless assumptions based on that wild, baseless speculation. So ... just like every week. A quick recap for those of you who have limited internet access and choose (understandably) to use each of your precious online moments reading this column each week, but otherwise ignore the internet completely: Blizzard announced a new expansion for World of Warcraft. It has pandas. The WoW online community appears to be simultaneously overjoyed, mildly excited, meh, and borderline suicidal. Monks are the new class, and they will be able to tank while drunk, which makes them pretty much identical to every other tank I know. Most importantly, though, the design team plans to throw our current talent system into a virtual wood chipper, pick up the pieces that come out of the other side, and mash them together into a completely new, singular talent tree for each class. The three distinct mage trees will survive, but the majority of the school-specific talents and spells we have now are slated to become baseline abilities that we'll gain as we level (automatically -- no more going to a mage trainer). Ability customization once Mists of Pandaria hits will exist as six talent choices available regardless of spec, one choice between three talents every 15 experience levels. Talent specs as we have known them since the game began in 2004 will cease to exist once patch 5.0 hits, and I expect that to occur in less than a year.
