temple-of-the-jade-serpent
Latest
The Mists of Pandaria that never was
It wasn't until after a few weeks of raiding Siege of Orgrimmar that it really hit me: Mists of Pandaria is winding down. Unless Blizzard has a fast one up its sleeve, this is the last tier of raiding before the new expansion, whatever that happens to be. It seems almost too fast, seeing as how we've just hit the one-year anniversary for Mists, but at the same time the faster pace has left me very little time to be bored. Between patches with raid content and patches with quest content, there has always been something to do -- and in patch 5.4, we get not only a new raid, but a delightful island on which to while away the hours. And I was flying to the Timeless Isle to go farm a rare mob or two when I started thinking about the expansion as it comes to its end. More specifically, the Jade Forest. A lush, tropical paradise the likes of which we hadn't really seen in such scale, the gorgeous scenery and introductory quests ushered players through what ended up being an emotional, gripping, and overall entertaining roller coaster of an expansion. But there's a catch to that. Once upon a time, the Jade Forest wore a very different face -- and had it gone live, Pandaria itself may have looked very, very different to players.
Know Your Lore: Top 10 lore developments of 2012, part 1
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. 2012 was a bit of an odd year for World of Warcraft. While yes, we did see the successful launch of Mists of Pandaria, that didn't happen until September. Prior to that? There was a whole lot of nothing in game. Patch 4.3 came out in November of 2011, which meant that players had nothing new or exciting to look at for nine months -- an astonishingly long period of time. So why bother doing a top 10 lore developments for 2012, you may ask? Because the moment Mists of Pandaria hit live servers, we were inundated with so many different lore developments, changes and tweaks that there is more than enough material for this list. Oddly enough, although we definitely spent far more time this year entrenched in Cataclysm, it already feels like there's been more time spent in Pandaria overall. And the changes made to lore development between Cataclysm and Mists are something we should pay attention to, because they spell the beginnings of a very bright future for further Warcraft lore.
Tanking Temple of the Jade Serpent
While working on the warrior column this week, I realized I could give you guys a general guide to tanking the various Mists of Pandaria leveling dungeons, so here we go. The dungeons this time out are pretty fun and varied, and not particularly onerous to tank through. First up is the Temple of the Jade Serpent. It's a lovely dungeon, with just enough bosses and trash to take up about 30 to 40 minutes of your time. What I like most about the temple is how the trash is all linked very specifically to the events of the temple's corruption. Which is totally our fault, by the way. Oops. Sorry, August Celestials. It's up to us to free Yu'lon's temple from the Sha.
Mists of Pandaria: Leveling dungeon guides
While the continent Pandaria is packed and laggy for Europe's launch, the dungeons seem to be relatively quiet and functional. So if you want your first steps to be lag-free and relatively stressless, the thing to do is to get involved in some dungeons. WoW Insider is here to help. Whether you want an in-depth guide for the expansion's introductory dungeons or a few lighter tips and tricks, we have you covered. Stormstout Brewery Mists of Pandaria leveling bosses in 5 seconds gives you bite-size snippets of information perfect for posting into in-game chat without angering your party. 5 things you need to know about the Stormstout Brewery gives you a little more information Or, clean up the Stormstout Brewery with this complete walkthrough. Temple of the Jade Serpent The same Bosses in 5 seconds article also covers the Temple of the Jade serpent. For the goldilocks of information, there's 5 things you need to know And, again, we've set you up with a complete walkthrough. 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 leveling dungeon bosses in 5 seconds
The new Mists of Pandaria leveling dungeons are brilliant -- they really are, a great mixture of fun and fear, of straightforward bosses and panic-inducing fights. But if you're on the beta now, trying to push through these dungeons, you might not want wordy explanations of just exactly where to stand, what to hit and what to interrupt. Your teammates certainly might not like them and will probably have pulled the boss before you're done typing your ninth message explaining the finer details of boss abilities. Certainly by the time these dungeons hit live servers, you're going to encounter a bunch of players who don't have a clue about the basic strategies. Nobody likes to wait around and read the dungeon journal to try to work out how to deal with abilities. So here we are with some very, very short, and only slightly sweet guides to explain the bosses in five seconds. Of course, we also provide full walk-through guides for these dungeons, and for the goldilocks group that doesn't want guides too detailed or too brief, we have the 5 things you need to know guides, which give you just enough knowledge to be dangerous. So, it should be obvious from the 5-second rule that these guides are not in-depth, not comprehensive, and might not be enough information for tanks and healers particularly. But they're fast and eminently copy-able into in-game chat without risking too much ire from your cohorts. Let's get started.
Spiritual Guidance: Shadow priest news bulletin (as narrated by a discipline priest)
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Spiritual Guidance for discipline, holy and shadow priests. On alternate Wednesdays, shadow priesting expert Fox Van Allen comes from out of the shadows to bask in your loving adoration. I had just zoned into the instance when the rogue died. I was running Temple of the Jade Serpent on the Mists of Pandaria beta as a promise to a friend who hadn't had the foresight to invite a tank or DPS. We were two healers and an enhancement shaman, organized enough to be on Vent but still ultimately at the mercy of the Dungeon Finder. My expectations were low. All the same, six minutes later, we drew a warrior tank and a rogue. Now all we had to do was decide which healer was healing. The resto druid didn't want to DPS; rather, he "couldn't" because he only knew how to play feral and lacked a suitable weapon to actually do so. That meant by default I would have to go shadow, so I started readjusting my bars to do so. When the druid finished resurrecting the rogue, we set right to work on our next trash pack. I found myself fumbling about, unsure why Vampiric Embrace was on cooldown and where Devouring Plague had gone. My friend, the enhancement shaman, took notice. "When was the last time you played shadow?" he asked. "Well, I have my rotation written on the back of an envelope I had on my desk," I replied. Immediately he laughed, but from the way it awkwardly trailed off, I knew he was losing faith.
5 things you need to know about the Temple of the Jade Serpent
So, last time on 5 Things You Need to Know, we took you on a rollicking, barrel-rolling, beer-spewing adventure through the Stormstout Brewery. Many laughs were had at the adorable kitty-esque bosses, many a hammer was clicked, fruit and vegetables were hurled, and much drunken japery was had by all. If the Stormstout Brewery was the chirpy cheerleader, then the Temple of the Jade Serpent is the emo sister, the one with the funky hair and the slightly offbeat jewelery. This is the Daria to Stormstout's Quinn. (Am I showing my age by referencing retro MTV cartoons? You bet I am!) So just like last time, this is definitely not a full, step-by-step guide (but of course, we already did one of those for you). This is a set of simple facts that will arm you with just enough knowledge to tackle this second dungeon with the panache we expect of our dashing, well-read audience. Let's get on with it! 1. You can go either right or left at the start. You start in a room with some quest givers, and in beta, the eminent Flaskataur, Esq. fulfills all your needs for glyphs and Tomes of the Clear Mind-- and frankly, your needs for tauren in adorable hats. From there, you have two corridors leading to the first two bosses through some trash. You can go either way. After killing whichever boss you kill second, you will be guided via a ramp to the next stage of the dungeon. I reckon right is easier than left. You may disagree. After you've killed whichever side you start with, you'll need to go back from whence you came and do the other one.
Mists of Pandaria Beta: Temple of the Jade Serpent overview
The Temple of the Jade Serpent is the first of many dungeons we'll be encountering in Mists of Pandaria, and it's currently the only one open and available on the beta servers. The dungeon is fine at level 85, and if you've managed to level through the Jade Forest and hit level 86, there's a wonderful guy at the front entrance (pictured above) who will sell you a variety of items. These include higher-level bandages, any glyphs you might be missing, and Tome of the Clear Mind, Mists of Pandaria's version of Dust of Disappearance for those level 86 or higher. If nothing else, I'd recommend popping in here just to visit Flaskataur, say hello, and purchase a few things. But that wouldn't be anywhere near as fun as running this starter dungeon. Fast, precise, and to the point, Temple of the Jade Serpent is nothing like the sheer length of Zul'Gurub, and much more like the shortened length of dungeons like Vortex Pinnacle, minus the travel time. In short, it's perfectly ... well, short!
Breakfast Topic: Pandocalypse Now
Boy, yesterday was exciting, wasn't it? We all knew what sorts of features were coming our way in Mists of Pandaria -- we've known that since BlizzCon -- but yesterday was the first day we were actually able to discuss the content that will be utilizing those features. What do you think? Are you looking forward to seeing it all in action? Are you still ambivalent on the whole thing? Personally, I can't wait until the beta rolls around. What was playable at the press event seemed pretty darn far along in development, so that beta can't be very far away. I would be surprised if it there were more than a month between now and the beta testing, and I would even expect it sooner than that. Mists of Pandaria already seems much further along in development than Wrath of the Lich King or Cataclysm were when they entered beta. The sooner the beta rolls along, the better. I'd love to take another crack at the Temple of the Jade Serpent and show the Sha of Doubt what's what. 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: Dungeons and challenge mode
Mists of Pandaria will launch with nine heroic dungeons, four of which were previewed to one extent or another at last week's press event: Temple of the Jade Serpent, the Stormstout Brewery, the updated Scholomance, and the updated Scarlet Monastery. Temple of the Jade Serpent Blizzard is taking a new approach with its introductory dungeon of the expansion. Rather than starting you off in instances that are entirely secondary to the expansion's story arc and saving the dungeons that tie closest to the plot of the expansion for the level cap, the very first dungeon you run in Mists of Pandaria will set the story's tone. The Temple of the Jade Serpent will display the expansion's villainy right up front. The sha, as you've heard by now, are the core external villains in the land of Pandaria. They are the manifestation of negative emotion. The Temple of the Jade Serpent will be your introduction to the sha. The Temple is where, once upon a time, an old emperor of Pandaria beat down the Sha of Doubt and saved the entire empire. Unfortunately, the war that the Horde and the Alliance have brought to Pandaria's shores has rekindled the Sha of Doubt and the temple has fallen under its influence. We did get to tackle the Temple hands-on at the press event, so we can provide a few concrete details about the bosses within and their abilities.
