Ghostcrawler explains Mists of Pandaria dungeon changes
In Mists of Pandaria, there are no level 90 normal mode dungeons. There are normal dungeons, but those are leveling content. Once you hit level 90, you're expected to be geared enough to start in on heroics, because those are tuned for players to be able to step in and run them. In order to explain how this all works, Ghostcrawler took to the forums to answer some questions.
The Mists of Pandaria heroic dungeons are easier than the Cataclysm heroic dungeons.* Once we made that decision, we thought that having two versions of the level 90 dungeons (normal and heroic) didn't make sense because they would be very similar in difficulty and offer similar loot. We thought about calling them something besides "heroic," since heroic tends to mean hard to a lot of players, but we also needed to call them something, because some dungeons like Temple of the Jade Serpent have a lower-level and a level 90 version. We thought about calling them "level 90 versions" but figured "heroic" required less explanation. (We also could have dispensed with lower level dungeons, or made lower level versions of the level 90 dungeons, but we felt like both solutions were just to make the nomenclature of "heroic" more clear, which seemed like bad reasons.)
TLDR: Some Mists of Pandaria dungeons have lower level and level 90 versions. Others just have level 90 versions. In both cases, the level 90 versions are called "heroic."
* - If you like very difficult dungeons, Challenge Modes are targeted at you.
And in case you're wondering, he also explains challenge modes in more detail as well as explaining why Blizzard has decided to tweak what you can queue for at 90. As always, even if you can't queue for something, you can always walk or ride up to the door and zone in that way.
I remember when that was the only way you could run a dungeon. I also remember when all my gear was "of the Bear." I'm old, is what I'm saying.
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!
