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Mists of Pandaria Beta: New female pandaren emotes added
If you watched our last video of the female pandaren emote animations, you may have noticed that some emotes were missing. The latest beta build seems to have added quite a few more, including a second idle animation. We've made a video of the newly added animations for you, including a shot of the secondary idle animation. Be sure to view it in high quality for the best picture. I think my two favorites on this particular roundup are the beg animation, which has a lot of subtle nuances in the face and posture of the model, and the new idle addition. For some reason, her new idle reminds me a lot of Ariel from The Little Mermaid, excitedly exploring. It suits the pandaren, since they've spent thousands of years on the Wandering Isle for the most part and away from the world at large. 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: Character copy maintenance
The character copy service for the Mists of Pandaria is currently undergoing maintenance according to Community Manager Lylirra on the official forums. This maintenance is to address an issue affecting the service, and there's currently no ETA on when the character copies will be back up. For those who were invited in the latest round of 250,000 invites, this means while you may make a new character on the beta servers, copying your character will have to wait for a little while. Lyrlirra The beta character copy is currently undergoing maintenance to a resolve an issue affecting the service. While we don't have an ETA at this time for when character copies will be back up, we'll be providing updates in this thread as they become available. Thank you for your patience. source 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!
The Light and How to Swing It: Observing retribution on the Mists beta
Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Seasoned ret paladin Dan Desmond is here to answer your questions and provide you with your biweekly dose of retribution medicine. Contact him at dand@wowinsider.com with any questions, concerns, or suggestions! Well, comrades in arms, as the old Azerothian saying goes, the squeaky player gets the beta invite. I'd like to think my sobbing in coffee shops and passionate diatribes secured me a spot in the Jade Forest, where I can run around in the beautiful scenery competing with dozens of other players trying to tag one of the three quest mobs that respawns every six days, but I must admit to myself that I'm no more special than the 99,999 other players who received invites at the same time. In short, I got into the beta. We've already been over what we expect to see when the mists part, but experiencing it firsthand is something else entirely. The silent filler One of the first things I noticed after rebuilding all of my macros and assigning keybinds was how disjointed the rotation felt when I was smacking the collection of wild creatures grazing around the outskirts of Dawn's Blossom. Judgment on the pull, Crusader Strike when in melee range, Hammer of Wrath under 20%, Templar's Verdict at 3 holy power ... but something was off. As it turns out, I had forgotten about Exorcism.
5 monk abilities that should have you excited for Mists of Pandaria
When I was younger, Easter was a time of good food and great gaming. While my parents and relatives discussed boring adult stuff in my aunt's living room, my brothers and I would flee with our cousin to their basement, where we'd play Mortal Kombat II on SNES all night. I was always Liu Kang, my younger brother was normally Reptile, and I'd always win the first few matches by backing him into a corner and repeatedly bicycle kicking him until he died. Or blocked. Once he became a preteen, it was usually the latter, and I haven't beaten him in a fighting game since. The long-distance flying Martial Arts kick has been a staple in video games ever since video games became a Thing, and I'm particularly pleased to announce that Blizzard has done it due justice in Mists of Pandaria with Flying Serpent Kick. It won't allow you to abuse dated wall mechanics or give you a false sense of pride, but it's one of a number of awesome monk abilities that fit in well with the monk archetype in gaming in general while staying true to WoW's form. Hopefully, these five monk abilities will have you excited for WoW's next expansion. 1. Expel Harm Normally, heals aren't something that I typically call exciting or cool, unless they're the total awesomeness that is Healing Rain. This is especially true given the relative homogenization of healer classes in Cataclysm and the existence of the healing holy trinity. Expel Harm isn't your normal heal. Instead, what Expel Harm does is heal you (or, if glyphed, your target) for a small amount, and then it does 100% of the healing done to the closest enemy target as damage.
Mists of Pandaria Beta: New jewelcrafting panther mount models
MMO-Champion has unearthed the new models for the four new jewelcrafting panther mounts -- the Sapphire, Emerald, Ruby, and Dawnstone Panthers. Each new mount can be learned on its own and ridden, or a jewelcrafter can take one of each and combine them into a new mount, the Jeweled Onyx Panther. We are anticipating the cost of these panthers to be very high. Also, they totally look like Voltron. Since Mists of Pandaria will be forcing players to use their ground mounts for a great deal of the content, having awesome land mounts available will set new cool standards for hanging out at your new favorite bank or Auction House. These new models look really cool, with bright colors that really stand out. I'm really loving the Mists of Pandaria art direction -- this whole expansion looks unlike anything Blizzard has ever done, and it's a gamble that's paying off so far. 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!
Totem Talk: First impressions of restoration shaman in Mists of Pandaria
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement and restoration shaman. Want to be a sultan of swing healing? A champion of Chain Heal? Totem Talk: Restoration, brought to you by Joe Perez (otherwise known as Lodur from World of Matticus and cohost of the For the Lore and Raid Warning podcasts), shows you how Well, I finally got my hands on some beta access for Mists of Pandaria, and the first thing I did was make sure good old Lodur got copied over for some healing experimentation. I mean, after all, that's what I live for. Before doing any healing, though, it was time to poke around and see how things have changed. And boy, have they! Even though I expected it, it was quite jarring to log in to Mists and see that Lodur had a measly 100,000 mana to work with. Any of you out there would probably notice that this is almost half of what we're sporting on our final run-through of Dragon Soul. While it is daunting, it's something that we have to keep in mind will be compensated with mana regen and increasing the mana pool as we level up to 90.
Beta Testing 101: How to write a good bug report on the forums
If you're in the Mists of Pandaria beta, chances are good that you've encountered a few bugs by now. As a beta tester, it's not just your job to sit there and play through the game. You're also expected to report the bugs you happen upon in your travels through Pandaria. Blizzard has provided beta forums for feedback and bug reporting, so you've got a place to jot those bugs down. Once you've found and identified a bug, you should write up a brief report so Blizzard knows that there's a problem and can fix the problem before release. Before you scamper off to the beta forums, however, there's a proper way to write these bug reports so that Blizzard knows what you're talking about and can take appropriate action. If you write a bug report incorrectly, you're not helping matters any -- and in some cases, you can even confuse the situation and make it worse. So how do you write a good bug report on the beta forums?
Beta Testing 101: 5 things you should always report
Have you made it into the Mists of Pandaria beta yet? Being a beta tester isn't about simply playing through a free sample of the game. If you're expecting a completed product when you log in, you're in for a surprise. What you are playing is a not-quite-finished version of the game, and it's highly likely you'll run into your fair share of bugs as you're wandering Pandaria's gorgeous hills and valleys. As a beta tester, it's your job to report those bugs you find in game, so that they can be fixed before the game goes live. However, not every error out there deserves a report. Things like NPCs that are marked with a PC or NYI tag are things the developers already know about -- they're just placeholder models. Music isn't yet implemented into Pandaria yet either, but the developers know about that, too. So what makes a bug a bug, and what kinds of bugs should you report?
Mists of Pandaria Beta: Scarlet Monastery revamp
While the level 90 heroic versions aren't available on the beta servers yet, MMO-Champion and Wowhead both took a look into the lower level version of Scarlet Monastery to see all the revamps. The current four wings of Scarlet Monastery have been slimmed down into two wings, the Scarlet Cathedral and the Scarlet Halls, removing most of the unnecessary trash while keeping what made the monastery a great set of dungeons to begin with. Scarlet Cathedral now starts with the graveyard. Interrogator Vishas is no longer there; it's just Bloodmage Thalnos, now outside the mausoleum. Before Thalnos among the mobs are Scarlet Flamethrowers, who drop explosive cannisters that players can use to damage other mobs.
Arcane Brilliance: A first look at fire mages in Mists of Pandaria
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This column is usually brought to you Christian Belt, rumored to be the actual chief sorcerer of King Arthur's court. Unfortunately, Morgan Le Fay seems to have cursed him with her most powerful spell: a full-time job. Resultingly, Senior Understudy and Last Surviving Student Josh Myers is covering his class this week. Arm your spitballs. I've been a busy bee in the past day I've had Mists of Pandaria beta access. Beyond getting some testing in on the windwalker monk, playing my elemental shaman so I could write this week's Totem Talk, and getting Savior of Azeroth on my main, I spent a hefty amount of the day today playing Magelam on the beta Gilneas server. I've had a love/hate relationship with the fire spec since DS launched, as RNG and I have never been good friends. If we were members of the Dawson's Creek cast, I'd be Pacey Witter and RNG would be every female character he ever encounters. We don't get along. Don't be ashamed if you understood this metaphor; be ashamed of me for writing it. With that in mind, I went in to test fire out on the PTR. I joined some friends from and a few puggers to try and run the Temple of the Jade Serpent, which we actually streamed from a mistweaver monk's point of view. (Note that the actual temple stream starts at about 43 minutes into the stream, so start there if you want to check it out). We managed to defeat it all, despite what seemed to be a very painful bug that made one boss fight last nearly 15 minutes -- but it gave me some excellent testing time with the fire spec.
How to prepare your character to copy over to the MoP beta
Beta keys are being unleashed left and right for Mists of Pandaria. While anyone with beta access can create a pandaren and try out the starting zone, that zone is a little clogged right now. Taking a stroll through the Jade Forest might be more up your alley -- it's the first zone we'll encounter as we level from 85 to 90. All you need is a level 85 character, and you can teleport right over to the Jade Forest and begin your journey. While there are options for premade characters on the beta servers, it may not be the right option for you. After all, most players are far more comfortable with their own characters than they are with a random level 85. Plus you get the added insight of just how far your current gear, enchants and gems will take you when the game goes live. Blizzard has a feature that allows you to copy your characters over to the beta servers for just that purpose -- but before you do it, there are some things you should prepare for.
Blizzard is sending out another 250,000 beta invites
That's right: 250,000 beta invites. According to a new post by our friend Community Manager Bashiok, Blizzard is sending out another 250,000 Mists of Pandaria beta invites to players tonight, just in time for the three- or four-day holiday weekend in the United States. Bashiok That's right -- we're in the process of sending 250,000 additional beta-test invites to Annual Pass holders. Keep an eye on your email and Battle.net account for an invitation to come test Mists of Pandaria with us. As with previous waves, it's going to take a while for the invites to process, so we recommend checking your games list in Battle.net Account Management to see whether yours has arrived yet. Once it does, you'll see the Mists of Pandaria beta client available for download from there. We expect this entire wave to take a day or so to complete. We appreciate the enthusiasm of everyone who signed up for the World of Warcraft Annual Pass, and we're working hard to get you into the beta. We know you're excited to explore Pandaria and test the new content, and we'll keep you posted here in the forums when we're ready to send out another wave. source As normal, remember to check your Battle.net Account Management page to see if you got beta access, as the email notifications tend to take significantly longer to get out. 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!
A spoiler-free look at the Mists of Pandaria beta
Are you in the beta for Mists of Pandaria yet? Are you fastidiously avoiding spoilers about all beta-related content? As a site that covers Warcraft news, you'll find more often than not that we have a lot of content up on the site that could be considered spoilers. And if you're someone who's avoiding all that spoiler content, it can get a little frustrating to have to keep scrolling past all that information -- or even more frustrating, dealing with the temptation that all of the spoiler information you could ever want to indulge, just behind that click. Well, that's not what this article is about. It's about the beta, but it's a spoiler-free look at the beta. You'll see some screenshots, but mostly what you'll be reading is what the beta is like. No spoilers of cool story information or anything of that nature here -- just information on Mists, how it looks, how it's shaping up, and what to expect in the event that you do get a beta invite and would like to indulge.
Shifting Perspectives: The joy of panic
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat, bear, restoration and balance druids. This Tuesday, it can happen to you. Back during The Burning Crusade, I knew an extremely disgruntled warrior tank (not Matthew Rossi) who was generally mad at the world about everything (again, not Rossi) and considered the universe to be implacably biased against his good self (may I repeat, not Rossi). While summoning raid members to Tempest Keep one evening, we were having a nice chat, by which I mean grousing about the hassle of tanking Al'ar in the age of the missable taunt. "&%*," he said. "Bears have it so easy. I have to &%($*% macro Shield Block to every $#$(%* ability in my &%()#@ action bar so I don't get ^%$(#( crushed. Not like you. You just sit there and ^%*#%( live through everything." "I'm sorry," I said, although I wasn't really. I envied warriors for many reasons, but Shield Block spam was not among them, and I was privately glad that despite the bear's many issues, I didn't have to keep hammering one button every few seconds just to stay alive. (Beta players are already reaching for the Valium. They know where this is going.) I'm not yet in the Mists of Pandaria beta, but while reading through the news emerging from the servers, I had to spare a thought for my Angry Warrior Tank friend of yesteryear and how &%#(%* pleased he'd be to hear that we now know his #$^@%# pain.
Mists of Pandaria Beta: Beware of Darkmoon Rabbits
DeGei of Dragon Roar (also a participant of a few PTR and beta runs with us here at WoW Insider) has found the infamous Darkmoon Rabbit. What's the Darkmoon Rabbit, you may ask? Other than being the objective of an achievement in Mists of Pandaria, apparently it's bad news. According to DeGei, it has 72 million health and an attack called HUGE, SHARP TEETH that, well, lets the rabbit jump onto your neck and chew through it. You run around uncontrollably, taking a lot of damage, and you can't be healed while said rabbit is chewing through your neck. Effectively, what we have here is a tiny, rodent-shaped world boss, folks. A world boss the potentially drops itself as a pet. If you're dying to solo him, DeGei reports that pets don't get the debuff, so it's feasible for a warlock or hunter to pull it off ... but that 72 million health means you should bring something to read if you intend to attempt it. Huge, sharp teeth, people. You have been warned. Speaking as a man who has a rabbit, you do not trifle with them. 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: 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: How do you feel about Mists of Pandaria spoilers?
What with Mists of Pandaria news and coverage of the beta all over the place, spoilers can be really, really hard to avoid. While I generally try to keep spoiler content out of Know Your Lore (and clearly label it as such if something might be a spoiler), I've still been just as busy posting beta news and information about zones, quests, features and more. Now thankfully, WoW Insider clearly labels all Mists of Pandaria info as such, so you can easily scroll right on by if you don't want to read anything ... but that doesn't mean that the temptation isn't there. You know what I mean. Even if you've sworn to yourself you don't want to know, you won't look for anything, and that you want to go into Mists completely unspoiled, the temptation to look is there. Do you push the button and read the news, or do you firmly keep yourself spoiler-free? And what counts as a spoiler? Is news posted on the official WoW site, like the information from the press event, hands-off? Or does that count as fine to look at, but beta info is forbidden? Do you care about spoilers? Do you avoid every bit of Mists info you can and try not to read anything at all? Are you tempted by the glut of information out there to indulge yourself as much as possible? Or do you just read everything that's available and shrug off spoilers as something you don't really worry about?
The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Fury in Mists of Pandaria
Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Care and Feeding of Warriors, the column dedicated to arms, fury and protection warriors. Despite repeated blows to the head from dragons, demons, Old Gods and whatever that thing over there was, Matthew Rossi will be your host. Now that we've had a week to play around with the Mists of Pandaria beta, I've gone ahead and done some dungeons and played around with specs. This week, I'm going to look at Single-Minded Fury and Titan's Grip fury warriors as they're currently shaping up. Some caveats: This is not a damage pass. The beta is not balanced yet, so aside from some general "This feels underpowered" or "This is brokenly good" if I think it warranted, I won't be talking much about DPS or damage. Emphasis is on rotation, how the spec feels to play, and how hard or easy rage is to come by. Right now, I'm more interested in discussing how the experience is playing as fury in the beta, not trying to argue for buffs or nerfs when it's simply too soon. With the new talent system, there's simply not a cookie-cutter build yet for either. Since all fury warriors can go TG or SMF depending on what weapons they have (both are baseline abilities fury warriors all get) and any warrior can take any one of three talents per talent tier, there's no right or wrong yet. While familiar, there's enough changed to make the fury priority system require relearning. It's not alien, to be sure, but the addition of Wild Strike, the removal of Slam, and the changes to rage generation and stances have altered the spec. So, let's talk about how fury plays out in Mists.
Another 100,000 Mists of Pandaria beta invites arriving tonight
Blizzard's developers are like monks. They are on a roll today! Earlier this evening, they fired out 100,000 beta invites after last night's set of 100,000 invites. Several minutes ago, Bashiok announced that yet another 100,000 invites have just been sent out. We heard you like invites so we put an invite in your invite so you can beta while you beta. This is a short but sweet update that we're sending an additional 100,000 invites out tonight, for a total of 200,000 Mists of Pandaria invites being sent out today. Again, it will take a while for the invites to process so we recommend keeping an eye on your games list through Battle.net Account Management, as we expect invites to continue going out into the wee hours of the night and into tomorrow. For more information on the invite process as a whole, please refer back to today's earlier announcement. source Keep an eye on your Battle.net Account Management and be wary of any email scams! Good luck on your invites! 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!
Next wave of 100,000 Mists of Pandaria beta invites sent out
If you remember yesterday's mass invite of 100,000 beta testers, well, welcome to déjà vu -- because Bashiok just announced another wave. Yes, that's right. In addition to yesterday's 100,000 beta invites, today has another 100,000 on the way for a grand total of 200,000 beta invites this week. That's pretty darn amazing, in my opinion. Remember to check your account management page directly to avoid email scams. Yesterday's 100,000 Annual Pass-holder beta-test invites ran through the night, and we're still in the process of notifying the invitees by email. Those selected for yesterday's wave of invites should all have the Mists of Pandaria beta client available for download through Battle.net account management, and they should all receive the email notification by end of day today. If the beta client shows up for you in Battle.net account management, you don't need to wait for the email in order to download the client and begin testing. We're off to a solid start with the beta test, and things are looking good in terms of realm stability, so we're ready to invite another wave of Annual Pass holders. A second wave of invites is going out to 100,000 more Annual Pass holders today, starting right now. If you're added in this or any subsequent wave, access to the beta client will show up in Battle.net account management as discussed above. Please check there today and tomorrow, as today's wave of invites will be processing throughout the day and likely into early tomorrow morning. Notification emails will also be going out, but again, no need to wait for the email if the beta client is available to you through Battle.net account management. source Good luck to everyone -- and if you get in, wave at the tauren warrior, or the worgen warrior, or the night elf warrior, or the draenei warrior, since he or she might be me. 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!
