mists-of-pandaria-beta
Latest
Mists of Pandaria Beta: New icons make questing a breeze
Do you remember the times you had a quest in your log that asked you to go speak to someone in particular? Or the quests that required you to speak to or deliver something to several different people? It was almost impossible to track where those people were, since they weren't marked with a yellow exclamation point, and they didn't glitter like most quest objectives. Well, that issue has suddenly evaporated in Mists of Pandaria with the introduction of a new quest icon. In much the same fashion as the usual exclamation points in blue and yellow (and question marks of the same color), all of those pesky people you have to talk to are now marked by a simple yellow word balloon over their head. But the improvements go further than just that -- quest targets are also marked on your minimap for you with a white word balloon icon, as well. And if that's not enough for you, there's also a new icon for interactive objects -- a floating yellow set of gears. This seems to be for quests that involve searching for clues or items you need to examine; the gears float over the various quest objectives. Both new icons are bright and easy to see, clear indicators that whatever they're floating over is part of a quest you have in your logs. Both of these situations are something I'd chalked up to one of those little annoyances that I rarely thought about. But now that I've seen the solution in action, it's elegantly done and makes the entire questing experience much smoother. These improvements are both small additions, but they add so much to the overall experience that you start to wonder how you lived without them. The Mists leveling experience is pleasant so far, but it's the little additions like these that make all the difference. 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: Watch the Horde intro to Pandaria
Before each faction hits the shores of Pandaria, players get to meet with their faction leader and witness an in-game mini-event that tells the tale of arriving on the lost continent. BlizzPlanet snagged the video, above, where you can see the Horde introduction to the continent with the retelling of a naval battle between the Horde and Alliance, precious cargo, and a lost ship. Garrosh is none too happy with the goblin underling who lost important cargo during the fight and tasks Nazgrim with sending his best and brightest to find the lost ship. What is most surprising is Garrosh's behavior at the beginning of the event, signaling the beginning of his lack of control. Supplies are running low, support is running thin, and each of the various nations of the Horde are having trouble paying their dues. Silvermoon, it seems, is in a precarious amount of debt. Garrosh's patience with his allies is wearing thin, and his brashness might be taking over a bit too suddenly. 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: Vendor filters make sorting items easier
The newest Mists of Pandaria beta patch has brought an unexpected new feature: vendor filters. Players are now able to set which items they would like to view on any vendor by selecting a filter near the top right of the window. You can set which items will appear based on spec or whether the item is bind on equip, making searching through heirloom or valor point vendors for items to send to your alts easier than ever. This is another great example of Blizzard's looking at the addon community, seeing an easy solution to a quality-of-life fix, and adding to the default user interface. Frankly, this type of interface creation and tinkering has kept WoW at an interface advance, even eight years down the line. I hope that Blizzard continues to add more filters to the new vendor filter system and maybe even gives us a way to set our own filters. Maybe we'll soon be searching by slot, class, affordable, level required, etc. There are plenty more filter options to include if Blizzard is so inclined. 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: Mists beta retribution roundup
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! Last time, I promised to pack as much comprehensive beta information as I could into this post, so I won't bother boring you all with the story of what exactly happened in that hotel room at BlizzCon. Instead, I'll stop wasting precious words and get right to it! As always when discussing content in an open beta, everything is very much subject to change. New glyphs This is probably the most retribution-relevant thing to come out of the recent Mists of Pandaria press tour. Sure, there's all the new zones, Battlegrounds, UI updates, and Pet Battle stuff, but the uniquely paladin piece of the pie is curiously small. Sacco wrote a detailed listing of all of the new glyphs available, but when perusing the paladin glyphs, I noticed something interesting -- there are loads more healing/utility glyphs (Cleansing, Protector of the Innocent) and cosmetic glyphs (Bladed Judgment, Fire from the Heavens) than glyphs affecting damage output (Double Jeopardy, Immediate Truth).
Mists of Pandaria Beta: Wandering Isle image gallery
Mists of Pandaria is absolutely beautiful. Though beta players cannot access Pandaria at this time, they can still visit the pandaren starting zone and level through the experience. The Wandering Isle is home to the descendants of Pandaria who chose to leave the main island generations ago, instead wandering Azeroth on the back of a giant turtle. If Pandaria is anywhere near as visually stunning as the starter zone, we're in for a treat. Check out the gallery below for shots from The Wandering Isle as you play through from beginning to end. It's a breathtaking bunch of scenery and a uniquely beautiful zone, the likes of which we've never seen before. %Gallery-151526% 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!
Lichborne: Testing notes and goals for death knights in the Mists of Pandaria beta
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done. With the Mists of Pandaria beta test under way, I'm reminded of an interesting discussion I've seen going around the death knight community. Coming out of Wrath, we were most definitely seen as overpowered, and starting a few patches later, we started off on a balance roller coaster we've never quite disembarked from, getting nerfs, de-nerfs, tweaks, and even the removal or redesign of entire spells and systems. Some argue that we could have avoided this by being more thorough and honest while beta testing in Wrath. By not only advocating for what we needed but being honest that some stuff (such as, say, the stun effect on Death and Decay) was overpowered, we might have avoided a lot of heartache down the road. Whether you believe this is true or not, it does highlight the importance of beta testing. Blizzard certainly has its own internal numbers and testing methods, but for those of us lucky enough to get hands on in the beta, this is our chance to help make sure our class gets through this great period of balancing. This week, let's look at a few things we'll need to focus on when we finally get those invites and get to beta test our death knights.
Mists of Pandaria Beta: New archaeology items
Players with the archaeology profession will get to experience some joy come Mists of Pandaria, according to a new post at MMO-Champion. All of the datamined items are directly related to Pandaria itself and allow us to start piecing together the history of the continent. Pandaria currently is such a new land to all of us that Matt Rossi and Anne Stickney have managed to condense all of the lore we currently know about it into a single post, which is truly an epic feat. The new items introduced through archaeology will help us paint more of a picture of what Pandaria's history was and who the major players were. Items such as the Manacles of Rebellion, Cracked Mogu Runestone, and Petrified Bone Whip are relics of the depraved Mogu Empire, focusing on their love of torture and slavery. The Spear of Xuen and the Standard of Nuzao show us that the pandaren aren't the naive, comic race that some people are assuming; they've fought in and won their own wars. And in classic pandaren fashion, the Empty Keg of Bewmaster Xin Wo Yin and the Twin Steins of Brewfather Quan Tou Kuo highlight the race's love of beer. As it's still beta; things are still subject to change. For one, I'm hoping Blizzard adds in more pandaren lore items. Beyond that, I'd like to see some new on-use vanity items like the Last Relic of Argus, as these datamined items all lack any on-use effects. Finally, I think Blizzard may want to revisit the rarity of some items; the Edicts of the Thunder King make very little sense as a common item when you realize they're essentially the same as finding the stone that holds Hammurabi's Code or the tablets of the Ten Commandments. 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: Ragefire Chasm from the Alliance perspective
Last week, we posted a video of Mists of Pandaria's updated Ragefire Chasm from the Horde perspective. That raised a question among the audience: Is the Alliance aware of what's going down there? The answer is ... yes! Agents of SI:7 have infiltrated Ragefire Chasm with the aid of a gnome sorceress. While the Alliance agents in the dungeon don't know what's going on down there or why, SI:7 is sure nothing good can come of it. You're tasked with rescuing a handful of the agents who came before you and putting a stop to whatever mischief the new "dark shaman" are embroiled in. If you'd like to read the quest text for yourselves, check out the screenshots in the gallery below. %Gallery-151515% 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!
Beta Testing 101: Good group etiquette
The most crucial piece of information for you to remember while beta testing is that the process can be grueling and frustrating. Servers will go up and down, instances will crash, and above all, the people playing the expansion's beta will be just as inexperienced as you are with the content. Here are some etiquette tips on how to stay calm during a productive group session during beta. Be patient. Patience is essential to the beta process. Flaws in the software or gameplay are not discovered without time for those problems to manifest. Be a good tester and log on to WoW with the mindset that you might not be in for the smoothest run. As a beta tester, your patience will be tried. You'll wipe, fail, screw up, die, whatever. It's a game that you're helping to make just that much better. Put aside the gung-ho group attitude and talk to your team about testing -- that helps me focus on the task at hand.
The Queue: Come to me, Pandaria
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. The beta does not currently allow questing on Pandaria, and it is driving me batty. It's so close! Let me quest, dang it! bethontheharbor asked: So has anyone bothered to get shots of the Theramore area, or is it blocked off. I haven't seen anything from that town posted anywhere.
The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Mists of Pandaria beta impressions
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. Go ahead and hate me for being in the beta. I know how it is. But believe it or not, I'm running around testing out the new warrior talents, the specializations, and I've even leveled a pandaren warrior to 12 in order to see how the new rage scheme plays out at low levels as well as for my level 85s. I also imported two 85 warriors so I could spec one arms and one fury and then play with talent choices. Before I get too mired in details, let me tell you about Dragon Roar. Dragon Roar takes the place of Avatar in the level 60 talent tier, with Avatar moving to the level 90 talents, replacing Deadly Calm. At level 60, you can spec Bladestorm, Shockwave or Dragon Roar, and Dragon Roar is fantastic. It's a 1-minute cooldown ability that hits everything within 10 yards of you, doing damage and knocking them back and down for 5 seconds. It does fairly solid damage, too. What this means is that the level 60 tier is actually compelling now, and you're able to choose between different abilities that each do something interesting. It also means warriors have a knockback that also stuns after it goes off, if they spec for it. Man, I would have loved Dragon Roar when we were doing heroic Ragnaros. At present, only the pandaren starting zone is open for testing, you can't go to Pandaria yet. So after taking my tauren out for a couple of spins through testing out the new talents and playing with stance dancing, I rolled a pandaren warrior and saw what it felt like to level.
Arcane Brilliance: Mage glyphs in Mists of Pandaria
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages -- unless, of course, Christian Belt is sucked into an timeway and is currently stuck fleeing from pterosaurs in the late Mesozoic era, allowing Josh Myers to claim his column. I won't say that's what happened this week, but don't rule it out. The last time someone who wasn't the most Illustrious Archmage Christian Belt wrote an Arcane Brilliance, things didn't go over well. Part of that might be because it was written by that shady Tyler Caraway character, and part of it was because he secretly was a warlock disguised as a mage. I'm a DPS shaman posing as a mage, but I've got two things on my side: I raided progression as a mage through the latter half of tier 12 and the first half of tier 13, and I'm not a warlock. I'm not going to pretend I'm Archmage Pants, but I'm no squib either. Maybe Senior Understudy or Last Surviving Apprentice Josh Myers? In totally exciting news, Mists of Pandaria's beta has opened up, much to the chagrin of my social life and my exercise routine. On Wednesday night, Boubouille from MMO-Champion set out to datamine as much information as he could glean from the install files, and thanks to his work, we were able to get our hands on a nice list of the updated glyphs currently in the beta. Spoiler alert: They're pretty awesome.
Beta Testing 101: What to, and what not to, expect from the MoP beta
In the most exciting World of Warcraft news of 2012, the beta for Mists of Pandaria opened up this week. Like millions of other players, I was not one of the lucky few chosen for the first round of beta invites. However, there are a number of diligent players currently hard at work testing some of the changes coming in MoP, as well as datamining glyphs and leveling monks. If you're one of the lucky players who got in this week or if you manage to get in in the next few weeks, there are some important facts you should know before you play the beta. For seasoned veterans of beta testing, these will be self evident. For the others for whom this will be the first beta ever, these are things you should read and consider. If you don't, you could turn into one of the disappointing trade chat trolls who rages about their warrior suddenly having a mana bar (and other fun beta mishaps). Oh yes, there will be bugs Above all else, the thing you can most expect from the beta of any video game ever is that there will be bugs. Bugs are one of the main reasons games go into beta; they're a way of allowing scores of players to scour every inch of the game world for bugs by doing everything possible that could possibly cause an issue. By doing this, Blizzard can isolate and treat bugs before they ever make it to live servers, allowing players on live a smooth playing experience.
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?
Mists of Pandaria Beta: Livestreaming the Wandering Isle
We've rounded up a few of our Mists of Pandaria beta testers, and we'll be rocking the Wandering Isle, the pandaren newbie zone, live on Twitch.tv for the next couple of hours. You can watch us via the video embedded above (with the chat channel behind the break below), or join us over on Twitch. Enjoy! Update: The stream is over, but you can still watch the recording of the session, which is now embedded at the top of this post. Matthew Rossi, Mathew McCurley, Anne Stickney, and myself completed the entire pandaren starting experience together.
Mists of Pandaria Beta: New Ragefire Chasm video
Ragefire Chasm, the low-level instance beneath the Horde capital of Orgrimmar, has undergone sweeping changes in the Mists of Pandaria beta. New quest NPCs, a new story, new enemies, and interesting clues to the grand finale of Mists of Pandaria's campaign are all buried beneath one faction's very own feet. It could be that these new objectives in Ragefire point to Garrosh's fall from ... I guess I'd use the word grace here, but ... you know ... Four new bosses now reside in Ragefire Chasm, including: Adarogg, a nasty flamehound that has eaten his captors Dark Shaman Koranthal, who is performing a creepy ritual Slagmaw, who is Magmaw, but not; name potentially not final Lava Guard Gordoth, a caged experiment that breaks out just as you arrive
Reminder: Watch out for Mists of Pandaria beta invite scams
Email notifications for the Mists of Pandaria beta have started arriving in people's inboxes -- and this means that we'll likely see an upswing in beta invite scams, as well. If you have received an email stating that you've been invited to participate in the Mists beta, be aware of the following: Don't click any link in the email. Blizzard will never ask you for your account information via email, nor will it usually provide any kind of link to click on. Do head to Battle.net. Type the URL into your browser (don't follow a search or email link) and use the secure login on that page to log into your account. If you have been invited for the first round of Mists beta, you will see your normal World of Warcraft: Cataclysm account listed under your game accounts -- and underneath that, you will see a listing for World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria Beta. If you do not see a link to the Mists of Pandaria beta under your game accounts, you are not in this round of testing, and the email you were sent was a fake. The same applies with beta keys as well. If you receive a notification with a beta key, do not click on any links in the email. Go to your Battle.net account as listed above, head to Manage My Games, choose Add or Upgrade a Game, and manually enter the beta key. If the beta key works, you're in; if it doesn't work, you may have been the recipient of a fake key. Remember, any time there is a beta or a trial period for a new game, there will usually be an upswing in attempts to nab accounts, too. Keep your account safe -- and if you made it in the beta, have fun! 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!
WoW's Mists of Pandaria beta download surfaces on Battle.net [Updated]
Kung-fu panda fever is gripping the World of Warcraft community, and the latest tremor comes courtesy of the Mists of Pandaria beta page that showed up on Battle.net last night. Our sister site WoW Insider reported that some players jumped at the chance to begin downloading the expansion's beta client, but the early birds were subsequently stopped by an error page stating that the download server was, well, down. WoW Insider continued updating its news post as the night wore on, and interestingly enough, Mac users were indeed able to download the patch (no such luck for PC folks, though). Blizzard also published a beta character copy page on Battle.net, where players got a good look at all the test servers ready and waiting for a slew of avatar imports. Thus far Blizz hasn't commented on an official start date, but the company has said that it's sending out MoP beta invites in waves. [Update: MoP beta is now live!] Pandas, pagodas, and pet battles are en route in World of Warcraft's upcoming Mists of Pandaria expansion! Stay tuned to Massively and WoW Insider as we bring you FAQs, previews, analysis, and impressions in the lead-up to launch.
Mists of Pandaria enchants revealed
Dataminers have been hard at work combing through the Mists of Pandaria beta client that became available tonight. The new enchants coming for weapons and armor have names -- and here they are, courtesy of WoWDB. Enchant Weapon - Pandamonium Permanently enchant a melee weapon to sometimes grant 1,000 attack power for 12 seconds. Can only enchant a level 92 weapon. Enchant Weapon - Windsong Permanently enchants a melee weapon to sometimes increase your critical strike, haste, or mastery rating by 1,500 for 12 seconds when dealing damage with spells and melee attacks. Requires a level 384 or higher item. Enchant Weapon - Jade Spirit Permanently enchants a melee weapon to sometimes increase your intellect by 1,650 when healing or dealing damage with spells. If less than 25% of your mana remains when the effect is triggered, your spirit will also increase by 750. Requires a level 384 or higher item.
Mists of Pandaria beta achievements
MMO-Champion majordomo Boubouille wasted no time at all datamining the recently released Mists of Pandaria beta client and has made available many of the achievements players will be able to gain in the next expansion. Here are some of our favorites: Wild Side Take a ride with Armsmaster Harlan's Blades of Light for at least 10 seconds and live to tell the tale on heroic difficulty. Armsmaster Harlan is the replacement boss for the Scarlet Champion Herod. Harlan is two times as awesome as Herod because he has two shoulders and a Firelands warrior hat. Don't mess -- he means business. This dungeon boss mechanic just sounds like fun, and heroic Scarlet Monastery just excites me way too much.
