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  • Video series highlights the history of Pandaria's races

    by 
    Anne Stickney
    Anne Stickney
    08.10.2012

    Sure, we know about the pandaren coming up in Mists of Pandaria, but there are many more races in the world. What about the hozen? The jinyu? Or how about the mantid and the mogu? YouTube user Mastus has put together a delightful series of videos that highlight the history behind the various races of Pandaria and how they fold together to create the history of Mists of Pandaria. Considering 10,000 years of no contact with any of the races wandering Pandaria's vast landscape, these video guides help fill in just what happened centuries ago. And in the case of the mantid and the mogu, the videos help explain what these mysterious races are up to -- and why we should be worried. Please note that these do contain things that could be called spoiler content for the new expansion; however, for players looking for a brief primer on Pandaria, these videos are definitely a good way to get caught up. 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!

  • What is your favorite Mists of Pandaria beta zone?

    by 
    Chase Hasbrouck
    Chase Hasbrouck
    08.09.2012

    Over on the US Mists of Pandaria beta forums, Crithto has posted a poll asking which new zone is users' favorite and why. As of this writing, Kun-Lai Summit has taken a narrow lead over Jade Forest and Valley of the Four Winds. That doesn't really surprise me; all of those zones have some really cool elements that I'm looking forward to playing through in the live game. What's a little more interesting, though, is that very few people seem to like Krasarang Wilds or Townlong Steppes. Those have only reached 4% in the poll. I didn't find either of those zones too terrible, though I confess they didn't seem very memorable either (which might be the point). The poll remains open until the 15th, if you'd like to vote! Full post below. Crithto You've tested, you've explored, and you've done a great job sharing feedback. Now let's sit back, take a breather for a moment, and chat about the beautiful zones in Pandaria. There are seven primary new locations to adventure in, and we want to know which one has been your favorite and why. 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!

  • Mists of Pandaria: Guide to protection paladins

    by 
    Matt Walsh
    Matt Walsh
    08.09.2012

    Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense. As August begins, we are rapidly approaching the end of beta. Blizzard has indicated they are in the final stages of tuning for Mists of Pandaria, and with that comes the confidence to report on what we can reasonably expect our spec to look and perform like in the next expansion. Mists will be a pretty monumental expansion for us. We have some massive playstyle changes coming, as well as the game-changing new talent systems. Active mitigation, as well, will require prot paladins to adjust to a new style of tanking. This guide is intended to be a 101 introduction to the prot paladin as it stands in Mists of Pandaria. It'll cover everything from how to handle active mitigation and your rotation to how to spec, how to gem and enchant your gear, and everything in between. As we get closer to launch (and even after then), I'll continue to update it, so be sure to bookmark and check back in the future.

  • How should classes be balanced?

    by 
    Chase Hasbrouck
    Chase Hasbrouck
    08.07.2012

    If you've visited the official beta forums lately, there've been lots of complaints about how powerful monk (and paladin, to a lesser extent) healing currently is in the Mists of Pandaria beta. A good blog post from Beruthiel, an expert druid healer, indicated that she was never able to beat a monk or paladin healer, no matter how hard she tried. On Sunday, one player went so far to began discussing what specs his raiding guild was planning to "bench" for Mists of Pandaria, which triggered a response from Ghostcrawler last night. Ghostcrawler Quote: When I'm being outhealed by a factor of two by any Joe Schmoe paladin or monk who happens to wander into a raid...I'm sorry, but skill is simply not going to overcome that. It's probably not possible to overcome that much of a difference. Fortunately, you don't have to, because paladins and monks both had some egregious bugs that inflated their healing. We actually hotfixed those bugs but then a new build broke them again. Until you get a new build or we hotfix the issues again, you are probably better off comparing druid, priest and shaman healing. I apologize for any inconvenience. Overall, I would recommend not deciding who you're going to bench based on beta testing until we are very close to ship. It's not a great strategy to try to get your character buffed either. :) source This is an absolutely key thing to remember -- enough so that it's worth a reminder. For those who haven't been around for an expansion launch before, there will likely be heaps of balancing hotfixes that go out at the same time patch 5.0 is released. I distinctly remember my feral druid topping DPS meters in ICC, hitting rock bottom as soon as 4.0.6 was released, then coming back up to mid-pack after a slew of hotfixes a few days later. The developers are still prioritizing testing mechanics, not balancing numbers; if you're in the beta, you should be doing the same. From there, the discussion took a turn from raid balancing to raid stacking, in reference to Paragon's bringing 11 druids to their world-first heroic Nefarian kill. Ghostcrawler Quote: Also one thing to consider is that benching and stacking of classes in the top guilds has less to do with SimCraft numbers and more of certain mechanics being very powerful on certain fights. Case in point: Paragon's 11 Druids on their first Heroic Nefarian kill. Agreed. Remember guilds in those world first situations are doing content very undergeared compared to what we expect because they are skipping the weeks of farming. In those situations players have to resort to some unusual strategies to make up the difference. In general (though not always depending on what they feel like they have to do) those type of machinations are fun for the guilds in questions and very few players are affected overall. When we see widespread stacking, that crosses the line. In retrospect, the dependence on quick burst for a fight like Spine might cross the line. Overall, we didn't see a ton of stacking or sitting for the Cataclysm raids and we'll try to do even better for the new content. source In situations like this, it's important to consider the game developers' perspective. They have to ensure content is balanced for all levels of skill, not just those on the top end, while still creating encounters that are varied and entertaining. For the most part, I think they do a pretty good job, and it's always refreshing to see when they admit mistakes in their design. What's your take on the matter? Should Blizzard balance classes based around their theoretical maximum performance, or should they balance around what the average class member can typically accomplish? 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!

  • Vengeance no longer capped for tanks

    by 
    Chase Hasbrouck
    Chase Hasbrouck
    08.07.2012

    As the Mists of Pandaria beta has progressed, the developers have actively attempted to balance the new active mitigation model for tanks. One of the significant problems that they've run into is how to handle defensive abilities that scale with attack power/Vengeance, since the amount of damage taken (and Vengeance gained) by tanks at different levels of content can vary widely. Happily, the developers have arrived at what seems to be a fairly elegant solution. They've removed the Vengeance cap entirely and significantly toned down Vengeance decay. Now, your Vengeance will simply be computed as a rolling value, based on the damage you've taken over the last 20 seconds. This should allow for 10-man and 25-man tanks to be much better balanced and fix the annoying side effect of leveling tanks also topping damage meters. Overall, I'm a big fan of this change. Here's the full post from Ghostcrawler, after the break.

  • Mists of Pandaria Beta: World boss Salyis's Warband

    by 
    Olivia Grace
    Olivia Grace
    08.07.2012

    You may recall from an earlier post that raids will have a staggered release in Mists, with the first raid, Mogu'Shan Vaults, not appearing for a whole week after the expansion's launch and then a week later in the raid finder. Then you'll have to wait a whole four weeks for the next batch of raids, Heart of Fear and Terrace of Endless Springs. But if you level at break-neck speed and are thirsty for a challenge to get your teeth into in a group, fear not! Blizzard has accommodated your needs with world bosses, available from day one, and the preview page is now up for Salyis's Warband, as we were informed yesterday. Check out the Mists of Pandaria preview website and get a first glimpse at one of the two new roaming world bosses: Salyis's Warband! These extremely powerful monsters will do everything in their power to make your life more... "interesting" as you explore the mysterious continent of Pandaria. World bosses spawn in the open world and can be attacked by any player (un)fortunate enough to cross their paths. Salyis's Warband will be quite rare, while the expansion's other boss will appear with fairly regular frequency. But before you charge headfirst into battle, keep in mind that it will take the combined efforts of a full raid to bring one of these guys to their knees. Taking down a world boss is no small feat, but the rewards make it all worthwhile: achievements, fabulous items, and massive bragging rights will all be yours if you and your comrades in arms succeed in felling one of these roving terrors. Check back soon for more info on the game's other world boss, the Sha of Anger! source

  • Arcane Brilliance: Mists of Pandaria talent spec guide for mages

    by 
    Christian Belt
    Christian Belt
    08.05.2012

    Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week, we're looking at the overhauled talent system in Mists of Pandaria and figuring out which talent is best for killing warlocks. My initial impression is all of them. All of the talents are good for killing warlocks. So with the expansion less than two months away and patch 5.0 looming on the "any week now" precipice, it's time we stopped messing around. I promise to stop skipping weeks of this column for trivial things like "family," or "crippling work schedule," or "violent and possibly terminal illnesses," because, damn. The time is short. The end of the end of the world is nigh, and the coming panda apocalypse is nearly upon us. We need to get down to the nitty-gritty here, guys. Look forward to some extra mage content in between Arcane Brilliances as we ramp up in the coming weeks, in the form of basic class 101 guides for all the stuff you need to know before the expansion hits. I'll save the Saturday columns for more detailed analysis. This week, we're wading neck deep into the new talent system, since it's probably the single biggest change our class is undergoing in Mists. It's a bona fide shock to the system and a radical departure from the status quo, and believe me when I say that it will take all of us some getting used to before it begins to feel even remotely normal. The whole basis behind this talent system revamp is to eliminate cookie-cutter specs and provide us with six distinct choices between talents that serve roughly the same function as each other with slightly different mechanics. The idea is to provide freedom of choice by removing the need to pick the best talent at each tier. Each of the three choices at each tier is designed to be a good choice depending on playstyle, and no specific talent is supposed to provide measurably better DPS than another, so we can all hold hands, smoke the peace pipe, and pick whatever we like. And now's the part where we all decide which of these equal talents are more equal than the others.

  • The Light and How to Swing It: Where tankadins stand in Mists

    by 
    Matt Walsh
    Matt Walsh
    08.04.2012

    Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Light and How to Swing It for holy, protection and retribution paladins. Protection specialist Matt Walsh spends most of his time receiving concussions for the benefit of 9 other people, obsessing over his hair, and maintaining the tankadin-focused blog Righteous Defense. Last time ,we talked about the basics of what paladin tanks are going to be working with when Mists launch. What we didn't talk about was the remainder -- whether it be how certain mechanics feel or how we're shaping up with regards to the other tanks classes and the content itself. The TL;DR version is that we look to be in a pretty good place overall. Our rotation is miles ahead of our current Cataclysm rotation in terms of quality of life, and on the opposite side of the planet from that drinking bird practice regimen known as the 969 rotation in Wrath. There's a little more to play with and balance in our toolbox these days, thanks to the pick-'n-mix of the new talents system, which is definitely a good thing if variety and engagement is your bread and butter. In terms of actual gameplay balance with regard to the game and the other philistines competing for our jerbs, we're in a decent place as well. That is, we're no longer in the Wild West days of Wrath, where patch cycles saw one tank class after another get brokenly good (except warriors, womp womp). The general trend of Cataclysm continues -- keeping the balance to a reasonable level among the classes -- though when it comes to the highest levels of the hardest content, the disparities start to emerge with gusto. Anyway, that's the 50,000-mile view. Let's get down in the mud and talk turkey.

  • Mists of Pandaria: A new Alliance in the Jade Forest

    by 
    Matthew Rossi
    Matthew Rossi
    08.03.2012

    Spoiler Alert: I am about to talk about the Alliance, especially its new leadership, in the Jade Forest on the Mists of Pandaria beta. If you don't want spoilers, read no further. Sky Admiral Rogers hates the Horde more than any character I have ever seen. She makes Joanna Blueheart look like a Horde sympathizer. That first part isn't a spoiler because it's pretty much all there is to Admiral Rogers, and I am fine with it. Admiral Rogers is seething with hatred for the Horde and everyone within it. This woman has one thing on her mind, and it isn't having a civil discussion to air grievances -- it's shooting Horde. For the first time since Cataclysm launched, I have just done quests that made me feel like the Alliance is accomplishing something. Granted, what it's accomplishing isn't always good, in a moral sense. But I've taken out two Horde warships, cleared the beach of Horde troops, driven an orc warlock to retreat, and then defeated the sha and orc slavers. All in all, the Alliance introduction to the zone feels like this is a faction that finally has had enough.

  • Mists of Pandaria leveling dungeon bosses in 5 seconds

    by 
    Olivia Grace
    Olivia Grace
    08.03.2012

    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.

  • Mists of Pandaria Beta: Raising your very own cloud serpent

    by 
    Anne Stickney
    Anne Stickney
    08.03.2012

    With the reopening of the Jade Forest, several quests and dailies that were no longer accessible have been reopened, including the opportunity to get your very own cloud serpent. Unlike the cloud serpents you can purchase from the various reputation vendors around the world, this cloud serpent is yours -- raised by you from the moment it hatches until the moment you can slap a saddle on its back and fly away into the clouds. Much like the Netherwing in The Burning Crusade or the Winterspring Frostsabers and Venomhide Ravasaurs for Alliance and Horde, respectively, your cloud serpent is obtained through a series of daily quests in which you take care of the little guy, keep him safe from certain doom, clean up after him, and keep him amused. You can start the chain by heading to the Arboretum in Jade Forest at level 90 to speak to Elder Ani the Serpent Master, who will take a good look at you and determine whether you've got the stuff to keep a cloud serpent. Don't worry, you do.

  • Mists of Pandaria Beta: Enrage graphic rolled back

    by 
    Matthew Rossi
    Matthew Rossi
    08.02.2012

    This is one of those situations where I didn't even know this was an attempt to update the graphic; I just thought the beta was buggy. There was a recent change on the beta that altered the way warriors perceive the world when they entered an Enrage. Specifically, the world goes gray and a red tinge appears around the edge of the screen. It's so easy to miss, I just figured my computer didn't want to render something. But no, it was a deliberate change. Thankfully, it's not going to make it to live. Ghostcrawler - [Warrior] New Enrage Graphic It was an experiment. We're not crazy about it and the player response has been negative overall, so we're going to revert it. source This is a good example of a very small change that added really nothing (the grayed-out world didn't make it seem as if you were angry), but a beta is the perfect place to make that kind of experiment. I'm much happier that they tried it out there instead of on live. Now we all know it's terrible, bland and awful, and we can move on. To me, this is the beta working exactly as it is supposed to work. Had the change been awesome, yay new graphic. Since it wasn't, yay beta testers for getting it pulled. The system worked. And yes, I hit several other cooldowns in that screenshot because the Enrage change was just that boring. It was just light gray over everything; it was as if I had pulled a stocking over my head. 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: What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been no longer rewards Master Riding

    by 
    Anne Stickney
    Anne Stickney
    08.02.2012

    For players who have traversed the perils of Azeroth's holidays and emerged triumphant, a new beta build released today may put a damper on your spirits. The achievement What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been will no longer award the Master Riding skill, which means that the account-bound mount will no longer automatically grant your alts the skill. The holiday achievement What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been has been around since Wrath of the Lich King, before Master Riding was even a skill. The Violet Proto-Drake that was given as a reward from the meta was a 310% speed mount, something that was only offered through winning PvP seasons or through rare drops off extremely difficult end bosses in raids. When the Master Riding skill was introduced in Cataclysm, players wondered what this meant for the future of the Violet Proto-Drake. After some deliberation, it was announced that the Violet Proto-Drake would automatically grant Master Riding skill. This was all well and good in Cataclysm, but with Mists and the account-wide mount system, it meant that anyone who had completed the holiday meta could get off scot-free on any and all alts as far as paying the costs of Master Riding went. Apparently this didn't sit well, so the achievement has been adjusted. Whether or not it will remain adjusted by the time Mists goes live is up in the air. However, for those who have completed the achievement, the good news is that you'll be able to ride your Proto-Drake on any character you have. The bad news is, you'll still have to fork over the gold for extra speed on any alts that have not already learned the skill from the holiday meta in live. 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: Crypt of Forgotten Kings scenario

    by 
    Matthew Rossi
    Matthew Rossi
    08.02.2012

    The Crypt of Forgotten Kings scenario is a basic dungeon crawl that pits you and two allies against the evil infesting an ancient tomb. Compared to the Unga Ingoo scenario I ran a couple of months back, it's much more of a no-frills scenario. You go in, smash some faces, don't step on some tiles, and in general root out the sha corruption by, well, the roots. It's actually very refreshing to just get on with it, sometimes, and Crypt of Forgotten Kings is that to a T. You zone in and find the Shado-Pan waiting for you. One of their elders had gone ahead into the crypt and is now sha-corrupted himself. You have to stop him, cleanse the corruption, and then descend into the crypt yourself and mete out justice to the sha lurking within.

  • Mists of Pandaria Hunter Pet Guide

    by 
    Olivia Grace
    Olivia Grace
    08.01.2012

    Anne posted yesterday about the new hunter pet challenges, including exciting information on how hunters can track down their target tames using tracks on the ground that are visible only to hunters. The hunter then casts down a flare at the end of the line of tracks to hopefully reveal the rare pet. This is a really cool-sounding new feature that should hopefully also dramatically reduce the number of hunter tames lost to other marauding players. So why are we telling you about it again? Well, Kalliope over at Petopia has done a truly fantastic forum post that serves as a guide to hunting down these beasts of mystery. Kalliope has done a pet-by-pet guide showing you what tracks you're looking for, where the tames are likely to be roaming in Pandaria, and the family and names for each tame. Not only that, but Kalliope has a host of great tips for would-be owners of these beasts. The full tip list, after the jump.

  • New Mists of Pandaria Battlegrounds: Silvershard Mine

    by 
    Olivia Grace
    Olivia Grace
    07.31.2012

    As you may be aware, there'll be two new battlegrounds arriving on our doorstep in Mists. They are the Silvershard Mine and the Temple of Kotmogu. If you listened to this week's Convert to Raid podcast, you'll have heard me talking briefly about these two battlegrounds -- but I save the best for you, dear readers, so this is a more in-depth look at the battlegrounds. Firstly, a word of warning. The information in this post is accurate in the current beta build 15913 and may change significantly before launch. So first, let's look at the more complex of the two battlegrounds, the Silvershard Mine. As the name would imply, it's in a mine. Revolutionary! More specifically, it's in a Venture Co. goblin mine underneath Stranglethorn Vale. It's described in the battleground finder tool as a 10vs10 escort battle, which is pretty accurate, as the objective of the battleground is for each faction to capture and escort mine carts to depots at the end of the line, retaining control of the carts throughout their jouney from the central depot to their destination. An added level of involvement is found at the crossroads, where players can change a mine cart's direction.

  • Mists of Pandaria Beta: Hunters get new challenges for rare pets

    by 
    Anne Stickney
    Anne Stickney
    07.31.2012

    Hey hunters, sick of players killing beasts you've spent hours trying to track down? Syiler has dug up some new news for hunters on the Mists of Pandaria beta, in the form of new hunter pets with a unique twist. Hunters were given a series of unique taming challenges in the Firelands patch, with several unique hunter pets that required specific tasks in order to tame them correctly. For hunters, it was an incredibly entertaining new challenge to add these pets to their stable. In Mists of Pandaria, it looks like challenge tames are making a return -- with a little twist. These beasts are not out in the open for all to see; instead, they are hidden away. Hunters will have to track the beasts via sets of mysterious tracks found on the ground, rather than the usual tracking methods. These tracks are apparently only viewable by hunters; other classes can not see them. If you follow the tracks to their natural end, you'll see absolutely nothing at all. But if you cast a flare, you'll find a rare pet of your dreams just waiting for you to tame it. This is not only a fun mechanic, but it also prevents random players from wandering around indiscriminately killing the rare pets that hunters crave. And the creatures themselves seem to be elites, which discourages other players from intervening on a hunter's tame as well. Players killing rare spawn spirit beasts and other creatures has been a source of irritation for many a hunter over the years. Perhaps this solution will keep the creatures in the hands of those who can use them for more than padding their pocketbook. 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: The problem with tier 3 talents for Mists resto shaman

    by 
    Joe Perez
    Joe Perez
    07.31.2012

    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 podcast), shows you how. I'm sure that you've been busy preparing for Mists of Pandaria, logging into the beta and testing things out for yourself. Maybe you haven't gotten into the beta yet but have been testing things out on the PTR. Either way, with the announcement of the release date for Mists, things have been kicking into high gear. More beta invites are going out, and now more than ever, player feedback is incredibly important. Over the last two weeks, I've been thinking about a recent change restoration shaman have had to their level 45, or tier 3, talents. I've had a few discussions about it on Twitter with fellow shaman in the community, and after much deliberation, I've decided that it would in fact be the major topic for this week's article.

  • Mists of Pandaria Beta: The Jade Forest revamped and reopened

    by 
    Anne Stickney
    Anne Stickney
    07.31.2012

    The Jade Forest has been reopened on the Mists of Pandaria beta servers, and it's had quite the face-lift in a few key areas. Two new giant mogu temples are now at either end of the zone, and the Alliance and Horde have claimed them in the names of their respective factions. As a result, the starting quests for each faction have changed significantly from what they were before the Jade Forest was closed for its renovations. Because of this, beta testers who were well past the zone when it was closed may want to copy another character over to the beta and give the new version a play-through. It seems that both Alliance and Horde have received significant changes in the opening portions of the zone; however, later quests outside of the starting areas seem to be unchanged. In addition, there were several model updates with the current patch. Pandaria's wildlife now seems to be suitably diverse from the rest of Azeroth's creatures. So what's changed? Well, quite a bit, actually. Take a look at the before and after in our galleries for a peek at the changes, and follow after the break for some impressions from the new Mists starting experience. %Gallery-157916% %Gallery-161437%

  • Mists of Pandaria Beta: 25-man raid testing starts tomorrow

    by 
    Dawn Moore
    Dawn Moore
    07.30.2012

    10-man raid testing on the Mists of Pandaria beta has been under way for quite some time now, but if you've been wanting to give 25-man testing a try, it starts tomorrow. Watcher made the following scheduling post late last weekend. Raid Testing Schedule - July 30-31 After the weekend, we will be testing a number of raid encounters, including 25-player encounters. The testing schedule for remaining Normal modes will be somewhat accelerated, since the encounters are already familiar to many testers and we are just verifying functionality and tuning. Each encounter should be available at approximately the listed times below for all Beta Test Realms, regardless of suggested geographical region. Monday, July 30th Blade Lord Ta'yak (Heart of Fear) - 10 Player Heroic 10:30 PDT (13:30 EDT, 19:30 CEST) Gara'jal the Spiritbinder (Mogu'shan Vaults) - 10 Player Normal 16:00 PDT (19:00 EDT, 01:00 CEST) Tuesday, July 31st Stone Guard (Mogu'shan Vaults) - 25 Player Normal 10:30 PDT (13:30 EDT, 19:30 CEST) Imperial Vizier Zor'lok (Heart of Fear) - 25 Player Normal 12:00 PDT (15:00 EDT, 21:00 CEST) Protectors of the Endless (Terrace of Endless Spring) - 25 Player Normal 13:30 PDT (16:30 EDT, 22:30 CEST) Feng the Accursed (Mogu'shan Vaults) - 25 Player Normal 15:00 PDT (18:00 EDT, 24:00 CEST) Blade Lord Ta'yak (Heart of Fear) - 25 Player Normal 16:30 PDT (19:30 EDT, 01:30 CEST) Tsulong (Terrace of Endless Spring) - 25 Player Normal 18:00 PDT (21:00 EDT, 03:00 CEST) As always, this testing schedule is very fluid and subject to the realities of a beta environment. We might have to change the time of a testing session or cancel it entirely, due to bugs, builds, server hardware issues, etc. Keep an eye on this forum for the latest information, and thank you in advance for testing and providing feedback. source As you can see, there is still some 10-man testing left, but it's going on right now, so log onto beta servers quickly if you want to participate. If you're wondering how on earth you'll be able to get a group together on beta tomorrow to do a 25-man raid, I can assure you there have been plenty of trade chat groups thus far that you can join. Many of the groups are guilds who don't have their entire roster on beta, so they have to pug additional players to fill their raid groups. 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!