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What was the best of Mists of Pandaria?
Thinking back, way back to the Mists of Pandaria beta, when I started taking these pandaren lady screenshots, we were excited about the upcoming expansion and everything it might bring. With patch 5.4.2 on the horizon, and it likely being Pandaria's last patch, let's take a look back at what's changed, both for the better and for the worse. Cross-realm capabilities This is perhaps one of the elements of Mists that best qualifies for both best thing and worst thing. A cursory glance at the title of this piece will inform the reader that we are examining the positives today, so let's look at that side for now. The introduction of cross-realm zones with 5.0.4 was controversial to say the least. But it's paved the way for much greater things. Cross-realm rated battlegrounds have been around for a little while, and more recently, cross-realm arenas, and, of course, flex raiding. Naturally, cross-realm technology pre-dates Mists, but it's in this expansion that it's really taken off.
Breakfast Topic: What's on your Mists of Pandaria bucket list?
Siege of Orgrimmar has been out for 3 months, Warlords of Draenor has been announced, and everything feels like it's starting to wind down as we make ourselves comfortable for the long wait until the next expansion. Some people choose to temporarily quit the game during these lulls, others roll alts, and then there's the good old bucket list. These are the things you never got around to doing, and now it seems like it may be the perfect time to start checking things off that list. The largest thing on my bucket list is pet battles. I've only dabbled with them, and it's not due to lack of interest (I was collecting pets well before pet battles were introduced), it's just something I never got around to taking seriously. The brawler's guild is also on the list. I started it pretty early on, but got side-tracked by more important things like raiding. I'd also like to finish leveling up my other hunter because I'm really excited to toss her the Garrosh heirloom weapon when she dings 90. What's on your bucket list for the pre-expansion slump?
Clarifications on Cross-Realm raiding and Warlords' Group Finder
Community Manager Lore has released some additional clarifications on the differences between the cross-realm functionality being added to the Raid Browser in patch 5.4.2, and the new Group Finder being introduced with the new expansion in patch 6.0. These two features are entirely different things -- the Group Finder is an all new feature being built from scratch. This new Group Finder will allow players to find and create groups for any content at any level. The cross-realm functionality in 5.4.2, however, is just that -- cross-realm functionality. Currently, the Raid Browser only allows players to see other players from their own realm. In patch 5.4.2, players will be able to see cross-realm players as well -- something that is similar to what the popular addon oQueue already accomplishes via the BattleTag system. Follow after the break for the full post from Lore.
Patch 5.4.2 PTR Patch notes
Patch notes for patch 5.4.2 have finally been released, confirming at least some of the new features we can expect to see in the next Mists patch. Keep in mind that 5.4.2 is not a content patch -- there will be no new content to play through, no new raids, scenarios or dungeons added. However, 5.4.2 is adding several new features that players have been clamoring for for quite some time. The Cross-realm raid browser now has new categories for Mists of Pandaria world bosses -- the Celestials and Ordos, as well as Flexible raid difficulty for the Siege of Orgrimmar. Players will finally be able to mail account-bound items to characters on different realms. At the moment, the official list of patch notes is pretty short. Follow after the break for the list, which will likely get more updates as the patch nears completion.
Feedback and what it does and doesn't do
For as long as I've been playing World of Warcraft (which is as long as it's been around) one thing I've seen over and over again is the constant debate between players about the forums and what they're for. Blizzard has stated repeatedly that they listen to player concerns and take feedback very seriously, but they've also stated that they don't design by committee. Still, we've seen design choices made with the player base and its reactions in place - Mists of Pandaria had a far more engaging and active endgame than did Cataclysm, and it evolved over the course of the expansion in response to player reaction. Similarly, many credit (or blame) the steep increase in difficulty in heroic dungeons between the end of Wrath of the Lich King and the neginning of Cataclysm on fanbase complaints. One question that seems to get asked a lot is does anyone at Blizzard care about the forums, which to my mind is a strange question to ask given the evidence I just cited. Clearly, player feedback (and not just from the forums, either) is something that Blizzard pays a lot of attention to. CM Takralus gave a brief on what, exactly, the CM's do with player feedback on the forums and how it is brought to the devs' attention. Let's talk a bit about feedback. When is it useful and when isn't it useful?
August Celestials hotfixed to accomodate smaller groups
Just one hotfix was released last night, but it was a doozy for those looking to complete their legendary cloaks. All four Celestials on the Timeless Isle have had their health reduced to 25% of their original giant-raid-worthy health pool. If more than 10 players from the same faction engage with a Celestial, its health will scale up to compensate. The scaling will stop at 100% of their original health once 40 players are engaged in the encounter. The last step of Wrathion's expansion-long chain to obtain legendary cloaks was easy enough when patch 5.4 went live, but these days fewer players are killing the Celestials each week. I know my server usually sees a lot of Celestial kills on Tuesday, but that number drops rapidly as the week wanes on, making it far more difficult for players that are trying to catch up and get their cloak. This change should hopefully make it a little more feasible for players to complete the quest. While it's nice to see this change applied to the Celestials, I wish we'd see the same technology applied to the rest of Pandaria's world raid bosses as well. The Sha of Fear, Galleon, Oondasta, and Nalak all drop mounts, but it's difficult to find a raid group to take these bosses on so late in the expansion. As the expansion's end draws near, it would be nice to see that technology put in place for older content as well as the new. What do you guys think?
Mists of Pandaria discounted to $7.99 at Amazon
Tis the season for holiday sales! Though Blizzard's Winter Sale offers some great prices, right now Amazon is offering a slightly better bargain for dealhunters looking to pick up Mists of Pandaria for their holiday wishlist. The online megaretailer is offering Mists for $7.99 -- compared to Blizzard's current price of $9.99 -- and is matching Blizzard's $4.99 pricing for World of Warcraft proper, which includes all other expansions. These are boxed versions -- Blizzard's sales are for digital downloads -- so if you want a game box to wrap under the tree, this is an ideal option... but bear in mind that it means you will have to pay shipping costs, which could prevent this buy from being as much of a bargain as it appears. Of course, Amazon's prices could change at any time, so if you were considering picking up Mists for the holidays, get it before these holiday prices are gone!
Know Your Lore: Pandaria's mark on Warcraft lore
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. A little over two years ago, Mists of Pandaria was officially announced as the next expansion at BlizzCon to the puzzlement of many players. The idea of an expansion built around the pandaren race was a polarizing one -- some people loved the idea, and some were less than enthused. Although the pandaren were included in game lore as early as Warcraft III, there were those that scoffed at the idea of an expansion built around a race of giant talking bears, saying that they had no place in Warcraft at all. A year later, Mists was officially launched, and a little over a year after that, the events of Mists of Pandaria are wrapping up in a suitably dramatic conclusion. And to the delight of many, myself included, this expansion has been anything but lighthearted and silly. Mists of Pandaria wasn't just a random expansion about giant talking bears, it was a revolution in the way that story and gameplay intertwine. While it may have had its faltering moments -- the inclusion of enough daily quests to make players dizzy among them -- the story took a life of its own, and the tale it told has definitely left its mark on future lore to come. Let's be clear, here: For a continent left cloaked in Mists for thousands of years, Pandaria has managed to work its way into the face of Warcraft lore in a manner that won't be forgotten, and has given us enough material to spur the story of the game for quite some time.
Azeroth and beyond: Nine years of World of Warcraft
In 1999, Blizzard Entertainment was well on its way to becoming something of a titan in the PC gaming space. Riding high on hits like Diablo, Warcraft II, and the barely-a-year-old StarCraft, Blizzard had established itself as a purveyor of quirky, well-made, and entertaining games mostly of the RTS variety. However, something else was brewing behind closed doors at Blizzard's Irvine campus. While sequels to Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo were all in development (and hotly anticipated), the company had also quietly started work on a brand-new massively-multiplayer online game set in one of the studio's existing game universes. That game, of course, was World of Warcraft. And nine years ago tomorrow, it completely changed the face of MMO gaming.
Warlords of Draenor and the absence of Aggra
Let me tell you a little about my sister. My sister is married, in her thirties, and has four children -- all boys -- ranging from four to sixteen. Her house is a wild cacophony of boys being boys and the calls of various animals that she's acquired. It's a mini-farm, if you will, full of chickens, goats, pigs, dogs, cats, a couple of snakes, and possibly a species or two that I've missed. In addition to raising four boys with her husband, she also owns her own business. She runs her own grooming company here in town, and is both the sole employee and owner, successful enough that she's usually booked for at least a month out, if not more. In addition to that, she runs two Renaissance festivals a year, hauls her family to regular camp-outs with the faire crew, regularly plays D&D with the gang, and knows how to shoot a longbow and a black powder rifle (and is a pretty good shot with both of them), along with cannons and trebuchets. She's a dab hand at cooking at home and over a campfire out in the wild, knows how to kill, gut and butcher just about anything, and how to tan and stretch a hide. On top of all that, I've heard she's a marvel at breaking up fights, reading bedtime stories, wiping tears from faces, kissing boo-boo's away, and snuggling in the mornings when little ones are sleepy and grumpy about getting up for school. And god help anyone that comes between her and her family. I'm telling you this story not to brag about my sister, although I love her very dearly, but to make a point that seems to have been sorely missed somewhere in the story of Warcraft. My sister isn't just a wife and mother. She's a warrior. She's a fighter. She's a spark of ferocity that will not be quenched. Where is her counterpart in Warcraft? That's a really good question.
A history of BlizzCon WoW reveals
It all started at BlizzCon 2005 with the above video revealing The Burning Crusade expansion. Some of you may only remember the cinematic trailers, but there has always been an announcement trailer comprised entirely of in-game footage. When Blizzard announced The Burning Crusade, they only revealed the new Horde race of Blood Elves. The Draenei were not revealed until about 6 months later. Flying mounts, socketed items, a new race, and a new continent. It was an exciting time to be a WoW player. There were just 8,000 attendees that first year, which makes the Murky pet everyone received extremely rare. On the rare occasion when an unscratched card appears on the market, it can go for thousands of dollars. Also interesting to note that the canceled Starcraft: Ghosts game for PS2 and XBOX was playable on the convention floor that year. The Offspring performed in concert at the closing ceremony. The following year was one of the only two years since then to not have a convention, but BlizzCon returned in 2007 and was set to announce the most popular expansion yet.
Faction short story Over Water now available
It's only appropriate that the faction short story for the Anglers involve one of the biggest fish tales ever. Just released on the official site, Over Water by Ryan Quinn isn't quite as Anglers-centric as one would initially think. In fact, the faction isn't even mentioned by name. But, as it's becoming clear with these faction stories, the tales universally have less to do with the factions, and more to do with the characters in the stories learning lessons about themselves. Over Water illustrates this in a big way. Tarlo Mondan is not a happy man. A member of the Alliance, he looks at the outcome of the war -- the Siege of Orgrimmar and new Warchief firmly included -- with bitter disdain. Oddly enough, he seems to share a lot in common with many Alliance players, dissatisfied with conclusion of the Pandaren campaign and wondering exactly what he'd gotten out of the whole mess while traveling home by sea. Unfortunately, a heavy storm knocks Tarlo overboard, and the ship sails off without him -- which is really where the story begins. Left adrift, Tarlo is rescued by a trio of pandaren fisherman with a tale unlike any other -- and hidden within that tale, and the journey, is a lesson for Tarlo to learn. Taking place after Garrosh's defeat, Over Water feels a lot more introspective and subtle than prior short stories. It offers a glimpse into the heart of the Alliance through the eyes of a lone soldier, something we really haven't seen much of lately. I don't know exactly what I expected out of an Anglers story, but Over Water left me pleasantly surprised -- it's an incredibly well-written tale. You can read Over Water over on the official site, and while you're there, be sure to check out the other fine tales in the Destination: Pandaria section.
Breakfast Topic: Do you want another 'people's legendary'?
The legendary cloak, often dubbed as the people's legendary, is a drastic departure from the legendary items of the past. As long as you put in the time there is literally no barrier to entry. It's the most powerful item you will equip this expansion -- sometimes the proc alone is over 10% of my damage on a boss fight, and that's not counting its enormous stat budget or the metagem. I've had some friends express frustration with the quest chain because they're the type of player who takes frequent breaks from the game. If you sit out for a few months it's very easy to fall behind, and then you're stuck running old content to play catch up. Quest item RNG was a cruel mistress to some as well. I was lucky to get 10 of each sigil at roughly the same time, but I know guildies who had 50+ of one type before getting 10 of the other. There was also the PvP portion of the quest which was not popular. I'm afraid to admit how many attempts it took me to get that Silvershard Mines win. I enjoyed the cookies along the way: the sha-touched gem, the weapon socket, the metagem, the epic cloak, and then finally the legendary. It was definitely worth the time investment for me. What about you? %Poll-85397%
Casual content convenience
As someone who writes about World of Warcraft for a living, something I do a lot is read the Blue Trackers. These systems watch every blue post, and collect them all into one place for your convenience. Just occasionally, there'll be funny ones that catch my eye, like this one from Senior Community Rep Jonathan "Zarhym" Brown: Zarhym I disagree with everything you didn't say. source And on this occasion, the thread he was responding to actually got me thinking. You see, the OP was jokingly taking one of the arguments that people make, the predictable ones about how everything was better back in the day, and isolating a key component of that argument: convenience and time spent. The TL;DR on the post is that the game is now too easy, because everything's too convenient. It's worth noting, again, that the OP is entirely joking. He specifically spells out that one "issue" with the game as it stands is that you no longer need to sit in Trade for 30 minutes to an hour or more to get tanks and healers for your dungeon runs. You can now sit in capital cities, or even quest, while you wait for the LFG tool to do all the work for you. Terrible, right?
Looking for Raid must not be destroyed
Every so often, a new forum thread comes up saying that LFR is awful and should be removed from the game. This is one, but it's hardly new or unique (as the post closing the thread makes clear, there are already several forum posts on the topic) - the argument has existed in one form or another since LFR debuted at the end of Cataclysm. It's no secret that I neither like LFR nor run it at all anymore. I am not the audience for LFR. And yet, I not only do not believe it should be removed, I believe it must not be removed. Why do I believe this? Well, multiple reasons. LFR is the friendliest raiding option available to people with limited schedules or who are unable/unwilling to commit to overly structured play time. LFR allows for access to content that would otherwise be unavailable for the majority of the player base. LFR fills a niche - it is neither necessary nor forced upon players who have the time or ability to progress in flex, normal or heroic raiding. One of the things I argued at the beginning of Mists of Pandaria was that content that wasn't necessarily content I personally cared about (pet battles, the Tillers, scenarios) was still good for the game. Options are good - it's better to have more of them, even if they don't suit everyone's playstyles. In many cases, I've only grown to believe this more strongly as LFR has moved from 'content I occasionally run' to 'content I never run' - my ability to completely disregard LFR as unimportant to my game only means that it proves that the developers have successfully balanced raiding. I'm not blind to some of the problems that have hit LFR in the process, however. I've watched my wife (an excellent player hampered by the fact that her day job doesn't allow the kind of time we used to spend raiding together) struggle with bad LFR groups, and I do think there have been some changes to LFR that need to be addressed. Gutting the entire feature, however, is absolutely not the way to go.
Know Your Lore: Which side is Wrathion on, anyway?
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. Once upon a time, an egg from a corrupted flight of dragons was purified. Even before he hatched, the dragon in that egg began to plot and plan. His first step was freedom -- both from those who sought to contain him, and those who sought to kill him. The second, far larger step was born of a vision ... a terrifying vision of a precious, fragile world abruptly coming to a devastating end. Wrathion is one of the stranger characters to have been introduced in Warcraft. While his plans in Cataclysm were fairly straight forward, Mists has proven to be a far more complicated gambit. And through all of the quests and all of the plans, Wrathion has remained as enigmatic as he was the first time rogues set eyes on him. He can be cruel, he can be downright merciless if the need calls for it. Yet at the same time, he seems to possess an altruistic capacity that we've simply never seen before from a black dragon. He'll promise the world to you, and then turn around and promise the same to your enemy. Is he bad? Is he good? Is he siding with the Alliance or Horde? What makes Wrathion tick, and just whose side is he on?
Mists of Pandaria on sale for $19.99 at Amazon, Gamestop
Could you use a second copy of Mists of Pandaria? Do you know a friend who can? Right now, the latest World of Warcraft expansion is on sale at both Amazon and Gamestop for $19.99 -- not a bad price at all for the newest iteration of the game. And if you pick up the latest version of World of Warcraft on the Blizzard Store, the $20 program now includes the Cataclysm expansion. That nets you all expansions for $40, which is a pretty good deal as far as holiday gifts for gamer friends go. Speaking of which, this is also a really opportune and inexpensive way to get yourself set up for the newly revamped Recruit-A-Friend program that should be starting at some point hopefully in the near future. Remember, the new system will be rewarding tokens that can be traded in for a variety of different rewards, so it might just be worth snapping up the game now while it's still on sale. You can head to either Amazon or Gamestop to pick up your copy.
Drowning in Timeless Coins
I've been happily completing the daily over on the Timeless Isle every day -- it's an easy 50 valor points, after all. And while farming the 20 elite mobs needed for the quest, of course I've been hopping from rare mob to rare mob in search of pets or interesting toys. In the meantime, I've piled up a lot of Timeless Coins. I mean, a ridiculous number. I'd noticed people complaining that they had all these Timeless Coins, but I didn't really understand the problem. I mean, they aren't sitting in your bags taking up space in your inventory, they're just ... there. Incorporeal currency. But it's slowly begun to sink in that there's a legitimate problem with the Timeless Isle and its bizarre form of currency -- namely that the only place you can spend that currency is on the Timeless Isle itself. Now don't get me wrong, I do enjoy buying trinkets and unusual things, but at the same time, if all those Timeless Coins pictured above were actually gold in my bank, I'd be ecstatic. Instead, I'm slightly nonplussed and wondering what the heck to do with all these incorporeal things I've gathered.
Blizzard adds Cataclysm to WoW Battle Chest deal
You may have noticed that it's been a little while since that little game called World of Warcraft released -- almost nine years to be exact. And in that time, there have been four major expansions, each adding quite a bit to the game (not to mention their own price tags). So what's a new or long-absent returning player to do? Thanks to Blizzard adding the Cataclysm expansion to the basic Battle Chest edition, it won't be shelling out tons of cash to get caught up. As the previous expansions were already bundled into the basic edition, the $19.99 price tag now nets a player The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, and Cataclysm on top of the base game. Also included is one full month of subscription play time. Only the most recent expansion, Mists of Pandaria, must still be purchased separately. So if you've been thinking about jumping (back) into WoW, now is a good time to take the plunge.
Recruit-A-Friend updates on the way
Updates to the Recruit-A-Friend system are coming at some point in the future, and perhaps sooner than we'd expected. According to an announcement on the official blog, as of today the Recruit-A-Friend program has been temporarily shut down while Blizzard works on updating the program with new features and new rewards. At this point in time, there's no time frame for when the program will return other than somewhere in the future. Those players that are currently linked via the Recruit-A-Friend system can rest easy -- although the ability to sign up for the program is temporarily unavailable, players that are currently using the program will be unaffected, and any rewards that have not been claimed will still be available when Recruit-A-Friend goes live again. As an additional note, the official announcement suggested that players participating in the upcoming program will have more rewards available to them. The exact details on this tantalizing bit of information have yet to be released, but this is likely referencing the points made in the patch 5.4 Developer Round Table released last week. Along with multiple rewards, the new system will be accessible via in game interface, and reward a token instead of a mount. The token can then be redeemed for a variety of different rewards, and those reward might possibly include retired Recruit-A-Friend mounts as well, although that hasn't yet been confirmed. For now, we'll have to wait and see what the new system entails, and exactly when implementation will take place.
