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World of Warcraft continues Mists of Pandaria TV coverage
"The question isn't why we fight," a wizened voice says, "but what's worth fighting for." Thus goes the third TV commercial for World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria. Blizzard continues to storm the airwaves in preparation for Pandaria's September 25th release. The commercial is just cobbled together from the opening cinematic, but it's still cool to see an MMO get airtime on television these days. Give it your full and undivided attention after the jump.
Mists of Pandaria approved for operation in China
We're sure you're all familiar with the rumors that Blizzard's latest World of Warcraft expansion, Mists of Pandaria, had been seeing some trouble in China due to its depictions of pandas having the stuffing beaten out of them. Well, it looks like we can finally put those rumors to rest because the Chinese Ministry of Culture has approved Chinese web operator NetEase to operate the game (humorously Google-translated as World of Warcraft: Panda Man of Mystery; can we get a title change?) in the territory. This is a stark contrast to previous expansions Wrath of the Lich King, which was delayed in China for two years, and Cataclysm, which didn't hit the People's Republic until July of this year. The game's Chinese approval is good news for Blizzard considering the recent loss of around a million WoW subscribers. There doesn't seem to be an official Chinese release date for Panda Man of Mystery yet, but North American and European players will get their hands on it later this month on September 25th.
Blizzard unveils launch events for World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria
If you're a fan of World of Warcraft, you're buying Mists of Pandaria. We all know that. But are you just going to buy the game, or do you want to be part of an entire event surrounding the launch? If it's the latter, you'll be happy to know that the official launch event for the game's fourth expansion release has been confirmed for the 24th near the Blizzard Entertainment offices in Irvine, California. The event starts at 9:00 p.m. PDT and will include stage presentations, special guests, and giveaways for fans in attendance. As with previous launches, even if you can't get out to California for the launch event, several retailers are opening at midnight for retail release of the game as soon as it's possible. It's all heady stuff for the new expansion, and fans will definitely want to take a look at what's going on and attend if possible.
World of Warcraft releases pre-expansion patch
If palling around with lettuce people and giant Vikings isn't your thing today, may we interest you in the panda express lane? World of Warcraft is paving the way for next month's Mists of Pandaria with today's 5.0.4 patch, an update that includes several new features that are part of the expansion rollout. While playable Pandaren and Monks aren't available until September 25th, there's plenty to chew on with patch 5.0.4. Players will experience the massive talent revamp that eliminates the old talent trees entirely, a spellbook overhaul, AoE looting, cross-realm zones, UI changes, significant currency conversions, and account-wide achievements, mounts, and pets. The patch will be up following extended maintenance, and our sister site WoW Insider has been hard at work preparing a massive Mists of Pandaria guide for current and returning Azerothians.
Class guides and resources for Mists of Pandaria
In the interest of providing a fast, easy-to-use resource for every class, we've gathered up our favorite guides, best lists, and most relevant posts into a convenient list. Check back often, because we'll keep these resources up to date throughout the last days of the Cataclysm and deep into the Mists of Pandaria. Check back as we add more guides, more resources, and the best links. If your favorite is missing, we'll be adding it soon. Death knight Glyphs round-up (and more!) PvE frost knights in Mists of Pandaria PvE blood death knights Unholy death knights by Icy Veins Druid Cat and moonkin talent walk-through Cat and moonkin talent walk-through, part 2 Guardian druid enchants, mods, gems, and buff items Restoration druid enchants, mods, gems, and buff items Resto druids by Icy Veins Patch 5.0.4 for balance and feral druids Patch 5.0.4 for guardian and restoration druids Video guide for PvP Boomkin and more (warning: language)
Arcane Brilliance: Your mage's new spell rotations in Mists of Pandaria
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week, we realize that everything we know is wrong, and learn how to make it right again. Last time we had an expansion release, it was all about an actual Cataclysm, and when we made jokes about the end of the world and chaos descending and the impending apocalypse, those jokes were appropriate. This time around, we've got cuddly pandas and fun pet battles and ... I don't know ... Eastern philosophy? Jokes about impending apocalypses aren't as apt this time around. Still, if any expansion has the potential to usher in mass chaos and confusion, Mists of Pandaria may be the one. Never before at any one time have our spellbooks and talent trees undergone such sweeping change. On Tuesday, the servers will go down, and when they come back up, the pre-expansion patch 5.0.4 will be in place (barring unforeseen maintenance mishaps), and everything we know about how to effectively wield magic will be completely different. Our current spell rotations will be gone, and we will need to go about the tricky business of learning our new spell rotations. Which brings us to the reason I called you all together today. There's magical cake in the back of the room, and later on we'll be doing trust falls with warlocks where they fall and we hit them in the face with an Arcane Barrage. But for right now, our agenda has only one item on it: our new spell rotations. It's time we learned them.
Blizzard clarifies the raid finder's role in gearing progression
Blizzard blue Taepsilum posted today on the EU forums regarding the role of the raid finder as a key part of the gearing ladder. It has been regularly mentioned how the raid finder in Cataclysm became a vital part of gear progression, offering items that were an upgrade from Firelands normal gear and -- with procs and set bonuses accounted for, as well as the half-tier increase in item level for drops from Spine and Madness -- upgrades from Firelands heroic gear. I posted a while back about the purpose of the raid finder and how while it was intended as a means for folks who didn't have access to a raid team to see content, it became a rung on the gearing ladder. Well, it seems that Blizzard is taking steps to change that. Matt Rossi posted earlier with more information on the loot changes, and Taepsilum's post only serves to add weight to the notion that the raid finder will be adapted to serve its intended purpose. This shift was mentioned yesterday on the Q&A with the Devs at Gamescom, but it bears repeating for all the raid finder naysayers out there. When Blizzard knows millions of players will see content, it makes it easier for them to justify allocating resources to it. It's really hard for Blizzard to justify putting the huge resources to design a raid into something a fraction of players will experience. WoW Insider had a message direct from Lead Encounter Designer Ion Hazzikostas in which he restated this point: The existence of LFR justifies the creation of more raid content for casual and hardcore players alike. See Taepsilum's post after the break.
World of Warcraft series 75% off until August 27th
Blizzard, in a move that we're certain has nothing to do with an upcoming high-profile game launch, has decided to cut, slash, and otherwise mutilate the prices for World of Warcraft and its many expansions. The World of Warcraft Battle Chest, which includes the original game and the Burning Crusade expansion, is on sale for a paltry $5 US, while the Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm expansions are reduced to $5 and $10, respectively. If you have somehow managed to resist playing WoW for the past however-many years, now's the perfect time to succumb to the temptation and give the game a go, especially considering that patch 5.0 goes live in a week, and Mists of Pandaria soon after that. Surely you don't have any other plans for the 28th, right? If you wanna capitalize on the savings, though, just head on over to the Blizzard store, but do so quickly! The sale ends on August 27th.
Arcane Brilliance: Patch 5.0.4 mage preview
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week, I need to apologize profusely for last week's sad lack of warlock hate. This week, I will hate them twice as much to make up for it. So now we know when the expansion is coming (Sept. 25), and we also know when patch 5.0.4 is coming (Aug. 28). That means we'll be living with this patch and all of its sweeping changes to the systems and mechanics we're currently used to for the better part of a month before we get a whole bunch of new content to distract us from how different everything just became. That's a substantial amount of time to play with the new talent system, new spells, and ... erm ...pet battles that the pre-expansion patch will bring. I think this is a good time to discuss those changes and prepare ourselves mentally for all the shiny new bounty we are about to receive. New talent system This is by far the biggest change on the docket. Forget everything you currently know about talents. Gone is the 72-tier tree of talents that until now defined your mage's effectiveness. Gone are cookie-cutter specs that you had conform to or lose damage. Instead, we get six successive choices that are balanced pretty much equally. Most of the talents we're used to now have either become baseline spells, been rolled together into current spells, or vanished entirely. Every 15 levels, we get to select from three talents. None of these talents are obviously better or worse than the others, freeing us to to choose the one at each tier that suits our playstyle or the needs of a particular situation.
Gamescom 2012: World of Warcraft reveals Mists of Pandaria opening cinematic
Ever since Blizzard announced that the opening cinematic for World of Warcraft's next expansion Mists of Pandaria would be revealed at Gamescom 2012, fans have been patiently waiting to watch the introduction of the Pandaren in the popular fantasy MMORPG. Now the wait is over: Watch as the black and white kung-fu master takes on two warring combatants in the video after the break.
What are you hoping to see in the cinematic tomorrow?
We're expecting the Mists of Pandaria cinematic to be revealed tomorrow at the gamescon 2012 Blizzard booth. Are we excited? Yeah, you could say that. Each expansion's cinematic sets the thematic tones for the playerbase. We've all been playing the beta for what feels like a year, but that's not the same thing as seeing the cinematic tell us why we should be gripping the edge of the seat in anticipation. And don't forget, patch 5.0.4 is right around the corner. Now is absolutely the best time for MoP to get its cinematic flavoring. Let's get this out of the way. There's probably not going to be a gnome in the cinematic. A pandaren will almost definitely be featured, and I'm drooling to think how detailed and gorgeous it'll look. So, what about you? We've known this cinematic would be coming, so now's the time for you to let fly your best hope-fors and wild guesses for its contents. What's the cinematic going to be like? 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!
World of Warcraft schedules big patch for Guild Wars 2's launch day
It's on. Oh, it's so on. Not one to take a competitor's launch sitting down, Blizzard has scheduled its World of Warcraft 5.0.4 patch release for Tuesday, August 28th. Fans of Guild Wars 2 might have an inkling that the 28th has some significance within their own community as well. WoW 5.0.4 is the pre-expansion patch for Mists of Pandaria. It weighs a hefty six gigabytes and includes shared mounts, new pets, and the massive talent revamp. North American players will get the patch on August 28th, while European servers will see it on the 29th. Mists of Pandaria is slated for a September 25th release. Deciding whether this happens to be an innocent coincidence or a shrewd counter-stroke to GW2's launch is up to you. All we know is that August 28th is going to be one very, very busy day.
Leaderboard: Battle of the fall expansions
Thought expansions were a thing of the past for MMOs? Don't tell 2012, which has three major releases lined up this fall! First up is Lord of the Rings Online: Riders of Rohan, which sends players into the titular Rohan region for the first time. Not only will there be epic confrontations with Saruman and Sauron's forces on the plains, but characters will be able to fight from horseback for the first time with the new mounted combat system. Next is World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, Blizzard's fourth expansion for its hit MMO. There's a grab bag of goodies in this release, including a new race, additional continent, pet battle system, talent revamp, and more. Finally, RIFT: Storm Legion is coming out at an unknown point this fall. Trion's first expansion promises four new souls, two huge continents, player housing, and expanded game systems. So as you look at the big board (just pretend you have a big board -- it makes your life more exciting), which of these three looks the most promising? Which wins in potential and promise, at least, compared to the other two? Vote after the jump!
Arcane Brilliance: Mists of Pandaria mage glyph guide
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Arcane Brilliance for arcane, fire and frost mages. This week, we're talking glyphs and the mages who love them. Question: where do we keep our glyphs? Are they semi-permanent tattoos? Are they inscribed upon our clothing somewhere? Do we carry around a piece of paper with all our runes scrawled upon it? And if so, what happens to that scrap of paper when we forget to take it out of our pants before we run them through the laundry? The practical mechanics of inscription intrigue me. As time marches forward, I find myself staring intently down the barrel of my wand at the approaching pandaren invasion, realizing with each passing moment that I am entirely unprepared. So much to cover! So little time. Good thing we can Alter and Warp time, right? It's high time we discussed glyphs. I know Josh Myers previewed glyphs during my absence a few months back, but a whole lot has changed since then. This particular system has changed a bit from what we're used to. Gone are prime glyphs. Now it's just majors and minors. And the majors have been redesigned in an attempt to make them more situational and utilitarian, and this attempt seems to have been largely successful. Instead of being forced to choose between damage increase glyph A and damage increase glyph B, you will now find yourself choosing the glyphs that appeal to you most or fit your playstyle best. Cookie-cutter, must-have glyphs are by and large a thing of the past, and I submit that this is a positive change. Still, each spec will find that certain glyphs work better for them than others, and in the guide that follows, I will endeavor to advise you as best I can on which glyphs look most attractive for each school of mage.
WoW adjusts Scroll of Resurrection for Mists of Pandaria
Call it the Scroll of Resurrection 2.0. Blizzard's popular networking recruitment tool is undergoing an upgrade to reflect the changes coming with World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria. The scroll is an attempt to encourage players to bring their friends in the game by tempting both parties with faster leveling and free mounts. The updated scroll adjusts to the new specialization and talent system in Mists of Pandaria by allowing resurrected (returning) players to pick their new specialization. Talents won't be preselected for those players, however. The scroll won't affect the new Monk class, so those hoping for a quick trip to level 80 on a Monk will need to do it the old fashioned way instead. Pandaren characters also need to pick a faction before the scroll's benefits can kick in.
Mists of Pandaria: Guide to Rogues
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Encrypted Text for assassination, combat and subtlety rogues. Chase Christian will be your guide to the world of shadows every Wednesday. Feel free to email me with any questions or article suggestions you'd like to see covered here. While Mists of Pandaria is still actively being developed and patches are dropping regularly, the rogue of tomorrow is starting to take its final shape. The amorphous blob of shadow that we see on the horizon is congealing into something resembling a functioning class. In fact, rogues have been receiving fewer changes these past few weeks than any other class. I'm not surprised by this fact, as there's really not much to improve upon when we're already a model class. With talent choices reduced to a half-dozen easy decisions, there's really not much you can mess up while playing your rogue in Mists. I like to think that you can break a class down into three basic categories: customization, enhancement, and execution. You need to pick the talents and glyphs that best suit your situation, gear up with the right gems and enchants, and finally push the right buttons.
5 things you need to know about the Shado-Pan Monastery
This is the final one of the four leveling dungeons that you'll encounter on your journey from 85 to 90. In my opinion, it is also by far the hardest to get through. There's a lot of stuff in here that hits like a train right now in the beta, or so it seems. I think this dungeon strikes a really great balance between being hard enough to challenge experienced players and not so hard that it's impossible or too difficult for newer players. Of course, we've given you a walk-through of the four bosses, and they're also included in our bosses in 5 seconds post for this set of dungeons. You're welcome! For those of you who don't want all the spoilers of a walk-through but need a little more information than can be transmitted in 5 seconds, here we are again with your friendly 5 things you need to know correspondent, giving you just enough knowledge to sound like you might know what you're talking about! I would mention that given the plethora of information already floating around about the bosses in this dungeon, 5 things you need to know has chosen to concentrate a little more on the trash. The trash in this dungeon, from a healing perspective, is a real pain. I've healed this dungeon 16 times now, and I blow more cooldowns on trash than I do on bosses, unless boss fights start going pear-shaped. Now, before we get onto the 5 things, I want to make a separate point. This dungeon, as I mentioned, has some high damage levels, especially from trash. Remember the trash from the Zandalari dungeons? Well, some of the trash here hits about as hard as that, if you're not careful to avoid it. This dungeon is all about avoidable damage, and taking out the problematic trash as priority rather than just AoE-storming through the place is really vital for your healer's sanity. OK?
The Daily Grind: Is it lazy to retool classic dungeons for endgame?
Over the last few expansions, Blizzard has been attempting to transform antique World of Warcraft dungeons into modern, heroic experiences, from Cataclysm's reimagined Deadmines to Mists of Pandaria's level-cap Scholomance. But most of WoW's dungeons -- and most dungeons in ever-changing MMOs period -- languish in the past with outdated mechanics and loot surpassed by overland quest drops. You might go there as a tourist occasionally, but no one takes those places seriously. I like a chance to go back to reworked older zones to get my nostalgia fix on boosted, endgame content. But I can see why players might object to the practice. After all, a fresh coat of paint doesn't really make it a new room. It can feel as if the devs cheaped out and just pasted some new textures and mechanics into an already-built zone instead of implementing something truly new. What do you think -- is it lazy to retool classic dungeons for a new endgame? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Weekly news recap featuring Niko
Niko returns this week with WoW Insider's news recap, where we look back at the hottest news of the past week. This week's topics include: New Mists of Pandaria Battlegrounds: Silvershard Mine Encrypted Text: Lifestyle of the Pandaria rogue A closer look at the hunter rare tames in Mists of Pandaria Become a Guardian of Hyjal with transmogrification Breakfast Topic: How will you level through Mists of Pandaria? If you enjoyed the show, make sure to subscribe to Niko on YouTube (or follow him on Twitter) and come back next week for the next episode!
Mists of Pandaria leveling dungeon bosses in 5 seconds
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.
