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Which race has the creepiest-looking children?
In preparation for Friday night's raid testing, I started leveling a second character to 90 on the Mists of Pandaria beta yesterday evening. I had only progressed a couple of quests into Valley of the Four Winds when I noticed Chen Stormstout and his little niece Li Li were talking at me with recorded dialogue. When I had done these quests a few weeks earlier, neither NPC had made a peep, so the voices caught me off guard and quickly drew my attention and focus. This was when I realized for the first time that Li Li has been given a new character model. Previously, Li Li had been nothing more than a shrunken version of an adult female pandaren; now, she's taken on the form of a glossy-eyed, ever-smiling child. I immediately recoiled at the sight, shrank back in my chair, and clawed blindly at the keyboard in an effort to tab out of the game so I could console myself with pictures of kittens and Ryan Gosling's beard. I barely survived. So maybe it's just me, but nothing haunts me more than the soulless, unblinking eyes of Azerothian children. Anyone else share my sentiment? If so, which of the kids do you think are the creepiest? %Poll-75949%
The Queue: Simple and Clean
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. I'm not entirely sure why, but Kingdom Hearts popped into my mind late last night. Was there anything cooler than the Battle of 1,000 Heartless back then? Heck, has there been anything cooler since? I don't think so. Hurry up with Kingdom Hearts 3, Square. I'll happily buy whatever console you decide to put that baby on. amaxewardiary asked: Q on leveling pandaren monks. Are there any changes to the 1-60 zones?
Mists of Pandaria: New customizations for pandaren females
It's going to take me an hour to make my new female pandaren, because they now have additional earring choices and even more hair embellishments -- five earring options and eight neon highlight options. The highlights change position according to your chosen hairstyle. The hair and earring customizations are live in the MoP beta right now. Unfortunately, the button for the hair streaks has not been implemented yet, so currently you're given a random color when you create a character. To see all of the new highlight and earring options, head over to Wowhead News. 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: Pandaren starting zone walk-through, part 2
In our narrative walk-through of the pandaren starting zone, we chose to play a pandaren monk because that's kind of a huge point of the expansion. You will see mild differences if you play a non-monk. Other classes begin in Shang Xi's Training Ground, so it's not entirely a separate experience. When we last left our hero, Graey the pandaren monk had begun his journey to find Aysa Cloudsinger. Finding Aysa of the Tushui doesn't take much work, but it definitely counts as your first "Run, Panda!" quest. Turn back around the path and follow your minimap to the big, glowing question mark. Congratulations on your first experience as an Azerothian creeper. It doesn't take quite a minute to reach Aysa. There's technically a path, but if you're anything like me, you veered off in a straight line to Xi's student. When you reach Fu's Pond, though, it turns out Aysa is too busy to talk to you. She's doing her exercises, according to Merchant Lorvo. Since Aysa's busy, Lorvo wants your help instead. He wants you to recover Items of Utmost Importance and rescue The Missing Driver. Let me translate that for you: He wants you to go kill stuff, loot the bodies, and talk to the driver. No problem, we can do that. We have finely honed hitting-stuff-with-stick techniques. The Amberleaf Scamps are closest, so we'll do that first.
Know Your Lore: As new lore emerges
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. There will be spoilers for Mists of Pandaria in this post. So there's no other way to say this: I am enjoying the heck out of the stories I am being presented with in the Mists of Pandaria beta. I'm actually reading quest text. (To be fair, I do that a lot anyway -- lore nerd and all.) Frankly, as Anne pointed out this weekend, one of the things that's best about this expansion is that everything we experience is new to us. Mists of Pandaria isn't just the story of the pandaren. In fact, while the pandaren are very cool, I find myself absolutely drawn to explore everything else up on the buffet table. The Mogu and their astonishing ruins, the mantid threat in the Dread Wastes, the entirely foreign threat of the Sha -- these are all compelling and fascinating to me. Better still, I'm being presented all new ways to explore these story options. More so than any expansion in the history of World of Warcraft, the Mists of Pandaria are parting to show us an entirely new world, one we know very little about. If you're an old codger like me, that in and of itself is an interesting departure. But it's being backed up by all the innovations and discoveries of the past seven years of quest and zone design. Frankly, this first post-Cataclysm expansion owes a lot to the teachable moments of the massive zone redesign effort made in the previous expansion. The fruits planted then are being harvested now, and the results are in places stunning.
Mists of Pandaria Beta: Pandaren flirts and jokes
One of the things that players look forward to the most with new races is what the heck they're going to crack jokes about, exactly. Sure, we've had emotes in the Mists of Pandaria beta since the beta went live, but we didn't have any sounds to go with them -- until now. MMO-Champion dug up a host of new info from the latest beta patch, including all of the assorted jokes and flirts for both male and female pandaren. While I love the sound and feel of the male pandaren voice, the female version was lacking something for me. The voice sounds fine; it just feels like the voice sounds a little too mature for the model design. However, the female pandaren jokes have all but changed my mind on that front. There's some of the usual pop culture references and some truly inspired (and very funny) joking around in light of the pandaren critics out there.
Pandaria makes its appearance on the world map
MMO-Champion has revealed that the latest beta build, 15739, will finally put Pandaria on the map. The fog of 10,000 years has lifted, and the elusive continent's position has finally been established, at least to the satisfaction of Azeroth's cartographers. (That really must have been quite some fog.) Beta testers on Pandaria will no longer appear to be somewhere in the swirling midsts of the maelstrom, which will likely be a relief. While the zone map itself has been accessible to folks on Pandaria almost since the beta became active, its exact position relative to the other zones has not been established until now (although we've always known it'll be in the southern area of Azeroth). It's positioned opposite Northrend, occupying that conspicuously empty bit of the map. It looks, then, as if the continent might be accessible via ship rather than purely via portal, which would fit in well with Blizzard's ideas on increasing the time players spend in the world it's creating. It does make me wonder whether any future expansions will create more continents in this area apart from those four or whether any future zones will be on an Outland-esque plane on a different map. Sure, there's room for more land mass either side of Pandaria, but then where would the pictures of ships go? Or perhaps a new zone will emerge in the middle, to the horror of the navigators of Azeroth's fleet. 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!
One Shots: Bamboo Kat's
If you followed MJ's Choose My Adventure in City of Heroes throughout the month of May, you know that veterans constantly recommended that she do one thing: roll blueside. More people play superheroes than villains, and if you want to group, Paragon City is the place. But I say the villains of the Rogue Isles surely have the best scenery. Massively reader Jeromai chipped in two gorgeous shots of the grimy skyscrapers of redside with this note: One of my favorite spots villain-side is the Jackpot area of St. Martial, especially when it gets dark and the building lights are a stark contrast to the gloom of all the other previous zones. Sure, it's still a soulless Las Vegas-style strip wannabe, but I love super-jumping down the street as the music changes. This is my normal view of things when super-jumping. But if you get down to street-level, it's also surprisingly immersive. Notice the Marcone or Family gangster leaning nonchalantly against one building as the cars and pedestrians cruise through. Both shots (and a few others) are tucked behind the break!
What is Mists of Pandaria?
You can hardly load up a WoW site without getting barraged by panda news. That information seems obvious -- after all, we're all sitting around drooling for the new expansion. But if you're the kind of player who prefers staying spoiler-free, then the substantive news about Mists of Pandaria versus the minutiae can seem overwhelming. So let's kick back on our armchair in the clouds and take a good, high-level look at the new expansion. First things first. Mists of Pandaria is the fourth expansion to World of Warcraft. We've already had The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, and Cataclysm. This is the (very, very) basic story so far: In The Burning Crusade, the Horde and Alliance went off to Outland to bring down the machinations of a handful of elves and demons. While they were gone, though, the Lich King rose back up and attacked. Once the Lich King was defeated, a big, bad dragon woke up and wrecked shop on Azeroth. In Mists of Pandaria, the Horde and Alliance have dealt with external threats and are now turning their eyes to one another.
Become a master chef on the shores of Pandaria
The people of Pandaria take their food almost as seriously as their beer. Those of us who like to keep up on our cooking skill in World of Warcraft have our work cut out for us in the upcoming expansion. Rather than simply leveling to the skill cap and calling it a day, the process has become a little more involved: Pandaria offers six different cooking specializations, or Ways, which can eventually all be completed by one person. The latest Mists beta patch has implemented a pair of awards for those who complete all six: the achievement Master of Pandaren Cooking and the title Master of the Ways to go with it. Move over, Savior of Azeroth. Being a master chef is where it's at. 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: Male pandaren voice emotes revealed
Throughout the Mists of Pandaria beta, players have been commending Blizzard on just how much emotion you can see in pandaren emotes and animations. These guys actually get into what's going on, as opposed to most of the current player races, which lack much facial rigging at all. That emotion extends to the male pandaren voice emotes, which were added to the game files in the latest Mists beta patch. MMO-Champion's video, embedded above, displays all of these emotes quite well. Who knew pandaren were so good at begging for mercy? 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!
Wowhead previews Townlong Steppes
Townlong Steppes opened up in one of the recent builds of the Mists of Pandaria beta. Normally, the Great Wall of Pandaria separates this zone from the rest of the continent, but the pandaren are investigating what's on the other side due to the attacks from the Mantids. The opposition in Townlong Steppes consists of mobs and quests for players who are 88+. Adventurers won't find any shortage of activities in this zone. Assist the Shado-Pan, who are checking out strange, jeweled camps near their garrison. Fend off the mogu, who are commandeering cloud serpents in the islands north of the Temple of Niuzao. Engage the yaungol and mantid alongside your pandaren allies in the Shallowstep Pass. Head on over to Wowhead to preview the screenshots and backstory of all the different areas. 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!
Caramelldansen pandaren, presented without further comment
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Mists of Pandaria Beta: Male and female pandaren dances are live
Rejoice! Pandaren dances are in. I won't take up your time -- just watch. The male pandaren are doing some variation of the Party Rock Anthem dance (maybe?), and the female pandaren is distinctly the caramelldansen meme. Very well animated, as usual. What do you guys think? 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 basics of prepping for pandaren roleplay
Sure, the expansion's not quite out yet, but that doesn't mean you can't start planning for it as a roleplayer if you want to. The pandaren race features some really amazing, beautifully animated characters with an intriguing story ripe for roleplay purposes. While some roleplayers may already be happily roaming around the beta servers, others have only bits of information to work with. The process of coming up with a roleplaying character can take a little time, so if you're wanting to create a pandaren when the expansion is released, why not start pondering possibilities now? Though pandaren can be played by both Alliance and Horde, they cannot speak to each other once they've made that decision -- a decision steeped in the storyline of the Wandering Isle. However, this does mean that you can play a pandaren character no matter which side of the faction fence you happen to be on. And with the kind of history and story the pandaren have behind them, it'd be well worth looking into if you're looking for a different kind of character to roleplay with. This is a primer of pandaren lore, and as such, it'll contain a little spoiler content. However, because of the unique nature of playable pandaren characters, we won't be divulging any major story events that take place in Pandaria. This information will mainly be starting zone info. If you're looking to avoid all Mists spoilers, however, you may want to pass on what's after the break.
Mists of Pandaria Beta: The Angler's Wharf makes the perfect fishing hideaway
Fishing is both my favorite and least favorite WoW profession. I love sitting lazily around, watching a movie and click-fishing. That seems weird, but it's very relaxing to me, considering you don't have to move as much as you do in archaeology. But I digress. Mists of Pandaria is introducing a brand new faction, The Anglers, and their adorable fishing village to the new continent. This new hub features a cast of fishing characters, their village, daily quests, and a faction to work on with, presumably, rewards. We like rewards. The ever-angler, El, previewed the new fishing village, showing off the gorgeous buildings and the fun cast of characters. I'm sure that we'll get to know these guys pretty well over the course of the expansion, since we'll be hanging out with them on a daily basis. Well, at least I will be. In fact, hopefully Blizzard sees these new little hideaways as places players want to set their hearthstone in order to get out in the world rather than be cooped up in the capital city. If this little village has some cool features, like a secret bank or something, I might just never leave.
Mists of Pandaria Beta: New female pandaren emotes added
If you watched our last video of the female pandaren emote animations, you may have noticed that some emotes were missing. The latest beta build seems to have added quite a few more, including a second idle animation. We've made a video of the newly added animations for you, including a shot of the secondary idle animation. Be sure to view it in high quality for the best picture. I think my two favorites on this particular roundup are the beg animation, which has a lot of subtle nuances in the face and posture of the model, and the new idle addition. For some reason, her new idle reminds me a lot of Ariel from The Little Mermaid, excitedly exploring. It suits the pandaren, since they've spent thousands of years on the Wandering Isle for the most part and away from the world at large. It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
Know Your Lore, Tinfoil Hat Edition: The secret of Pandaria
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. "It's just possible that the curious race we're going to meet in this mystic land, may just teach us a thing or two about who we are, and why we fight." -- Chris Metzen, BlizzCon 2011 What do we know about Mists of Pandaria? We've been told that the major conflict highlighted in this expansion will be between Alliance and Horde. We've also been told that this will be one of the bloodiest wars since the days of Warcraft II. We've been told that there will be consequences for our actions, and we were told when the expansion was announced at BlizzCon that the pandaren have something to teach us. So what's up with that? And what's up with the crazy map making a reappearance? That's the funny thing -- it's all interconnected, possibly. Today we're going on a Tinfoil Hat trip through Mists of Pandaria to talk about my favorite crazy map, some theories on Azeroth, and why exactly Garrosh needs to be removed. Today's Know Your Lore is a Tinfoil Hat edition, meaning the following is a look into what has gone before with pure speculation on how it happened and what is to come as a result. These speculations are merely theories and shouldn't be taken as fact or official lore.
Mists of Pandaria beta: A guide to pandaren pronunciation
Mists of Pandaria brings us an all-new continent with a ton of brand-new races, quests, storylines, and characters. Along with those characters comes a whole host of names that look a lot easier to pronounce than they actually are. With names commonly found in the troll race, it's a simple matter of navigating your way around all of the apostrophes. Old Gods, for the most part, sound just like they are spelled. But with the names you find in Mists, there's an actual precedent for pronunciation, and most words definitely don't sound like they look. Simon, one of our readers who also happens to be fluent in Chinese, took some time out of his busy day to drop an email in my inbox detailing just a few of the Chinese words, their meaning, and their actual pronunciations. According to Simon, many of the names you'll encounter in Mists are actually written using the standard PinYin system, which, when accurate, is usually pronounced differently than how it looks.
Of monks, mains, and the ability to change
I've changed my main exactly once in all of my years playing World of Warcraft. It wasn't out of need or necessity for a guild -- in fact, I was guildless at the point I decided to switch. And I wasn't really planning on switching so much as I really wanted to play a rogue. I wasn't tied down to a guild, and I figured I could simply have fun with the experience. Over the course of leveling that rogue, I met a group of friends in a raiding guild, and once I hit level 70, they encouraged me to apply. Going from a healing class to a pure melee DPS class wasn't as much of a stretch as you'd think. In fact, I think I almost fared better than most because as a former healer, I keenly understood the importance of staying alive. More importantly, I understood that as a pure melee DPS player who was not a tank or a healer, my priority on most heal lists was fairly low. So it was up to me to keep myself alive and happily stab things. I don't think, however, that I could ever make that switch again -- although honestly, I've thought about it.
