World of Warcraft Remix: Mists of Pandaria is out and features a ton of new rewards to collect. Most of the major settlements in the remixed Pandaria will have a bazaar where you can spend bronze on plenty of cosmetics, items, and more. There are also achievement-based cosmetic rewards, ??listed below. This guide will help you to find what you're looking for, and tell you how to get it!

Where is the Bazaar in each zone?

• Jade Forest - Tian Monastery
• Valley of the Four Winds - Halfhill Market
• Townlong Steppes - Niuzao Temple
• Kunlai Summit - Temple of the White Tiger
• Vale of Eternal Blossoms - The Shrine of the Seven Stars and the Shrine of the Two Moons

What does each vendor sell?

Hemit Nesingwary XVII can be found in any ba??zaar, selling the?? following new and old mounts:

Horos is an NPC at every Infinite Bazaar that sells Toys. All of thes?e toys are still available in the main game, except the Horde-only event Mini Mana Bomb.

Transmog and Heirlooms

Any characte?r can by any ensemble for any armor type and tier. So you only need one character to unlock everything for all your other characters on the retail server. Of course, you can only wear the things that your class can wear normally. Multiple vendors are in each Infinite Bazaar, and each sells a different set of gear.

On top of that, Pythagorus also sells several heirloom weapons and the Tusks of Mannoroth transmog. These require an additional Bones of Mannoroth currency that drops off o?f Garrosh in the Normal or higher Seige of Orgrimar raid.

Achievement Rewards

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Shortly after creating a character, you'll craft a Cloak of Infinite Potential to aid you on your Timerunning journey. This cloak will stay with you for the entire duration of the World of Warcraft Remix: Mists of Pandaria event. As you'??re leveling, you'll come across Threads that grant you permanent stat bonuses. At any time you can mouse over your Timerunner's Advantage buff to see what your stat bonuses.

You can collect threads doing various activities around Pandaria. Looting from enemies, opening Cache of Infinite Treasures, opening treasu?re chests, flying through Bronze Orbs, completing dungeons, and more. Basically anything that gives a reward has a chance to give a thread. What kind of thread depends on your level. The stat that will be buffed is in the name of the thread you earn. For example, Thread of Stamina will give you a stamina buff, based on what rank it is.

As you rank up your cloak, you'll get achievement??s to mark your progress. Each rank of Infinite ??Power you get grants a bonus to your other characters, making leveling even easier for them. The final rank is at 4200 threads, and it grants you a toy for each of the August Celestial cape effects.

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World of Warcraft Remix: Mists of Pandaria is a new time-limited event. It's running now until August 19. If you're interested in checking it out, you can play free up to level 20. Then, all you need is to have an active WoW subscription. No extra expansions are required.

How do I create a new Timerunning character?

On the character select screen, click the WoW Remix: Mists of Pandaria button in the upper left. You can also select "Create New Character" and sele?ct a Timerunning character. From there, create any character you would like (server restrictions still apply). Once you enter the world, you'll have a short questline to go?? through to introduce you to the new mechanics of Timerunning.

How do I get through the opening quests?

The Infinite Dragonflight needs your help. Speak to Eternus up ahead and begin your questline. She'll have you defeat an easy enemy real quick to collect some Temporal Threads. She'll task you with speaking to Moratari nearby to learn more. As you might expect, you'll have a few combat assignments to get through. Once you finish those, ??she'll have you speak to Horos to purchase a Chronobadge. This vendor also sells a lot of mounts and toys that you won't be able to afford any time soon. Now, speak to Momentus to forge your artifact. Once you turn in that quest, you'll have a new Cloak of Infinite Potential.

She will task you with finding another Infinite Reaver to kill and collect some thread off of. Afterward, she sends you to face the big boss of this area. A nasty time elemental named Eratus is causing problems nearby, so g??o crush that real quick. Don't worry if you see an army of Infinite Reavers spawn around him, Eternus will take care of those. Turn in the quests and prepare to teleport to your new adventure in Pandaria!

As a reminder, your characters are locked to the continent until the event ends in August. You won't have access to the Auct?ion House, either. So go out there and level up your cloak, get crazy new a??bilities, and enjoy this wild new mode.

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World of Warcraft Remix: Mists of Pandaria is a new mode in Blizzard's MMO. When you log in, you'll have an option to create a new character specifically for this mod??e. This brand new, level ?10 character is confined to the continent of Pandaria through the event.

Once the event ends on August 19, your Timerunning character moves to the retail version of the game and given gear so that they're ready for The War Within. If you play a race that has a Heritage armor quest, you'll be eligible for it if you reach the required level, but you won't be able to take the ques??t until after the event ends.

You begin on the Timeless Isle, where you meet a band of Infinite Dragonflight friends. There's a short quest to get acquaint?ed with your new abilities, and then it's on to forge the Cloak of Infinite Potential to help you along th?e journey.

Level faster, raid sooner

Part of the fun of WoW Remix is the process of getting to level 70 much faster than th?e old fashioned way. All the gear you collect is specifically designed for this mode. Dungeons and raids will unlock faster than?? you would expect, allowing you to tackle them as early as level 25. Everything you do also provides powerful gear and gems to customize and empower. You'll also have the Cloak of Infinite Potential with you at all times. This will allow for even more character growth and provide bonuses to other characters.

A new Bronze Age

One of the first things you'll notice is a new currency. Bronze, not to be confused with the bronze coins you get as part of your gold count, is a unique reward for most things you do?? in WoW Remix. It's the primary currency for spending on upg??rades, new items, transmogs, pets, mounts... Just about everything! You'll see it as a reward for quests, destroying unneeded gear, collecting glowing orbs around the sky, and by beating up powerful enemies.

Time flies when you're riding dragons

Early on, you'll notice the ability to summon your Dragonriding mounts. That's not an accident; if you ha?ve Dragonriding unlocked on your account, you should have it by default. If not, look for the purple quest icon on your mini-map near Tian Monastery. They'll help you unlock Dragonriding in Pandaria. This gives you the best way to travel while also allowing you a new avenue for collecting bronze. Scattered throughout the continent are little bronze globes floating over landmarks. Flying through them on your Dragonriding mount will net you a small chunk?? of this unique currency. It's an incredibly rewarding side activity.

Gems that are truly, truly outrageous

One of the frequent rewards you'll find alongside gear are gems. They come in a multitude of types with various abilities. Some give you powerful attacks, some boost your stats, and others give you crazy movement abilities. Helmets have a Meta Gem slot, which grants a powerful ability. Boots have a Cogwheel slot you fill with gems that grant movement abilities from other classes. The rest of the equipment gives you either Tink?er Gems or Prismatic gems. We break these down more in this article.

Boost your collection of mounts, pets, and more

Timerunning contains a mountain of rewards. Many are unique to the mode! All of them carry over to your main account as well as the WoW Remix eve??nt. Rewards you ca??n purchase with Bronze include:

• 19 mounts that are recolors of older mounts, like the Imperial Quillen
• 11 mounts that are hard-to-get in Mists of Pandaria, like the Heavenly Onyx Cloud Serpent
• 22 toys from rare drops, including one new one
• New transmog/cosmetic items.
• Every Tier of class gear from raids
• Re-colors of Trading Post class-specific gear
• Wandering Isle Leveling gear
• Re-colors of Shado-Pan and Dark Shaman gear

So what's the same?

Not everything is new, however. The original, unspoiled version of the Vale of Eternal Blossoms will not be available. We also won't be able to do the original Wrathion questline for the legendary cloaks. But, you will be able to earn appearanc??es for your Cloak of Infinite Potential, and the ability to access the boss Ordos on the Timeless Isle.

Items that were only available during Mists of Pandaria will not be available now. This means the Phoenix mounts and Challenge Mode armor sets will remain locked. This is the biggest bummer, as there is no way to get these if you weren't playing WoW in 2013.

As a reminder, the only thing you'll need to access it is an active WoW subscription. Anyone can play ?a free version up to level 20.

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One of the best ways to increase your power level in WoW Remix: Mists of Pandaria is by slotting gems into your gear. Most gear has a slot available, though the type of slot depends on the type of gear. When swapping out gems, don't forget to use the unique gem removal ability Extract Gem? you have. If you just slot a gem ontop of another gem, it destroys the original.

Now, you might think that this requires Jewelcrafting. However, there are no Primary and Secondary professions in WoW Remix. All characters will will have these abilities. All players also gain access to a swirling vortex that you can use to scrap unwanted gear?. This turn??s the items into the Bronze currency.

As a special note about the Prismatic gems: when you collect 3 of a Prismatic gem, you can combine them to the next rank. Remember your Extract Gem ability when swapping gems out.

The gems you can g??et vary, and we've compiled a l??ist below.

Meta Gems

These give you powerful abilities, but you only have roo??m for one in your a??rmor. You can spend 500 Bronze to purchase an Asynchronized Meta Gem to collect one you do not already have. Meta Gems scale with the item level of the item they are socketed into.

Tinker Gems

Tinker gems gran??t various effects, and you can have up to 12 total. You can purchase an Asynchronized Tinker Gem for 300 Bronze to get a gem you do not currently have. These gem??s scale with the item level of the item they're socketed into.

Cogwheel Gems

These grant some form ??of utility ability, usually movement. You only have one of them, so pick your favorit??e. If one happens to share with a class ability you already have, like a rogue picking up the Sprint ability, you'll effectively get a second cooldown. You can purchase an Asynchronized Cogwheel Gem for 400 Bronze to get a gem you don't already own.

Prismatic Gems

Every prismatic gem has 4 ranks: Chipped, Flawed, Masterful, and Perfect. Combine 3 of one rank to get the next rank. Perfect gems also always ??give a Stamina bonus, on top of th??eir listed bonus. You can spend 200 Bronze to purchase an Asynchronized Prismatic Gem, giving you a random common-quality gem.

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In what can only be described as my best-case scenario, Mists of Pandaria is about to become relevant again. WoW Remix: Mists of Pandaria is an upcoming limited-time event set to launch with patch 10.2.7. It's a bonkers idea that combines the best elements of WoW Season of Discovery ideas and the modern game. All you'll need to access it is an active WoW subscription.

Basically, you will create a brand new level 10 character. You'll then be set loose on the continent of Pandaria. All the dungeons, quests, scenarios, and more will be there, but with fresh and wild rewards and a faster leveling experience. Everything you do has a chance at rare rewards, like gear with new item slots that allow for crazy builds. You could find a trinket gem that lets your basic attacks have a cha?nce to set enemies on fire. Another could grant you the mage's Blink ability. The goal here is to become as powerful as possible with no real cap to get in your way. Anything you don't want is converted into a Bronze currency to spend on transmogs and other unlockables.

It's not just for fun, either. Your characters will transition to the main game when the event ends. That makes this is a great way to level those classes you've wanted to try. Plus, you'll be able to earn tons of unique rewards through the event that will carry over to your main game as well. One of the biggest highlights Blizzard announced was recolors of popular mounts. They showed off the gold tinted Astral Cloud Serpent as an example. There's also a chance to earn the legendary phoenix mounts. These birds have been unobtainable since Warlords of Draenor.

To be clear, while this has elements of WoW Classic and Season of Discovery, it is neither. It's a unique mode that will only be around until The War Within expansion launches later this summer. The characters ?you will be building will also be using the retail structure of leveling. That means all the modern skill trees and abilities.

Mists of Pandaria was my all-time favorite WoW expansion. I've always enjoyed dipping back to run through old content whenever I level new characters or feel like grinding for transmogs. I'?m super excited to see it get highlighted in this crazy new mode that'll offer tons of rewards. Maybe this time I'll be?? able to get those Mannoroth tusks from Garrosh.

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Yep physical DVDs from late 90s

A new crop of PC clearance games is up for grabs this week at Best Buy at some impressive prices. A total of 22 games showed up with decent discounts, including $6 SimCity and $5 Battlefield 4, both tying their lowest prices ever. (Civ: BE and AC Unity are also honorable mentions, tyi??ng or beating their lowest prices.)

The games will remain on sale through? Saturday or until sold out, but since most are available for both free shipping and free store pickup, there's likely a ?large inventory. Note that these are all PC DVD physical copies that include their respective DRM keys.

Links either point to the ??official Best Buy site or its eBay store page. In either case, store pick-up will be required.

• Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel — $23.99 (list $60)
• Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth — $19.99 (list $40)
• WildStar — $19.99 (list $40) <- FYI, going F2P soon
• Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag — $15.99 (list $40)
• Lara Croft and The Temple of Osiris — $11.99 (list $30)
• 2K Definitive Strategy Collection — $10.99 (list $20)
• Watch Dogs — $9.99 (list $40)
• Assassin's Creed Unity — $9.99 (list $40) <- lowest historic price
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Blacklist — $7.99 (list $20)
• SimCity: Limited Edition — $6.99 (list $30)
• Farming Simulator: Titanium Edition — $5.99 (list $25)
• Assassin's Creed 3 — $5.99 (list $30)
• World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria — $4.99 (list $10) <- new low price
• SimCity: Cities of Tomorrow — $4.99 (list $20)
• Battlefield 4 — $4.99 (list $20)
• Warhammer 40k: Space Marine — $3.99 (list $20)
• The Bureau: XCOM Declassified (Steam) — $3.99 (list $20) <- not exactly XCOM
• Darkspore Limited Edition — $3.99 (list $20)
• Homefront — $1.99 (list $10)
• Operation Flashpoint: Red River — $0.99 (list $5)
• Alpha Protocol — $0.99 (list $5)

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There are more WoW characters than people in the USA

Blizzard's World of Warcraft just crossed 100 million lifetime players. Wow. Let that sink in for a moment. We've had less than 100 million people turn out to vot??e for the United States presidency. Maybe political candidates should start campaigning in game. 

There have also been over 500 million created characters, about 40% more than the United States population. A bunch of other curated stats meant to try and explain just how big World of Warcraft is can be found here, in lovely infographic form.

World of Warcraft also has 408,000 followers on Twitter, which is way more than me. I'll get there one day.

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Confirmed by Community Rep

World of Warcraft's newest expansion, Mists of Pandaria, is getting a new content patch soon. Although the patch has been delayed a few times, the expectation was that it would launch this week -- specifically, tomorrow -- which Senior Community Blizzard Rep Jonathan Brown has now confirmed.

As we've mentioned before, the patch will bring about a large number of instances, new mounts, and more. I've always been a huge fan of subscriptions in MMOs when done right -- and Blizzard has always handled them extremely well when it comes to World of Warcraft.

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Are you still playing World of Warcraft?

Patch 5.2, a major content update for World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, is nearly upon us,? and Blizzard has a?? new trailer to celebrate.

Lorewalker Cho lays down some phat poetry to get us in the mood for hot raid content, and a bunch of other stuff that's set to hit in 5.2, like new m?ounts and pets.

The content itself looks great, but I just love that it's narrated by Jim Cummings, aka Darkwing Duck, aka Tigger, aka Mr. D??isney himself. He has such a fun voice!

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World of Warcraft is going on its fourth expansion. I know, right? Even though I stopped raiding officially midway through Lich King's release, I've came back every so often to level up my character, experience content updates, and keep up with the Joneses. This time, I came back ?for the pan??das (not really, but roll with me here).

In case you were wondering what's new, Mists of Pandaria raises the level cap to 90, overhauls the pet and talent systems, adds new dungeons/raids/battlegrounds, and introduces a new race ?and class.

This all sounds great on paper, but is it worth upgrading WoW for the fourth time?

The absolute first thing you may notice when logging in is the ability to pick the adorable, loveable, huggable panda race (you can do this even if you don't own Mists of Pandaria). Yes, they may not be as cool as Blood Elv?es or some other flashy-looking race, but they're unique in their own way from a gameplay standpoint (even if it's physically impossible to create a thin panda).

The Pandaren ??add enough new mechanics to the game to warrant a try, at the very least, especially when coupled with the new Monk class. Their passives are fairly impressive, obviously implemented to make you want to level from 1-90 all over again. You get double stats from well fed food effects (great for raids), increased cooking skill, double the well rested experience (obviously making it an en??ticing new character choice), half fall damage, and a stun.

Be warned, though, the race itself most likely won't sell you in terms of lore if you aren't already invested in them. Whereas the Blood Elves, Worgen, and Goblins were already very heavily intertwined in Warcraft's narrative from the get-go (whether it was due to raid bosses like Kael'thas or dungeons like Shadowfang Keep), the Pandaren (although a staple of the franchise since Warcraft III) are a tad less important overall, as are their starting ??area and introductory lore.

Wandering ?Isle, the Pandaren's starting zone, reminds me a lot of Teldrassil, the Night Elf starting area. It's not wacky, like the Goblin's intro area, or dark/brooding lik?e the Worgen starting area -- it's kind of just, there to teach you the ropes. Sadly, Wandering Isle is instanced (because it's "constantly wandering the ocean"), so it doesn't integrate seamlessly into the game world like most of the other places.

You also can't revisit the island (as with Goblins). In short, if you were thinking of factoring the Pandaren starting area into your purchase, don't. The only really cool thing about the Wandering Isle is that you have the option to join Horde or Alliance around level 12 right before you leave, a first for a WoW race.

Monks (which can be chosen by every race outside of Goblins and Worgen) are kind of like a Druid/Rogue mix, with some unique moves thrown in for good measure. Most notably??, the Monk can roll, which is especially useful for avoiding fire and other such raid obstacles. Monks can buff, debuff, heal, and tank, as well as provide melee DPS/utility.

They have really cool abilities that are both useful and unique looking, like the spinning crane kick, which takes its cue from Ryu and Ken's "Tatsumaki Senpuu Kyaku," or the flying serpent kick, which is straight out of Liu Kang's Mortal Kombat repertoire. The monks present enough diversity to mix things up in case you're itching to cr??eate another character and should present viability in groups due to their ability to tank, DPS, and heal (Brewmaster, Windwalker, and Mistweaver).

What might be the best addition to the entire expansion, pre-85, is the new pet system. Pet training, s?imply put, is addicting as hell. In a genius move by Blizzard, new potential pets/battles show up as a paw print on your mini-map, meaning you could potentially find a new battle or trainer anywhere. Leveling up your pets in the training meta-game could probably be considered a game in and of itself, which is pretty damn impressive to say the least.

All of that content isn't even including the pet questlines, which pit you against Master Pet Tamers in various continents just like Pokemon. It's great fun and a great way to reintroduce people to old content. Pets are now shared account-wide, and you can?? get in on the action at level 5, making it fairly irresistible. You can collect 500 pets total and trade them on the AH or on the streets -- as you can see, you can spend a lot of time with this. Or not, as it's completely optional.

The new talent system (which actually went live in August) makes things much, much easier, but it also negates some of the hybrid freedoms from the old system. Although ski??ll trees were fairly rigid in Vanilla, Blizzard tweaked the skill system to the point where you could dual spec, which worked very well for raiding because it allowed you to combine trees for hybrid specs depending on the situation.

Here, you still have the option to switch to another spec, but the talent tree is much slimmer, and you can only pick one opti?on, period. Whereas before you could straddle a tanking and utility tree to bolster your build, now you can only pick the tanking role or the utility role then deal with the abilities the game gives you.

Every 15 levels you can put a point into a skill that will help augment your abilities, but other t??han that, the game just gives you a ton of skills (or integrates multiple skills into one, such as the Warrior's rend being integrated into Mortal Strike). Overall, you're going to have less buttons to push, which is just as well, given that by level 85, you'll have a ton of skills at your disposal. It's a more streamlin?ed approach, which has positives, of course, but it may cause a strain on leveling enjoyment as you don't get a reward for every level-up.

Going back to World of Warcraft after some time felt a bit weird, especially after playing tons of Guild Wars 2. Situations like the ability to steal quest nodes and enemy XP felt strange and foreign, like I was playing an outdated game. But what may be surprising to most people (especially people who hate WoW and have always hated WoW) is that the game still holds up.

World of Warcraft contains nearly a decade of polish, and the engine has been upgraded enough to satiate most of the gaming community. The fact is, WoW has a ton of content and a leg-up on most MMOs out there. Whereas in The Old Republic, when I reached level 50 in a month and had nothing to do, World of Warcraft had at least one majo??r content patch in that time to which I could return.

Guilds come and go from MMO to MMO, but they almost always return to WoW eventually. That's just how it is for the near future until it's finally dethroned. In the short term, I don't think Mists of Pandaria will be the catalyst for the collapse of WoW. If you've been itching t?o return to Azeroth, now would be a good time. Hell, it's always a good time.

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"Haha WoW is such an old game and it looks so old! Pandas? More like pandering am I r??ight?"

Now that the reactions of a bunch of people who never played World of Warcraft are out of the way, I present to you a new trailer for the upcoming Mists of Pandaria expansion, which is set to launch this Tuesday.

For those of you who are looking to get into the action as soon as possible, Blizzard has detailed everything y??ou need to know ??for a seamless transition. What's really cool is that when they "flip the switch" essentially at midnight, you can even be in-game, and the content will just appear. It looks like the R&D for the updated launcher paid off.

Stay tuned in the coming weeks for an impressions post for Mist of Pandaria, as I take my level 85 Death ?Knight through the new content alongside of a b??rand new Pandaren Monk.

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We already saw the absolute greatest World of Warcraft cinematic to date, but now there's even more good news for WoW fans on the horizon. Blizzard has just announced that once an upcoming Mists of Pandaria patch hits, every race will be playable regardless of what expansions you own.

So in essence, people will be able to pick up the most basic version of the game, and play? as their favorite race without having to buy every single expansion pack. While it isn't the biggest thing ever for hardcore fans who keep their subscription current, this is sure to bring in some new fans who want to explore their favorite character choice.

Every race will be playable, even the Blood Elves and Draenei from Burning Crusade, the Goblins and Worgen from Catacylsm, and yes, even the upcoming Pandaren.

As a former WoW fan, I'll be going back to Mists of Pandaria for a bit, if only to experience the new content. WoW hasn't been able to grip my interests quite as tightly as it did during the Burning Crusade era, but there are still a lot of people who enjoy it, and that's gr?eat.

Now that my level-headed comment is out of the way, here are some generic WoW comments for you to copy and paste in any WoW-related story:

"LOL WoW? You must be [ins??ert social status of your choice here]."

"WoW? I never played it but someone this one time in a bathhou?se told me it forces you ignore your family&?nbsp;so it must suck."

"Gamers? Enjoying thing?s that are popular? I don't ??want to waste my breath telling you that you're wrong, but here goes..."

All Races playable in patch 5.0.4 [World of Warcraft]

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I make no attempts to hide my infatuation with pandas. I also don't shy away from stating that I'm not a big fan of World of Warcraft. However, Blizzard knows how to get anyone excited for their games with the always stellar cinematic trailers they put together for their titles. It was honestly a deciding factor for me to purchase Diablo III. They're just so good at convincing me I should buy a game. This Mists of Pandaria cinematic trailer is no different.

It opens up with an Orc and a Human hunting for each other in Pandaria, leading up to them fighting in what appears to be a training area. That's when a Pandaren comes out of nowhere and kicks the sh*t out of the two. There's a couple hilarious moments mixed in that I won't spoil for you, because they're that good. Just look how f*cking bad ass he looks! I want Blizzard to just make a full-fledged Mists of Pandaria film. This trailer isn't enough.

But yeah, this has convinced me to actually play WoW. I'm installing it as I'??m wri??ting this, because playing as a panda is that important to me. Is that bad?

Also, this.

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World of Warcraft's fourth expansion, Mists of Pandaria, will be arriving on September 25, 2012. Alongside this news, Blizzard has opened up presales for standard digital ($39.99) and digital deluxe ($59.99) versions of the game, which will be available to play the moment Mists of Pandaria is unlocked.

For the extra $20, players are getting the Imperial Quilen flying mount; the Lucky Quilen Cub pet; an exclusive Diablo III banner sigil and accent; and exclusive StarCraft II portraits: the infested orc and the night? elf Templar.

If it's a goodie-filled retail copy you're after instead, there's a $79.99 Collector's Edition with the aforementioned digital items, in addition to a behind-the-scenes DVD and Blu-ray, a 20-orchestral-piece soundtrack, a 208-page The Art of Mists of Pandaria book, and a Chen Stormstout mouse pad.

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It's been out for a little over seven years now, but World of Warcraft is still going strong. Last week I was invited over to Blizzard to take a look at Warcraft's upcoming expansion, Mists of Pandaria, and I was able to get some playtime with the game and speak to some of the members of the development team about what's in store when Mists of Pandaria is released later this year.

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria (PC [previewed], Mac)
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
Release: 2012

The events of Cataclysm (World of Warcraft's most recent update) have caused the southern continent of Pandaria to emerge from the fog that has hidden it for the last ten thousand years. World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria tells the story of what happens when the Alliance and the Ho??rde discove?r this new continent, its resources, and the people who live there.

Unlike previous expansions, Mists of Pandaria will not feature a single "big bad boss" at the end of the patch cycle. As Lead Designer Cory Stockton explained, the central story arc of Mists of Pandaria concerns the tensions between the Alliance and the Horde finally coming to a head and erupting into an all-out war. Mists of Pandaria begins with the Horde and Alliance both land??ing on the continent of Pandaria, and c?onflict breaks out between the two almost immediately, as each group fights to rally the Pandaren to their side as they prepare for war.

The future patches for Mists of Pandaria will be heavily story-focused, with each update being described as essentially a "story sequel" to the one before it. Instead of just introducing an??other dungeon that brings you one step closer to defeating the "ultimate boss," the patches will advance the story as the war moves from Pandaria to the mainland, culminating in a full-blown siege on Orgrimmar.

Greg Street, Lead Systems Designer, told me that one of the major priorities for Mists of Pandaria was to provide much more end-game content for players, particularly since the primary focus of Cataclysm was revamping much of the original world and the starting areas. In addition to the seven zones on the Pandarian continent that will take players from level 85 to 90, nine new dungeons and three new raids, and multiple end-game faction quest lines, Mists of Pandaria will ?also feature a number of new systems designed to appeal to end-ga??me players.

To encourage players to revisit older dungeons and to increase some friendly competition within a player's own server, Mists of Pandaria is introducing a dungeon challenge mode. Essentially a timed dungeon run, the challenge mode will automatically scale players' equipment to the proper item level of the dungeon. Beating dungeons fast enough will earn players a spot on the leaderboard, and will provide cosmetic, visually impressive equipment for players to use in tr??ansmogrification.

The pet battle system that was announced at BlizzCon was also shown to us in more detail, although we unfortunately were not able to get hands-on play with the system. The pet battles will be 3 vs 3, and they appear to play out like a typical turn-based fight in an RPG like, say, Pokémon. Battles will be cross-server and sim??ple to jump in and out of, but competitive players may be disappointed -- this system is designed to be low-key and casual. You can't see the name of your opponent, y??ou can't speak to them during the battle, and there are no rewards for winning.

Mists of Pandaria is also introducing a new quest type: scenarios. Street explained that when people end up with a group quest in their quest log, they tend to skip it -- players find it too difficult to get together a proper group just to run and do a short quest. Scenarios aim to solve that problem by replacing standard group quests with short, instanced content designed for three players. Rather than spamming general chat looking for party members, you can queue up just as you would in the dungeon or raid finder. The content is specifically designed to not require the holy trinity of tank-healer-DPS; the idea is that viable groups can form quickly, and people can jump right into the content. While the examples we were shown were all combat scenarios, Cory Stockton suggested that there may be some entirely non-combat story scenarios for players more interested in Warcraft lore.

And, as anyone who has been following Mists of Pandaria knows, this expansion will be introducing a new race -- the eponymous Pandaren -- and a new class, the monk. Mists of Pandaria will also inclu??de a complete overhaul of the talent system. Street told us that the original talent tree concept essentially ended up creating cookie-cutter builds, as the community identified an optimized build for each ??tree. Many of the previous abilities granted by talents have been rolled into the abilities themselves, and talent choices now provide smaller, situational abilities or bonuses, regardless of specialization.

For example, when I made my Paladin, my first choice was choosing between one of the following three talents: a flat 10% movement speed increase in all situations, a moderate movement speed increase that lasted for eight seconds but only triggered when I used Judgement, or a sign?ificant movement speed burst that was its own ability on its own cool-down. The idea behind the new system is to make each talent choice viable and to eliminate "must-have" talents that virtually all players end ?up taking.

There's no specific release date yet, but Blizzard says that five of the seven final zones in Pandaria are content-complete, and that they're trying to get Mists of Pandaria out as fast as possible. This expansion doesn't appear to be fundamentally altering the core of World of Warcraft? -- you'll still be doing quests where you kill ten jaguars, and returning players will likely only find minor tweaks to their existing rotations -- but Blizzard is hoping that the expanded focus on end-game content and the looming war between the Horde and Alliance will keep existing players entertained and entice lapsed use?rs to return to Azeroth.

The post Preview: World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria appeared first on Destructoid.

The next World of Warcraft expansion, Mists of Pandaria, and many of its new features were announced this weekend. I sat in on some of the BlizzC??????????????????????????on panels, where many of these additions were explained in detail. These include the new (neutral) Pandaren race, the Monk class, a level cap of 90, a complete redesign of the talent trees, a PvE scenario system, dungeon challenges and leader boards, and many new zones, battlegrounds, dungeons, and?? raids.

But in my opinion, the best feature that is going to be added to World of Warcraft is the new pet battling system.

This is basically the ?game I've been wanting since I was in the second grade.

Let's break it down.

At one point in my World of Warcraft pet collecting career, I had over 150 pets, putting me in the top five in the world for number of pets owned at the time. Since I stopped playing World of Warcraft, dozens more pets have been added, and the top collector has?? almost 200 pets. I never really cared about raiding or gear, all I cared about was getting the newest, coolest pet (and mount), and having everyone ask me where I got it, how long it took me to get, or how much gold I had to throw down for it.

That was when they were called "non-combat pets", and they did absolutely nothing other than follow you around. I don't think it will be the Pandaren race, Monk class, or the nine new dungeons and raids that will pull me back into WoW. I think it will be the release of what will essentially be a Pokémon MMO.

While complete details weren't available,?? we learned quite a bit about this new system from a?? BlizzCon panel.

The almost 200 pets that are already in the game will be able to battle right from the start. Al??l the pets you have are combat ready, and if you've been hoarding pets, your hoarding disorder is about to pay off.

If you don't have a huge stockpile of pets, there will be new wild pets that you can catch and train. To keep track of all of this, you'll receive a "Pet Journal" (read: Pokédex) that tells you?? about all the pets, where to catch them, and what you need ??to do to get them to join you.

If you're too lazy to actually go out and catch the pets yourself, many of them can be traded with other players. Your pet?s well be stored on an account-level, and will no longer bound to a single character. meaning you won't have to spend another 20,000 gold to buy a second Hyacinth Macaw for an alt.

Battling with your pets is similar to Pokémon as well. You can go into PvE or PvP turn-based battles with a team of three pets. If you win, you'll gain? experience to level up your pets. As your team gets stronger, you can take on the "Pet Masters" (read: gym leaders) scattered around the world. Beating them gives you a master ability (read: Hidden Machine) to teach your pet.

While the system is planned to be large, don't expect to level up to 90 by jus??t battling pets. Blizzard has said that the pet battle system won't be providing any rewards that will affect your general PvE or PvP progression. It's something to pass the time, not a replacement for questing or battlegrounds.

That's most of the information that's been released so far. As the unknown release date for Mists of Pandaria approaches, we'll likely?? see more specific information, screenshots, and more details on the actual pets themselves.

Rest assured, though, I can already tell you that my Kirin Tor Familiar i??s in the top percentage of Kirin Tor Familiars.

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