World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria

Mists of Pandaria is the latest expansion for Blizzard’s powerhouse World of Warcraft.  With this expansion comes:

·         Level cap raised to 90

·         New zones to explore

·         A new playable race, the Pandaran

·         A new player class – the Monk

·         New dungeons and raids

·         New achievements

·         A new pet battling system

The Pandarans are Panda like creatures. The males are large and remind me of the Kung Fu Panda.  I was not sure how I would feel about a “fluffy” toon, but I must say, they are fun.  Despite their size they move very gracefully and give a distinct Asian theme to the game.

The new class, the Monk, is a very versatile class. Monks are a hand-to-hand specialists and can only wear leather. Despite this they are tough.  The Monk can cover all of the classic roles of the game depending on the path you choose, Tank, Healer, or DPS. So far I have been playing mine in the DPS role and the Monk can handle their business. I will probably switch over to the tank role once I can take the Dual specialization.

The new starting area is one part anime, one part Kung-Fu Theater, and all fun.  The new scenery is gorgeous with new creatures to interact with and in many cases defeat. It is a mixture of mountains, hills, rice patties and temples. Your character starts off being trained in the class you chose, but something is wrong. The great floating island that is your home has become erratic, no longer floating smoothly. Over the course of the starting quests you gain the help of the four elements and find out the cause of the islands behavior.  Once you uncover the issue and deal with it you then pick which faction you wish to join – Horde or Alliance. Once you make your choice you are locked in, no way to go back (unless you pay Blizzard the $25 for faction change).

I have not had a chance to explore the new level 85+ zones. I have been having too much fun playing a low level Pandara and leveling.  That will be in a future review.

With Mists of Pandaria, Blizzard continues to show why they are the king of the MMORPG.  Each expansion has added new zones, usually a new class or race, new dungeons, and lots of new quests.  Many other MMORPG’s have come out: Age of Conan, Warhammer, even Star Wars: The Old Republic.  While those games are good, they are limited. I know many people who play WoW who played those other games and once they got to the end game content, grew bored and went back to WoW.  Blizzard keeps the game fun with new things to explore, not completely the usual grind of killing monsters and turning in quests.

Mists of Pandaria retails for $40, $20 less than their previous expansions. You can purchase it online through your Battle.net account or through your big box vendor.  There is an option to upgrade to the Collector’s Edition for an additional $20, which gives you a new mount and pet.  I plugged in my code and low-and-behold I found the full expansion already downloaded and all the new content became unlocked as soon as it became 09-25-2012.

For me, Mists of Pandaria is worth the money. I am a long term World of Warcraft player, dating back to before the first expansion.  There are so many new things that if I get bored with one toon I can hop on another or create a brand new one. The graphics are excellent though with the last patch we have had to turn the graphics settings down or risk very low and jerky frame rates.  The game has grown and you can easily play solo or with groups. You can play Player Vs. Player to test your skills against others in the real world.