Pandamonium

Blizzcon has been and gone, and we now have the name of the next World of Warcraft expansion: Mists of Pandaria. This is a very risky expansion that doesn't follow the usual format of being centred around a known villain. Instead of all the hype being focused around taking on lore favourites, such as the Lich King or Deathwing, Blizzard now has the task of building up excitement for the overall experience, and is hopefully ready to present a storyline that's just as epic as you would expect.

From what I've seen, opinions are divided on Mists of Pandaria. Blizzard is either going to surprise, disappoint or prove a lot of people right.

Pandas, You Say?

The headline feature of the new expansion is the introduction of the pandaren race into World of Warcraft, as well as their homeland, Pandaria. The race of anthropomorphic pandas has actually been around for some time, and made an appearance back in Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne as a neutral unit. Still, by bringing them to the forefront of Warcraft lore in the new expansion, Blizzard has surprised many who may have only heard of them as an old April Fools joke.

It's easy to agree that a race of pandas seems a little out of place in a fantasy setting, but from the look of the artwork we've been treated to so far, they've made it work. It came as a relief that they don't look overly silly as you might first presume they would. Once you get over the fact that you're looking at a fluffy panda warrior, the creature you're seeing starts to become endearing. Somehow they fit in with the rest of the races, and I can easily imagine them fighting alongside orcs, tauren and goblins (my pandaren is going to be Horde, obviously).

The land of Pandaria also seems to be in keeping with the rest of Azeroth. I've always enjoyed the variation in landscapes when travelling between Kalimdor, the Eastern Kingdoms and Northrend, so it's interesting to now see an Asian inspired continent being added. What's impressive is that they've taken this Asian theme and made it look like it still belongs in World of Warcraft.

Furry Fists of Fury

Another risk that Blizzard has decided to take on is the introduction of a new class; the monk. The death knight, introduced in Wrath of the Lich King, caused all sorts of balance issues that have taken a lot of work to iron out, so it does appear to be very brave of them to be adding another new class so soon. Perhaps the revamped talent system (covered later) has somehow simplified the process of adding a new class. Whatever the case, a new class is always exciting, especially one that will have the low level zones full of pandas fighting boars and raptors.

The monk is a melee class that will rely primarily on his or her fists. The roles of dps, tank and healer will all be available to the monk, most likely in an attempt to increase the numbers of tanks and healers to shorten queue times for dungeon groups. I'm very much looking forward to following in the footsteps of Chen Stormstout and taking on the illusive title of Brewmaster, which will be the tanking specialisation for the monk.

War! Huh!

After putting down some of Azeroth's most troublesome foes, many were wondering "who are we fighting next?" It came as a surprise then, that Blizzard answered with "each other." Mists of Pandaria will further the story of the growing hostility between the Horde and Alliance.

It's been building up throughout Cataclysm, and Mists of Pandaria could be when it all comes to the crux, and full on war breaks out between the two factions. Thanks to certain events in Northrend, and a shift in leadership to a more vicious, warmongering chieftain, the Horde is fragmented, while the Alliance is standing as a more powerful, united force than ever. I'm sure it's not going to be quite as simple as one side against the other. Blizzard loves its shades of grey.

Cookie Cutters

Possibly the most drastic upcoming change is the revamped talent system. Talent trees, which have been in the game since the beginning, are to be thrown out. Specialisations will remain, so there'll still be such a thing as Arms, Fury and Protection for a warrior, for example. The difference is that you'll now be automatically given the abilities and bonuses that would have been in the talent tree, and you'll only make a choice once every 15 levels between 3 different talents. The aim is that none of these talents will be mandatory, and that it will all come down to personal choice and how useful you'll find them for your own style of play.

As expected, I'm seeing the knee-jerk words "dumbing down" being blurted out all over forums. If you actually stop and think about what's happening here, Blizzard is just removing a redundant system and replacing it with something that'll allow for more character customisation than ever before.

When a character reaches the level cap, the majority of WoW players will look up the talent spec that's best for their character, because someone has crunched the numbers and worked out the most optimum way of distributing talent points. It's usual that you'll find a 'cookie cutter' spec, with a few talent points left over to make your own choices with. Since you're only going to be putting yourself at a disadvantage by taking anything other than the optimum talents, most players will copy the spec they've found, and dump the remaining points in some filler talents.

The only part of this that Blizzard has removed is the mindless allocating of points to the talents that someone else has worked out as the 'correct' ones. Looking at the new warrior talents (my class of choice), it looks like I will have some real decisions to make that could change my style of combat significantly.

Of course, another advantage that comes with this is that players who DON'T do their research when deciding on their talent build no longer have the risk of ending up with a sub-par character. Coupled with the item level restrictions on the dungeon group finder, putting players on equal ground like this might be one more step to making pick up groups a little less painful.

Not All About Raiding

I don't raid, these days. I did once, and I enjoyed it, but through all the repetition and scheduling, it's a lifestyle I just couldn't keep up with in the end, at least not if I wanted time to play games other than WoW. I'll probably give the raid finder a try since it'll require less of a job-esque commitment than regular raiding, but I still need something more to keep me entertained at the level cap, or I might find myself just endlessly leveling alts.

That's why I have a great amount of interest in some of the new in-game activities announced.

PvE scenarios, for a start, could be a brilliant evolution of the now abolished group quest. The problem with group quests was that they only worked during the first month or so of an expansion, while everyone was leveling. Several months down the line, it's difficult to find enough people to help you with group quests as most people are done with leveling altogether until the next expansion. By moving these types of quests to the end-game and integrating them into the group finder tool, they could work again. Not only that, but by turning them into a series of quests with an ultimate goal, they should bear a little more meaning. The rewards won't hurt, either.

Dungeon challenges could add new life to the 5-man dungeons that would otherwise grow stagnant. Just as achievements nudged players into doing things they might not have usually thought of doing, challenges that reward medals (read: bragging rights) and vanity gear for transmogrification should offer plenty of fun goals for non-raiders and raiders alike to strive for.

And then there's pet battles. Let's take a look at the feature list:

• Companion pets can be leveled and used in battle against other players' pets. 
• You can capture wild pets, some of which will only appear in certain locations, at certain times or during certain weather conditions.
• You can train up a team of battle pets.
• Combat will be turn based, with each pet using a set of abilities.
• Pet masters will be found all over the world. When beaten, your pets can take on one of their abilities.

It's not in the least bit subtle, is it? I wouldn't be surprised if Blizzard decided that being part of the Alliance or Horde denotes playing Blue or Red version of WoW, respectively.

For now, I'm going to call it an interesting idea and leave it at that until I can actually try it out for myself. Playing Pokemon while playing WoW is not something that's ever had a place on my wish list of features, but if Grymtooth the Hallowed, equipped with the Horseman's Helm and Blade, can send his Sinister Squashling into battle and strike fear into pet battlers everywhere, I might be on board. Maybe we'll all unwittingly catch pet battle fever, and there'll be an entire section on Elitist Jerks (The Elitist Four?), theorycrafting pet teams. Who knows?