Speaking with CVG, Pandaria's senior game designer Scott Mercer and senior software engineer Darren Williams said exactly what players can expect from the next expansion to Blizzard's World of Warcraft, Mists of Pandaria.
According to Scott, "We have a tremendous amount of exclusive content that we didn't have in Cataclysm. We have 5 player dungeon quests, pet battles, a raised level cap to 90... there's Challenge Mode which is this kind of timed dungeon experience and you compare your times against other players on an in-game scoreboard. There are also a ton of daily quests."
Added Wiliams, "We've also gone back to giving players a single continent to explore, so there's a ton of locations to uncover and new lore to discover. It's a more focussed experience overall than Cataclysm; the last expansion pack had all these new features, but it was change to the old world of Azeroth. Mists has a brand new continent and content to offer."
Beyond the raised level cap and quests, Mists of Pandaria adds a new race, that of the namesake Pandera, as well as a new monk class. Additionally, there will also be:
- New Mists of Pandaria (Beta) login screen.
- Profession cap increased to 600.
- Eleventh character slot added to accommodate new class
A few days ago, battlenet did post a topic on the forums to let WoW players know what they can expect to change once Mists goes live:
* A yellow System Message will appear in your Chat Log telling you to visit Orgrimmar or Stormwind to start your travels.
* Level-85 characters will receive a new quest, no matter where they are in the world, which will guide them to Varian or Garrosh for further orders. If you're online at midnight you will receive the quest even if your Quest Log is full - or you can visit Varian or Garrosh to get started on your journey to Pandaria.
* Level-85 players will notice their experience bar automatically change so that experience can once again be earned.
* Players who are at the Character Creation screen at midnight will notice the button to create a pandaren character will be enabled. (Reminder: This also applies to players who don't have a Mists of Pandaria license, as all races are now included with a base copy of World of Warcraft.)
* Players who are at the Character Creation screen at midnight will notice the button to create a monk character will be enabled."
Mists of Pandaria launches in just a few more hours. Watch "Kung-Fu Panda" 'til then to keep your energy high.