Mists of Pandaria Press Tour Review
 

General Impressions

Unlike the last few expansions and their “central villain”, this expansion instead is about a central story. It’s about going back to that same feeling people used to have when they first started playing World of Warcraft. It’s about the excitement, the sense of adventure, about wanting to know what is over that next hill, what’s around that next corner. It’s even about that little bit of ‘fear’ about “what’s in that cave? Is something about to jump out at me and pound me into the dirt?” And the whole ‘challenge mode’ is also tied into that. It’s supposed to give you that sense of accomplishment. About “Holy crap, I can’t believe we just did that! That’s amazing!” And “Oh wow, check out this super awesome thing I just got!”

Scenarios are also about giving you more of those senses of accomplishment. You can log on, find a quick group, no having to wait around until you have the ‘perfect’ combination of classes/roles in order to succeed. They are quick little 20 minute ‘adventures’. Related to this are the purchasable consumables that will allow you to change your talents, spec and glyphs on the fly out in the field. You won’t have to go back into the city.

They really really liked the way the whole ‘planting a new world tree’ went, so they are expanding on that. They know it helps you feel more invested in the game, makes you feel like the things you do have an actual impact on the game, the world. You’ll be able to do things like work on your faction with one of the new groups by planting your own farmland, expanding it, growing stuff. There’s another thing where you will get an cloud serpent egg, you’ll raise the hatchling, do daily quests about it and eventually it’ll become your mount when it gets ‘big’ enough.

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[Edit]: Now with 100% more screenshots!