World of Warcraft Mists of Pandaria Announced

Written by Rolf

The fourth expansion of World of Warcraft has been announced at Blizzcon 2011 and Blizzard confirmed some of the rumors that had already been circulating for a while. And they revealed lots and lots more than just the name. Here some highlights.

Check out the official preview trailer of Mists of Pandaria:

New Race: Pandaren

Mists of Pandaria features a new playable race, the Pandaren, unlike any of the existing races. Except bearing a striking resemblance to pandas, they start out without a faction. When players reach level 10, they can choose whether to join Alliance or Horde.

Pandaren come from Pandaria, a land shrouded by mist for the past ten thousand years, as part of a deal to protect themselves from future evildoers after they had rid themselves of the oppressive ancient race of the Mogu.

World of Warcraft, Mists of Pandaria - Pandaren

Several adventurous Pandaren explorers sought for a way out of the mist and reach other civilizations. They gathered on the back of a ginormous turtle, Shen-zin Su, yet much smaller than Great A'Tuin.

Pandaren can not be death knight, paladin, druid or warlock. But they can be hunter, mage, priest, rogue, shaman, warrior and monk.

New Class: Monk

Monk? Except a new playable race, WoW also introduces a new class, the monk. This class is heavily based on the martial arts fighting style. Monks wear leather and fight mostly bare-handed but will use fist weapons, one-handed axes, maces and swords, but also polearms and staves for delivering their finishing moves.

The monk is apparently very capable in all roles, tanking, healing and DPS. He uses 'chi' as a unit of his power pool (similar to a rogue's energy).

All races can play a monk, except goblins and worgens.

Check out a pandaren monk in action in this IGN movie:

Pet Battle System

Once you have completed all dungeons and killed every boss you are able to kill, you can spend your time in Stormwind or Orgrimmar with the game-within-a-game of Pet Battle! It's like playing a game of Mortal Kombat with your companions, your vanity pets. Most pets have their own unique set of abilities and you can train them so they grow stronger.

World of Warcraft, Mists of Pandaria - Pet Battle System

Dungeon Challenge Modes

Another new feature of the expansion is Challenge Mode. Before you enter a dungeon, you can indicate you want to run it as a Challenge Mode after which everyone's gear will be temporarily normalized (epic gear is irrelevant) and a timer will start. Think bear-run of Zul'Aman, or a timed run in classic Stratholme.

The faster you complete the run, the better medal you gain (bronze, silver, gold). Your achievements will be tracked and visible for your guild and even your entire realm. The rewards will be cosmetic only like titles, mounts and statless gear for the purpose of transmogrification.