Mists of Pandaria Leveling GuideMists of Pandaria Classic Roadmap
What the Devs Are Most Excited About
Aidan says the raids are looking to be exciting, in particular Heart of Fear. Clayton is hyped about the original content, the many quality-of-life changes to classes and systems, and trying his hand at Mistweaver Monk.
Class Balance Philosophy
The team wants to get every spec to a place where they feel like there’s a reason to be brought to raids and other group content. The goal is not for perfect balance but for every spec to feel viable. This is being accomplished mostly by buffing weaker specs, but the team is wary of handling balance only through buffs, as that may affect raid difficulty balance. Sometimes nerfing the clear outliers a bit, while not a great feeling, is better overall for the game. They don’t want a situation where every healer gets buffed to be on the level of the best healer, causing raids to simply bring fewer healers instead, for example. The team plans on not making changes mid-Phase whenever possible, so people don’t feel forced to reroll, but they are willing to take action if any specialization proves to be head and shoulders above the rest.
Alt-Friendly Legendary Questline
The team is very aware of the feedback that in the original Mists of Pandaria, players felt like starting late meant being perpetually behind on progression, and felt like this was a great opportunity for improvement. The legendary quest drops will be available from Celestial Dungeons once the next tier releases and the previous tier of content is no longer the most relevant.
Heart of Fear & Terrace of the Endless Spring Release Schedule
The release date for Mogu’shan Vaults is already known (July 31st), but Heart of Fear and Terrace of the Endless Spring haven’t been announced yet. The team is happy with the content release cadence of the original Mists of Pandaria and plans to follow it closely, though they can move things along faster if there’s a desire from the community, and they’ll be listening for feedback on that.
Flexible Raids in Mists of Pandaria Classic
While Flex raids were the precursor to modern raiding in many ways, back when first released, they were essentially a separate difficulty. It would be challenging to retrofit that into the expansion, so there are currently no plans to bring it earlier, and that raid format will likely only arrive when Siege of Orgrimmar is released.
Celestial Dungeons
The team is excited about Celestial Dungeons being used as a way for mains to fuel alts. The nature of Classic means people already know most encounters and get geared up faster, and at that point, you may decide you want to gear up an alt. With all the changes in reputation and currency caps, getting an alt up to speed will be faster and easier than in the original Mists of Pandaria. Once a raid tier is fully released, the August Stone Fragment will be usable to get your alts up to speed so they can quickly get to Normal and Heroic raids. Celestial Dungeons are tuned to be harder than heroics, but not overly challenging (that’s what Challenge Mode Dungeons are for), so the team expects participation in these to be high. They also don’t have weekly lockouts like LFR would, so you can farm to your heart’s content and get your alts up to speed at your own pace.
Thunderforging & Warforging
The team is aware of the feedback that the randomness in these systems doesn’t feel great. While the team wants to stay true to Mists of Pandaria, they also want to have an experience that is good for the contemporary player, so they are still discussing and looking into potential alternatives for those systems.
Blizzard vs the Players
Leaning on feedback from players, and also discussing internally with the original developers of Mists of Pandaria, where they consult on whether or not a specific system or feature achieved what was intended, and whether or not those developers would have changed anything knowing what they know now. Those answers and the feedback from the community can help shape these discussions so that the team can make the best decision for the game.
The Future of Classic
Questions about the future of classic are always great to hear. The devs can confidently share that right now, their full focus is on Mists of Pandaria Classic. Anniversary realms, as announced before, are going to progress to The Burning Crusade Classic, and the team is open to making changes to that experience if there’s a desire from the community. For example, when The Burning Crusade Classic was first released in 2021, Retribution Paladins were given access to Seal of Blood, regardless of their race.
Changes to PvP Gear
Aidan recalls there have been changes made to bridge the gap between the Malevolent gear and its elite equivalents. Notably, the elite weapon is no longer a higher item level than the normal weapon, and the elite set is purely cosmetic. He further says that if that’s not the case currently, they’d look into it. The team would like to rate in PvP to award mostly cosmetic rewards, as it doesn’t feel great to be behind in power level against a player who has a higher rating. When that happens, it means those players are now not only better in terms of skill, but gear as well, which makes attaining that gear even more difficult. While there haven’t been any other discussions internally about it, it’s something the team is willing to look into if there’s interest from the community.
Final Thoughts
The community’s response to all of the changes made to Mists of Pandaria Classic has been incredible, and the team has continued to make adjustments as the launch got closer. A lot of effort has been put into making systems more alt-friendly, addressing pre-pull shenanigans, and so much more, to ensure this is the best possible version of the game. They encourage the community to continue to share thoughtful feedback about their experiences, as the team finds that knowledge invaluable.
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