Mists of Pandaria Leveling GuideMists of Pandaria Classic Roadmap
Mists of Pandaria Classic Audience Reception
The response has been overwhelmingly positive so far. The original Mists of Pandaria was widely praised for its class design, great PvP balance, excellent story, and more, and players who experienced it originally are more than happy to give that another spin. The developers are eager to not only bring Mists of Pandaria back, but to give the community the best version of Mists of Pandaria possible.
Changes to Mists of Pandaria Classic
While the original release of WoW Classic featured very little or essentially #nochanges, what the team has learned is that over time, players themselves have changed (and that’s good!) and communication between the developers and players has improved as well. This means the team felt better equipped to make changes like the Chronoboon or changing how seal twisting worked for Paladins in Burning Crusade Classic. This time, they have preemptively listened to feedback and made changes to help address issues in Mists of Pandaria Classic, such as reputation grinds, alt friendlines, and other features that the community has given feedback on to create a more enjoyable experience.
Reputation Changes
Some of the changes being made are simply due to patch progression, such as the Commemoration items (like Grand Commendation of the Golden Lotus) being available upon reaching Revered from the start, right after raids launch. Originally, they came late into the expansion, but this time, they’ll be there earlier. In addition, some rewards that required Revered rep now require Honored instead, and food recipes now craft twice as much food. Last but not least, the Shado-Pan and The August Celestials reputations are no longer gated by reaching Revered status with the Golden Lotus, so you can do those dailies right away.
Celestial Dungeons, the Replacement for LFR
Celestial Dungeons are an evolution of Titan Rune Dungeons from Wrath Classic and Protocol Inferno Dungeons from Cataclysm Classic. The different iterations of those dungeons, as well as community feedback, gave the developers a lot of insight into how to improve that system for Mists of Pandaria Classic. The goal, as before, is to keep dungeons relevant, to be a welcoming experience for alts (providing, for example, legendary cloak catch-up systems), and to be a gateway to organized group content. The team really wants players to meet other players organically, join guilds, and engage with other players socially to accomplish their goals.
Certain mechanics and boss encounters from these new dungeon challenges are inspired by raid mechanics, so that players can learn some of these early and be better equipped to deal with the challenges of a raid instance with less pressure. Celestial Dungeons are meant as a stepping stone to harder content, and the rewards are all LFR-level loot. There are plenty of incentives for players to finish the entire dungeon, and ways to use August Stone Fragment (the Celestial Dungeon currency) to gear up your alts after all raids in the tier are released, or earn unique rewards such as mounts from Satchel of Celestial Chance.
Raid Release Schedule
Mogu’shan Vaults release has already been announced (it’s happening July 31st), but the rest of the schedule remains unannounced. The team feels like the cadence was great in the original Mists of Pandaria. While they’re certainly capable of moving faster if needed, they believe the original schedule felt paced well enough that there’s not much reason to change it, and community feedback will certainly help guide the team. LFR loot and Celestial Dungeons have a delayed schedule compared to the raids, so people don’t feel like they have to grind that before going into Normal and above.
Warlords of Draenor Classic
The team is fully focused on Mists of Pandaria Classic right now. There’s a great amount of exciting content to go through before they’ll talk about what’s next for Classic, but that does not mean they’re not cooking something.
Final Thoughts
This is a favorite, if not THE favorite, expansion for so many players, and there’s a perfect chance now to revisit it. The dev team also sees this release as their opportunity to make it the best version of Mists of Pandaria ever. They would love to see players jump in right from the start as the community builds up around this new release together, experiencing its iconic setting and excellent content. The devs see this game as belonging to the community, and themselves as the caretakers of that experience, and they hope you have fun with it!
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