World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria announced [Update: Now with trailer!]

by Adam Holisky on Oct 21st 2011 2:52PM

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria will be the fourth expansion to the game. It was announced today at the opening ceremonies at BlizzCon 2011 in front 26,000 cheering fans. The expansion promises to deliver the next phase in WoW's development, ushering in a new era of quests, raids, PvP, professions, and instances.

The major details:

New talent system
Pandaren race
Pannaria region
Monk class
90 level cap raised to 90
Dungeon challenge mode
PVE Scenarios
Pet Battle System

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria (10/21/11)

Source: WoW Insider

Tags: blizzcon-2011, mac, mmo, pc, World-of-Warcraft, world-of-warcraft-mists-of-pandaria, wow

Reader Comments (72)

Pandaren Race, y'mean.

Also, awesome. Monk Class. Consider me re-subbed to WoW when this hits.

Pandaren race*

So... Kung Fu Panda?

Like this game isn't enough of a joke already.

@DekuTree

Pandarens came first.

@DekuTree Downvoted huh? Guess the joke was on you.:P

@Koming

Pandarens are first, Pandarens are last! Jack Black's bear has nothing against a panda that knows kung fu w/ a stick AND can cast spells!

@Koming Pandarens came first and I respect that, but that doesn't stop Kung Fu Panda from totally ruining how I look at Pandarens :p

@OrangeGamer

Ditto.

@Naru now in 3D

The Pandaren zones look VERY Kung Fu Panda, too. The original Pandaren were influenced as much by Japanese Samurai culture as by Shaolin.

This practically looks like Dreamworks consulted on the visual design.

Huh. I thought the Pandarens were a race that Blizzard were going to keep mysterious for a long time.

Also, Blizzard seems to really have a thing for monks recently.

@Korbie

I's been what? 5 years since the game launched? So yeah, I think it's been kinda a long time...

@Ashkental Try 7 years. Yes, we are old.

Where is the Brew Master class????

And please not be lazy and do the hero class thing. Make a real class from beginning to end.

@Tyrang

i sense DotA blood running emitting through this post! Brethren! I also wish that they had the same classes as one those from DotA (Silencer, Pudge, Anti-mage, and the Nerubs).

@balbonits

Actually brew master is from Warcraft 3 expansion i think. You meet them playing the Rexxar campaign.

But i guess Monk works. Now they have 11 classes, which is a weird number in my opinion.

@Tyrang

I still think that they should include the heroes' classes from DotA, maybe as a final class for certain jobs (dwarven hunters w/c has buffed up certain skills would have kardel's class (dwarven sniper)).

@Tyrang

As on their website Monks are called Monk Brewmasters.

@Tyrang

That's apparently what they are doing.

Blizzard is appealing to fan service instead of providing an actual expansion with actual plot like the Emerald Dream or the whereabouts of Alleria.

I cant stop thinking that Blizzard really want people to go back to WoW.

@Clerono

Yeah, I really expected Emerald dream to be in the next expansion. the plot lines for it have been pretty much dead ended for years.

@Clerono

So true. This sounds exactly like Cata just with a new class.. Underwhelming to say the least.

@Clerono

I was thinking it was going to be the Emerald Dream, but c'mon... Pandarens are much better than a silly Dream World hahahah! But don't forget that he said that this is just the begining before shit hits the fan!

Maybe THEN we get the Dream!

Haters gonna hate, I'm pumped! And people "Deciding" to quit or not quit WoW, just quit. It's obvious when you come to that crossroads you just need to quit. There's plenty of other MMOs coming this year/2012. I haven't been burned out on WoW though since I frequently took very long breaks with the game.

I'm super excited for the expansion. I'm a little worried for PvE without a baddy, but hopefully it's still cool. I like the return to focus of the Alliance versus the Horde. We've seen so much tension, but it never really amounts to this level of conflict.

I found it interesting that Pandaren were originally the Alliance Burning Crusade race according to Metzen. o_O

AND... I FREAKING LOVE MONK CLASSES IN GAMES! I am playing one in D3, and I will be playing one in WoW.

@OrangeGamer

I hope the race-restriction on Monks aren't too severe. It still bums me out that friggin' cows got to be Paladins before Gnomes. If I can't roll a Gnome Monk, my interest will be severely diminished.

@Clerono

Just so you know, most people i've seen comment on the emerald dream say it was pretty much all taken care of in the Stormrage book

The money farm is drying

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nyeZ8khSEC0

That's the official announcement trailer from Blizzard themselves, looks like it's gonna be one hell of an expansion

I was waiting to see what Blizz had in store after Cata before I decided to quit or not. Its been a fun ride WoW, but this is where I get off

I certainly love the additions and such...
But it's hurting me how it seems to be that there is no story at all.

I shouldn't be saying this before the panel starts though.

Pandaren look awesome. The zones look AWESOME.
Monk? Oh hell, why not?
The rest is just more WoW. Which is a good thing to me.

If you're quitting from the announcement, you probably weren't having fun with WoW anymore... and there's really not much that can be done to change that.

@Seasqwaa Agree. I mean, it's an older game and honestly they needed something fresh. It blows my mind when people keep playing when they're not having fun anymore. o_O

Hopefully the panel will explain more story though! The music is already a winner for me.

WOW "Hi my name is WOW pleased to meet you and joining me for this stunt today, it's totally going to rock."

Shark "Pleased to meet you Mr.WOW I'm thrilled to be here for you to jump over me on your chopper. Always glad to help out."

Jumping the shark hardcore

@Cleric

Yeah. Those birdmen/walrusmen/cowpeople/fishpeople/elves turning into all kinds of animals/etc were totally dead serious, yo.

Whelp, looks like Warcraft has finally ran out of steam.

You can play as a panda now?

...Damnit Bobby (Kotick)

*gets out wallet*

No mention of the Pokemon-"inspired" Pet Battle System?

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/game/mists-of-pandaria/feature/pet-battle

@EIranzer
Hilarious! So what year was this April Fool's joke from?

Oh.

This had made a ton of fans extremely happy, it has also made a ton of fans just lose faith in a game... Verdict: Nothing has changed.

WoW hasn't just jumped the shark...it jumped the ocean and all the sharks swimming in it. The game's a joke, now. "Please subscribe to WoW, we'll give you Diablo 3 if you do it..." Blizzard knows the death of WoW is coming, this is the first move they've made with the game that has the scent of desperation on it.

@(Unverified)

I don't know if I would go that far. Cataclysm was the rioting success of an overhaul they hoped it would be, and its a bit too early to see how the new systems mentioned in the trailer play out, but what they claim seems to be very much in line with a lot of things players have been asking for for a long time (Challenge Dungeons, a deeper pet system, more PvE scenarios a.k.a world events).

For players still playing WoW, its something to look forward to. For ex-WoW players or potential new players, its at least something to keep an eye on.

Uh... okay.

So glad I quit playing a while back. Let's see... about 15 bucks a month... three years... Yep, saved myself about $550.

Not to mention price of the expansions.

I just... come on. Really? Panda people? ASIAN Panda people??!!

@Enosoma

Makes sense to me... I mean, what were you expecting? Arab panda people? Australian panda people?

@Enosoma

F*cking racist with your financial woes...

I'm very surprised so many people are still playing this game. For those of you playing, what keeps you interested? Friends or gameplay?

@Arcaria For me while I was playing it was friends totally.

@shoan

I played for a long time when I no longer cared for the game and it felt like work too. I had two things that kept me in it. Friends in game but the other part was a sense of obligation to them.

Once a few other people quit, I did too. Played a few other MMO's like EQ2 and Rift for a while and checked out a 10 day trial for WoW when Cataclysm came out but only stayed logged in for about 5 minutes.

You don't really realize how bad the graphics and gameplay are in that game until you get used to something else.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little disappointed. Would have hoped for something in the same vain as the Lich King or Deathwing. Still though, Blizzard's never made a bad expansion, and I'm sure this one will be as great as the others. Just hope they can continue to go deeper with the titans and old gods with pandas everywhere.

@TheDarkWayne

Cataclysm...?

@TheDarkWayne

Correction -- with DRUNK pandas everywhere.

Since I only do PVE, I stopped playing when I got the 10 classes to lvl 85 and the professions pretty well maxed which was about 2 months after Cata came out. This will get me back into the game (for a while anyways). Is there a way to suspend my account until this expansion is released?

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