Pig & Whistle Tales - A World of Warcraft Podcast

Azeroth Awaits: Mists of Pandaria Release Date Revealed

• Gabriel • Season 5 • Episode 12

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The mists are parting as we dive into the official announcement of Mists of Pandaria Classic's release dates and everything you need to know about WoW's journey to the mysterious continent of Pandaria. Mark your calendars for July 1st when the pre-patch arrives, bringing three weeks of preparation before the full expansion launch on July 21st.

Amidst the excitement of brewing up details about the Pandaren race and Monk class, we explore what players can expect during pre-patch and beyond. The revamped talent system, AOE looting, pet battles, and the Attack on Theramore Isle world event set the stage for your adventures. We journey through Pandaria's stunning landscape, from the unique Wandering Isle starting zone (situated on a giant turtle's back!) to the lush Jade Forest, pastoral Valley of the Four Winds, and majestic Kun-Lai Summit. The expansion introduces Challenge Mode dungeons (the precursors to Mythic+), three-person Scenarios that don't require the traditional tank-healer-DPS setup, and Sunsong Ranch farming – perhaps the earliest iteration of what might someday become player housing.

Hope you all enjoy and hope you relate to any of these stories. And I will speak to you all in the next episode!

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Speaker 1:

Thank you, hello and welcome to the Pig and Whistle Tales from Azeroth. As always here at the Pig and Whistle Inn in Stormwind, I go for a variety of subjects with regards to World of Warcraft subjects with regards to world of warcraft. I grab a bottle or a pint, sit back and enjoy this midweek episode. We're going to be going over the missa pandaria release date that we got, as well as a couple of other things that related to the add-on changes that are coming within retail. Uh, soon hopefully, but I do want to apologize, for last week I do still have a bit of, um well, still not feeling great did get COVID, I believe it was. So, yeah, apologies for no episode on Friday and I'll try and get through this episode as best I can, but I do apologize and hopefully it is going away now so we should be good to go, but I don't know with covid. So we'll see, we'll see. But we will start off with missa pandaria. So missa pandaria did get announced that it was, uh, coming to pre-patch in july 1st and it will fully release on july 21st. So this is three months or three weeks, sorry of pre-patch that you can level up a monk, you can do multiple things and prepare yourself for, uh, missa, pandaria, going into pandaria and leveling through that content. So what comes with the pre-patch? With the pre-patch, you have a new playable race that is set to release. With it. Uh, this is obviously being the pandarim. You have a new hero class. Why is it naming it as a hero class? But this hero class is monk monks that can be tanks, dps and healers uh, mistweaver being your healer, broom master being your tank and windwalker being your damage. All of them are very good, different, unique way of doing all of these different uh roles, essentially, and a very fun class, to be honest, from mr pandaria upwards. So would definitely recommend checking it out. Um, classes have been revamped with a new talent system, improved abilities and spells. A lot of your spells that you have in kata are very early iterations of what they become later on in the game. So the eclipse system uh, boomies get like an inkhan. Now most classes have like a big cooldown that they can utilize and this is sort of how the revamped classes work. Aoe looting, which is really good. Um, basically, this is, instead of looting every single mob, when you kill a group of enemies, you right click one enemy and it loots everything within a certain radius. Always a quality of life change.

Speaker 1:

Always loved, loved this one World Events, which is Attack on Theramore Isle. Join the battle and take part in Theramore's Fall scenario detailing events leading up to the expansion's launch. Now I'm not going to spoil much for those that have never done this. Oh, my God, excuse me, but essentially, theramore, how do I not spoil this there? There is no way. Theramore is at the uh, middle of why, uh, the alliance and horde go to pandaria to essentially take over this new island and why they're at war when on this island.

Speaker 1:

Okay, it's kind of that simple pet battles are when are introduced when missa pandaria comes out, and this is during pre-patch as well. So all these pet battles you can utilize to trade, uh, or not trade, sorry. You can level them up and then put them in a cage and put them on the auction house. Basically, it sounds barbaric almost, but this is a good way to make some gold If you need that little bit extra gold Within classic, what is inside Mists of Pandaria? Classic. So new level cap.

Speaker 1:

Obviously, as you ascend Through the levels you go from level 85 to 90 being your new maximum you have new lands to explore. So the wandering isle is level 1 to 10. This is the pandaren starting zone. It's really cool. You're on the back of a giant turtle uh, it's actually a very unique zone. It's very, very cool. And it's the only zone I in WoW that isn't actually on the map to this day in retail. It's just not on the map at all. You can't click into it from anywhere, not from any world or anything. It's just never on the map.

Speaker 1:

The Jade Forest being your first zone, level 85 to 86. Valley of the Four Winds being your next one, level 85 to 86, valley of the four winds being your next one, 86 to 7, um, as long, as well as caris, uh. Casarang wilds 86 to 87, uh. Kunai summit being one of the sort of mid to late zones at 87 to 88. Town long steps 88 to 89, and then you have dread wastes at being 89 to 90, or last sort of zone that you will go into, as well as veil of eternal blossoms being the main capital city of each um, both hoard and Alliance. You have one that is in the North of this zone and one that is in the far East of this zone. Um, the very cool cities. I like how the horde and alliance both got one each. But what I like in later patches is when, obviously, I think that we won't get this we might do when the raid comes out. But the zone does change um when a raid does come out. So the veil of eternal blossoms is lovely and gorgeous, but when siege of orgrimmar comes out, there is cinematics which show a certain npc that did nothing wrong um ruining the zone, basically, and it gives it a complete zone overhaul, which is really cool um to actually have for a raid introduction. It really really is.

Speaker 1:

Um, you obviously have new dungeons and raids. So you have six new dungeons that you can go into, as well as four revamped heroic dungeons these being like monastery scholaments, these sort of things and you obviously have three new raids. Now is it three new raids? From the start? I think it is, because some of them are like single, uh player raids. So not single player, um, like small raids. But you have some very good raids that are in Mists of Pandaria, siege of Orgrimmar being one of them, and that is going to be the last raid that comes out in Mists of Pandaria, I believe. But we'll see. We'll see how the sort of community. Take these raids when actually playing through them as current content, because I think some of them are held quite highly. I definitely think siege of orgrimmar is, but it is a very long raid, very, very long raid. So we'll see.

Speaker 1:

Uh, you have a new pvp arena and two new battlegrounds, so you have season 12 will begin the following, the week following the launch, which is good. And what two new battlegrounds Templar, kotmogu, oh, and the what is it? The Gorge? Well, you have the three different bases. You have the top, middle and south base, that one Deepwing Gorge, I think it's called. They're the two new battlegrounds. You have something called Sunsong Ranch.

Speaker 1:

Oh, okay, embrace a farmer's life with your own farm, allowing you to plant and harvest crops. Heads to the Valley of Four Winds and start earning reputation with the tillers to earn a plush plot of soil to till. This is I've spoken about this in previous episodes but this is where you can basically plan your own crops for your cooking and it's really, really good. It's something very cool and it's kind of a first iteration of garrisons and probably a super, super early iteration of player housing, like very early iteration. So this is something that is actually quite cute and cool in WoW and I think that it is very unique to just this expansion. So definitely check it out. It's in a town called Halfhill and you can earn different reputations with the tillers. There's probably 10 different NPCs you can earn reputation with and they all give you different unique things that you could buy from them. So definitely worth it.

Speaker 1:

Scenarios so scenarios are something that not many people would have done in their wow lifetime, but they are essentially um three person instances. You do not need a tank healer and dps. You can give us three healers, three dps, whatever. Um, and these are sort of micro dungeons, as they know, like named them, and and there are seven of these scenarios. So essentially, what you're trying to do is just complete each scenario and they tell sort of a story at the end of something. So it's oh, okay, I'm walking into, or I've just completed the jade forest. Oh, this scenario kind of gives me a rundown into what's happening in the next zone or like the end of this zone, and it kind of gives you a small introduction into that zone or a outro into the zone that you've just finished, kind of deal. These are the. These are actually really cool. Cool thing because there's big like law implement implementations that happen in these. I'm not going to spoil any, but there's one like law implementations that happen in these. I'm not going to spoil any, but there's one that I definitely know that's to do with a troll and an assassination attempt. Okay, that's all I'll give you. Um, but there are very big law implications to these things.

Speaker 1:

Um, challenge mode dungeons. Now, these dungeons are very much the like early, early iterations of mythic plus dungeons. Obviously challenge dungeons uh, carried on into warlords of draenor and then into legion. They became mythic plus dungeons. So challenge mode dungeons are essentially a timed dungeon and you have to complete it within a certain time and you get bronze, silver or gold Very simple, and you earn certain rewards for completing if you get bronze silver or gold. It's very, very simple, very cool and something that is where Mythic Plus started.

Speaker 1:

Almost Now you do get a level 85 boost. The problem with this boost is that you have to have played season of discovery for it so you can take advantage of a golden opportunity to get a head start in mr pandare classic through the 30th of june, successfully defeating dreadlord bownazar in the Scarlet Enclave raid in Season of Discovery, to earn one level 85 character boost, just in time to revisit Pandaria. Finish the fight to end and your reward will be granted on July 1st. Granted on July 1st. And if you've already taken down Balnazar in Season of Discovery, have no fear. You too will be granted a character boost for your retroactive bravery. You must have an active account or game time, and only 185 character boost progression will be granted per active WoW sub or game time. So, essentially, you have to go into a raid in season of discovery and kill the first boss of the scarlet enclave raid.

Speaker 1:

It's that simple now for me. I have played season of discovery a bit. I'm a little bit geared. It's fine, I can do that. What I'm probably going to do is just bundle up all of my gold and I'm going to say want to buy bound, as I'll kill for 500 gold and some kid will probably let me in and just do that. You know it's going to be something simple like that.

Speaker 1:

Um, that's the best way to do it for those, obviously, who have never played season discovery or it doesn't really want them, or it doesn't want them. No, no, no. What am I saying? Sorry, my brain is a bit fried at the moment. Still, for people who have never played season of discovery and never liked it. There's going to be a bit of a kick in the balls to you guys, because, obviously, why can't you earn it in, like cataclysm or retail or something that you do enjoy?

Speaker 1:

And I think they've kind of dropped the ball here. I understand why they've done it, because it's like, oh my god, guys, check out season of discovery. You know, have some like play time on this, let's enjoy it, uh. And then you can try and come back to missa pandaria, and you know, these season of discovery players will come and play missa pandaria and, uh, cataclysm players will play, uh, season of discovery for a bit. You know, it's kind of incentive to play both of them, but at the same time it is a bit it feels a bit bad to have to do a different world of warcraft that you haven't been playing in order to get a character boost on the world world of warcraft that you want to play. So I'm not too sure about that one. It does seem a bit bad, but hey, look, it is what it is. I wouldn't read too much into it.

Speaker 1:

I do want to say, though, that you can use this 85 character boost on a monk, okay. The only exception is that you cannot use this boost on a Pandaren. Okay is that you cannot use this boost on a pandaren, okay. So if you wanted to make a pandaren monk, you cannot use the boost on it. If you wanted to make a night elf monk or a gnome monk, you can use the boost on it, okay. So anything apart from a pandaren you can use this 85 boost on, just to you know if that helps you with your decision making, because in the past you have not been able to utilize this boost on the new class, so a lot of people would have had to level a death knight or you know something like that. But you can use this on a monk, okay, just cannot be a pandaren.

Speaker 1:

Uh, you do get a new mount as well by following these simple steps. You install wow classic pandar pandaria, you create a pandaren character and you complete the pandaren starting experience, including choosing the path of evil, alliance or horde, once you get the Shaohao's Sage Serpent and it is essentially a green, astral cloud serpent, which is really cool. I like that. This is an incentive to make a Pandaren, because pandaren aren't the most favorable uh race in wow. They really aren't. They're probably the only utilization for them is within pvp in my honest opinion, and even then it's uh yeah, it's not great. So I'm liking that they're tying this in and it'll allow people to experience the starting zone of the pandaren, but I think it's gonna be a mount that isn't gonna be used a lot because everyone's gonna have it kind of deal. Obviously there's a couple of packs that you could buy for, uh, the mesa pandaria classic. You have the heroic pack and the epic pack. All give you different pits and bobs, but honestly, you can see it always when you load up Battlenet, so I'm not going to go through any of that.

Speaker 1:

I do want to address a couple of things, though Not with Pandaria, but with the add-on stuff that I've been talking about recently. So on the forums there have been a lot of talks about these add-ons and you have a couple of things that is coming to my attention and this is what this, this post, will sum it all up for you. Basically, blizzard, please take away the add-ons asap. I saw it in an interview that it won't be in the next couple of patches, but please expedite the process. This is a crucial change that needs to happen sooner rather than later. I don't disagree, but I disagree that sooner rather than later is too soon now.

Speaker 1:

The reasons that I'm saying this is because the base ui isn't up to scratch. They are slowly getting better at it, but let's take the cooldowns management, for example. The cooldowns management, for example. The cooldowns management was introduced, I believe, last patch or this current patch, and it has a lot of spells.

Speaker 1:

But the thing is stuff that people actually want to track, because people want to track different things, you cannot customize it at all. You either get everything or nothing, kind of deal. So it's either you're tracking everything or you're tracking nothing, and for some people, this might be too much that they're tracking. For some people, this might not be enough. So the blizzard ui needs to actually be updated for themselves and you need to be able to customize what you want to track. Okay, this is a simple update, in my honest opinion, with with the groundwork that is already there, you simply have to put what cooldowns do you want to track and then have a checkbox list. Okay, this checkbox list, people can check whatever they want and then they can track that cooldown or this timer or something like that. But because that you are forced to either track these things or not.

Speaker 1:

People need an add-on to be able to fix the blizzard ui and you have had 20 plus years of looking at world of warcraft and the add-ons people use and you implement an a base ui feature that doesn't have these sort of quality of life changes, which is really bad. Now I'm trying to speak as clearly as I can about this, but it's really tough with how I'm feeling right now. Um, you guys could probably hear it in my voice. It's starting to go, so I'm going to try and wrap this up a hear it in my voice it's starting to go. So I'm going to try and wrap this up a little bit quicker, just so I'm not going to die here.

Speaker 1:

But essentially, blizzard needs to improve their base UI before add-ons can be left in the past, and this is a big thing, because the base UI doesn doesn't do a lot. Okay, if you look at when they added arena frames as a customizable edit mode, okay, so you can edit arena frames in the edit mode, but the problem with this is that it doesn't show some crucial information, crucial information being diminishing returns. Pvp is based around diminishing returns. Some compositions are anyway, like rogue, mage, priest, rmp, um, where you need to know when your stun is off, diminishing return, so that you can utilize it again. But the thing is the blizzard base ui arena frame. It does not have this that you are forced to use something that has it like an s arena or a gladius ex like these sort of things. So they need to improve their base ui before add-ons need to leave and I think that they have that idea and they understand that and I I really really hope that they do understand it, because if they took out add-ons as they are now and left people with the base Blizzard UI, I think it would be an absolute shit show. I really really do. They need to update it Because some people will quit over it.

Speaker 1:

Some people need more information. I personally will be a bit better if there's less information, less stuff on my screen that I need, but some people to play the game need this information because there is a lot happening within the game. Okay, and I get that. You can make the argument for like, oh, but blizzard want you to look at the abilities and see what's happening and hear what's happening and go off of these audio cues, sound cues, these visual cues. That's great, but what if people are deaf? What if people are blind? These sound cues and audio cues yeah, they're great, they're absolutely great, and some people do go off of them. But if people are deaf and they don't see something, there's so many things on the screen that you have to look at all at once, when you're doing like PVP, for example, that it's tough to keep up and to notice something. And maybe that's what they want. But I think that they will improve their base UI before removing add-ons, and I think it will be a slow process of removing add-ons. I think they'll do it piece by piece. This is going to be something that takes years to slowly remove from the game because it's been years in the game, but we'll get there eventually.

Speaker 1:

So I will end it there for today. I do apologize again. I'm really trying to punch through this, but I should be a lot better by friday. I'm over the worst of it and hopefully I can get a longer episode out for you guys, but it's not been great the last couple weeks just not been feeling great, um. So again do apologize, but we are getting there. So thank you all very much for listening. Do check out all of the socials down below constant stuff happening and I will let you guys know on social media whether or not I'm able to do an episode, what's happening, etc. But thank you all very much once again and go with valafriend. Goodbye all. Thank you.