Pandaria's PVP Plan

The Blizzard grand scheme for PVP in Mists of Pandaria was announced recently. Basically the only change is for PVP realms. PVE realm players won't have any incentive to flag for PVP that I can see.

On PVP realms guards will be weaker and spawn less frequently when killed. If you are on a PVE realm, the guards will be just as strong as ever.

The new black market auction house will be located in a contested location, this won't mean anything on PVE realms. On PVP realms, Blizzard hopes this will be a revival of world PVP. I doubt you can kill the auctioneers, or I would transfer to a PVP realm today! I would bath in the sweet tears of people trying to buy spectral tigers only to find the corpse of some shady goblin lying violated by my sporebat, his twitching carcass still clutching his bag of gold.

Blizzard is also banking on cross realm zones to add some extra population to the world experience. Again this really only effects PVP realms, it is rare to see anyone flagged for PVP on PVE realms.

Mists will launch with two new battlegrounds, Silvershard Mine and Temple of Kotmogu. Thankfully not reskins of Warsong Gulch or Arathi Basin or any other existing maps. These will be unique play experiences. A new arena map is coming as well, a simple flat map with 3 large pillars called the Proving Grounds. Blizzard seems proud of these additions, but personally I always felt that new battleground a arena maps should have been supplied much more frequently. I won't say this is too little too late, it just not an overwhelming addition. Some other battleground changes include the ability to black list two maps when queuing for randoms and the extension of Call to Arms, which will now always be available.

Rated battlegrounds are not seeing any adjustments but arenas are getting a slight tweak. Before a match, players will be able to see their opponents spec, not their talents or glyphs, just their spec. They will also have the opportunity to adjust their talents and glyphs before the fight. I like the element of strategy that this might introduce and welcome this change.

There will be no Tol Barad or Wintergrasp of Mists, though. Blizzard believes the return of world bosses will bring people out into the world to duke it out of loot. I don't see how this will add any conflict to a PVE realm, but PVP realms will be damn lively when a boss spawns.

As a player on a PVE realm, I don't expect life to change in the slightest. However I think life on a PVP server is going to get pretty hectic. With all of the new daily quests (and the removal of the daily quest cap) combat pets to find/battle, crops to tend, and world bosses to kill, there is going to be a ton of players out in the world and add to that the cross realm zones. PVP could be back in a big way, on PVP realms.

More Hunter Love

This beta has showed that Blizzard is really embracing the hunter class in a fun creative way. Take the announcement of "Stampede", a cooldown ability that will summon your active stable of pets for a short time to ravage  your enemies, or the reworking of pet specializations to allow any pet to perform any function. These developments are features the hunter community have been dying to see.

There's more creative new abilities like "Murder of Crows" which swarms your target with angry birds of prey. Another ability has a the hunter summoning a ferocious lynx to shred multiple enemies, dashing from target to target, leaving only tears in its wake.

I really love how the developers have played up the companion flavor of the class. Today there is more evidence of this with the discovery of the Glyph of Companions. Tabana at the Hunter's Hall has posted pictures of how this glyph works. Depending on your aspect, the hunter will have a small companion following her into battle. It's not likely that these companions engage in battle, but probably just serve to remind you that your still in aspect of the pack.

I have long thought that minor glyphs had room for improvement and this is exactly the fun, creative type of implementation I had in mind. Bravo Blizzard, bravo!

Quick Tip - Happy Nobelgarden!

If your hunting eggs on the horde side, Falconwing Square in the ruins of Silvermoon is a great place. Most people forget about Silvermoon or don't go there because it is off the beaten path and you can't fly there.

Wowhead has a great write up on all things Noblegarden if you are working on that achievement.

Elves with bunny ears.. way better than hollow chocolate bunnies.

Jaina Proudmoore - UPDATED

WazopVids on YouTube has posted some datamined footage of Jaina Proudmoore's new look. A certain spoilery event happens that causes Jaina to go off the deepend apparently. What do you think? Not enough tramp stamps in Azeroth for my tastes, I approve.

*** MMO-Champion got me with their Emo Jaina post. Now I am disappointed, no tramp stamps in Azeroth.

April Showers Bring May Flowers and SUPPLY DEPOT!!!!

It's that time of year again and Blizzard did not disappoint. Head over to http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/ to check out all the great new announcements, including my favorite, Supply Depot! Such thrilling gameplay as raising or lowering your supply depot, this is game of the year no doubt about it.

The Verdict...

Disclaimers out of the way, I know this is beta, I know this is not finished product.

I’m not going to sugar coat this, I am sorry to say, the pandaren starting zone was boring. After playing through the goblin and worgen starting zones several times in the last few years, I am disappointed. Blizzard set the bar very high and the pandaren zone does not measure up.

I want this to be constructive, I have tons of respect and admiration for the artists and writers at Blizzard. There were so many awesome moments for the goblin and worgen, with dragons and volcanoes and earthquakes.

For me, one of the few epic moments with the pandaren was flying down to speak with the turtle. Understanding that your whole life has been contained on the back of a giant turtle swimming in the ocean was pretty neat. The moment prior to this, however, with the old master should have been huge, but what happened barely registered even though I suspected what was happening.

Having two companions guiding you on your adventure should have been a great way to tell a story, but I really don’t think it added much to the proceedings. The choice at the end did make me feel bad about leaving one of them behind, but the decision could have been made more dramatic, with each companion pleading their case.

I am also a bit put off by the carebear/hothead alliance/horde stereotypes. I would have been impressed if what we knew was going to happen all along had been just the opposite.

It comes down to this: When I get a new friend to try Warcraft, I am not going to suggest they try the pandaren, I am going to insist they start with a goblin or worgen.

Kung Fu Panda

I have been checking my account page all day long since I read 100k more beta invites were going out. I have yet to recieve my email notification, but I am logged in on my kung-fu panda named Kneehow.

The place is crowded, but things are going well, no one complaining about broken quests and what not. I'll keep updating as I play more.

Of Betas and Hotkeys

Another 100k beta invites are going out and I have yet to receive one. That's for the best probably. Other than the Pandaren starting zone, it doesn't sound like anything else is available. The 85-90 zones are not out yet, the only way to level to 90 is by doing Uldum, Twilight Highlands, or just dailies.

In the mean time, to occupy my time, I am going to dedicate myself to hotkey all of my arability. Up to this point I have only had actions 1-12 mapped. I decided to set up my Merc Keyboard to use control and shift to easily access up to 36 actions now. My problem, is how to take 36 abilities and arrange them on 3x 12-slot action bars in a way that makes sense and is usable? I'm also trying to design the layout so that I don't need to tweak anything for PVE or PVP  content. I spent some time at a target dummy, but I think it's time to wander into a battleground or LFR and get my hands dirty.

I will be working on my macros as well. I found some good macros from Zumio posted over at the Hunter's Hall. Most importantly I am going to macro Aspect of the Hawk into my instant cast shots and Aspect of the Fox into Cobra Shot. Never having to sit still is a huge advantage, I'll never get caught in the fire again, right?

Mists First Spirit Beast?

I really hope so.

Scroll of Resurrection

I finally decided on my "free" level 80 character. Meet my brand spanking new Draenei Enhancement Shaman. Now to figure out my talents... I am leaning towards this build for leveling. I think she'll start in Hyjal to unlock the Firelands dailies. I'd really like to see her on a Flameward Hippogryph eventually.

The resurrection process was simple enough. However, after I claimed my reward on Battle.net, I logged in and out of the game three times only to find my level 1 baby shaman on the selection screen. I finally decided to log into the character and for a split second I was disappointed, still in the starting zone. But I was quickly greeted by a loading screen and then found myself in the middle of Stormwind celebrating my new achievement of level 80.

She's equipped with a full set of greens, including trinkets and a relic with an empty prismatic gem socket. She has level 450 First Aid skill, but all other professions are empty. She has four 20-slot bags, 75 gold in her wallet, and a single mount, the purple armored gryphon. I will have to find myself and elekk very soon.

Check back soon for my impressions of the shaman class.

UPDATE - It turns out your talents are already selected for you, as you choose your spec during the resurrection process. I was given the following spec automatically, 5/31/0.