Mists of Pandaria!!

Lots of info released for the new expansion.  I'm going to dive right into it.

Pandaria

 *Single, Unified Continent

 *5 new zones
 *Influenced by Asian landscape
 *Auction House, Bank and Central Questing Hub all in the new continent

 *No Flying until max level

Enemy Races:

 * Jinyu

 * Hozu

 * Verming

 * Mantid

 * Mogu

 * Sha

Basically we find Pandaria, which has been shrouded by mist since The Sundering, from a naval battle.  We wash up on shore and find this lush land that we can potentially harvest.  The starting zone in Pandaria will be the Jade Forest.  Horde will wash up at the north and Alliance at the south.  We will meet up in the middle.  The two races we find here will be the Hozu and the Jinyu.  Each faction will try and befriend one of these races, turning the two against each other.  Horde will befriend Jinyu and Alliance will befriend Hozu.  The Jade Forest will also have an 85-86 dungeon (Temple of the Jade Serpent.

The other zone that they talked about was the "Valley of the Four Winds."  This zone acts as two zones for the price of one.  You can choose to go South (Coastal Jungle) or go North (Pandaren Farmlands).  This is to make questing seem a lot less linear.  This zone will also have a dungeon (Stormstout Brewery).  It is said that dungeons will have a presence in the zones.  

The Pandaren starting area will be on a giant turtle.  You will start out as a neutral race, as you complete your first ten levels.  At level ten you will then get to choose your faction (Horde or Alliance).  This starting zone is already playable, those attending Blizzcon will have the opportunity to try it out.

New Features

New Playable Race: Pandaren

 *Classes: Hunter, Mage, Monk, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warrior

 *Racials:

  *Bouncy: Reduces fall damage by half.

  *Inner Peace: Double Rested XP.

  *Gourmond: +15 to cooking.

  *Epicurean: Double Stats to Food Buffs.

  *Quaking Palm:  You touch a secret point on an enemy target putting it to sleep for 3 secs

New Class: Monk

 *Races: All can be a monk except for Worgens and Goblins.

 *Specs

     -Brewmaster: Tank
     -Mistweaver: Healer (stand up in melee)
     -Windwalker: melee dps

  *Not a Hero Class: You will start at level 1

  *Martial Arts Based Combat

     -Hand and Feet Combat.  You will build up to your finishing move that you will use your weapon for.

  *There will be lots of monk only animations

  *Weapons

     -Specializes in Staves and Fist Weapons

     -They will also be able to use one handed axes, maces, and swords

     -Duel Wielding has not been decided yet.

     -Healers will use off-hands.

   *You will be leather wearers, relying on agility or intellect.

   *Build up your Chi (energy) used for Jab and Roll

   *No Auto Attack

   *You will have a new bar (currently in the lower middle of your screen).

Talent Changes

There are so many talent changes that I will cover more tonight, but here is a preview.  With Cataclysm the talent trees had more pros than cons.  You will still start choosing your talents at level ten.  To break it down, once you hit level 10 you will choose your spec.  I play a paladin, so I would choose Retribution, Protection, or Holy.  I will get my first spec ability and will earn additional spec abilities later on.  There will only be one talent tree and you will earn talents every 15 levels.  For each talent you will have three choices.  You will choose one that you want and cannot go back down the tree to get any you missed.  There will be no mandatory talents, thus breaking the "cookie cutter" specs. Again, I will go into this more later tonight.

PVE Scenarios

PVE Scenarios will be short instances set up for a few players.  This is set up like questing and should take the place of group quests.  It will be a staged experience with no player collision.  You will queue up for these, much like the dungeon finder but with no role requirement.

Challenge Mode Dungeons

These are time trial versions of dungeons.  Upon completing these you will earn bronze, silver, or gold medals.  Gear levels will be normalized (skill before gear).  You will earn neat new gear rewards with no stats, aka Transmo Gear.  You will also get valor points, bragging rights, and your chance to grace the leader board.  That's right, there will be a leader board.

Pet Battle System

This is a big one, and as a pet collector I am excited.  Think Pokemon: collect, level and fight with your companion pets.  This feature will be accessible to all players and it will work with almost every pet currently in the game on top of any new ones added.  You will be able to customize your pets, giving them names, abilities, and so on. 

There will be wild pets in the world that you will be able to catch.  If you find one in the world you can engage it in battle with one of your current pets.  If you win, you will add this new pet to your pet journal.  Each wild pet will have varying stats, so you may have to catch one several times to find the one you are looking for.  They will have unique spawning abilities.  Some may spawn at different seasons, different weather conditions, night or day, and so on.  For example, there may be a pet available during spring, when it rains at nighttime. 

  You will be able to build teams, so level multiple pets.  You will be able to access your pet journal across your account.  You will not need to level multiple pets across multiple toons.  What's this pet journal I've mentioned a few times??  It's a new page that allows you to access and customize your current pets.  As well, you will be able to look up existing pets and where to get them. 

These pets will be tradeable.  You will be able to level up and customize a pet and then sell it on the auction house. 

There will be PVP and PVE battles and the combat will be turn-based.  You will queue up for battles much like dungeons and battlegrounds and you will be placed in battles with players who have equal leveled pets.  You will eventually be able to fight battles with a team of three pets. 

I mentioned Pokemon because there are so many similarities.  Here's another, there will be master's throughout the world.  You can battle these masters and if you win they will give you master abilities. 

All in all, I feel like this is an exciting new feature that should be a hit.  

Dungeons

There will be nine new dungeons upon launch, six of which will be in Pandaria.  There will also be heroic updates of old dungeons: Scholomance and Scarlet Monastery (completely redone).

Raids

There will be three new epic raids at launch.  All three raids can be accessed through the raid finder in normal or heroic difficulty.   On top of raids, World Raid Bosses will be returning.  This is to get us out of Stormwind and Orgimmar and into the world again.

Questing

 There will be more max. level content available with multiple hubs and extra incentives for dungeon lovers and raiders (I am assuming pvp'ers as well).  The example given was complete five daily quests and get a buff.  This buff in a dungeon will allow you to drop a piece of gear that only people with this buff can see.  

As I mentioned before, there will be no flying until max. level in Pandaria.  This will be so you can experience much more of the world instead of swooping in, killing your quest target and flying out.  You will have more quest choices so that your questing does not feel as linear as it did in previous expansions.  There will also be an improvement in factions, making the reputation much less grindy and little more fun.     

PVP

There will be new battlegrounds added in this expansion.

  *Stranglethorn Diamond Mines - Payload Style Battleground

    -escort mine carts to depots

    -there will be multiple tracks

    -first to x amount of resources wins.

   *Valley of Power - Murderball Style Battleground

    -Capture the artifact

    -Holding the artifact will earn you points

    -Certain zones will earn you multiple points

    -The artifact will do damage and over time the damage will increase.  

    -I immediately thought of Rift...anyone else??

  *Azshara Crater - Dota Style Battleground

    -So, I have kids so I'm not sure if I missed what they said about this or they just didn't say anything.  I will  look further into it.  

  *Tol'vir Proving Grounds - Arena

    -Based on the popular Nagrand Arena.

Achievements

New achievements will be available including account wide achievements.  Think of an achievement to get every profession to max level. 

Class Changes

  *Hunter minimum range: GONE
  *Hunter Melee weapon: GONE
  *Hunters have gone from everything is a hunter weapon to nothing is a hunter weapon.
  *Ranged Slots: GONE
  *Relics: GONE
  *Rogues and warrior will throw their weapons when they need to.
  *Wands will become main hand weapons.



I will go further into more class changes later tonight, but here is what I have so far.

Warlock Changes
   *unique resource for each spec
     -Affliction: Soul Shards
     -Demonology: Demonic Fury.  Build it up and morph into a demon.
     -Destruction: Infernal Embers.  As you build it up you will get hotter and hotter.  At full you will catch fire and nuke your enemies.

Shaman Changes
   *Buff Totems: GONE
    -All totems will be utility
      -Earthgrab Totem: Roots
      -Repulsion Totem: Repels
      -Bulwark Totem: Absorb

Druid Changes:
Druids always felt like they had four classes, so now they do.
  *Feral (Cat)
  *Guardian (Bear)
There will be some overlapping between these two classes, but they are now separate from each other.  All druids will still have cat and bear form.

All classes
  *Spell books will be cleaned up.
  *Spell rotations will be improved
  *Spells will be automatically learned
  *Introduction of several new spells
  *Specs will be more developed
  *Talent trees will be more fun!!



Believe it or not, this is just a portion of the information on Mists of Pandaria that is being release at Blizzcon.  Stay tuned, I will bring you more.