Mists of Pandaria Review
- Thread starter Greg Tito
- Start date
Uggghhh, this looks sooo fun.
Why... Did it have to be so fun looking. Oh well, take my money Blizzard, take all of it.
Why... Did it have to be so fun looking. Oh well, take my money Blizzard, take all of it.
I'm having a lot of fun with this expansion so far. The new Pandaren areas are certainly interesting, and the new Pokemon Pet battle system is something new!
I bought this expansion and, while I find parts of it fun, I'm kind of frustrated with some of the design choices as they relate to my server. Essentially, except for a few quests scattered throughout the zones, Alliance and Horde share the exact same quests and quest-givers in Pandaria.
Now, for you PvE people, this really doesn't matter. However, I play Horde on Sargeras. It's PvP and the percentage of Alliance on our server is 90%. I have seen Horde players unable to continue questing because there are groups of Alliance that simply pounce on whatever Horde are around. Not because it's a group of people who are intentionally griefing Horde zones, but because when one Alliance decides that he's going to jump on Horde for a little PvP fun, 4 other Alliance are around and more than happy to gang up to get a free Honor Kill.
I play a rogue so, thankfully, I'm usually able to sneak around getting things done "behind enemy lines". I couldn't begin to fathom trying to level up my mage in the same areas, though. They really didn't seem to take PvP and server balance into consideration when they developed the new content.
Now, for you PvE people, this really doesn't matter. However, I play Horde on Sargeras. It's PvP and the percentage of Alliance on our server is 90%. I have seen Horde players unable to continue questing because there are groups of Alliance that simply pounce on whatever Horde are around. Not because it's a group of people who are intentionally griefing Horde zones, but because when one Alliance decides that he's going to jump on Horde for a little PvP fun, 4 other Alliance are around and more than happy to gang up to get a free Honor Kill.
I play a rogue so, thankfully, I'm usually able to sneak around getting things done "behind enemy lines". I couldn't begin to fathom trying to level up my mage in the same areas, though. They really didn't seem to take PvP and server balance into consideration when they developed the new content.
This. I'm having a ball, I'm clearing up the raid(s) (still more to be released over the next few weeks) now and the fights are all great fun.Capitano Segnaposto said:
There are the usual downsides but nothing that's giving off horrible alarm bells like Cataclysm, it feels more like Wrath again. Which I think is the right avenue to take.
Anyway Mists > Cataclysm. If you feel like delving back into Azeroth after Cataclysm let you down it might be worth another go if you've got free time and money.
The music and scenery though... urgh. WoW has always had good scenery porn but dayum some of the areas are just beautiful. That shimmering waterfall in the Valley is one of my favorite THINGS.
Wonderful review - yeah, you're definitely missing the heart of the game if you rocket to max level and hop into heroics and raids. I've only gotten one of my three characters to 90, and I'm in no hurry.
Be aware, though, that most Valor gear and some of the more interesting daily zones are gated behind reputation via dailies. It's far from ideal - you'll spend almost two weeks doing dailies in the central zone before you unlock the guardian spirit and panda ninja factions.
Also note that if you've been following Blizz's marketing, you might be expecting the daily quest hubs to be just jaw-hit-floor awesome. They're not. They're almost painfully mediocre, especially in the central zone, where the amazing "dynamic" system will often give you nearly identical dailies for a solid week.
And while the diversity of daily hubs and the rewards for getting rep with the various factions are very cool, daily quests have simply not changed. If you didn't like them before, you'll hate them now, because there's a billion of them and they're basically essential to progression.
Previous comments about Alliance/Horde having the same quest experience are not exaggerated, either. They're like 90& identical. There's nothing like Vashj'ir where you have an entire zone dedicated to fighting for your faction. You have 1/3 of Jade Forest and 1/6 of Kun-Lai. That's it. Literally. All of it.
Ultimately it's a fun, progressive expansion, but, as always, throw marketing hype out the window. It's still WoW.
Be aware, though, that most Valor gear and some of the more interesting daily zones are gated behind reputation via dailies. It's far from ideal - you'll spend almost two weeks doing dailies in the central zone before you unlock the guardian spirit and panda ninja factions.
Also note that if you've been following Blizz's marketing, you might be expecting the daily quest hubs to be just jaw-hit-floor awesome. They're not. They're almost painfully mediocre, especially in the central zone, where the amazing "dynamic" system will often give you nearly identical dailies for a solid week.
And while the diversity of daily hubs and the rewards for getting rep with the various factions are very cool, daily quests have simply not changed. If you didn't like them before, you'll hate them now, because there's a billion of them and they're basically essential to progression.
Previous comments about Alliance/Horde having the same quest experience are not exaggerated, either. They're like 90& identical. There's nothing like Vashj'ir where you have an entire zone dedicated to fighting for your faction. You have 1/3 of Jade Forest and 1/6 of Kun-Lai. That's it. Literally. All of it.
Ultimately it's a fun, progressive expansion, but, as always, throw marketing hype out the window. It's still WoW.
I have to say that this xpac brings a lot of heart and soul to the game. Cataclysm followed a really strict guideline - do the linear zone quest chains, run heroics to gain rep, then do raids. This time around the quests are far more freeflowing. Moreover, the game is overflowing with tiny little things to surprise you. Lots of randomly spawning rare objects, lore points, and interesting monsters to fight.
Best example: WowInsider found an amazing hidden quest in the game recently. On certain days, you can access a terrace with a lore tablet that obscurely mentions a king waiting for the earth to lay before him and the sun to kneel. Nearby are a green and a red circle. Kneel in the red circle while someone else lays in the green, and you get to kill a mob that drops a quest-starting item. That's it - no other indication in the game this quest even exists. They put a lot of work into giving the game depth and hidden mystery again, which is very very impressive in an age where the game is fully datamined before it even is released.
Best example: WowInsider found an amazing hidden quest in the game recently. On certain days, you can access a terrace with a lore tablet that obscurely mentions a king waiting for the earth to lay before him and the sun to kneel. Nearby are a green and a red circle. Kneel in the red circle while someone else lays in the green, and you get to kill a mob that drops a quest-starting item. That's it - no other indication in the game this quest even exists. They put a lot of work into giving the game depth and hidden mystery again, which is very very impressive in an age where the game is fully datamined before it even is released.
Posting this as an outsider looking in, reading meticulously every change that they have made with the patches leading up to Panederia, but one of the things that I loved the most about World of Warcraft was its talent trees, and how they made every character class feel unique and special.
With Panderia, this feature seems all but removed. You just pick your role, and it assigns your talents for you; giving you access to abilities without much choice or speciality to speak of... with the exception of a few small choices like "increased run speed" every 15 levels.
Why would they do something like this? I mean, it's one of the biggest criticisms that World of Warcraft gets in the MMO Space: that being its extreme simplicity. Why would the developers say "Let's make it easier!" knowing this.
Or am I wrong?
Honest responses please. I could very well be mistaken, but this is how everything seems to read, and it's holding me back from getting Panderia.
With Panderia, this feature seems all but removed. You just pick your role, and it assigns your talents for you; giving you access to abilities without much choice or speciality to speak of... with the exception of a few small choices like "increased run speed" every 15 levels.
Why would they do something like this? I mean, it's one of the biggest criticisms that World of Warcraft gets in the MMO Space: that being its extreme simplicity. Why would the developers say "Let's make it easier!" knowing this.
Or am I wrong?
Honest responses please. I could very well be mistaken, but this is how everything seems to read, and it's holding me back from getting Panderia.
Definitely enjoying it - This xpac doesn't feel as rushed as Cataclysm felt in terms of it's questing/experience curve (I'm loving that it takes time to make it through this expansion). I was surprised at the diversity and how interesting the boss mechanics were in the first two dungeons though.
It's definitely worth a look if you're interested, even if you're just doing it for the 85-90 questing experience.
Now you actually have a choice (sure it might be a smaller one, but at least it is one...before you didn't really have choices just a mandatory talent spec you had to copy & paste) - at least I have found that on my druid I can realistically spec into most 'talents' and be able to use them...that definitely hasn't been true for a long while (I had more-or-less the same talent spec since TBC as feral...that was lame...)
Here's the new talent calc if you want to muck around with it:
http://www.wowdb.com/talent-calculator
It's definitely worth a look if you're interested, even if you're just doing it for the 85-90 questing experience.
To be honest the talent system feels a lot more free-form than it has since, I don't know, maybe TBC. Other than 1-4 talent points talent trees haven't been "customization" since Vanilla. You had the mandatory talents you needed to have to make the spec functional. Now those are all wrapped up into your "specialization." Which, frankly is nice, because it allows the developers to balance you more around your specialization (dps, tank, healer, Rdps) rather than your talent choices, and thereby giving you fun choices in the talents. Basically by giving you a known "specialization," with the dmg/hps/functionality/procs all wrapped up into it it's made it easier for things to be balanced (you don't have people theory-crafting, coming up with a broken spec, and having to wait for Blue to nerf it back into line...sure that might have been fun if you had that class, but it made things a nightmare to balance if you follow me).Nocturnus said:
Now you actually have a choice (sure it might be a smaller one, but at least it is one...before you didn't really have choices just a mandatory talent spec you had to copy & paste) - at least I have found that on my druid I can realistically spec into most 'talents' and be able to use them...that definitely hasn't been true for a long while (I had more-or-less the same talent spec since TBC as feral...that was lame...)
Here's the new talent calc if you want to muck around with it:
http://www.wowdb.com/talent-calculator
I absolutely love this expansion so far. The landscapes are amazing, and the music is top notch, as usual.
Also, there is just so much stuff to do at level 90.. I have a legion of other characters, all there sitting in the dust because I just have so much to do! No time for alts!
Also, there is just so much stuff to do at level 90.. I have a legion of other characters, all there sitting in the dust because I just have so much to do! No time for alts!
Absolutely. At least, most of the voice acting is. Almost every main villain sounds like everyone's impression of an angry Japanese man (including the occasional "L"/"R" switch-up).Whispering Death said:
I don't think that there's any real harm intended, but you can't deny that it's stereotypes a-plenty.
PVE is wonderful, loved the questing and all the stuff you can do. Sometimes it gets a bit overwhelming with how much there is to do. However PvP.... wow. I'm pvp gear(mix of honor and conquest) except a belt and weapon, and certain classes are just beyond OP at the moment. I'm still trying to figure out how to stop a BM hunter. Warlocks chaos bolt can hit you for over 200k, arm warriors are raping ppl at the moment, mages can spellsteal all day long.
Its kind of ruining my fun with the game knowing I'll have to reroll or stay in pve land.
maybe it gets better in full malevolent gear but so far its brutally unbalanced.
Its kind of ruining my fun with the game knowing I'll have to reroll or stay in pve land.
maybe it gets better in full malevolent gear but so far its brutally unbalanced.
Yeah, that's kinda how it strikes me.el_kabong said:
Over-the-top asian accents, faux confuscionist phrases, traditional garb, pandas, kung fu
If you had similar stereotypes for a "black" world or a "jewish" world i'm not so sure it wouldn't raise a few eyebrows but if you stereotype asians somehow that kinda flies under the radar.
I'm not asian and i don't play wow so i don't really have a dog in the fight but it just seemed a little off to me is all.