After watching Blizzcon 2011 a few weeks back, a lot of into was left out in the air about the upcoming Mists of Pandaria expansion. Many things can be summed up in a few words. Other things, like the following, spun off into rants on their own accord and therefore deserved their own posts.
Today we’re going to start off talking about the new zones, then spin off into why they’re so important for Azeroth when the old world simply won’t do.
New Zones: This aspect is the foundation of our expansion, Yet many of it’s elements are often overlooked. Of course, we need new zones to level from 85 to 90. What makes our new zone, Pandaria, unique to other expansions is the fact that a player will be unable to fly here until level 90. This means more time will be spent running around on the ground, and more opportunities for world PVP. For those of us from early BC days (or were always poor) this should bring back a lot of old memories. Flying over the world fails to do it justice, and cheapens the experience of the game, the grind, and leveling. In my own experience, I feel more accomplished when the level is difficult to obtain. In addition dungeons will scale 1:1 in the zones they are in (no longer just a portal) so the places are going to be HUGE.
It was also brought up that there will not be a ‘central hub’ where everything will be located, unlike Shattrath or Dalaran in previous expansions. Instead, NPCs and quests will be located at a variety of smaller hubs spread out throughout the zones. This again means more travel and more chances to interact with other players. It was also said, though very little, that the hubs may be conquerable. This means that one faction controls it until the other one takes it from them. This would be a fantastic way for World PVP to start up, and to get people out of central cities.
This element may very well be the best thing I’ve heard out of Blizzcon this year. Join me after the jump on why.
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