WoW 5.0 - Mists of Pandaria

Mists of Pandaria is $9.99 right now on battle.net.

I read somewhere that Gamestop was doing MoP for $9.99, and then you can buy a 60 day card for $5 (link). I'll at least wait until Friday to see if that's true.

Wow, thanks for the link- which is incorrect; apparently Gamestop is *not* selling 60-day cards for $5. However, in the corrected post, Joystiq indicates:

Mists of Pandaria will be on sale for $9.99, and it comes with a free 60-day game card.

http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/11/26/co...

Makes it even better. I'm working Friday, but should be able to swing into a Gamestop in the morning to grab a copy. I think since MoP has been out a while, it's not going to be an item crowds will be fighting over. Unless a ton of people start just buying cart loads of copies at $10 since that's still cheap for buying the 60 day card and you could sell the game afterwards and probably make a profit...

Crap.

It's not a game time card, its just a free code for the battle chest. I guess if you're starting wow for the first time it's a great deal, but otherwise kinda useless.

I'm bummed- while I *did* get a copy of "Mists" for $10.00, I didn't get the card. The clerks at the store I bought the game at had *no clue* about the deal and the flyer deal description was written so uselessly it couldn't be understood. Not their fault- clearly Corporate messed this deal up; they did the best they could.....

After fiddling around- and looking at the link I posted above, they read the deal as:

Buy WOW Battlechest ($5) + Buy "Mists" ($10) + Buy a 60-day Card [($5) instead of 29.95)] for a total of $20.00.

I didn't want to shell out the additional $10, so just ended up with "Mists"......

cewargamer wrote:

I didn't want to shell out the additional $10, so just ended up with "Mists"......

Geez, why not? 60 days for $10 is a good deal. Donate the Battlechest to an orphanage or something.

cewargamer wrote:

I'm bummed- while I *did* get a copy of "Mists" for $10.00, I didn't get the card. The clerks at the store I bought the game at had *no clue* about the deal and the flyer deal description was written so uselessly it couldn't be understood. Not their fault- clearly Corporate messed this deal up; they did the best they could.....

After fiddling around- and looking at the link I posted above, they read the deal as:

Buy WOW Battlechest ($5) + Buy "Mists" ($10) + Buy a 60-day Card [($5) instead of 29.95)] for a total of $20.00.

I didn't want to shell out the additional $10, so just ended up with "Mists"......

Yeah seems you're not the only one to have this problem, lots of commenters on that Wow Insider article about the deal say they had the same issue.

You know, I realized something last night with my mage's gear. Going from BC content to WotLK content, I really didn't see a huge jump in gear quality. I was still wearing some of my crafted BC gear half-way through the 70's, because nothing that dropped really was that big of an upgrade. At 79, I was struggling to fall over the 180 average item line, so I could queue up for some challenge instance that was locked due to avg gear level.

I hit 80 last night, which unlocked all the heroics, and two Cataclysm instances. I queued up for all the new instances that unlocked, and one of the Cata instances was the first to pop up. A lot of cloth/caster gear dropped, and all of it was in the 300's on item level. The only thing I can think is that I was going from low-end (casual) raiding BC gear to normal instance WotLK gear, whereas I was going from normal WotLK gear to normal Cata gear which is a bigger jump. Still blew me away a bit.

PurEvil wrote:

I hit 80 last night, which unlocked all the heroics, and two Cataclysm instances. I queued up for all the new instances that unlocked, and one of the Cata instances was the first to pop up. A lot of cloth/caster gear dropped, and all of it was in the 300's on item level. The only thing I can think is that I was going from low-end (casual) raiding BC gear to normal instance WotLK gear, whereas I was going from normal WotLK gear to normal Cata gear which is a bigger jump. Still blew me away a bit.

It was kind of a shift in the way Blizzard did things. The starting stuff in Wrath is ilevel 138, which is about T5 gear levels (Vashj and Kael dropped 141). After that came Black Temple and Sunwell, going up to 164 gear for Kil'jaeden. The level 76 quests in Wrath only gave ilevel 162, so people in the top tier didn't need to really replace things until they got near the end of the levelling process.

On the other hand, the starting Cata stuff gives you about 272, and once you get into Deepholm the level 81 gear is 289. Arthas on Normal 25 or Heroic 10 dropped 271 - the rest was 264 - and most Heroic 25 gear was only 277, with Arthas (and Shadowmourne) at 284. This means even the top-end raiders were finding some greens to upgrade into by the second zone.

im very curious about warlords of dreanor if is better then wotlk or mists of pandaria for wow private servers

Yes, the waiter demographic has been sadly underserved by the currently available WoW expansions.

Spammers sure are getting patient, aren't they.

BadKen wrote:

Yes, the waiter demographic has been sadly underserved by the currently available WoW expansions.

Spammers sure are getting patient, aren't they.

Well played haha

Rerolled on another server, decided to try my hand at healing, the only role Ive never played. So far (lvl 22 disc priest), I'm really enjoying it!

Jumping back into Wow after a 2 year break. What class is 'interesting' these days? I have quite a few level 80+ and have my priest up to 87 over the last few days. I define interesting as "lots to keep in mind while playing" type of play. I loved feral DPS back when it had a silly long priority list back in Uldum. I'm mostly looking at healing or tanking, but i still like to have lots of bits and pieces to juggle.

I'm not particularly interested in leveling up a lot to get to 90, but if someone can make a compelling argument for a monk I may try one out!

Gosh, but that was all a bit vague.

Heh. And welcome back!

I'm leveling a Brewmaster (tank flavored) monk at the moment, and I'm liking it (aside from the asshats who can't wait for me to pull ... I just run right by 'em and pick up the next group). I'm an old dude, but I can't get enough of the monk roll. It's pointless but ... WHEEEEEE!!!!!

Anyhoo ... tanks, melee, ranged and heals all feel more or less the same these days. That is, all the tank classes operate largely the same way, all melee works roughly the same, etc.* There are slight variations on each theme -- my arms warrior hits harder than my ret paladin and seems to do better AOE, but my paladin seems more burst-y and has multiple ways to keep himself alive. Each role has the same basic toolkit, and every class has more buttons than you can squeeze onto a toolbar.

The better question might be: Do you want to tank? Heal? Smash faces up close? Or blast away at range?

The advantage to leveling a paladin (or monk or druid) is that you can swap between at least three roles (all 4 if you're a druid).

P.S.: Icyveins.com is your go-to for technical questions these days (build, rotation, stats, etc.).

* Consider your source here. I'm a casual player who tries to play a lot of classes competently but not all that well and not in any serious raiding capacity. Pros like Keldar or Reaper can drill down a lot farther into the complexity question.

Welcome back! In no particular order, I'm a fan of Shamans(Elemental and Resto), Death Knights(Blood and Unholy, although Frost seems to produce better DPS), Ret Paladins, and Feral Druids.

Sooo I'm really tempted to come back after picking up MOP for $10 during the holidays. Does anyone have a scroll of resurrection they'd be willing to send my way?

Thanks for the replies guys.

Enix wrote:

The better question might be: Do you want to tank? Heal? Smash faces up close? Or blast away at range?

Well, that's why i was considering the monk since it can do all three.
A druid can do all 4 though, and i have one at level 80... The one thing i found when tanking as a druid versus tanking as a warrior was the warrior seemed to have more options for how to deal with things than the druid (shouting, roaring, stomping, thunderclapping). Will a monk kinda end up the same as the druid? A limited, if effective, tanking set?

Edit: Just been reading up on Monk tanking, it looks like a lot of fun!

Can't really say anything about druid tanking, since I've never done it, but I tanked raids on a warrior for years and have spent most of MoP tanking on a monk, and personally I much prefer the monk. It feels more active than the warrior, which had seemed to degenerate into Shield Block on cd and Shield Wall and Last Stand based on mechanics. There wasn't much to actively do there. MoP was a bit better, but they screwed up Shield Block vs. Shield Barrier with mastery and vengeance, IMO, to the point where every fight is use one or the other. With my monk, I feel like I'm more actively involved in my own survival, though at current gear levels you can get enough crit that Elusive Brew almost becomes a "keep it up constantly" buff rather than what I think Blizzard intended.

All that to say, I love monk tanking, it has a lot of different ways to react to situations. It can be tough to master at first, but I find it engaging and a ton of fun.

jdzappa wrote:

Sooo I'm really tempted to come back after picking up MOP for $10 during the holidays. Does anyone have a scroll of resurrection they'd be willing to send my way?

I can (though if anyone else wants the SOR goodies holler now).

Send me your email and I'll send it out this afternoon.

I'm assuming you want a Blackhand-Alliance invite? You get a free server transfer to where the scroll comes from.

Dammit signed back up and got sucked back in. It's a far more relaxing solo experience than GW 2 and smoother than SWTOR/SW. I also love the Asian inspired levels.

Is it true I can hit max level in like 4-5 days played?

jdzappa wrote:

Dammit signed back up and got sucked back in. It's a far more relaxing solo experience than GW 2 and smoother than SWTOR/SW. I also love the Asian inspired levels.

Is it true I can hit max level in like 4-5 days played?

If you've got a full set of heirlooms, the guild XP bonuses and are willing to super optimal grind it out, yea.

Got a 7 day welcome back, tried out the timeless isle and found that hunters w/pets are horribly broken there. Sadly, my hunter is my fav char class, so I'm back to raid queues and farming.

Guess it will be a quick 7 days..

I've been back around 2 weeks and i'm burning out on it i think.
It makes me literally sad that you can breeze through old instances with an underlevelled group. it's just a zerg rush. MgT was especially bad for me. I remember that being rock hard on release. CC all over the place, clever pulls, difficult bosses. This tim i pulled everything i could see and we aoed it, bosses included. My heart skipped a beat when the DSP rushed ahead into the last room (remember that one brutal battle), but there wasn't even a dent made in their health before i got there to help with my tank.
I understand that they have a need to broaden the audience, but they have broadened me right out of the picture. I'm sure the raiding is still great, but I'm not committing to that sort of schedule ever again so I guess there isn't much for me. I've been told that about the only challenge at 90 (5 man) is the speed runs where your gear is capped.

I had the same complaint when I came back (which I posted a few pages back), and after a while, I realized it may have been for the better. I always loved running 5-mans, but PuG's were horrible back in the day. And with a full-time job, wife, toddlers, etc, fast easy runs became a bit relaxing. I still got to see the old instances, got good drops (though I'm a little upset that my DK can't get crap for drops from the BC content), and didn't have to deal with wipe-fests from lolhunters and pyro-pull mages. In a good run, I can run 3-4 instances in an hour, and the XP is awesome for it, even without quests.

dibs wrote:

It makes me literally sad that you can breeze through old instances with an underlevelled group. it's just a zerg rush. MgT was especially bad for me. I remember that being rock hard on release. CC all over the place, clever pulls, difficult bosses. This tim i pulled everything i could see and we aoed it, bosses included. My heart skipped a beat when the DSP rushed ahead into the last room (remember that one brutal battle), but there wasn't even a dent made in their health before i got there to help with my tank.
I understand that they have a need to broaden the audience, but they have broadened me right out of the picture. I'm sure the raiding is still great, but I'm not committing to that sort of schedule ever again so I guess there isn't much for me. I've been told that about the only challenge at 90 (5 man) is the speed runs where your gear is capped.

PurEvil wrote:

I had the same complaint when I came back (which I posted a few pages back), and after a while, I realized it may have been for the better. I always loved running 5-mans, but PuG's were horrible back in the day. And with a full-time job, wife, toddlers, etc, fast easy runs became a bit relaxing. I still got to see the old instances, got good drops (though I'm a little upset that my DK can't get crap for drops from the BC content), and didn't have to deal with wipe-fests from lolhunters and pyro-pull mages. In a good run, I can run 3-4 instances in an hour, and the XP is awesome for it, even without quests.

Pretty much. For the older content, with the speed of leveling these days, it would be prohibitively difficult to find a decent group with the right composition that were all the correct level to run the instance and at the same time patient/competent enough to do it correctly. Remember that Magister's was geared for level 70s with fairly decent gear - it was the first 5-man to drop only epics. But there's a huge jump in power between 70 and 71, and now even a level 68 can jump to Northrend and start picking up greens that far outstrip anything that drops there, so even most "level 70" players you run into are far, far stronger than a level 70 player was during BC.

On the flip-side, the reason dungeons and Heroic dungeons aren't challenging anymore at 90 isn't just because people outgear them - they weren't super difficult to begin with, because Blizzard wanted people to use them as a primary method of gearing up to get into LFR. They didn't want to try to tune them to be difficult and end up with another Oculus where half the people who got into it would just instantly leave and frustrate the rest of them. So they put Challenge modes in to try to cater to the old-school type of player (and yes, they are difficult).

Well, I hit 80 and now I've landed on the flip side of all the prior easiness.
Damage incoming on my tank and everyone else has gone way up* -my healers are still pulling extra mobs instead of healing me, the dps only attack the several million health boss while the 80k remaining puppy adds are left unmolestesd, druids don't cast hots, fires are stood in, pets continue to taunt. Aiaiai.
Still more fun than zerg rushing, but there has been so many bad habits learned by people on the way to 80.

*As in, my shield will pop due to damage now instead of just running out. It's still not anything major, but I do need some heals.

dibs wrote:

Well, I hit 80 and now I've landed on the flip side of all the prior easiness.
Damage incoming on my tank and everyone else has gone way up* -my healers are still pulling extra mobs instead of healing me, the dps only attack the several million health boss while the 80k remaining puppy adds are left unmolestesd, druids don't cast hots, fires are stood in, pets continue to taunt. Aiaiai.
Still more fun than zerg rushing, but there has been so many bad habits learned by people on the way to 80.

*As in, my shield will pop due to damage now instead of just running out. It's still not anything major, but I do need some heals.

Not sure if they've been nerfed to the ground, but I recall the Cata dungeons (Throne/Blackrock/Stonecore/Vortex) being fairly testy earlier on or at the initial required levels. You really had to know your way, be aware of pulling too much, be up on boss mechanics, etc. There is a clear difference in difficulty between the later Wrath stuff and the early Cata stuff that people aren't always ready for.

Picked this up a month or two back and have vaguely been noodling around with seeing the new content. Got to level cap; done all of the instances, most of the scenarios, the Isle of Thunder intro quest sequence and all of the "Pandaria Campaign" quests (domination point etc). Pretty close to 100% on the first three zones but haven't touched the Dread Wastes, Vale of Eternal Blossoms, Townlong Steppes or Timeless Isle. Any must-see or must-do content in those?

Vale is mostly dailies, Timeless Isle is rep grind hell, but has a fantastic quest that's a must-do for lead in to the next expansion, and the Klaxxi quests in Dread Wastes are must-do. I'm not a huge fan of daily rep grinds, but if you're going to get exalted with one faction, it's them. Absolutely worthwhile.