World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria

[Parn]

Slightly more than half of WoW's subscribers are Chinese.  Perhaps this expansion is aimed to increase those numbers even more since western subscription numbers are on the decline and fierce competition in the west is around the corner?  Just random speculating on my part.

[ZeronHitaro]

I finally read through some of the details and I have to say the design element of this is...weird. Really there's no reason why people shouldn't just play nothing but Pandarin Monks from here on out. They can be either faction after the starter area and apparently the Monk class will have trees for Tanking, Healing, and DPS.

Emperor of all Trades much?

[Hathen]

Slightly more than half of WoW's subscribers are Chinese.  Perhaps this expansion is aimed to increase those numbers even more since western subscription numbers are on the decline and fierce competition in the west is around the corner?  Just random speculating on my part.

Actually, funny thing is that people while will make obvious Chinese gold seller jokes at a suggestion like that, given the popularity of Chinese-style MMOs in the actual Chinese playerbases, this isn't an unreasonable suggestion. I remember my swim instructor being really enthusiastic about watching this movie simply because it was a Western take on Chinese history and legend, and the first observation some of my gamer classmates made when the first trailers of the Sorceress class in Diablo 3 was coming out was that the lady looked Asian.

Really there's no reason why people shouldn't just play nothing but Pandarin Monks from here on out. They can be either faction after the starter area and apparently the Monk class will have trees for Tanking, Healing, and DPS.

Eh, you could make the same argument for Paladins and Druids since they can fill all 3 roles as well. The choice between Alliance and Horde is a permanent one for Pandarans, so that wouldn't really factor into people choosing Pandarans or not.

[ZeronHitaro]

Bah, it's been so long since I played I actually forgot about those two. ~//~

[Parn]

Also just remembered that a lot of people liked Kung Fu Panda.  Who knows.  It's certainly an unusual move on Blizzard's part at any rate, and I guess we'll find out if it's a sound move, or a disaster of "Sarah Palin is my VP" proportions.

[Adapheon]

I am completely sold on everything so far that the expansion is selling me. I haven't played in almost a year and once 4.3 hits I might sign back up. Monks, pokemon, the new talent system, pve events, the return of world raid bosses. Pandaren don't seem too bad, I like the art style and the new dungeon and raid design make it seem as though I may be able to return to them which would be awesome because I don't have nearly the time I did before.

[Akanbe-]

apparently the Monk class will have trees for Tanking, Healing, and DPS.

Emperor of all Trades much?

I'm kind of surprised they are adding another since Paladins and Druids always seem to be pretty touchy balance wise.  They also said there is no auto attack for them which is interesting.  Also means that if you aren't mashing your keys you aren't doing any damage.  Still am curious about the Monk.

[Ragnarok-Sabin]

apparently the Monk class will have trees for Tanking, Healing, and DPS.

Emperor of all Trades much?

I'm kind of surprised they are adding another since Paladins and Druids always seem to be pretty touchy balance wise.  They also said there is no auto attack for them which is interesting.  Also means that if you aren't mashing your keys you aren't doing any damage.  Still am curious about the Monk.

As they acknowledged later on, that's not set in stone. And frankly, I don't expect it to make it in. In order to keep the Monk's damage balanced with classes that do have auto-attack, the activated-abilities are going to have to hit a fair bit harder, which I can already see being a major problem in PvP balance. It opens up the class to very high burst unless the double-resource system is balanced on a razors edge.

[ZeronHitaro]

apparently the Monk class will have trees for Tanking, Healing, and DPS.

Emperor of all Trades much?

I'm kind of surprised they are adding another since Paladins and Druids always seem to be pretty touchy balance wise.  They also said there is no auto attack for them which is interesting.  Also means that if you aren't mashing your keys you aren't doing any damage.  Still am curious about the Monk.

As they acknowledged later on, that's not set in stone. And frankly, I don't expect it to make it in. In order to keep the Monk's damage balanced with classes that do have auto-attack, the activated-abilities are going to have to hit a fair bit harder, which I can already see being a major problem in PvP balance. It opens up the class to very high burst unless the double-resource system is balanced on a razors edge.

Honestly that doesn't sound too difficult to do. I mean they found a way to make a class Tank with only a 2-h sword so why not a no auto-attack class?

[Andrew]

apparently the Monk class will have trees for Tanking, Healing, and DPS.

Emperor of all Trades much?

I'm kind of surprised they are adding another since Paladins and Druids always seem to be pretty touchy balance wise.  They also said there is no auto attack for them which is interesting.  Also means that if you aren't mashing your keys you aren't doing any damage.  Still am curious about the Monk.

As they acknowledged later on, that's not set in stone. And frankly, I don't expect it to make it in. In order to keep the Monk's damage balanced with classes that do have auto-attack, the activated-abilities are going to have to hit a fair bit harder, which I can already see being a major problem in PvP balance. It opens up the class to very high burst unless the double-resource system is balanced on a razors edge.

Honestly that doesn't sound too difficult to do. I mean they found a way to make a class Tank with only a 2-h sword so why not a no auto-attack class?

Well, they sort of did. Admittedly, I haven't played WoW in a year or so, but at the time Tank (Blood) Death Knight's were ridiculously OP for PvP and soloing. I used to do arenas as one and it was ridiculous. My DPS rivalled straight DPS-builds and I could self-heal continually. Often my partner would be knocked out in seconds and I could still beat both opponents and win. Not because I was awesome (I was fairly average), but because DKs were crazy. So, yes, they tanked, but they were wildly unbalanced with everything else.

[Ragnarok-Sabin]

apparently the Monk class will have trees for Tanking, Healing, and DPS.

Emperor of all Trades much?

I'm kind of surprised they are adding another since Paladins and Druids always seem to be pretty touchy balance wise.  They also said there is no auto attack for them which is interesting.  Also means that if you aren't mashing your keys you aren't doing any damage.  Still am curious about the Monk.

As they acknowledged later on, that's not set in stone. And frankly, I don't expect it to make it in. In order to keep the Monk's damage balanced with classes that do have auto-attack, the activated-abilities are going to have to hit a fair bit harder, which I can already see being a major problem in PvP balance. It opens up the class to very high burst unless the double-resource system is balanced on a razors edge.

Honestly that doesn't sound too difficult to do. I mean they found a way to make a class Tank with only a 2-h sword so why not a no auto-attack class?

Well, they sort of did. Admittedly, I haven't played WoW in a year or so, but at the time Tank (Blood) Death Knight's were ridiculously OP for PvP and soloing. I used to do arenas as one and it was ridiculous. My DPS rivalled straight DPS-builds and I could self-heal continually. Often my partner would be knocked out in seconds and I could still beat both opponents and win. Not because I was awesome (I was fairly average), but because DKs were crazy. So, yes, they tanked, but they were wildly unbalanced with everything else.

As it currently is, DKs are actually very weak as tanks (I play a Prot Paladin in a US ~50 guild, so I keep a close eye on tank balance). Still spectacular as solo classes, but the shield tanks are just leaps and bounds stronger for cutting edge heroic raid content. It's pretty consistently been an issue that either DKs have extra CDs to compensate (kind of like Druids had more armor/health) and were OP, or didn't and end up weak overall.

Granted, I am hopeful that the no-auto-attack works out, as I'm very fond of the idea, but Blizzard has a tendency to swing between extremes a lot with balance. And every time they change the talent system or raise the level cap they have to start again.

[Dade]

Kinda bummed the Monk class took this long to come out, I woulda totally played that four years ago.

Heck, after the first month of withdrawals, I really don't miss WoW and it appears other than the architecture and the new class I won't be missing much.

[Akanbe-]

apparently the Monk class will have trees for Tanking, Healing, and DPS.

Emperor of all Trades much?

I'm kind of surprised they are adding another since Paladins and Druids always seem to be pretty touchy balance wise.  They also said there is no auto attack for them which is interesting.  Also means that if you aren't mashing your keys you aren't doing any damage.  Still am curious about the Monk.

As they acknowledged later on, that's not set in stone. And frankly, I don't expect it to make it in. In order to keep the Monk's damage balanced with classes that do have auto-attack, the activated-abilities are going to have to hit a fair bit harder, which I can already see being a major problem in PvP balance. It opens up the class to very high burst unless the double-resource system is balanced on a razors edge.

Ah I see, I didn't know they said that.  I agree with the potential balance issues due to scaling and what not.  It would be an interesting premise for the class, but I wouldn't blink twice if they changed their mind.  Throwing punches with "chi" strikes interwoven could still be very Monk like.

[ZeronHitaro]

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/blizzcon-11-world-of/723021

I like how the spokesman is rather tongue in cheek and how the crowd started off kinda "...what the hell?" but gradually seemed to take it more in stride once they got a few good laughs.

[Tenchi-no-Ryu]

Gosh, this should have been the first expansion. Granted, I dig the art style, it fits very well with the graphics engine, but its hard to be really excited about it. Don't get me wrong, I think it would be refreshing to explore a new continent that hasn't really been exploited in Warcraft lore. I haven't played WoW seriously since WotLK, but this seems to be a step back in the thrill department. I'm not sure I buy the "catering to Asian audiences" bit, cause honestly, this can be seen as tremendously stereotypical to that ethnicity. Yeah, I know - Pandarans were asked for YEARS ago, but their own expansion?

My guess is that they're trying to cater to the younger crowd since their original demographic is aging and have bigger, more interesting games on the horizon. I really hope this new continent is as large, if not larger than Burning Crusade's was. Since the fundamental reboot of the original world in Cataclysm was pretty much a dud (critically, not commercially), they've really got to try something new, and this is about as far as a departure as you can get from how the game's themes were going. I'm sure it'll sell like Christmas crack in Times Square for the Warcraft Nation, but meh...