This post is sort of obligatory now, right?

Mists of Pandaria, the next expansion, features a new continent, a new playable race – the Pandaren, a new class – monk, a pet battle system, revamped talents, a new battleground, more ways to earn VP, PVE scenarios, and challenge mode heroics. I have to say, I’m pretty happy with everything announced. There was nothing they did that disappointed me, and multiple announced things were pretty close to exactly what I wanted.

New Continent

Going somewhere new is good. From the shots I saw, Pandaria’s asian-inspired look is gorgeous. And there’s a giant turtle that’s a zone. Come on. You sold me on the expansion right there, Blizzard! When our characters finally reach this new land, they’ll find a bunch of breweries! That’s another pro.

The Pandaren

The Pandaren seem like a very interesting race to me. I like having another old, wise race in the game. Both factions could use a little more wisdom, and the Pandaren will hopefully bring that.

Monks

I want to play this right now. The lack of an auto-attack is interesting for a melee class and should make for fun mechanics. I’m particularly interested in healing with a monk. I haven’t had a good track record with playing alts, but I’d love to get a monk going.

Pet Battle System

I’ve been asking for this for a long time! Granted, I wasn’t asking for it in WoW, but what Pokemon fan hasn’t wanted a Pokemon MMO? We knew Nintendo wouldn’t do it, but here it is thanks to Blizzard. On the other hand, I’m not too keen on pets being tradeable. Some pets won’t be, and I’m hoping Blizzard will make it so that the only pets that can be traded are the ones that, in the current system, are able to be traded before being learned. I don’t want achievement-related pets to be tradeable.

Revamped Talents

Talent trees are a thing of the past. People might use the word “tree” in the future, but they’re not trees in 5.0. Every 15 levels you’ll be given a choice between three talents. From what I saw, every talent was fairly interesting and will actually make some differences. Obviously, reducing the number of talents increases the importance of each choice, and that’s pretty cool. Also, those polymorph talents. Mmmm.

Battleground

Payload. Please. I want to participate right now.

More VP Choices

I always appreciate choices as to what content I complete. I like to try to see everything, but I don’t want to grind the same content repeatedly. Right now, I don’t have a problem with VP because I’m actively raiding. We’re 6/7 weekly, and after I do Baradin Hold, I’m only one heroic’s worth of VP short (which I skip because I’ve done those to death and they’re boring). However, for a while I wasn’t part of the main raiding team, and I can tell you, doing those Zandalari heroics seven times each week is tough. Sometimes I feel like Blizzard forgets that part of some of the players’ lists of dailies are “go to work,” “perform chores at home,” and “run errands.” Getting Valor Points from more places mean we won’t get burned out as easily.

PVE Senarios

Battleground-like experiences that are PVE? I am so excited about this. Admittedly, they might not end up as fun as I hope; however, I love Battlegrounds and think this could provide an amazing and fresh way of playing the game.

Challenge Mode in Heroics

This is actually something pretty similar to what I was asking for in a previous post. While not exactly the same, this can provide more fun from the same content. Already done grinding a heroic? See if you can complete it faster! Now in that same post, I called for the end of gear upgrades so that skill could play the important role. And in challenge mode, gear will scale down. Sweet.

Excited

So yes, I’m excited.