Mists of Pandaria! Aka, MoP…

We got a crapton of information dropped on our heads today, so I’m going to take a minute to try to make sense of it…

The new expansion:

PANDAS. Who doesn’t like pandas? Ridiculous people, that’s who. People have been requesting Pandaren for a very long time and I’m happy to see such a popular race brought into the game…even if it never really existed before. I really want to see female pandaren…if they even exist. They have to exist right?

The new graphics:

Maybe not “new” per se, but definitely improved. The new island looks fantastic. I don’t care if WoW ever updates its graphics to mimic Aion or Rift or any of these newfangled games these kids are playing nowadays, but seeing them put the effort forth to make the art and the animations really come to life is great. It’s a double edged sword though…time will tell if my computer can handle anything too lavishly updated.

The new class:

MONKS! Really excited for a whole new class to play. And a new hybrid class to boot? Yes please! I can’t wait to try it out. Not sure if I am enamored with their choice of armor class though. Freakin’ loot competition. I’m just glad they start at level 1!

The new talent system:

I haven’t looked it over much yet. A step in the right direction? Maybe. I’ll reserve any further comments for when I actually get to play with the thing. But I have high hopes! The talent system in Cataclysm was great.

The new pet battle system:

Uh…okay, I’m on the fence. For one, it looks like a shameless and rather disturbing replica of Pokeman. Don’t get me wrong, I grew up with Pokeman. I loved Pokeman (and, okay, I still do. Sue me). It feels kinda ripped off. But on the other side of this coin, I’m super excited to get to do something with my mini pets besides hoard them all in my bags and show them off with my nose in the air. I can see this being the type of thing I’m going to be massively addicted to (as if I need anything else…) and this is another thing I think I should reserve judgment on until I get to play with it. I’m also curious how pet collecting achievements will work now if you can just go out into the wild and “capture” critters or whatever. It kinda takes the challenge out of collecting large numbers of pets, but at the same time it also opens it up for us to collect a wider array of things.

In conclusion:

I’m super duper excited…but there is one thing dampening my enthusiasm. The number of characters currently allowed per server. I’m maxed, and almost everyone is level 85. Now if push comes to shove, I can deal with having to delete (or, if funds permit, transfer) a character to make room for a panda…but I feel that it is now well within the bounds of reasonable for us to ask Blizzard, seriously now, for more characters per realm. As a friend said to me, it would be poor design on their part to give us 11 classes and only allow us to play 10 of them on one server. Some folks will rail against that notion and try to stomp on those of us who like to play multiple characters, but I stand firm. We need another character slot. And until we get it, I’m going to curb my enthusiasm for a class and a race that will, at best, become a neglected alt on another realm.

Also, I signed myself up for the new Annual Pass thing. If you’re craving a beta invite as badly as I am (I got in once and now I cannot fathom not doing so again) then you might look in to it. You don’t pay any more money than you would normally for 12 months of WoW, and since I’m certain I will still be here chuggin’ along in a year it was a no brainer.