Ok. So. Pandas. Yep, they’re real. I waited for an hour hoping it was a gag they were putting on. Apparently they decided to commit business suicide.

On the halfway decent side, they’re introducing a monk class.

On the negative side, it takes place in a world very ‘Avatar’ish’ in style. As in, the Horde and Alliance discover this beautiful serene place full of Pandarans and decide that strip-mining it for resources is ideal. Hopefully that should make anyone with any decency want to turn against their own factions.

So I thought that Pandas were jumping the shark, but I was wrong. Apparently they weren’t done yet. The REAL jumping the shark is coming in the form of Pet Battles. And when I say pet, I mean companion characters. As in, imagine dog fight style battles between your halloween pumpkin and eerie wooden box pets. Worse than the references to strip mining beautiful places, is the overt reference to pet fighting in this fashion. You’ll even be able to train them up to be highly skilled and then put them on the auction house. Whatever happened to just collecting pets… *sigh* Now we’re going to have people selling uber-muderous Egbert’s Egg and psycho killer Perky Pugs.

As it has been repeatedly commented upon… this expansion started with Kung Fu Panda and added Pokemon pet collecting and battles. Wee! If you’re 8, that is.

Other than those… tons of other changes.

New Annual Membership deal. If you lock in your subscription for a year (paying monthly with the promise to pay a year, think phone contract) you get free access to play Diablo III and guaranteed spot in all future WoW beta testing.

New leveling zone (Pandaria) looks like China and has 5 large zones.

Level up to 90.

No flying until max level.

Talent system is totally redone. Only one talent tree per class, all grouped in together. You get 1 talent point every 15 levels.

New Mage Talents - Preview from Blizzcon 2011

Weird new challenge mode dungeon system with new ranks. Sounded very much like a combo between old PvP ranks and dungeon achievements. Why they couldn’t do this within the existing dungeon achievement system… who knows.

Rehashing old dungeons again – this time, heroic Scholomance and Stratholme.

3 new raids and a new raid finder that is cross-realm.

No auto attack.

No ranged weapon slot unless you’re a hunter. Warriors and rogues will throw their normal weapons instead.

Relic slot is gone.

Hunter minimum range and melee weapon slot is gone.

Casters now use wands as main hand weapon.

You will automatically learn spells and won’t have to train them.

New Account wide achievements which affect and/or require multiple characters on your account.

That’s it for now. Will probably post machinima winners and costume contest stuff later.

Remember, if you are at a computer with your Battle.net login info handy … just head to Blizzcon.com and click on Live Stream. You’ll be able to watch some of the stuff for free, including the pre-show coverage and the opening ceremony.

Hint: Skip to 40 seconds in and ignore the last 2 minutes (credits are WAY too long on this video).

What does it mean? Well that’s the question on everyones mind in the WoW blogosphere.

From my old D&D days I can say that transmogrification was always a form of magic that changed your physical appearance. And since we already have barbers… well it’s either going to be face/skin color/etc.. changes or maybe even gear appearance. I’m more inclined to think it’s the former.

Of course, now there’s an entire segment of people thinking that we’re going to have Ethereals as a playable race. I highly doubt it. WoW has a pattern through their expansions: new races, new class, new races, new… it’s time for a new class, not a new race. My bet is that we’re going to see monks as a new class. And I can totally understand the Pandaren teaching a natural sorta Earth energy monk, and the Ethereals teaching the kind of monk that could channel electrical energy from their body outward into an electro-zap attack from some mega Ki channeling.

The void storage guy… well his name is ‘Vaultkeeper Razhid’ so everyone is crossing fingers and toes for additional bank space.

Lyrics to “Temple of the Moon” by David Arkenstone
Kal’dorei, Kal’dorei
Asha’re, Asha’re
Leyashnu, bela’thil
Kal’dorei, Kal’dorei
Asha’re, Asha,re
Lei’alah, Darnassus, bela’thil
Kal’dorei, Elune adore
Lei’alas Teldrassil
Kal’dorei, Elune adore
Lei’alas anu, bela’thil

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