For a game that’s hitting its 8 year birthday, Blizzards World of Warcraft is still going strong, being the most subscribed to MMO on the market. Don’t let last months announcement that they had lost around 1 million subscribers over the last year fool you, that can easily be attributed to the end of expansion burn out, when no new content is available for play, and everyone is just biding their time until the new expansion hits. Well that time is almost upon us, with the release of Mists of Pandaria just over a month away, there’s a wealth of news to talk about!

First and foremost Blizzard has shown the opening cinematic to the new expansion, which you can check out below, showing off the prowess of the new Monk class that is to be introduced, along with giving us a glimpse of the kind of environments we can be expecting to explore come September 25.

Its also interesting to note that before we see the new Pandarian monk, we are shown a fight between an alliance human, and Horde orc, after both have been shipwrecked on the shores of this new island, foreshadowing the renewed conflict between the Horde and Alliance that Blizzard has been hinting at for months.

Furthermore, Blizzard has also revealed that patch 5.0.4 will be coming to us on August 28, which will include many class updates to get in line with new talent system of Mists, along with the Theramore Event; which involves the Horde invasion of the Alliance Isle of Theramore. That little act of aggression will be the spark that fuels the fire that will see the aforementioned conflict erupt. Its interesting to note that Blizzard has already discussed their plans for the end of the expansion and revealed that the final raid will be called The Siege of Orgrimmar, with the current leader of the Horde, Garrosh Hellscream, being the final target. So now we know how it starts and how it ends, so its going to be really interesting to see how we reach that end.

Finally, Blizzard has also decided that regardless of what expansion you currently have, all races will be available to play, including the new Pandaren race when the expansion launches, you will however need to purchase the expansion to access the level 86-90 content, the new monk class, and many other features being introduced.

That’s all for now, but if any of you fellow WOWnerds want to find me in Azeroth, look for a certain troll named Slipshanks on Anderhol!
Safe Journeys in Azeroth.

~Phil