World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria |
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North American box art
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Developer(s) | Blizzard Entertainment |
Publisher(s) | Blizzard Entertainment |
Designer(s) | Tom Chilton Cory Stockton Greg Street Ion Hazzikostas |
Composer(s) |
Neal Acree Russell Brower Jeremy Soule |
Series | Warcraft |
Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows, OS X |
Release | |
Genre(s) | MMORPG |
Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
Aggregate scores | |
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Aggregator | Score |
GameRankings | 82.39% |
Metacritic | 82% |
Review scores | |
Publication | Score |
Eurogamer | 8/10 |
G4 | 4.5/5 |
Game Informer | 9.5 |
GameSpot | 7.5 |
GameSpy | 4/5 |
GamesRadar | 4/5 |
GameTrailers | 8.8/10 |
IGN | 8.7/10 |
PC Gamer (UK) | 82/100 |
World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria is the fourth expansion set for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft, following Cataclysm. It was announced on October 21, 2011, by Chris Metzen at BlizzCon 2011, and was released on September 25, 2012.
Mists of Pandaria raised the existing level cap from level 85 to 90. It introduced a new character class, the monk, along with a new playable race, the Pandaren. The vanity pet system was overhauled and a pet battle system was added. Scenarios were introduced, and Challenge Modes were added for dungeons. The existing talent trees were replaced by a new system of tiered talents awarded every 15 levels. The initial patch included nine new dungeons, three new raids, two new battlegrounds and one new arena. Subsequent patches introduced the Brawler's Guild and heroic versions of the scenarios. Several additional raids, dungeons, a new battleground, and a new arena were also added.
Monks use an energy source to power basic abilities like Jab. The basic Jab attack is used to generate a resource called "Chi", which are then used for more advanced attacks. The monk class was originally announced with not being able to utilize an auto-attack like the other classes, however, the developers chose to forgo this idea and they have been given an auto-attack. The monk class has three specializations: Brewmaster (tanking), Windwalker (melee damage), and Mistweaver (healing). Monks' healing specialization is capable of healing allies through dealing damage to enemies, as well as through "proximity" based heals, and by dropping statues, similar to a shaman totem, that pulse healing as they perform attacks on the enemy target. Choosing the healing specialization gives the monk a mana bar like other healers while the tank and damage spec uses an energy bar. Monks make use of leather armor, and every race except goblins and worgen may play as a monk. An 11th character slot was added on the release of Monks, allowing a player to have one of each class on the same server.
In the Legion expansion, Mistweaver monks will lose the Chi resource and the Fistweaving talent that previously allowed them to heal by dealing damage and will work like a standard healing class by directly healing allies using only the mana bar as a resource.