Bait & Switch

I was driving to work yesterday when I realized, "[swear words], this was another Old God end boss expansion!"  We were all so excited to be getting rid of Garrosh and fighting Sha that the bait and switch of handing us another Old God to defeat initially didn't register on my radar.

Now, I like the Old God plotlines, really, because there's so much ambiguity about whether they're good for, bad for, or just there with regards to Azeroth.  But four out of five expansions?

• Vanilla WoW: C'Thun
• Burning Crusade:  Woohoo Outland!  Sticking it to the Legion!
• Wrath of the Lich King: Yogg-Saron
• Cataclysm:  N'Zoth, though we never confront ... him? it? directly
• Mists of Pandaria:  Y'Shaarj

You know what?  I think we're due for another Burning Legion expansion.

Beta Mists, 8

Okay, back to the beta!  D&D was canceled tonight, so I have some time to kill.

Which is good, because I'm in the Valley of the Four Winds now, in the area with the Turtles of DOOM.  I think I crashed out... ten times?  About that, to kill five turtles.  Erg.

Macros work if you put an ! in front of spell names.

Krasarang is still closed, but I've found a couple quests that point that way.  I'm gonna guess it's the next zone open.

Hm, looks like another 'you need to kill five things but they're way overfarmed' quests.

New favorite quest!  "Crouching Carrot, Hidden Turnip."

Fast forward a week:  I spent most of the week disconnecting every five minutes.  It's more stable now, and more zones are open, so yay! more to take pictures of.

Hadrian finally has a spec!  Of course, misdirection is still broken.

I rolled a Pandaren until he puked. o.O

The Jade Witch is finally fixed... and apparently there were more quests after that one that I couldn't get to before.  I guess I'm questing in the Jade Forest again.

Woo, crashed again.

New cave maps!  But, um, the map doesn't actually show up yet.

The Jade Serpent is beautiful!  I'd imagine that, like the green drakes, I'm never actually going to get that color for a mount, though.  (Still waiting on my green drake, dammit.)

Tried Temple of the Jade Serpent; group fell apart.  (Come on, people, it's beta, we're all still learning it. >.<)

But I hit 87 (current level cap), and got Stampede.  Which I can apparently cast while moving.

Valley of the Four Winds has the Tillers faction, which will, among other things, let you have your own little farm mini game, which isn't yet implemented.  Krasarang Wilds has the Anglers, which have fishing poles, a (slowly sinking?) raft, and a water bug mount that lets you walk on water.

Lots of NPCs have little notes (I'm a girl, NEEDS HOE OR RAKE, temp model) that are presumably for the developers, but I find them quite amusing in the meantime.

Beta Mists, 7

I've mostly been trying to get through quests in the Jade Forest, but I've run up against a couple buggy ones that I just can't do right now (the Jade Witch and Getting Permission).  I finally hit 86, though, and the Valley of the Four Winds is open, so I headed over there to see what it's got.

So far:

• OMG huge birds.
• The cutest little pig farm.
• New giant lizards.
• MOTHRAN. 
• Birds flying around with sacks of grain. o.O
• Stormstout brewery.
• The Cliffs of Despair over the KrasarangWilds, and New Taurajo.

Huge birds!

Cute pig farms!

Mothran!

Birds... carrying sacks of grain?

The Stormstout Brewery

The zone itself is pretty: rolling hills, nice trees, quaint little farms.  Oh, and stills.  This is Pandaria, after all, and for the longest time all we knew of them was Chen's Empty Keg.

Pretty trees!

New Taurajo in Krasarang

Whoops, got too far to one side for a screenshot.  Let's see where it ports us.  (Back to the wreck in Jade Forest.)

I haven't seen any quests yet, but that could just be the two bugged quest chains from the Jade Forest keeping me from moving on.  (If so, that's quite annoying:  previous expansions you could move on when you were high enough level for the next zone.)

Running around Jade Forest looking for any extra quests... There are cats that walk on water. o.O

Waterwalking cats

Accidentally ran into the Alliance's allies.  Whoops.  Now PVP + resurrection sickness.  Running on, a rogue sapped me, tried to kill me, but didn't dismount me.  Jump off a cliff into water, feign, camouflage, equip fishing pole that allows water breathing.  Now to just re-camouflage until PVP wears off...

Ended up in an archaeology site, and the fragments are in!  Pandaren's special fragments are oracle bones.  Hm... attacked by an Ancient Haunt after my last Survey, which dropped Mogu fragments.

Oh, hey.  If I go across the bridge into the Valley of the Four Winds, there's a quest.  From Chen Stormstout himself.

Okay, the Virmen are adorable.  Like rat murlocs.

Virmen

Beta Mists, 6

Oh, look, a patch.  Download was surprisingly fast.

Hey, Hadrian is back to his normal size!  Unfortunately it doesn't look like this means the pet talents are in yet.

The slicky quest in the Jade Forest that wasn't letting me pick up the exploded slickies seems to work now.  There are spinning turtles here.

Whoops, phasing error.  Maybe I have to complete some more quests to make my turn-in person show up.  But now!  Going in search of pets!

Aw, you can't actually collect battle pets yet.  Sorry, Mr. Mouse!

So far, browsing through, a few pets have abilities in.  The Albino Snake, Jubling, Hawk Owl, Nuts, Armadillo Pup, Baby Blizzard Bear, Core Hound Pup, Crimson Whelpling, Mechanical Squirrel, Onyxian Whelpling, Peddlefeet, Strand Crawler, Tranquil Mechanical Yeti, Willy, Bananas, Gurky, Lil' K.T., Mini Tyrael, Pandaren Monk, Phoenix Hatchling, Spectral Tiger Cub, Stone Armadillo, and Zergling all have abilities, although some of them are obviously test abilities.

Jacob the Test Seagull, with his test abilities

Crimson Whelping - pet abilities

I don't know where Bubbles is acquired, but dude.  Also, the Dimetradon Hatchling appears to have some camera distance issues.  And, dude, the Fetish Shaman?  The otter pup is absolutely adorable.

Bubbles

Fetish shaman

Otter pup

Whoops, flew around, and Hadrian shrunk again.

Checked in at the mining trainer; I really hope Trillium's materials get nerfed down to one of each ore.

First new metal - Ghost Iron

Second new metal - Trillium

Hm, the specialization panes have had their information reduced to just the main spells.  I liked knowing what the specialization spells/abilities were and when you get them.  I also don't know what my mastery ability is - and I have no way of telling what the other specs mastery is without actually respec'ing.  (Feedback submitted on the forum, woo.)

The current incarnation of the specialization pane.

I seem to still have the Master Marksman ability (Steady Shots are still stacking it and proc'ing Fire!), but I can't find anything in my spellbook that tells me I have it.  Oh, wait, there is is!  So I'm still supposed to have it. :)

I went to check my priest's talents, and it's consistently giving me a fatal error.

Logged on the Tauren monk to check what the trainer was like, and, well:

I foresee a lot of new monks falling off the bridge.

Okay, so I went to look at the warlock again, and they've fixed destro's mana regen spell (Chaotic Energy, which is passive), and the new play style is hella fun.  Burning Embers can be used to empower a Soul Fire nuke or to heal - which is helpful, since carrying Burning Embers damages you.  So far I've gotten an 83k Soul Fire, and I don't even know how that compares to live.

Chaotic Energy - Destruction's mana regeneration

Also, there's Fire and Brimstone.  It uses a Burning Ember to splash around Immolate, Incinerate, Conflagrate, or a Curse - so if you're going to need to AOE, save up an Ember for Fire & Brimstone, and then pop your dot/debuff/nuke of choice on the group and then, if needed, you can follow up with Shadowfury or Rain of Fire.  So you could AOE up Curse of Elements or Immolate, both of which will buff your Rain of Fire, or Conflagrate if you just want to daze them, or Incinerate if that's all it will take to kill or mostly kill them.

Fire & Brimstone, sort of like Soulburn just for Destro

Huh, nice little warlock bug.  Shoot keeps trying to turn on, all by itself, even with no wand equipped.  And keeping me from casting Rain of Fire without manually canceling it.  (Added to the bug thread for it.)

Beta Mists, 5: a Warlock note

My warlock is my... I'd say 6th string toon, but hell, I have 3 hunters at 85, so probably more like 8th.  I've always played her as destro, since I liked the "BURN IT ALL" concept of the spec.

I copied over my lock to take screenshots, and I discovered:

• Soul shards... are no more for Destro; Burning Embers instead
• I apparently can kill myself without having access to Hellfire now
• I don't have Hellfire
• I have a self-heal!
• I... can bubble? o.O
• I can Cloak of Shadows, but have to burn health to do it
• My imp will auto-cleanse me if I'm polymorphed, etc.
• Warlock talents have some flavor text
• Banes aren't yet implemented for Destro, so Havoc is NYI
• No DoTs o.O
• LOTS OF FIRE WOO

Destro's mana is still broken, so I can do about 1 filling of a Burning Ember before I'm dry.

Beta Mists, 4: Shaman and Priest

Ok, I've been playing Duskhawk in the Jade Forest for a while, so I figured I'd take a look at some of my other toons.  First, my elemental shaman, since I hear totems have gotten serious work.

Elemental Spec

 Shaman talents are interesting.  First tier is defensive, and second is about movement - either rooting or escaping roots.  Third tier is totems - reset cooldowns, refund cooldown if destroyed or replaced early, target them.  Fourth tier is the hard decision - elemental mastery (haste buff) vs. ancestral swiftness (5% passive haste and next nature spell isntant) vs. echo of the elements (like elemental overload, but for any direct damage or healing spell).  Fifth tier is healing focused, with a totem, an atonement copycat on a cooldown, and a healing rain related spell.  Sixth tier (that I can't take yet) is a buff to weapon imbues, turning elemental pets into real pets (albeit on their totem cooldown), and an elemental damage spell.

Shaman Talents

So, without talents, what have I got left for totems?

• Earth: Tremor Totem, Earth Elemental Totem
• Fire: Searing Totem, Magma Totem, Fire Elemental Totem
• Air: Capacitor Totem (AOE stun), Grounding Totem, Stormlash Totem (adds electrical damage to allies' attacks)
• Water: Healing Stream Totem

Totem bar is gone; you get totem pullouts now.  Not very handy if you need to hit them fast, but with only nine totems without talents, that's not a ton of toolbar space to just put them all on one.  Weapon imbues got a pullout too, which is pretty nice for them.

Elemental loses access to the Healing Waves and Fire Nova.  No more water breathing. :(

Huh.  I just realized that the bank got a recolor.

Some of the elemental glyphs (Lava Burst, Unleashed Lightning) don't really seem enticing.  Telluric currents sounds like it's probably a Resto-focused glyph (reduces damage by 30%, restores 50% of damage done as mana), but we'll see how mana efficiency is for Elemental.

Okay, I'm done running around Orgrimmar; let's go see how the spells look.

Oh, my God.  I just noticed that Shields and Imbues have 1 hour durations.  FINALLY.  But now - Pandaria on the shaman.

The new Lava Surge not only resets your Lava Burst cooldown, it also makes the next one instant.  The best part: you get a graphical notice around your character, like for fulmination, so you know when it procs with less staring at your toolbar.

Mana seems okay for basic questing; Elemental is still nice and bursty.  Haha, one of my new totems aggroed a critter, which ran over to attack me.

Okay, now to check leatherworking...  Oh, hey, it gave me Zen Master Skinner already.  Leatherworking patterns aren't in yet.  Cooking looks to have two skill 500 recipes in - probably so people can catch up their cooking.

Over to my discipline priest.  Last time I tried to look at her was one of the server crashes, so I haven't gotten to do more than glance through her stuff.

Priest tiers are a bit different than the shaman ones; the first tier is about control - fears, roots, mind control.  The second tier is movement - the bubble speed buff, removing movement impairing effects.  Third tier is incomplete, but it's where they've got Archangel and what used to be Surge of Light, which now has a shadow alternate effect; the third option is TBD.  The fourth tier is emergency buttons - instant self heal, health swap, and a proc'd bubble.  The fifth tier has utility abilities; sixth tier has three options for damage or healing abilities, all of which look cool and make me want to get to 90 on my priest just to try out.  Cascade looks like Prayer of Mending on Steroids with a damage alternate; Divine Star is like a boomeranging fire orb that heals or damage; and Halo is like a healing or damaging Blast Nova.

Priest Talents

Like the shaman glyphs, other than Atonement, there aren't a bunch that excite me.  Hunter glyphs were much more fun.  There is, however, an offensive version of the dispel magic glyph - it deals damage when you do an offensive dispel.  Nice for PVP, probably.

On to the priest spells!  Offensive and defensive dispel have been split up - Dispel Magic and Purify.  Purify has Cure Disease rolled into it.  Discipline no longer has Heal, Holy Nova is MIA, and Divine Hymn is Holy-only.  Most of the shadow damage spells have gone over just to Shadow spec, but they left us Mind Sear and Shadow Words Pain and Death.

No tailoring recipes in yet, but hey!  There's some enchanting stuff.  ... and Zen Master Enchanter requires Blacksmithing (500).  [giggles ensue]  They haven't updated graphics for the new enchanting materials - they have Spirit Dust and Mysterious Essences, but the Cataclysm enchanting graphics.  Several of the skill-ups are 2-5 per crafting.  (FINALLY.  I've been leveling an alt enchanter, and some of the levels are so slow to get past.)  The numbers are large, of course (spirit by 200, etc.).

Enchanting - entry recipes in, but a few bugs

Now to go test discipline soloing!  Actually I really just want to see the void tendrils graphic.  You may have notices I also gave my shaman the earthgrab totem; I like RUN AWAY options, since I have been known to get my characters in over their heads.

I like how prevalent flight paths are in the Jade Forest.

Okay, discipline soloing is as nice as always; I accidentally pulled three wasps, and had no trouble with them.  Void tendrals are HUGE!  Hm, Archangel isn't flashing at me anymore when Evangelism hits five stacks.  All those little things I like are still there - Divine Aegis, Train of Thought, etc.

Void Tendrils

No healing attempts yet - too much to do around the house, and I've spent all weekend beta-ing.  But soon!  (I'll try to remember to screenshot the discipline spec next time.)

General Beta Notes

So I've had a couple days to run around in the beta; some stuff is in, some isn't, some is buggy.  A summary:

What's in:

• Monk class
• New talents/skills/glyphs (mostly)
• AOE looting (which is awesome, btw, and I need to test if it works with the loot-a-rang)
• Quests in the Jade Forest
• Pandarens and their starting zone
• New cloth and leather for gathering
• Temple of the Jade Serpent (instance)
• Some new battle grounds, although I haven't tried them

What isn't in yet:

• New crafting (or at least, not engineering)
• Mining and herb nodes
• Most mobs' loot tables in the Jade Forest
• Most mobs' correct type (most beasts are humanoid, etc.)
• Tamable mobs in the Jade Forest
• Pet talents

What's sort of in, but not quite:

• Pet battles - the interface is there, though you need to keybind it to see it, but I haven't been able to capture anything new yet.  You can see capturable critters, though, because when you mouse over them, you get a target cursor.

Frequently Asked Questions in the Jade Forest:

• Portals are buggy and you may need a Rune of Teleportation to use them.
• Wisdom of the Ages and Jinyu in a Barrel are both buggy and may not work if more than one person tries to do them at a time.  If there's a line, your best bet is to get in it.  There's probably still a chat channel for Jinyu in a Barrel (/riflechat).
• There are several quest hubs (crash site (Horde), Chun Tian Monastery, Arboretum, the orchards, etc.), but the crash site quests chains you through to making friends with your NPC faction.
• No flying on Pandaria until level 90.  (The skill is in your spellbook, waiting to be learned.)
• Premades will need to get a mage to port them to Orgrimmar, or get a Rune of Teleportation from someone to use the portals until they fix them.
• Currently only the Jade Forest is open, and you can't get to the other zones in Pandaria.
• Current level cap is 86.
• Hunter pets are bugged and appear at the size they were tamed.
• You only have a mainhand and and offhand slot now - no ranged slot.  You can put ranged weapons in your mainhand slot, and if it's a wand, you can use an offhand item with it.
• Once Nazgrim is at Hellscream's Hope, he's behind the tower.  (He just had an airship crash; cut him some slack.)

Beta Mists, 3

Back in the Jade Forest...

Cliff gilders (wind serpents) currently track as humanoid.

Even on the beta I'm getting questions about where to get my purple tallstrider mount. >.<

Crowded for some quests - a few the phasing is bugged and need to be done one at a time.

OMG BEAVERS.

Waiting in line for Wisdom of the Ages - took about an hour for the line to get through.

 
Hey, the right-click > report menu has been expanded - now has name/cheating/spamming/language.  I like!  It'll make reporting offensive names and such so much easier.

The report menu when you right-click on someone's name has been expanded

Yay, done with the line!

Done with Wisdom of the Ages!

Haha, I can summon crows under water.

Ok, now that I'm past the long line and the immediate follow-up, it's time to make brownies.

Beta Mists, 2

I played a monk to level three before creating a beta guild for my guildies who are getting in.

Not being able to scroll out further than the default may cause me some issues; I need to play 'further back' to not get motion sick.

Ok, after some lag/crashing issues, I can finally teleport to panda land!

I, uh.  Pandaren are short.  I mean, sure, I'm a Tauren, but...  OH, that's a Pandaren kid.  The adults are shorter than I expected, but not *that* short.

Pandaran Male

Pandaran Female

Heading out of Dawn's Blossom to the Arboretum

Run around a bit, find some quests to kill wasps and pick up flowers.  Oh, right, my toolbars.  Some stuff is gone (Concussive Shot, Kill Command is out of my spec, etc.), and I haven't bothered to remake macros yet since I don't know what I'm going to need yet.  But I have A Murder of Crows, and it is awesome.


There are some pretty cranes in the Jade Forest, but I can't tame them.  This is just as well; the stable is a little buggy, and I don't want to mess with swapping pets around yet.  The pet talent pane is... gone?  I don't know, I just can't find it.  I'm guessing that's another work in progress.

Pretty green cranes!

The new glyphs are mostly fun!  I put in mostly soloing ones for now (Mending, Misdirect, and improved Mend Pet is now a glyph) since I figure that's what I'm going to be doing.  The Camouflage glyph right now gives you real stealth, which will be tempting later for dungeon soloing type stuff.

Marksmanship specialization

Talent pane

Talbuk models have returned!  Also not tameable.

Poor Hadrian has been shrunk, without even having the glyph in.

Taking lots of pretty pictures - War Serpents, the Temple of the Jade Serpent, the Dawn Bridge.

Approaching the Temple of the Jade Serpent

Guards in the Temple of the Jade Serpent - female Pandaran tails go under the cloak, no clipping

Stairs to the Temple (a little glitchy)

Temple of the Jade Serpent

The Dawn Bridge

There are a bunch of kites suspending lanterns along the bridge

War Serpents

Waterfall from the Dawn Bridge

Temple of the Jade Serpent, seen from the Dawn Bridge

Back in the Arboretum, looking towards the flight path

Serpent trainers

Serpent trainers

Aw, no fishes yet.

Oh, thank God, I found the camera distance slider.

OH MY GOD I KICK STUFF.  Okay, right, so I'm a Tauren hunter.  I have to destroy these statues.  To do so, I KICK THEM.  This is awesome.

Haha, first fatal error.

I keep trying to run out to range, but minimum range is gone. >.>

Lots of fill-up-a-bar quests in the Jade Forest so far.

Bell in Chun Tian Monastery

... High Elder Cloudfall randomly fell over and died.  Um.  It's apparently a known issue in the quest; I guess I'll go find other quests.

The bamboo forest

Hey, nearby available quests show up on my world map now?

Ok, the Jade Forest is kinda crowded, I'm going to go check out the Tauren monk I rolled yesterday.

Hm.  Jabbing stuff to death at level one and two feels slow.  I get roll at level two, and... ok, it doesn't roll yet on Tauren, more like the goblin's rocket jump effect.  But it's got a 0, 1, or 2 on it; I can use it twice and then it has to regen?  But the tooltip doesn't clarify.  Also my starting weapons think they're broken.  (They're not.)

Hm, leveling is just automatically teaching me stuff in the field, no running back to train.  Kinda nice.  Level three got me Tiger Palm (which uses some Chi) and Blackout Kick (which also uses Chi, usable at 35% like an execute).

Monk interface & a gazelle critter that I can't capture yet

Still, I feel kind of weak compared to the other low level toons I've made.  I'm dying a lot more than I usually do, to mobs just a level higher than me.

Hee, another bug that's already been reported.  Tauren monks don't speak Taurahe.

Moon over Mulgore