Mists of Pandaria

[benebarba]

What would be interesting is if you had to work on them throughout the expansion. But that would depend partially on the story arc behind them.

Mmm... there have been hints at them being upgradable in 5.1. Could be interesting.

That would be pretty neat. It may also allow them to not be grossly overpowered when they are first introduced (and therefore nigh required for next-tier heroic races and early progression) while remaining something you'd want to keep around for a while.

I don't think having a rewarding and interesting story and quest chain will be an issue (the last two seem to have had that down pretty well). Making them not locked to a single category or class may be more 'fair' to groups, though how the process actually goes will be interesting to see. I suspect there'll be many complaints regardless, so we'll just have to see if Blizz likes it more or less than the current model.

[Paxen]

How is questing in Mists? Is it as linear as in Cata (take these 3 quests, complete them to get the next batch, no other options in the entire zone) or have they eased off a bit on that?

[KysenMurrin]

Other people will have done more of it than me, but: It seems more relaxed. Jade Forest is hrd to say, because it had gaps and missing breadcrumbs, which is probably part of why they're rebuilding the zone right now. But after that, you get to Valley of the Four Winds and right away there's a set of four quests that send you off in different directions and can be done any order (two in the Valley, two in the Krasarang Wilds zone). The Valley of the Four Winds itself has one main questline following Chen Stormstout, where you move to a hub, go off and quest in 2-3 nearby areas, then continue to the next hub.

[Klaudandus]

Think of it kinda like questing was in Borean Tundra or the other starting zone. It's a bit of a bottleneck at first but then it branches off for a while before putting all the threads back together for a great finale -- but you need to complete each major story line to get the most out of it -- this is more poignant in V4W/KW where the finale is awesome even if the major cinematics are not present yet

(so far has the quest achievements for JF,V4W,KW and KS)

[bldavis]

thats good to know, i prefered BT to either hyjal or vashj'ir simply due to the lack of questing areas

[KysenMurrin]

Think of it kinda like questing was in Borean Tundra or the other starting zone. It's a bit of a bottleneck at first but then it branches off for a while before putting all the threads back together for a great finale -- but you need to complete each major story line to get the most out of it -- this is more poignant in V4W/KW where the finale is awesome even if the major cinematics are not present yet

(so far has the quest achievements for JF,V4W,KW and KS)

There's a big finale? I noticed that there's another phase for the big wall in the west (I logged in near it and it took forever for my actual phase to load up) but never got to see what happened. All I got was a breadcrumb back to Krasarang. Do you have to complete both zones? I thought they had it as a parallel thing where you could choose to do one or the other and didn't necessarily have to do both.

[Klaudandus]

thats good to know, i prefered BT to either hyjal or vashj'ir simply due to the lack of questing areas

I loved Borean Thundra, I'd always get the quest achievements for that zone... I could never complete the other starting zone though, I'd get bored for some reason (never did Grizzly hills for that matter -_-)

[KysenMurrin]

I never fully quest Borean Tundra (apart from finishing Loremaster once), just didn't like the place much. Tend to skip the airfield, DEHTA, and the quarry. Howling Fjord isn't much special in terms of quests but still manages to be my favourite zone.

[Klaudandus]

Think of it kinda like questing was in Borean Tundra or the other starting zone. It's a bit of a bottleneck at first but then it branches off for a while before putting all the threads back together for a great finale -- but you need to complete each major story line to get the most out of it -- this is more poignant in V4W/KW where the finale is awesome even if the major cinematics are not present yet

(so far has the quest achievements for JF,V4W,KW and KS)

There's a big finale? I noticed that there's another phase for the big wall in the west (I logged in near it and it took forever for my actual phase to load up) but never got to see what happened - finished all the quests I came across then got nothing but a breadcrumb back to the start of Krasarang, the phase never changed.

you gotta finish KS first, it's kinda confusing actually but the big finale requires you have done the 4 students, the hidden master and the crane temple in KS -- then pushes you into a phase near the wall that has a huge battle going on, and I won't say more about it or I could spoil it...

[KysenMurrin]

yeah, I think I've seen enough to guess what happens when I loaded in the wrong phase. But as I said in my edited post above, I thought Blizz had been saying from the start that the two zones were ones where you could choose to do one or the other, rather than running both.


I still need to do Krasarang, but right now the start of the quests there is he spot where all the Horde port into the game, and both zones are laggy as hell because of that.

[bldavis]

thats good to know, i prefered BT to either hyjal or vashj'ir simply due to the lack of questing areas

I loved Borean Thundra, I'd always get the quest achievements for that zone... I could never complete the other starting zone though, I'd get bored for some reason (never did Grizzly hills for that matter -_-)

i have never finished HF either, or grizzly hills....
but i have done BT what...11 times now?
on both factions now with my horde druid

i just wish there was more zones like that where you could choose what story arc you followed at which time

[Sabindeus]

How is questing in Mists? Is it as linear as in Cata (take these 3 quests, complete them to get the next batch, no other options in the entire zone) or have they eased off a bit on that?

It's like, exactly the opposite, which is honestly chafing me a bit. I'm not really liking the experience of riding around and having my log entirely full of quests and not knowing which is appropriate to do next. Also while I can easily ignore plotlines that look like they are dumb and I don't want to progress, there's also not much way to figure out if a questline is going to be relevant to the plot you care about up front, so you might end up missing things! I dunno I guess I just prefer to have my hand held.

[Flex]

People who like Borean Tundra baffle me. Worst zone of WotLK.

[Nikachelle]

How is questing in Mists? Is it as linear as in Cata (take these 3 quests, complete them to get the next batch, no other options in the entire zone) or have they eased off a bit on that?

It's like, exactly the opposite, which is honestly chafing me a bit. I'm not really liking the experience of riding around and having my log entirely full of quests and not knowing which is appropriate to do next. Also while I can easily ignore plotlines that look like they are dumb and I don't want to progress, there's also not much way to figure out if a questline is going to be relevant to the plot you care about up front, so you might end up missing things! I dunno I guess I just prefer to have my hand held.

This makes me happy actually. (I'm sorry you don't like it!)

[Nikachelle]

People who like Borean Tundra baffle me.

Oh god. Why do you and I have to agree on something? :/