Last Week in WoW: All the panda ladies edition
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Mar 13th 2012 at 6:00AM
While we wait with bated breath for the Mists of Pandaria press event, do not fear. We still have plenty of articles and analysis to sate your hunger, including news and blogs from Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street. Downtime today is a series of rolling restarts at 5 a.m. PDT, but that still gives you at least a little time to get caught up. Read on for the usual weekly roundup of news and awesome stuff.
Hot news and items
- The Scroll of Resurrection now offers some awesome new benefits, including a fresh new level 80 character, a free realm transfer, and a new mount for you.
- In the final Cataclysm post-mortem, Ghostcrawler talks about game systems.
- Ghostcrawler also talked a bit about the new buff and debuff changes coming in Mists.
- Olivia analyzes the new Mists PvP stat changes. Do they mean we could see one gear set for PvE and PvP as a viable choice?
- Blue poster Daxxarri offered some clarification on the PvP stat changes and what they mean for gearing up.
- Everyone's favorite face-pulling berserker Leroy Jenkins made an appearance on The Daily Show.
- We show you how to transmogrify your character to your favorite classic Nintendo hero.
- Check out the latest WoW action figures from DC.
- Totem Talk proposes some possible new talents for restoration shamans. We also discuss the buff and debuff news for enhancement shaman.
- The Light And How To Swing It looks at the end of the block stat as we know it. We also take a look at the new Mists talents for holy paladins.
- Shifting Perspectives look at how the new Mists druid talents can make your group's life hell and offers a guide to feral soloing in Naxxramas for fun and profit.
- Lichborne looks at the effect of the new Mists stat changes on death knights.
- Scattered Shots looks at the expertise changes for hunters in Mists.
- Encrypted Text takes a look at the latest rogue poison news.
- Spiritual Guidance has a shadow priest wish list for Mists of Pandaria. We also look at secondary healer stats in Mists.
- Raid Rx heals Yor'sahj on hard mode.
- The Care And Feeding of Warriors looks at the buff and debuff news.
- Blood Pact has some complaints about the Soulburn mechanic.
Dungeons, items, professions, PvP, and more
- WoW Rookie helps you get started in World of Warcraft.
- All The World's A Stage offers five tips for new roleplayers.
- Gold Capped wants to share ideas to fix professions.
- An all-druid guild is working their way through Dragon Soul.
- Addon Spotlight helps you smash those annoying trains.
- The Overachiever looks at achievements that help you make gold.
- Know Your Lore dives into the history of the undead and looks at five Horde zones you should do before Mists.
- World of Warcrafts looks at some fabulous custom WoW-themed shoes.
- A former GM has sued over WoW's baby murloc voice.
- The Lawbringer discusses the week long NDA for the Mists of Pandaria press event.
- Check out our new weekly guild recruiting feature.
- Best Buy is touting the guild leader street cred of their new executive vice president.
Filed under: News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Vaniya Mar 13th 2012 6:26AM
Personally I am overjoyed at the silhouette that they gave us! I do like my female characters to have some muscle, or at least not be a twig, and I love that the males aren't pumped up on steroids like most of the other races :) Bouncy ftw! (does this mean a pandaren rogue could jump off the LM in Arathi Basin and take like 5% of their health as damage?)
Pyromelter Mar 13th 2012 7:10AM
I could be wrong but I thought I heard them mention that the racial would not stack with class talents like the rogue's decreased fall damage, or the cat druid one (even though pandaren can't be druids... yet).
Rojslade Mar 13th 2012 8:14AM
May I have my female panda sans the hair chopsticks plz? A little too stereotypical for me thx.
Fletcher Mar 13th 2012 8:30AM
I'm sure that's a hairstyle. Just choose a different one.
Pyromelter Mar 13th 2012 7:09AM
Don't forget the fill-in mage column that was tacked on to Sundays version of The Queue, where we discussed how mages were awesome in ways not very well known to the wow public:
http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/03/11/the-queue-rip-moebius/#comments
Nina Katarina Mar 13th 2012 7:47AM
"The big news for the week"?
Oh, you kidder. There had better be more than that, or Anaheim might find itself targeted by accidental stray nonlethal weapon testing.
Strawder Mar 13th 2012 8:20AM
That silhouette, looking ever so much like a female dwarf, -intrigued- me. I'm actually looking forward to the reveal for this one. The female Pandaren has a chance of single-handedly making me like pandas.
Provided it's not female Worgen all over again......
Isn't there a petition to make them UNDO Female Worgen back to Alpha status? There should be.
Bynde Mar 13th 2012 9:25AM
Yeah it does look kind of female dwarfy.
Reignn Mar 13th 2012 9:42AM
It is just the female dwarf model, with some new hair styles and presumably fur on it. My guess is that since they are redoing all the old models anyway, this is what the femail dwarf skeleton will look like, increased poly count, etc. Go go blizzard reduce, re-use recycle.
chuparex Mar 13th 2012 1:01PM
I can just about promise you that this is not the female dwarf model. Yes, the WoW art team recycles assets, often in ways players might not notice (did you know that Broken Draenei use the male tauren animation rig, or that the Armadillo Pup companion pet uses kodo idle and run animations?) Sometimes it can disappoint players when they notice it, but it's a good way to conserve resources. Also, I know you didn't say this, but folks will often call "the devs" lazy for not creating brand new art for this or that creature, when it much more likely comes down to time. WoW's artists would probably love to work on certain things (you don't become a 3D artist at Blizzard by being lazy or dispassionate about art) but they can't remake every asset from scratch.
That said, I expect Mists to be a very art-heavy expansion (especially compared to Cataclysm.) I fully expect the art team is currently cranking on as much new visual content as they can :)
mibu.work1 Mar 13th 2012 11:19AM
I'm quite happy to see this silhouette, as it looks quite different from the other race's females. Next to the willowy trolls, dranei, elves the slim-but-perky goblins, and the 'spent-all-spring-at-the-gym-so-I-can-fit-in-a-bikini-for-summer' female humans, it's nice we're getting a female model with some real muscle and meat on 'em. If you ask me, the female dwarfs have a little too much junk in the front to be believable for the setting (cross-continental running pre level 20 anyone?). That said, the other non-skinny female models are frankly near-perfect. Female tauren are believably related to their hulking male counterparts, while still having a decent amount of dimorphism, and female orcs, if anyone bothered to roll one, look believably ripped (seriously, washboard abs on the orc girls).
Anyway, I'm glad we're seeing a little more body-type diversity, and I expect female Pandaran to be among the cuddliest models yet.
Strawder Mar 13th 2012 9:31PM
I know / known lots of folks who will point out to you that the female human model is "fat".
I'm not one of them, but I do know them / known them.
Quasimofo Mar 13th 2012 3:49PM
The silhouette looks nice, now we just have to hope she isn't all perma-snarl and derpface with lifeless, vacant eyes. Not that they have a history of this or anything...
GuyverIV Mar 13th 2012 6:24PM
Came to warn about crazy-eyes ruining otherwise neat models.
Leaving pleased.
(That being said, the silhouette looks reasonable, though given the... puffiness of male pandaren, I wouldn't mind a little extra fluff for the ladies, either. After all, fat-bottom girls make the rockin' world go round... (Though that would give them the excuse to continue the ridiculous trend of, shall we say, top-heaviness the female models have developed...Hmmm...))
Strawder Mar 13th 2012 9:32PM
Nothing wrong with boobies! :D
:p