We had a lot of fun last night streaming the entire pandaren starting experience. Matthew Rossi, Anne Stickney, Alex Ziebart, and myself hopped on Mumble, fired up the live stream, and spent a few hours rampaging across the Wandering Isle. Witness all the wonder and spectacle of this special band of adventurers, with special guest "I'm Going to do Quests Whatever" Mike Sacco. See lots of pandaren emotes and animations, watch Alex actually having a fun time in WoW, and hear me say something funny with Rossi on occasion. Anne won't stop rolling. I think you'll have fun.

In the meantime, I'll do my best to answer as many questions about the practical, boots-on-the-ground beta as we have it now. It feels as if this first initial push is intended to be a systems test.

Revynn asked:

Are you locked to certain levels and zones like you were in the Cata beta or are people already trekking to 90?

The only content currently available for testing at this moment is 1-to-10 on the Wandering Isle and an incomplete (not too incomplete, however) 1-to-85 monk experience. Pandaria is not available yet, although many people have been trying to sneak on to the elusive continent.

I made an orc monk, and the starting experience was the same as the other classes. I did not find a monk trainer in the starter area yet, which doesn't bother me because you don't need to go back to a trainer to learn new skills anyway. However, it would be nice to have minimal monk presence in the old starting areas, just to feel like you belong. It is still beta, and this can and most likely will change.

keithcblack asked:

Have they sent beta invites out to Annual Pass holders yet? I haven't seem to have got mine yet.

Beta invites for the Annual Pass subscribers are going out in waves, with the initial tiny wave going out to some press, some Annual Pass subscribers, some opt-ins, etc., which what looks like a systems test. There is no way content that is currently available in the limited beta would accommodate the number of players ready to play because of the Annual Pass. Give it a week or so, and let's see what Blizzard says about the beta invite waves.

If we don't see the beta open up in terms of content available in the next couple of weeks, I would start to feel a little miffed and start up the angry train. Right now, the systems are coming online for the first public beta of the game.

ktphillips1217 asked:

So question, so i understand that monks use leather(or was it cloth till 40 then leather?) do the leather heirlooms work for them?

Monks only use leather armor, much like rogues.

gumpfanatic asked:

Has Blizzard said anything as to how they will explain Alliance pandas not being able to talk to Horde pandas? Do they not speak the same language together and grow up together on the turtle? Or am I completely wrong and opposing player pandas will be able to communicate with each other?

It is a gameplay decision, similar to why the Forsaken cannot speak common. This is one of those cases where the in-game explanation doesn't matter, because gameplay comes first.

recneps1337 asked:

what color are monks?

Monks are represented by a darker shade of green, almost like a forest green? Jade-like? I'm remembering back to my Crayola days. Hunters are a more muted green, whereas monks are a deeper shade of green. It's a different type of green.

slim1256 asked:

So, saw the video for this on Wowhead, and I have to ask:

Is it sad that, if I could choose any one feature from Mists to have right now, it would be AoE looting?

If there were any way to get AoE looting into the game earlier with one of the bigger updates before Mists of Pandaria launches, I would be a happy camper.

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Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW Insider crew is here with The Queue, our daily Q&A column. Leave your questions in the comments, and we'll do our best to answer 'em!

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Filed under: The Queue