The Queue: Come to me, Pandaria
by Alex Ziebart 
Mar 26th 2012 at 11:00AM
The beta does not currently allow questing on Pandaria, and it is driving me batty. It's so close! Let me quest, dang it!
bethontheharbor asked:
So has anyone bothered to get shots of the Theramore area, or is it blocked off. I haven't seen anything from that town posted anywhere.
Theramore hasn't changed at all yet, so there's nothing to see.
Goarther asked:
How much content has been added to the beta since the version that was playable at the press event?
The current beta build appears to be the same build we were playing with at the press event, but Blizzard's locked it down more heavily since then. At the presser, we were able to quest in Pandaria, but that entire continent is currently off limits in beta. Players' being able to access that continent in the first 24 hours of the beta was considered a bug, and you can't get there anymore. Temple of the Jade Serpent and Stormstout Brewery were both playable at the press event, but those have been disabled in the beta as well.
So ... as far as we know, there hasn't been any content added since the presser. There is actually less content available for testing.
direbadgercvlry asked:
Any word on new hunter tames yet?
As readers mentioned yesterday, the beta hasn't progressed quite that far yet. The continent of Pandaria isn't open yet, and the pandaren newbie zone doesn't let you tame anything. When Pandaria opens up, though, I expect you'll be able to take the new tigers, porcupines, and possibly cranes. I'm sure there are other things in there to tame as well, but we simply haven't gotten that far yet.
riley asked:
So which is it? Pand-a-ria or Pand-o-ria? I keep hearing both?
Well, there is definitely no "o" anywhere in the name Pandaria. It's name after pandas and not the Greek mythology figure Pandora. Suzaku supplied the simplest pronunciation guide yesterday, I think: "pand area" like "land area."
ejunk asked:
any indication as to where pandas are dropped off following the starting area?
If you choose Alliance, you get dropped off directly outside of Stormwind. If you choose Horde, you get dropped off atop a tower in Orgrimmar.
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!
Filed under: The Queue, Mists of Pandaria
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 10)
Nina Katarina Mar 26th 2012 11:03AM
I've read that there's a dead zone in monk healing, where they're horrible at it until level 18 and then overpowered. Have you run into any similar dead zones in the tank or mdps monk experience?
kabshiel Mar 26th 2012 11:17AM
At the moment all three specs are missing so many abilities that they are pretty terrible. Tanking and healing are by far the worst off though.
fallemwarrior Mar 26th 2012 11:23AM
Alot of classes still have dead zones like that
Feral tanking is horrible till 25 when you get swipe
prot paladins cant spend holy power till 39 except on a 20sec cd heal
Quorniya Mar 26th 2012 11:27AM
It's so easy to get to level 18 these days that this doesn't really seem like that big of a deal to me, unless you're planning to turn off XP before level 18 to make a dedicated PVP twink. Even with toons that I plan to make into dedicated healers, I rarely start healing before level 18 because there just isn't that much content to heal, nor are there more than one or two healing spells available. I always level as DPS and add a healing spec when dual spec becomes available.
Now the OP part is a different matter, but at these lower levels where so little of your healing toolkit is available to you yet, I can't imagine that the healing balance issues are so pronounced that they'll carry over to level 90.
noel mcleod Mar 26th 2012 11:53AM
If you PvP-level (that is level only with PvP as much as possible) in current content you will know that this is true for EVERY SINGLE class/spec combination. We always hear about the places where this class is OP (rogues, anyone) but not about the places where they are not. And sometimes, it swaps when you change brackets or at a single new ability (backstab, anyone?).
Cephas Mar 26th 2012 12:02PM
1. Early Beta - we're still in that stage where Blizzard's top priority is making sure everything works, i.e. is it fundamentally functional? Tuning the abilities to make sure they aren't over or underpowered is part of very late Beta.
2. Brand new class - If we were talking about rogues here, who are changing relatively little, it wouldn't be quite so unreasonable to expect things to be well tuned, but Monks are a whole new class. A level 15 Mistweaver could easily end up almost completely different between now and after launch.
Twill Mar 27th 2012 1:49AM
I'd like to add:
Complaining is a good thing, kind of.
Sure, changes are coming, it's early, EARLY beta. Even after mists goes live, changes will continue. However -- why do changes exist? Because there is a problem. make sure you voice when problems exist so Blizzard fixes them. Just don't be a dick about it.
(My post isn't actually targeted towards any of you specifically, but towards this audience in general :)
Magma Mar 26th 2012 11:05AM
I've never understood how some of WoW's words get so mangled by people pronouncing them. Transmog for instance. I know several people who say "transmorg". There is literally no way to say it that way, but they find a way. Now, a word like "auchindoun"? Sure, I can understand having problems, I wouldn't even say there's a 100% set way to say that, but some words are easily said. Like Pandaria.
Shepherd57 Mar 26th 2012 11:11AM
Auchindoun is a real place and blizzard is probably going for the same pronunciation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auchindoun_Castle
Didax Mar 26th 2012 11:14AM
I know people who still insist that it's Ogrimmar, as if it's a city for Ogres.
Also Furblog, as if they're a race of furry internet writers.
Avaric Mar 26th 2012 11:18AM
I knew a guy who would say "Exodiar" for Exodar. That drove me nuts, I didn't get it either.
Emile Mar 26th 2012 11:20AM
Like people saying ENCH(anting) and mean an ENHanCement shaman?
Cheb Mar 26th 2012 11:24AM
The people who say "transmorg" are probably the same people who "warsh" their clothes. My ex's family would say that all the time; it drove me crazy to not scream "it's 'wash'! there's no 'r' in that word!" at them.
Jimson Mar 26th 2012 11:30AM
I have a buddy who pronounced a certain location in BC like this:
Terrokar Forest = "Tek-nar Forest"
Drove me nuts, to the point that I could barely listen to him say it.
Liyly Mar 26th 2012 11:31AM
How Pandaria should be pronounced is actually not at all clear from its spelling. The 'ar' combination in English frequently has two possible realizations for the vowel:
are, car, aria - pronounced 'ah' [ɑ]
care, malaria - pronounced 'eh' [ɛ]
Given the ambiguities of English spelling and differing word origins, I think you could make a case for either way. The 'right' way to pronounce it? Probably the way Ghostcrawler does. :)
Noyou Mar 26th 2012 11:31AM
WoW words? How about people who say Warshington and Groshrees? (Groceries) People are going to always pronounce things different. It's just who we are. It's nice to try and pronounce things certain ways but some people just can't. If they are your friends, you give them a hard time :p
As far as WoW words goes, I think only Drain-eye bugs me but you just shrug it off and move on ;)
Narayana Mar 26th 2012 11:33AM
If WoW has taught me anything, it is that when presented with an unfamiliar word (whether it be entirely fictional or just one you've never seen or heard before), you will be shocked at how incorrectly people can pronounce it. Adding letters, whole syllables and the like is not uncommon.
It must be something in our psyche that says "if you don't know how to say it, just move on" and when translated to spoken word that results in saying whatever comes naturally with little consideration to what it actually written on the page.
Noyou Mar 26th 2012 11:33AM
@Didax
I like to refer to it as Ogremart :p
laim Mar 26th 2012 11:36AM
My guild master pronounces 'Lich King' as 'Linch King'. I corrected him all the time about it when it was current content.
Now he just does it to annoy me.
I still correct him.
Killik Mar 26th 2012 11:37AM
Our old raid leader used to insist that we were going to Serpentshire Cavern. Scaly hobbits, yuk.