If you've been following the Mists of Pandaria beta at all, you may have heard that questing players discovered that they were only getting one choice for quest reward items. Many recent MMOs such as SW:TOR use this model; it's generally agreed that the system of multiple possible quest rewards is yet another "bad player trap," like Ghostcrawler described lots of talents pre-Cataclysm. Players can miss out on quest rewards accidentally, and since there's no in-game way of switching your quest rewards, well, that can be a headache (especially since reports say that GMs are no longer switching quest items for you).

When asked about the issue on the beta forums, Ghostcrawler offered a pretty reasoned explanation for the change. He says that most quests with green rewards will only give you one choice (that matches your current spec). However, there'll also be vendors in every zone from whom you can buy sets of gear that aren't quite up to the item level of quest rewards in that zone, so you can fill in itemization holes or help bolster an off spec a little more. Quests that offer blue rewards will usually offer rewards for any spec your class can be, giving you some flexibility when it comes to rare rewards. Also, Mists of Pandaria questing is more non-linear than Cataclysm's, so you'll be able to hit up a different zone in the event that you need gear for a specific level range.

Ghostcrawler's full response (and an image of one of the vendors) is after the break.

Quest Rewards: Spec-Specific Loot

Offering quest rewards this way is a change for us, and the kind of thing for which we could definitely use feedback.

For the players that level as X spec but want to also collect gear as Y spec, we have a few solutions:

-- Several of the zones have vendors with decent gear that isn't quite at the quest item level. These help provide coverage if you miss a reward, say gloves or shoulders, since questing is less linear now. However, these vendors also help you gather off-spec gear.

-- Several quests, especially those that offer blue rewards, weapons, trinkets and most of the level 90 quests, offer you a choice of gear for all of your specs instead of just your current spec.

-- Because the questing in zones isn't as linear as Cataclysm, and because there are two zones per level in some cases, you'll have the option to hit some quests as spec A and some quests as spec B.

-- There are still other sources of gear, such as crafting, the AH, dungeons, faction rep and so on.

Also remember that if, for example, you level as Arms but want to tank a few dungeons as Protection, that the level-up dungeons are not so brutally difficult that you need full tanking gear. A Prot warriors in DPS Strength gear would do just fine. As you get into endgame content, especially normal raids, you'll want actual tanking gear.

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It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!

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Tags: gear, gearing, loot, mists-of-pandaria, pandaria, quest, quest-items, quest-reward, quest-rewards, questing, quests, spec, spec-specific, specs

Filed under: Mists of Pandaria