In our narrative walk-through of the pandaren starting zone, we chose to play a pandaren monk because that's kind of a huge point of the expansion. You will see mild differences if you play a non-monk. Other classes begin in Shang Xi's Training Ground, so it's not entirely a separate experience. When we last left our hero, Graey the pandaren monk had begun his journey to find Aysa Cloudsinger.

Finding Aysa of the Tushui doesn't take much work, but it definitely counts as your first "Run, Panda!" quest. Turn back around the path and follow your minimap to the big, glowing question mark. Congratulations on your first experience as an Azerothian creeper. It doesn't take quite a minute to reach Aysa. There's technically a path, but if you're anything like me, you veered off in a straight line to Xi's student.

When you reach Fu's Pond, though, it turns out Aysa is too busy to talk to you. She's doing her exercises, according to Merchant Lorvo. Since Aysa's busy, Lorvo wants your help instead. He wants you to recover Items of Utmost Importance and rescue The Missing Driver.

Let me translate that for you: He wants you to go kill stuff, loot the bodies, and talk to the driver. No problem, we can do that. We have finely honed hitting-stuff-with-stick techniques. The Amberleaf Scamps are closest, so we'll do that first.

Scamp killing

The scamps don't put up much of a fight. Your biggest challenge will be wandering around to find enough of them. Kill a fox or two along the way to buff your experience bar and fend off the disappointment at the scamp shortage. Also, scamps are really cute, and you'll feel a little guilty for the merciless slaughter. Stay focused on your XP bar to shoulder the guilt.

Once you gather enough supplies, go ahead and find the driver. All you need to do is walk near him; the scamps that cornered him run off at your thunderous approach. The driver Dimwind will thank you for your valiant walking-up-to-him skills. Now you return to Merchant Lorvo for your reward.

Aysa is now hanging out with Lorvo. She congratulates you on your compassion (for killing a bunch of scamps, I guess). Turn in the quests to Lorvo and talk to Aysa. In the beta, she has this totally cool shock of funky green hair that will never see light of actual game -- but we can hope, because it's really cool.

Holding the enemy at bay

Now, Aysa is ready to introduce The Way of the Tushui. She's been thinking about how to find Huo, the spirit of fire, but she hasn't had much luck coming up with a plan. She instructs you to go with her to the Cave of Meditation. Sadly, this isn't an innuendo. Accept the quest and jog off to meet her in a cave. I'd say follow her, but you can't. Aysa's been hitting the Gummi Berry juice and launches herself up the rock wall. You have to hoof it.

Jog up the trail toward the next quest marker and kill lots of stuff. As the story goes, you're keeping the Amberleaf hooligans at bay while Aysa meditates. It shouldn't be too tough, but winning the fight requires your attention. Also, if enough other people are doing the quest at the same time, you can easily get swarmed.

If you do find yourself having trouble, step outside and find some other monsters to attack and kill. Jumping up to the next level can be a huge help. Also, make sure you actually see the bar at the bottom; it denotes how long until you succeed.

When Aysa finishes the meditation timer, she'll send you back to Master Shang Xi, who has appeared at the mouth of the cave. (Would have been nice to have his help fighting the Amberleaf just then, right?)

Monkeybutt mayhem

Now Master Shang Xi sends you to another one of his students, the infamous Ji Firepaw. Ji lives in Wu-Song Village in the northwest. Use your map to follow the road to Ji. It's not a horrible run, as far as these things go. As soon as you arrive, you'll hear Ji screaming, "Take that monkeybutt!" Since this does lack that all-important comma, I'm forced to imagine Ji just finished hurling simian hiney at his enemies.

Ji's heard of your immense skill and thinks you'll be good friends. The monkeys swinging around town are called hozen, and there's only one thing you can do: Beat them down! So, kill eight monkeys in The Way of the Huojin. The best part is that the Fe-Feng attackers actually jump on your head, just like you'd expect a semi-sentient simian to do in real life.

You return to Ji and regale him of your exploits. He's impressed by your monkey bashing and agrees to help you learn the necessary skills to rekindle the fire.

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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: ji-firepaw, panda, pandaren, pandaren-starting-area, wu-song-village

Filed under: Mists of Pandaria