Posts with tag panda

You can hardly load up a WoW site without getting barraged by panda news. That information seems obvious -- after all, we're all sitting around drooling for the new expansion. But if you're the kind of player who prefers staying spoiler-free, then the substantive news about Mists of Pandaria versus the minutiae can seem overwhelming. So let's kick back on our armchair in the clouds and take a good, high-level look at the new expansion.

First things first. Mists of Pandaria is the fourth expansion to World of Warcraft. We've already had The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, and Cataclysm. This is the (very, very) basic story so far: In The Burning Crusade, the Horde and Alliance went off to Outland to bring down the machinations of a handful of elves and demons. While they were gone, though, the Lich King rose back up and attacked. Once the Lich King was defeated, a big, bad dragon woke up and wrecked shop on Azeroth. In Mists of Pandaria, the Horde and Alliance have dealt with external threats and are now turning their eyes to one another.

Our good friends over at Wowhead found a special treasure included in the latest beta patch. That treasure? Nothing short of the Mists login screen. Veteran players know the login screen design is critically important, since we'll be staring at that sucker for the next two years.

These are still images, so we don't know what the final animations might look like, but these gorgeous screenshots look like a pleasant change from WoW's previous dragons-and-yelling motif on login screens. Take a look at a hypothetical final behind the cut, and let us know what you think in comments.

Kun-Lai Summit is host to the Shado-pan Monastery. In Mists of Pandaria, you'll undoubtedly get a chance to experience and help rid the instance of Sha influence. Megan and I decided to check the place out and see what the deal is. We teamed up before when she carried me kindly tanked for me in the Stormstout Brewery. Like last time, I healed on my holy priest, Megan tanked on her druid, and we were accompanied with two hunters and an enhancement shaman. Your group needs to be at minimum level 87 in order to queue.

The video above is a little under 50 minutes long. We would've been able to move quicker if I hadn't been in combat all the time.

Yeesh. Even the Matticus needs a drink from time to time.

Gu Cloudstrike

Cloudstrike is the first boss your group will challenge. You'll run into Cloudstrike outside on a plateau just as you leave the first chamber. It's a three-phase encounter involving Cloudstrike and a flying serpent.

So, we presented the first version of this seizure-inducing insanity without comment. But you weren't satisfied. Half of you were like, "You're missing dance moves." The other half were like, "Oh, sweet hairy panda, we need more."

Machinima master Nananaea heard your cries, but unlike vaguely splotched superheroes from the past, she did not whisper no. She whispered yes, and she went to the huge effort of creating further animation and putting out this video. I can't stop watching it. It's hypnotizing.

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Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.

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Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mathew McCurley (@gomatgo) will be your host today.

Here is an except from my third grade BlizzCon book report:

I had a really great time at BlizzCon this year. I saw Mike Sacco and Alex Ziebart and Daniel Whitcomb and Fox Van Allen and Adam Holisky and Dawn Moore and Chase Christian and Matt Low and Joe Perez and Dan O'Halloran and Kelly Aarons and Lisa Poisso and other people too. I would recommend BlizzCon to all of the other kids in my class. The end.

Didax asked:

Can a Horde Pandaren talk to an Alliance Pandaren by using the Pandaren language? Or at level 10 are they going to suddenly suffer a case of explosive amnesia, forgetting their native tongue?

No. Pandaren of each faction cannot talk to each other. Blizzard has said numerous times that it does not want the factions conversing in game with each other. It is purely a gameplay decision.

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Fox Van Allen and Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aim to show you how to make money on the auction house. Feed Fox's ego by emailing him or tweeting him at @foxvanallen.

The more information you have at your fingertips, the easier it will be to make money. It's a simple truth, and it explains a lot of why newbies to the Auction House game struggle so much. The heavyweights have the information, and you don't.

Part of the problem is the standard Blizzard UI. The money making game would be so much easier if Blizzard simply gave players more information -- information that's readily available elsewhere. "How many stacks of this are listed at this price?" "What will this piece of armor disenchant into?" "Where the hell do I go to find Whiptail?"

Those who have more experience than you will always have an inherent advantage. But it's an advantage that even the newest of players can mitigate through the use of addons. Today, I'm going to talk about four simple gold making addons for beginners that do some really powerful things to put newer players on a slightly more equal playing field.

Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.

The Queue is now in order! We all know that Samwise Pandas Club threw a party the other day and not one of us was invited. Now what do you say if we form a new club and call it the ... He-Man Panda Haters Club?

Now I think we oughta have a president. Now, the man we elect must be the worst panda hater of us all. I nominate ... myself. Because I hate pandas.

Gutrot asked:

Alex I think you write the Queue on Monday right? The other writers have speculated about Mists of Panderia but you haven't except for your panda hate. What do you expect to see?

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aims to show you how to make money on the auction house. Email Basil with your questions, comments, or hate mail!

The glyph market has spawned quite a few of the important modern auction house addons. It's a uniquely challenging market, as there are hundreds of different products, each with their own balance of suppliers, buyers, and materials. The challenges faced by early glyph producers were met by a hodgepodge of fairly complex addons and macros, and only recently have unified solutions began to appear. I remember that at one point, I had addons to:

• Keep track of how many glyphs I had on the AH, in various characters' banks and in their inventories.
• Allow me to queue a list of glyphs and build a materials list (that allowed me to buy the vendor mats with one click).
• Automatically queue enough glyphs in the second addon to assure that I kept stock levels at my desired level.
• Automatically post every glyph I made onto the AH.

The tasks needed for this market are not unique, and so the most important tool that can trace its origin to the glyph market is certainly TradeSkillMaster. TSM is an addon that I've covered before, and it's built from the ground up to be perfect for glyphs. It's also perfect for a lot of other markets, but mostly those you can treat like glyphs.

Addon Spotlight focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. We'll look at everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your interface folder will never be the same! This week, Addon Spotlight lies to you, ditches Power Auras and shows you some resource gathering and trade skill addons instead.

Hello, addon enthusiasts. I know that I promised some more Power Auras this week in the form of some more advanced techniques, but as I was writing it, I realized I wanted more time to flesh out some concepts. So, you'll have to cut me the tiniest bit of slack and give me until next week for some more excellent Power Auras selections and suggestions from the community, as well as some of my own tips and tricks.

Instead, here are three addons that will greatly enhance your trade skill gathering and crafting. Who doesn't love addons that make things easier? I know I do. Trade skills used to be my favorite thing about World of Warcraft. Then they petered off in usefulness for a while, making a triumphant return in Wrath. I remember back when the game was announced and the Blizzard dev team said you couldn't fail on crafting! As long as you had the materials, you were good. Amazing! What other fun surprises await you? Click on, heroes.

AddOn Spotlight focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience -- the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your AddOns folder will never be the same! This week, the community's voice has been heard and three awesome addons await your approval.

Last week, I propositioned you, the fine readers of AddOn Spotlight, to send in your favorite addons that you wanted to see on the Spotlight. You responded with a ton of suggestions, ranging from the absolutely awesome (the three we will be seeing today) and the absolutely AWESOME (stop suggesting IconHell). Without further adieu, I present you with AddOn Spotlight's first Community Choice! Here are three of your suggestions. Enjoy!

When it comes to the WoW forums, few things make me happier than seeing blue text truly and utterly own the trolls and other unsavory types that hang out there. Especially when it's a case of someone thinking they can lie to the GMs and Customer Service reps and get away with it. We've seen it before, but it is no less entertaining each time.

In this particular case, a level 70 Warrior (posting on his level 42 Mage alt) claims that he forgot to loot the Vial of Eternity from his guild's recent Kael'thas kill. He filed a GM ticket, and they refused to grant it to him, stating he should just go kill Kael again for it. Embers, the alt, goes to the forums to ask for this vial instead. EU Game Master and Customer Service Rep Xaldavan joins the show pretty quickly, asking for some necessary information to help him (her?) investigate the situation, even offering to give him the quest item if his claims are accurate.

As you can guess, they weren't accurate at all. In fact, the Warrior left the raid an entire hour before Kael'thas was actually killed. In the middle of a trash pull, too! You would think people would know by now that trying to scam a GM is silly. As Xaldavan said, they can see everything. Some of these people are very, very lucky that Blizzard's GMs tend to be merciful about these sorts of things.

The prank was criticized for supporting the belief that World or Warcraft players are lazy and obsessed. I can understand the complaint, but I admit to tabbing out while waiting for arena queues to order pizza online at least once or twice.

In the comments Censorman said, "I've heard China won't allow Pandas to be killed in games." Fanryn responded that "no one has ever found any reference of an actual Chinese law that forbids 'depictions of violence against pandas.'" I decided to investigate and see what I could come with for a reliable resolution to this debate.