Legendary 86: Blizzard Sets Release Date For Mists Of Pandaria

Written by: Gary Gannon (@garygannon) | July 27, 2012 5:00 am

109 Comments

Each and every week the Legendary boys Gray Gannon, Josh Allen, and Mike B break down the latest and greatest World of Warcraft news. This weeks topics include:

Mists of Pandaria Release Date
Collectors Edition Details
Changes To The Pet Battle System
Farming For Gold
Weekly Q&A

Legendary 86: Blizzard Sets Release Date For Mists Of Pandaria

45:20

World of Warcraft

Patch 5.3: Blizzard’s First Ever Live Video Interview!

Legendary is joined by Blizzard's Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street and Brian Holinka for a live video interview!Read more »

19 comments
1:00:49

MMO News

This Week in MMO Ep 144:
WildStar, Rift, Dust 514

WildStar details finally coming out!Read more »

24 comments
1:22:33

World of Warcraft

Legendary Ep126:
Raiding Ra-Den Revelations!

This week the Legendary crew are talking patch 5.3, raiding, and more with World First raider Treckie!Read more »

25 comments

Shagral

I got into Annual Pass mostly cause of free D3. I played some Cata (which was fresh cause I quit before) but after D3 released I never once logged into WoW. So now I feel like I just paid threefold for Diablo. There’s no way I’d get into another AP. And I don’t think I’m alone in that.
http://www.facebook.com/adzaell Adam Elliott

Unfortunately i just don’t think i will buy MoP for a long time til after release, if at all.

I loved WoW for years, but think i have moved on.
- Matt Korneffel
  
  See you at launch bro!
  - http://www.facebook.com/people/John-Alvino/1094406295 John Alvino
    
    Not if he’s smart!
    - Justin O’Reilly
      
      See you at launch bro!
      - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1103680651 Dave Jeannotte
        
        One thing I won’t miss about not playing WoW… “U mad bro?”
      - http://www.facebook.com/Carrotatheart Timothy Cathcart
        
        That’s not exactly wow exclusive
http://www.facebook.com/people/John-Alvino/1094406295 John Alvino

The only date we need to mark down is the 28th… or the 25th of August.
Theyrealone

Lore, just Pirate the Pre-Downloaded installer!
http://www.hhportals.com/izhelara Lash

At 06:15 Gary says…? ^^
Aaaaanyhoo im not even gonna try not to pick up MOP, its my “MMO-Child, my firstborn”, and you dont just abandon your child do ya? Hehe just sayin.
slasher /

there wont be a difference if UK and US launch same time……we have different servers
Shagral

Digging the GBTV 3.0 site by the way 78:21
Dekin

I have to agree with MikeB about paying for something people value it more. I am studying to be a counselor and we run into situations where people need counseling but they cant afford t. We have to make them pay for counseling even if its five bucks becuase if you give it to them free they become overly critical of your therapy sessions because they think you are not trying as hard as you should because they did not pay for the services when in fact it is not true.

People take more pride in something if they put some sort of effort to gain the something.
- Old Ben
  
  True, some people have that strange perception of worth (the more expensive something is, the more tendency they’ll have to blame themselves for any flaws the product has), but that’s not necessarily the deciding factor for the publishers. Team Fortress 2 became 12x more profitable after it went F2P, for example.
- Jay
  
  Kinda reminds me of Apple… “I paid more, it must be good!”
JJversion1

I think that it would be a great marketing move on Blizz’s part if they made the original WoW and all previous Expansions free with every purchase of MoP. All you have to do is input the code in the box, when you make your Battle.net account, and you can download all the previous content, then install MoP itself. They’re not going to make MoP itself free, so this would be a sort of compromise. It would encourage both previous and new players to pick up the expansion and start playing (or playing again for the previous players).
http://twitter.com/Nathiest Nathiest

Pandaren a race people have been wanting to play since before WoW went into it’s first beta test.
So why all the hate? That fucking Kung Fu Panda movie. Seriously, ugh.. I can’t wait to roll Panda!
- http://twitter.com/Bahska Bahska
  
  People will always hate, they forget that there’s a “kiddie” looking class in almost every mmo.
  - JJversion1
    
    Class? I do not know of any “Kiddie” looking classes in WoW, a few “kiddie” looking races, but not classes. lol
- Old Ben
  
  > Pandaren a race people have been wanting to play
  > since before WoW went into it’s first beta test.
  
  Wait, so people wanted to play pandaren in WoW before WoW even existed? Blizzard should give you a job in their markting department.
  
  In over seven years of WoW I never hard a single person say they wanted to play a panda before MoP was announced. Some people wanted to _see_ pandaren in WoW (with the same role they had in W3 – easter eggs, jokes about beer, maybe as quest givers or event bosses in Brewfest, etc.), but the races most people wanted to play were naga and goblins.
  
  I’m sure pandas are more popular with Asian children, though, so it’s not really a surprising move. Like any other major company, Blizzard is primarily in the business of making money, and that’s a huge market.
  - JJversion1
    
    I personally wanted to see the Pandaren, but as an NPC race and not a playable one. I’ve heard a few ppl mention that they thought it would be cool to play a Pandaren but I’ve never heard many. Many in my guild weren’t put off when they heard that the Pandaren were going to be a playable race in MoP, but they weren’t enthusiastic either. Most of them are like I am, the only real reason why they even would play one is because of the racials.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1103680651 Dave Jeannotte

I keep hearing people say that people will play BOTH GW2 and MoP. Like was mentioned, both games are competing for your TIME. Sure, at the beginning I think that may be true, people will play GW2 for a month then pick up MoP and play that for a bit. I don’t think, though, that people are going to continue playing BOTH. People saying “this will be my free game and this will be mu sub game” either have WAY more time or money or both than I do. MMOs are IMMERSIVE. I just don’t see people (in large numbers) splitting time. If I can get a quality gameplay from one game and it’s FREE, why would I play for something else? The hosts mentioned at the end that they both agree WoW’s sub numbers will take a hit… guess I’m more curious than anything how bit that hit will be.
- http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
  
  Same way I played SWTOR and WoW, ran stories and pvp (huttball) in SWTOR and ran hardcore raiding in WoW. Raiding in WoW on Tues and Wed, Played SWTOR stories until I bored with the game.
  
  Aug 25 GW2 (starting to lose interest in the game, the fanbosi are tiresome)
  Sep 25 MoP (yeah baby) figure two or three months of hard leveling and then settling into a raiding schedule.
  
  An since GW2 has no sub, I’ll probably run sPvP and WvW on the weekend.
  
  For me, GW2=D3, both have no sub, both have the same ending.
  Got,really burned out seeing the same Charr quests over and over again.
  - Lediath
    
    wow you know how GW2 ends?!
    
    I wish I had powers of divination
  - Old Ben
    
    > Got,really burned out seeing the same Charr quests over and over again.
    
    Self-inflicted pain. You had five cities and five low-level areas to visit, and as soon as you reach level 12 (which is easy enough to do without repeating a single quest or event) you can survive easily in level 15+ areas.
- http://twitter.com/Bahska Bahska
  
  (I know just my friends isn’t a big demographic but) A lot of my friends will get both, play GW2 for that month and then play WoW “full time” an play GW2 on breaks.
- Old Ben
  
  > If I can get a quality gameplay from one game and
  > it’s FREE, why would I play for something else?
  
  Assuming you like both apples and oranges, you probably wouldn’t stop eating oranges even if apples became free. Sometimes you’d still want an orange, and if the price was acceptable to you before, it would probably continue to be acceptable now (after all, you weren’t even spending money on the apples).
  
  So it makes perfect sense to continue paying for games you like, because their “taste” (gameplay) is different, and you might decide that WoW (or TSW, or any other sub-based game) is worth the 50 cents a day that it costs, if you play it regularly.
  
  Of course, most western MMOs won’t let you buy individual days, so if you play only a couple of hours a month, suddenly each hour is costing you $7.50, which isn’t so trivial. And if they don’t have frequent updates, you get the feeling that you’re paying just to rent your own characters.
  
  That perception of “fairness” or “value for money” can influence people, even if the actual $15 a month makes no difference to them.
  
  > I don’t think, though, that people are going to continue playing BOTH.
  
  One huge advantage of a game with no subscription is that there’s no “barrier to return”. Even if someone plays primarily WoW (or TSW, or any other game with a subscription), they can always keep GW2 (or any other game without a subscription) installed, and log in now and then to check updates, browse new shop items, etc.. And then the game itself can pull them back (and make them play more, and have more reasons to use the cash shop).
  
  But if you cancel a subscription (because you weren’t playing enough to justify paying for a full month of access), then you’ve stopped being a client, period. You won’t pay the subscription, you won’t add to the server population, you won’t be asking your friends to join you, you won’t buy anything from the cash shop. The only way the publisher can bring you back then is with offers of free play time or with advertising external to the game (which means they will be spending comparatively money on that, instead of spending it on improving the game itself).
  - Jay
    
    Spot on. I’ll cosign this…
John Wagner

I haven’t been keeping up with the updates on the pet battle system, will they allow you to duel friends with pet battles when you are waiting for a Raid que, or RBG que etc etc?
- squzy
  
  from beta i can confirm that, yes you can pet battle while queued.
H S

first time in a decade I have no desire to even look at a WoW expansion
http://www.facebook.com/craig.gafoor Craig Gafoor

no interest….Guildwars 2 is the better game in many many ways! MANY….for the price of this update you get LOADS of content and no sub fee’s!
- Lediath
  
  I agree that GW2 is better in many ways BUT different strokes for different folks =P
  Raiders have no better choice than WoW
  - Old Ben
    
    During the Black Temple or Ulduar days, that sentence would have carried a lot more weight than after 10 months of Dragon Soul.
    - Lediath
      
      I agree, that BC & Wrath were better than the current state of raiding in WoW
      
      but I actually did enjoy dragon soul quite a bit
      doing it over and over again got old, but it was still the best raiding experience that I’ve had in any MMO by far
      - Old Ben
        
        Dragon Soul was the best raiding experience you’ve had in a game…?
- http://twitter.com/Bahska Bahska
  
  It’s better for some people maybe for me it was just ok, im not big into pvp or questing so whats left dungeons that i will get sick of after you get the best gear theres nothing left to do.
  That’s its biggest problem for me, not enough pve end game.
  - Jay
    
    All those problems you listed are in WOW as well… Raids are just dungeons for gear with 5 or 20 more people. Not sure how people miss the basic design of WOW “end game”… It’s a gear treadmill (which I enjoyed for awhile).
    
    ” im not big into pvp or questing so whats left dungeons that i will get
    sick of after you get the best gear theres nothing left to do.”
    
    Seriously though, how does that statement not apply to WOW?
http://www.facebook.com/paul.lasalle Paul LaSalle

sir Gio!
http://twitter.com/justQQing Brian Day

sorry i think your all brainwashed blizzard are selling you a game not finished .its out in 2 mounths but its not on ptr its not even had 25man beta testing
- http://twitter.com/kirzanSix Michael Coulombe
  
  You don’t know what you’re talking about.
- http://twitter.com/videobuzzard David Manchester
  
  People say stuff like this every time they have announce release dates. Its always as ready as MMO will be by the release date. And its on the PTR.
Suicideking666

The new video player doesnt work for me…
Lediath

Really surprised that they don’t include 30 days with any of the editions…

Can anyone confirm this?
- http://twitter.com/Bahska Bahska
  
  They have never included it. Has any mmo ever included free time with there expansion packs?
  I know the basic game includes free time normally but xpacs? i don’t think so.
  - Old Ben
    
    > Has any mmo ever included free time with there expansion packs?
    
    How many MMOs with a subscription have released paid expansions, anyway?
- http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
  
  No, I could not find any sub MMO that included free game with an expansion.
  
  I do notice Legendary has got into the habit of throwing bombs at Blizzard for things that players are not complaining about. I really think they were expecting MoP to be free.
  
  Seems the other GamebreakerTV shows gloss over any problems, unless it really blows up (Ilum).
  - Old Ben
    
    > I could not find any sub MMO that included free game with an expansion.
    
    How many MMOs did you find that charge for expansions on top of the monthly fee? Has Eve Online ever charged separately for an expansion, for example?
http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr

MikeB said he liked TBC and Cata, and no one blinked. Everyone been hating on Cataclysm and MikeB liked it.

MoP will be like WoWLK in one way, it will be a raiders paradise. Fourteen raid bosses in the first tier, woot, woot.
- iamthemikeb
  
  I liked it because of RBGs and doing Blizz Blues.. so I’m in a bit of a weird spot as to WHY I enjoyed it, I think.
  - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
    
    I remember watching your steam of RBGs and Haxball. I was so impressed you could keep a RBG team together, that was an incredible feat. When I got a RGB team together, players would always dropout after a match or two. Unlike a raid, where you could get players to commit for a 3 or 4 hour raiding session.
    
    Really looking forward to you returning to WoW and your Blizz Blues Christmas special, with Darnell. Maybe he will have a friend like Big Poo the Pandarian. Or, ooooo , Darnell could hook up with a female undead monk. Darnell babies….
  - Old Ben
    
    If only Blizzard had listed “Players can also do Blizz Blues” as one of the new features…
    - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
      
      Yep, I created a Undead Level 1 Monk, picked up Darnell and ran all over Tirisfal Glades.
  - Jay
    
    Lol Fony, just get on Buildcast… The streets are callin.
http://twitter.com/228zip John Doe

Expected it a month later. Now I’m going to have to choose between Borderlands 2 and MoP. Dayum.
- Jay
  
  I’d go Borderlands 2… no subscription.
JJversion1

I feel that considering Blizz will not make MoP free, and I’m not saying that they should, I think that it would be a good marketing ploy for them to make all previous content free with the purchase of MoP, even if it’s only for a limited time. This would, imo, generate more interest for the XP and probably bring back some ex-players as well as inject some new blood into the game.
- http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
  
  I do like the way Trion World is doing that, you purchase their expansion and it includes the core game. If you had purchased the core game, you would get a discount on the expansion.
  - Old Ben
    
    Which is exactly the same as selling the expansion for the “discounted” price to everyone and lowering the price of the core game.
    
    In the end, everyone would pay the same, but this way everyone _thinks_ they’re getting a better deal. New players because they’re told they’re getting the core game “for free”, and existing players because they’re told they’re getting a “discount”.
    
    Marketing at work.
- Old Ben
  
  I can see that attracting new players, but how would it be more likely to bring back ex-players (who had unsubscribed during Cataclysm, for example)? They already paid for the previous expansions and now they’d still have to pay for MoP (while seeing all new players get a better deal than them)?
  
  It wouldn’t put it past Blizzard to do it, though. They have a strange habit of giving much better deals to new players (or players who unsubscribed) than the ones who kept paying their subscription (ex., Scroll of Resurrection, free game time, etc.).
  - JJversion1
    
    Well I said “probably” not more likely, lol, but seriously Blizz does have some rather strange habits when concerning marketing. I do feel that they need to reward the player base that has stuck with them better than they do. I mean with the Scroll of Resurrection, the players that were coming back got all kinds of cool things happen where as the player whom sent the Scroll only got a mount (and a crappy one at that imo). Some very strange practices indeed.
http://twitter.com/kirzanSix Michael Coulombe

Yeah, who knows? They started (finally!) putting services at 25% off on week-ends. Like this week-end we get 25% off race changes. It seems like Blizzard is slowly going towards good deals and giving back to their customers rather than price things and never put anything on sale because people will buy it anyway.

F2P WoW? I think they’ll wait until the game’s bleeding hard before going there. They aren’t even close to being in a tough financial situation. I’m pretty sure F2P will only be a last resort.
- 7BitBrian
  
  We are celebrating the fact that they are charging you less for services that are free in other games? And just for a weekend?
  
  Wow….
  - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
    
    I think free servers transfers hurt Rift, players kept jumping from server to server.
    
    I’m liking the GW2 method, you can pay to transfer servers or you can guest on another server. I would like to see more guesting in WoW, you can invite someone by their battlenet tag and run all raids, dungeons and zones.
    
    And lets not get started on SWTORs server transfer model.
    - Old Ben
      
      Free server transfers in Rift serve exactly the same purpose as guesting in GW2.
      
      Rift’s PvP isn’t based on WvW, it’s faction vs. faction, so letting people jump between servers doesn’t cause any imbalance. AFAIK, they don’t have free faction transfers.
      - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
        
        Who was talking about PvP? (had to re-read the thread)
        
        Rift free server transfers were hard on guilds. You would wake up and half your guild had transferred to different realms.
      - Old Ben
        
        PvP (or rather, WvW) is the main reason why GW2 has separate “guesting” and “transfers”. In Rift that doesn’t exist, so “free transfers” are the equivalent of “guesting”.
        
        If some people transferred to another server without warning their guild, then they probably weren’t very committed to that guild anyway.
      - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
        
        Yep, and that’s why Rift dropped to 250k sub.
      - Old Ben
        
        Giving people a chance to transfer to other servers doesn’t _make_ them leave the game, on the contrary. It gives people who are thinking about leaving the game a chance to try other servers and maybe stick around for a bit longer.
        
        No one goes “I was planning to keep playing but since they gave me the chance to transfer for free instead of paying $10, I’m going to leave”…
- Old Ben
  
  Any game that manages to hold more than 4 million players or so with a subscription would lose money by going F2P, unless they added very obvious “pay to win” items to the cash shop.
  
  WoW isn’t going F2P any time soon, though it would probably be in their interest to extend the free accounts to level 60 and give them access to all the classes and races. Levels 1-20 on the old races are pretty weak, and make the game seem even more boring than it actually is.
http://twitter.com/FranRacciatti Fran Racciatti

Cataclysm and Diablo 3 released at 4am here in Argentina. I woke up to play them both
http://twitter.com/Nathiest Nathiest

Bahska Quote: People will always hate, they forget that there’s a “kiddie” looking class in almost every mmo.
- Jay
  
  Which “class” is that? The Warrior? :3
  - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
    
    Female Gnome Warlock with Pink Ponytails. Players hated getting fear-locked, eaten up by dots, while her little friends were chomping on there butt.
  - http://twitter.com/Nathiest Nathiest
    
    Hey it wasn’t me who said it.
mathijs0334

how can aliens watch netflix, if you cant even watch from europe??
- http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
  
  See, Ancient Aliens can watch Netflix all over the world.
Krzysztof Kotarba

Remove addons… WoW will become hard game instantly.
What about australia will they get MoP in middle of the day, what about school/work?
TBH I’m more excited about GW2 and DS2…
Mike would leave WoW or become very casual gamer if not work related to this game… Thats how it works, when you leave for a while you propably won’t go back or if you get it again it won’t be the same… Beside that MoP is not interesting at all, I like talent changes (still cheap to cut 3 trees into one) and some added stuff, but is it worth box+mothly fee??
- Old Ben
  
  > Remove addons… WoW will become hard game instantly.
  
  Yes, but then you’d spend most of your time fighting the default UI, not the enemies.
  - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
    
    All I was missing from the MoP beta was a rollover click utility for my Resto Druid.
- http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
  
  There are not removing the add ons. Some addons are breaking becuase they incorrect determine which version of WoW you are running.
  
  I do think WoW 5.0.1 should be very interesting. Seeing some mixed reactions to the new talents. My resto duid is doing well, not sure about the other builds.
Old Ben

(wrong place)
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000091623447 Brady Riley

Actually Over under came into existance over a week after Lore predicted September 18th with a +/- of 1 week putting the 25th right there. So no sorry over under did not predict it first. Check Weekly Marmot and PST
- Old Ben
  
  > Lore predicted September 18th with a +/- of 1 week
  
  Jason’s prediction was 14 times more accurate, then.
  - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
    
    Lore picked the 18th, then I was right on the money as well, I picked the 18th. But, I picked the date, so I would have more time to level before Brewfest.
http://twitter.com/Paulrice123 Paul Rice

Why have the past 4-5 videos posted been black? They have audio but no picture.. Many other people seem to be having this problem aswell, it’s not just me. Please go back to using the old uploader (And yes I have all my stuff (java, quicktime, ect) installed & updated.) These are the only videos I cannot watch every other old video works fine….
- Old Ben
  
  If you click the fullscreen button in the bottom right corner you’ll probably be able to see them. I think it’s something wrong with the embedded player. Doesn’t affect all systems, though (even when using the same browser).
  - http://twitter.com/Paulrice123 Paul Rice
    
    Thanks for the tip Ben, but unfortunately that does not work..
    - Old Ben
      
      Another thing you might want to try is zooming in and back out (or vice-versa), especially if your default browser zoom isn’t 100%. That should force the video player to redraw (although it might just redraw a black rectangle, of course).
- http://profile.yahoo.com/Z36GPOU3Q2QIQYBIDVNQAVGNGE Raul
  
  Check the Forums, there is a workaround to disable current flashplayer,
  worked for Me, FWIW
Karizee

Gratx on the upcoming baby, Mike B
http://twitter.com/WaylandX JB

Great Show Guys!
Fredacp

Great show guys, gj.

The gold nerf from old content is kinda fair, but it worries me a bit.
You are in a raid with 10 people and each gets 100g. If you do that alone I guess you should get at least a bit more than those 100g, but definitely not 1000g either. So… they could work a bit more on that.

But what really worries me is if they decide to apply that nerf not only to gold but loot drops too.
That would make farming old content a real pain. And I better get my deathcharger fast.
http://www.facebook.com/david.murray.779205 David Murray

I think lore is losing his mind he said that collecters addition would sell for more on ebay about 2 episodes ago (cringe)
http://www.facebook.com/rasmus.nielsen.75491 Rasmus Nielsen

They did it for the 2008 because they were releasing in China that year, and Olympics were in China, total ploy :p
- http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
  
  I remember hearing it was released in error. It was supposed to be a limited release, but got released worldwide instead.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Nae-Bodee/100002134184112 Nae Bodee

Man, I haven’t played WoW in about a year but I still watch this show religiously, best show eva.
http://twitter.com/Deadalon Deadalon

So… Sept 25th makes WOW launch in Q3… witch saves BLizzard from looking bad in their money report…
http://twitter.com/Bempa24 Benni Nord

…and last time Lore told the story about why he got the vanilla CE it was because of the zergling pet? :p
http://www.facebook.com/matthew.lovetto Matthew Lovetto

Definitely cannot watch it. just get a slowly blinking like movie recording campera
http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr

lol, Ebay list TBC CE for $800, WoW CE for $250 and MoP CE for $200.

The $79 MoP CE for $200 was rich.
http://twitter.com/borded nathan law

thought i was done with wow, now i have a mop ce pre-order…
http://twitter.com/borded nathan law

I don’t see gw2 and wow as in competition, i intend to play both, if gw2 had a sub fee i would have a tough choice but its not an issue.
http://twitter.com/borded nathan law

if they do another annual pass it will be in a year and a half when the content drought between 5.3 and 6.0 happens.
- http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
  
  If Blizzard can product a slow growing expansion, they may not need another annual pass.
  - http://twitter.com/borded nathan law
    
    4 out of 4 expansions have had a huge content gap, so that’s not looking likely any time soon, especially now that they have discovered this method of keeping people paying during said gaps.
http://twitter.com/Yuuckie Adolph Janssen

61:00 New MoP raid mechanic right there, no doubt.
Elusive Fox

im with mike i would rather them open the game up early day rather than midnight – midnite pst is 3am my time which means i have to mess with my sleep schedule on big release days to do the early day fun… i always book a day off so id rather still wake up early but not mess with my sleep schedule.
http://www.facebook.com/the.cburnett Christian Burnett

Gary, you spelled your name wrong >,<

Patch 5.3: Blizzard’s First Ever Live Video Interview!

This Week in MMO Ep 144:
WildStar, Rift, Dust 514

Legendary Ep126:
Raiding Ra-Den Revelations!

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