Ok. So. Pandas. Yep, they’re real. I waited for an hour hoping it was a gag they were putting on. Apparently they decided to commit business suicide.

On the halfway decent side, they’re introducing a monk class.

On the negative side, it takes place in a world very ‘Avatar’ish’ in style. As in, the Horde and Alliance discover this beautiful serene place full of Pandarans and decide that strip-mining it for resources is ideal. Hopefully that should make anyone with any decency want to turn against their own factions.

So I thought that Pandas were jumping the shark, but I was wrong. Apparently they weren’t done yet. The REAL jumping the shark is coming in the form of Pet Battles. And when I say pet, I mean companion characters. As in, imagine dog fight style battles between your halloween pumpkin and eerie wooden box pets. Worse than the references to strip mining beautiful places, is the overt reference to pet fighting in this fashion. You’ll even be able to train them up to be highly skilled and then put them on the auction house. Whatever happened to just collecting pets… *sigh* Now we’re going to have people selling uber-muderous Egbert’s Egg and psycho killer Perky Pugs.

As it has been repeatedly commented upon… this expansion started with Kung Fu Panda and added Pokemon pet collecting and battles. Wee! If you’re 8, that is.

Other than those… tons of other changes.

New Annual Membership deal. If you lock in your subscription for a year (paying monthly with the promise to pay a year, think phone contract) you get free access to play Diablo III and guaranteed spot in all future WoW beta testing.

New leveling zone (Pandaria) looks like China and has 5 large zones.

Level up to 90.

No flying until max level.

Talent system is totally redone. Only one talent tree per class, all grouped in together. You get 1 talent point every 15 levels.

New Mage Talents - Preview from Blizzcon 2011

Weird new challenge mode dungeon system with new ranks. Sounded very much like a combo between old PvP ranks and dungeon achievements. Why they couldn’t do this within the existing dungeon achievement system… who knows.

Rehashing old dungeons again – this time, heroic Scholomance and Stratholme.

3 new raids and a new raid finder that is cross-realm.

No auto attack.

No ranged weapon slot unless you’re a hunter. Warriors and rogues will throw their normal weapons instead.

Relic slot is gone.

Hunter minimum range and melee weapon slot is gone.

Casters now use wands as main hand weapon.

You will automatically learn spells and won’t have to train them.

New Account wide achievements which affect and/or require multiple characters on your account.

That’s it for now. Will probably post machinima winners and costume contest stuff later.

Remember, if you are at a computer with your Battle.net login info handy … just head to Blizzcon.com and click on Live Stream. You’ll be able to watch some of the stuff for free, including the pre-show coverage and the opening ceremony.

Big Patch to 4.0.

Zul'Gurub Entrance.

Time to get cracking if you’d like to visit the old bosses there or work on that Zandalar rep faction (they do have patterns!) or those 2 very rare mounts (Swift Razzashi Raptor and Swift Zulian Tiger).

Oh but Blizzard said that RealID was only to be shared with close friends and family to keep it safe right?

Apparently they changed their minds….

Official Forum Changes, Real Life Names to Be Displayed.

Yep, cause the entire internet viewing your real legal name on a public forum is just our close friends and family.

I already cursed up a storm and I’m out of most of them now but I’ll close with this…

There’s no way in HELL I’m touching the forums now.

She's a big girl now!

That makes 80 number 5. Yay for altaholism.

Before I go work on one getting another character to 80, I’m going to take a moment to honor my little gal Zet with a song

Enjoy

Happened the other day when patch 3.3.5 came out … go figure.

Velen Full.

Amid all the reasons why and the goodbyes, I realized it was my solemn duty to continue on as normal in the face of this guild catastrophe.

Of course, acting normal is exactly what I intend to do!

Therefore I followed up his leaving with a long, contemplative, meditative even!, period of musing over the right way to show him the door. Malignant ideas flowed hither and yon through my mind, when suddenly some of the last words I said to him scrolled through like combat text drifting over my eyes…

“You’re a tall, scrawny, hick.”

I was inspired at last! By myself! How fitting

I finally found the creative motivation I needed and went in search of the appropriate video send off So in the flavor of my Texan roots… here’s a little hat tip for you Al, Enjoy your Siesta.

Apparently I caved on the whole emblems thing in favor of getting a wand.

This is the first time I have let my precious PvP-for-years-only mage dirty her fingertips with Northrend PvE.. /sigh.

Emblematic.

Ah well, it’s for the best. Who knows, maybe I’ll even off-spec her for raiding or something. For some reason she ended up getting suckered into organizing a 25man VoA… don’t know how that happened.

Got this one at the same time:

Another achievement.