The next expansion to World of Warcraft, the highly anticipated Mists of Pandaria, will be released to the public in less than two weeks! As Guild Launch’s resident WOW fanboy, I thought I’d hop on the blog here and give you four suggestions of things to do over the next fortnight to prepare. Enjoy!
#1 – Check out the new talents and glyphs
Though I always enjoyed scouring sites like Elitist Jerks and WOWPopular to find the latest and greatest talent builds for my main characters, Blizzard has implemented a new, simpler system for customizing your character’s abilities. While you’ll still be choosing your role and spec, the new talent trees are much more straightforward and all but eliminate the chance of making sub-optimal and potentially game-breaking changes. Instead, you choose the talent that fits your playstyle.
You’ll also want to take a look at your glyphs. Gone are the “Prime” glyphs that were introduced in the Cataclysm expansion and the remaining Major and Minor glyphs have been overhauled to have less overall impact on DPS. The Major glyphs, in particular, like the talent changes, have been reconfigured to alter spells in ways that may affect your style of play, but not your overall ability to compete and succeed in the game. Almost all of the effects from Minor glyphs are fun and cosmetic. Hunters, for instance, can teach their pets to “fetch” loot off defeated enemies or launch fireworks from their ranged weapons. Each class has similar bits of added flavor, but it may require you to track down a scribe to get some of these fancy new glyphs.
#2 – Prepare for pet battles!
If you haven’t heard by now, after years of collecting so-called vanity pets, players will now be able to do battle with the pint-sized pals in Pokemon-style competition. While I’ll admit that this isn’t a feature I was clamoring for, I know a lot of people are excited about this and it has created a veritable frenzy on the Internet and in-game trade channels. While there are certainly rare pets to be earned through quests and random spawn points, a great deal of pets can be acquired via vendors positioned throughout the world. If this is a feature that appeals to you, it might be worth taking the time to go back to some zones you haven’t visited in awhile to see if there are pets available from the assorted vendors in these farflung towns and quest hubs. No need to just wander blindly though; like all things with World of Warcraft, community sites like WarcraftPets.com & WowPetBattles.com have sprung up or been updated to help all would be pet-handlers fill up their lineups in time for the expansion.
#3 – Level your professions and stock up on mats!
If you haven’t leveled up your gathering and/or crafting professions to their Cataclysm level caps, now is a great time to get that finished. With both a new race and a new class coming in Mists of Pandaria, lots of players will be coming back to the game, starting a mass of new characters, all in need of gear and materials to level their professions. Many of these new ‘toons’ will have rich ‘alt’ uncles willing to pay handsomely for a shortcut in their crafting. A little time spent farming now should pay huge dividends in just a few weeks. As a reminder, monks will be a hybrid class that wears leather from start to finish, primarily sharing gear with druids. It could be a great time to be a skinner (finally!).
The Guild! Season 6 coming soon!
#4 – Find or start a great guild
A new expansion means new areas to discover, new levels to attain and new endgame challenges. For a lot of people returning to the game after varying lengths of time, it can also mean finding a new group to play with. What a great time to expand a current guild or start a whole new one! Obviously, we’re biased to the tools that we’ve developed here at Guild Launch to help guilds get off the ground and start thriving right away, as a means of augmenting the in-game guild system. So whether you’re a starter or a joiner, utilize the trade and recruiting channels in-game, as well as searching through our site index at theguildlife.com to find the right guild for you. Or, create your own site on Guild Launch and start building your new guild today. (Shameless plug, I know, I know.)
So, those are my tips! I’ve personally been working hard on #3 and getting my own guild site ready for MOP. If you have additional tips on what players can do in these last few days before the expansion launch or want to give a shout out to your guild, leave a comment below!
-Thomas (@SirThomasX)
