Mists Of Pandaria Won't Reinvent The Wheel

World of Warcraft's upcoming expansion won't be able to make the game brand new again, says Blizzard. However, they're hoping it will offer players a more varied and less conventional experience. 

"We're definitely very focused on opening the doors a little wider to new ideas to really grasp onto what will make this game as fun as possible," said community manager 'Zarhym' in a forum post. "It's 7 years old after all. We're not going to reinvent the wheel in Mists of Pandaria, but we want to introduce new types of compelling content with meaningful reward structures so your progression paths don't feel quite as redundant."

Pandaria raises the level cap to 90 and adds a new continent full of dungeons and raids. A new Monk class and playable Pandaren race will give players new character creation options. The development team is also reworking the game's talent trees, in addition to other system enhancements.

"We hope these features are more or less to be expected with virtually every expansion. But this time we're also pouring our heart and soul into some really fun new features that'll allow you to progress in slightly less conventional ways," said Zarhym.

One of the features he's alluding to are Scenarios. Scenarios are story-driven adventures for groups of players. Unlike dungeons or raids, they don't require tanks or healers in order for you to succeed. At BlizzCon, the development team said that small scenarios will be like group quests while large scenarios will feel like "epic PvE battlegrounds with major objectives and plenty of scripted events."

Blizzard also previously stated that they plan to make questing less linear. The continent of Pandaria will offer players multiple quest hubs to choose from.

"I think it's really going to be about playing the game the way you want to play it, without feeling entirely like you're missing out on valuable rewards," said Zarhym.

Pandaria is expected sometime this year. Blizzard will show off the expansion at apreview event in March, so expect fresh information then.