World of Warcraft's Mists of Pandaria will launch September 25th. The expansion will cost $39.99 USD and is currently available on battle.net. You can also upgrade to a Digital Deluxe Edition ($59.99 USD) and a Collector's Edition for $79.99 USD.

This has been an exciting week for me as two of my favorite games received significant updates this week. First Dungeons & Dragons Online released their Menace of the Underdark expansion which boosted the level cap from 20 to 25, introduced a new Druid class and introduced Forgotten Realms to DDO. If this was not enough excitement already Star Wars: The Old Republic also released Patch 1.3 which introduced a much needed Looking for Group tool as well as Ranked (PvP) War-zones.

To be honest I have not had much time to check out DDO this week. I got as far as installing the update, logging in and confirming that I can now earn experience past level 20. However I spent quite a bit of time in SWTOR both pre-patch and post patch and I can tell the game has never been better.

I had a chance to test the LFG tool for a Heroic mission and a Hard Mode flashpoint. In both cases the group finder matched me with a group instantly. This has to do with a fact that I play a Sith Assassin Tank. I bet DPS players have a longer wait. Once I was matched up with a group, the group finder game me an option to travel to my heroic/flashpoint which saves allot of travel time. Please note that although the Group Finder takes you to your quest, it does not take you back. So if you queue up for an Illum Heroic and you are in the fleet, it will take you there but not back.

I also purchased a bunch of legacy character perks such as a portable repair droid as well as instant travel to my home world, fleet and Black Hole. Unlike the previous legacy perks these were actually more reasonably priced.

As the week progresses I will hopefully get more time to try out more all this new content

Are you looking forward to Lord of the Rings Online expansion Riders of Rohan. If you are a LOTRO player you will be pleased to see that Turbine has been working hard to promote this newest addition to their flagship MMO. Today I want to compile all the information released over the last few months into this post to provide readers with all they need to know about LOTROs upcoming expansion.

First let’s start with the must watch cinematic Turbine has released

There is a short Riders of Rohan Teaser that show off some of the mounted combat:

There is also the Riders of Rohan Trailer that does not contain any in game footage but rather uses actors to tell the back story of the people of Rohan.

There is also a behind the scenes video showing the filming of the above trailer.

Now that you watched the videos and are excited about the expansion here is some additional information.

The release date for Riders of Rohan is September 5th 2012. There are 3 expansion editions (Base 39.99, Heroic 49.99 and Legendary 69.99). All expansion editions will come with future access to the instance cluster (to be released after the expansion) as well as an in game items and Turbine Points. Choose wisely because only the Legendary edition unlocks all the quest packs and an additional bag slot.

You can pre-order Riders of Rohan right now and view the differences about the expansions at:

If you are not planning to purchase the expansion this is still exciting news for you. That is because you will still get access to the Rohan Region as well as the Epic Story in Rohan. You will still be able to get access to a War Stead by completing a quest line. However players that do not purchase the expansion will not get access to all aspects of mounted combat (only 1 of the 3 traits).

There is a Riders of Rohan Pre-order FAQ that answers many of the questions of what you get for free and what you need to buy.

http://www.lotro.com/news/latestnews/2082-riders-of-rohan-pre-order-faq

If you are not an existing LOTRO player there is never a better time to get started. There is an excellent Steam Starter Pack that gets you a tone of free ingame items or you can always just play for free by downloading the game from Lotro.com

Dungeons & Dragons Online (Turbine) releases new trailer that takes us behind the scenes of the making of the Menace of the Underdark expansion.

• Druid class will be free for VIPs and will need to be purchased by all other Players
• Druids will be a caster class but also proficient with staves, daggers, clubs, sickles
• Druids will be able resistant to the harsh aspects of nature like entanglement, poison, and other natural dangers.
• Druids will be able to transform into Winter Wolf, Dire Bear, Water Elemental, Fire Elemental.
• Each shape has its own specialized set of spells

Source: underdark.ddo.com/druid

I want to come clean and let everyone know that I am not a big fan of monk pandas in World of Warcraft.  I am not interested in playing a monk or panda bear class.  So my post on the subject will be a bit bias, and will not talk about how amazing the new quest areas and class are. 

However the new World of Warcraft expansion does have some new content about which I am excited about.  This is why I would like to call this post “The Guide to Mists of Pandaria for Panda Haters”

More Levels

The first thing that all panda haters will be able to take advantage of will be 5 additional levels, taking players from level 85-90.  Now you will have to quest though the panda infested quest areas to get there, or you can just stick to running dungeons.  I am planning to avoid the new zones (and pandas) as much as possible.

New Dungeons and Challenge Mode

Mists of Pandaria will launch with nine heroic dungeons, which unfortunately will be tied to the Panda infested story line and probably more Pandas.  Every new heroic dungeon is going to get a challenge mode. The challenge mode times your run and depending on how well you do, grants you a bronze, silver or gold medal.  Bronze medals will earn you an achievement.  Silver/Gold medals will award you pieces of vanity gear to use for transmogrification. The gear will have no stats, but they will have a unique appearance and completing each set will give you a unique effect.

Battlegrounds

So far we know that there will be two additional Battleground maps released with Mists of Pandaria, called: Silvershard Mine and Temple of Power. 

Temple of power will follow a “Murder Ball” ruleset, where you earn points for holding an artifact found in the center of the map for as long as possible.  You earn more points the closest you are to the center of the map (where everyone will want to kill you)

Silvershard Mine will follow the Payload ruleset found in Team Fortress 2, where players must escort a cart of resources from one end of the map to the other.  The cart moves only when the owner team is near it.    The opposing team must stall the cart’s progress as long as possible.

Mega Damage

World of Warcraft Damage and Health numbers are getting a bit ridiculous and with the additional 5 levels we can expect that 5-6 digit damage will be the norm.  For this reasons all damage that is greater than 4 digits will display in a short form.  For example 30,000 damage fireball will now display as 30K.

Buff Tracker

The buff system has been simplified to eight core buffs. At all times, all eight buffs are collapsed into one icon that notifies you how many of them you have (1/8).  Hovering over the window will show you which buffs you have or are missing. 

Character Creation

Character creation will receive some small improvements, replacing scroll buttons with preview thumbnails and video.

Pet Battles

Mists of Pandaria will introduce a new PvP system that will allow you to pin your pets against another players pets.  The system will allow you to automatically queue for battles, however you will not see the name of your opponents.  The system will also track your wins rather than losses.  The combat is turn based.  Each pet will be able to learn up to 6 abilities and use 3 in combat.

Character Slots

Players that purchase Mists of Pandaria will get access to an 11^th character slot.

Panda Hate

I hope you guys enjoyed The Guide to Mists of Pandaria for Panda Haters and I hope you do not take my panda hate to seriously.  Pandas really are very cute and lovable creatures.  I guess I am just old fashioned and I do not want Disney Characters in my fantasy themed MMOs.  However I am sure many WoW players will surely enjoy this new expansion (with Pandas or not)

LOTRO Update 6 released. Includes a new area (Shores of the Great River) with 200 quests, free for VIPs, that will take the players north to Rohan in anticipation of the next Riders of Rohan expansion. Update 6 also continues the Epic story line that is free for everyone as well as Soldiers (Companions) in Landscapes. Further more several classes (Warden, Rune-keeper, Warg and Weaver) have been updated.

Read the Official Release Notes