As a retired World of Warcraft player, sitting down to spend a few hours with the starting zone of the upcoming expansion Mists of Pandaria, is a bit like someone on a diet going to an all-you-can-eat buffet. Not to eat, but just to check out the menu and see how nice the place is.

So it’s kinda sucky, but not too bad. Did my time with the xpac make me want to dive back into WoW? Nope. It does not represent a significant enough of a change or refresh to pull me back in. Granted, the pet battle system and new talent tree system were not on show, but even if they were I doubt it would have made a difference.

However, is the new area, race and class worth the time for someone new to WoW and loves pandas? Totally.

You can read my impressions of the new race and class after the break. The starting area only covered up to level 10, so it’s not an entirely representative slice, but it did highlight a lot of interesting elements to the upcoming xpac.

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Well, here it is. Not surprising anyone really, since the secret got outed when Blizzard registered the domain name, but Mists of Pandaria is the next World of Warcraft expansion. It raises - among many things –  the level cap to 90, introduces the Pandaran as a new playable race (both sides), a new Monk class and a pet combat system.

The full FAQ is after the break, it will have everything you need (except the expansion itself, you addict you).

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