Time to test the prescription on those rose colored glasses some of us have been wearing for a while now as the original WoW Classic experience moves forward to the Mists of Pandaria.

Over the last… nearly six years now… I have had a pretty good time playing through the phases and expansions so far.  But the whole thing has also been a test of my memories, of whether my feelings about things that I played so many years back were solid or if they had been distorted by time.

The funny, or perhaps unexpected, thing is that the whole thing has largely reinforced the misty water colored memories of the way we were back in 2006 or 2009 or 2011.  Summarizing my classic experience so far:

• Vanilla – Great but flawed, an experience worth doing maybe once a decade
• The Burning Crusade – Wrong lessons from vanilla, overrated, popular only when not available
• Wrath of the Lich King – Herald of the modern game and the end of “classic,” everything OP but a great story
• Cataclysm – Are names destiny?  Not enough content to cover two years

You may not agree… I have seen one columnist out there demanding that the 20th anniversary classic servers skip right to TBC despite the poor reception it got the first time around in classic… but that is how I see it.

Which brings us to Mists of Pandaria.  Where will it stand in my opinion when we are at the far end of it a year or so from now?  Right now, my gut ranking of WoW eras feels like this:

1. Wrath of the Lich King
2. Legion
3. Vanilla
4. Mists of Pandaria
5. Battle for Azeroth
6. The Burning Crusade
7. Warlords of Draenor
8. Cataclysm
9. Shadowlands

The list stops at Shadowlands, an expansion so bad for me that I stopped playing retail and put into serious doubt as to whether I will ever return.

MOP is solidly in the upper half of the list and I absolutely have fond memories of it.  I did, if not “all the things,” then a lot of the things that one could do solo.  It was an era when our group was no longer playing, having gone on hiatus early in Cataclysm, so I didn’t do many of the instances.  But I finished all the zones, tended my farm, raised my standing with various groups, did pet battles, and even got the water strider mount from Nat Pagle.

But the bad taste of Cataclysm meant I didn’t even start MOP until it was in its final months when a lot of stuff was settled, the end game island was running, flying was available, and the march towards Warlords of Draenor was under way.

So here I am again, able to start over from scratch and on day one.

And what do we get?  Well, we got some of the bits and pieces early, when the pre-patch went live earlier this month.  I’ve done a bit of pet battles and the like.  Crap, I still have to finish the new character zone to get that mount.  But now the actual expansion is here.  That gives us:

• New Level Cap: Ascend to new heights of power as you defend Azeroth, earning new talents every step of the journey to level 90 with extensively reworked talent trees.
• Lush New Lands: The Wandering Isle (Levels 1–10), The Jade Forest (Levels 85–86), Valley of the Four Winds (Levels 86–87), Krasarang Wilds (Levels 86–87), Kun-Lai Summit (Levels 87–88), Townlong Steppes (Levels 88–89), Dread Wastes (Levels 89–90), Vale of Eternal Blossoms (Level 90)
• Dungeons and Raids: Brave defenders of Azeroth can battle their way through six new dungeons in Pandaria, four revamped Heroic dungeons, and three new raids.
• New PvP Arena and Two New Battlegrounds: The gates will open when PvP Season 12 begins the week following launch.
• Sunsong Ranch: Embrace a farmer’s life with your own farm, allowing you to plant and harvest crops. Head to the Valley of the Four Winds and start earning reputation with the Tillers to earn a plush plot of soil to till.
• Scenarios: Join friends to achieve a common goal, such as mounting a defense against invading monsters, in a flexible new type of queueable “micro-dungeon” PvE challenges in these seven three-player Scenarios.
• Challenge Mode Dungeons: Master the ultimate 5-player time trial and earn prestige rewards in a new dungeon mode that will put your resolve and coordination to the test.

I saw someone mocking Blizz announcing all of this like it was new content.  The thing is, it will likely be new content for some.  And even for those of us who have had a pass at some of it, it isn’t a bad thing to be reminded what we’re getting.  Some days Blizz can’t catch a break.  Let them do a launch trailer and be happy to have it.

Unlike some of the past classic expansion launches, I did not jump in as soon as the servers unlocked and let people into the new content.  I do have a day job and I can’t slip away for every launch.

But I did spend a bit of time poking around.  Something to write about later.  For now though, Pandas are live.  Off we go.  Time to see if this expansion lives up to me memories.

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