Incoming 2012: World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria

What we know:

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria is the next expansion for Blizzard’s massively popular online role playing game, which brings lots of new things, including the Pandaren race, and raises the level cap to 90.

World of Warcraft, despite seeing its subscriber count decrease in recent times, is still the most popular MMORPG out there, with more than 10 million people paying a monthly subscription to explore its virtual world.

After several expansions, including The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, or Cataclysm, Blizzard, its developer, is working on Mists of Pandaria.

In order to keep the MMO relevant and prevent players from trying out other online games, like Star Wars: The Old Republic, the new expansion includes the fan-favorite Pandaren race, as well as quite a few new things.

Among them is the Monk class, which allows players to specialize in play styles oriented on damage, healing or taking. All these skills can be explored up to a new level cap that’s situated at 90.

Veteran players are also going to be able to explore a new zone, in the form of Pandaria itself, which includes the Jade Forest, the Kun-Lai summit, or the Wandering Isle.

Other additions brought by Mists of Pandaria include scenarios, which allow more players to battle the environment, dungeon challenge modes, in which they can team up and complete dungeons in certain times, or pet battles, where players can pit their pets one against the other.

Why it matters:

World of Warcraft hasn’t been doing so great lately, so Blizzard is expected to pull out all the stops with Mists of Pandaria.

What’s more, seeing as how competitors like Star Wars: The Old Republic are now available and that Blizzard’s next MMO, the oft-rumored Project Titan, is still far from completion, Mists of Pandaria needs to keep veteran players entertained while attracting new ones.

As of yet, the next expansion is expected to arrive sometime this year.