14 DAY TRIAL // The new Mists of Pandaria expansion for the MMO World of Warcraft will limit the impact that phasing has on the game world and will allow players to have more fun with the quests that have been introduced.
David Kosak, the lead quest designer working on Mists of Pandaria, tells GameSpy that, “As I instruct my team, phasing is like a story sledgehammer. It’s the big gun. We want to avoid it as much as possible. There’s still phasing in Mists of Pandaria for major story moments, but it’ll be very obvious that you’ve been phased.”
He adds, “the big change for Mists of Pandaria over most of Cataclysm is that players will be able to see their friends even if they’re in different phases — the difference being that one player will see one version of the surroundings and others players will see another.”
Kosak says that Blizzard has first started experimenting with the more limited version of phasing in the 4.2 patch for World of Warcraft and now wants to implement it in as many instances as possible.
Blizzard has also removed group quests in Mists of Pandaria in order to give gamers more changes to explore the content at their own pace, rather than forcing them to quickly connect with others in order to progress.
Players who get the new expansion will be able to select the new Pandaren race and a new class while also exploring a continent filled with raids and dungeons.
Blizzard has also introduced a number of changes to the skills and the abilities of all other races and classes.
Mists of Pandaria for World of Warcraft will be launched on September 25 all over the world and those who play the MMO in China will get access to it on October 2.