Planning for Mists of Pandaria:

Last post, I discussed my plans for several upcoming games, but my plans for Mists of Pandaria deserve their own post.

When you think about it, it’s pretty ridiculous to be planning for it so soon. We’re still at least six to twelve months from the game’s release by my guess. It’s even more ridiculous considering how well my plans for the future worked out in the past. For reference, let me tell you what my plans were for Cataclysm.

In Wrath, my mage was my main, and my rogue my primary alt. Both eventually got to raid a little bit of ICC, but the mage got the lion’s share of the attention. For Cata, I wanted to reverse this and focus on my rogue, with my mage on the back burner. I also wanted get my lowbie shaman to max level, where he could potentially become my new main or main alt.

Here’s what actually happened: I rolled a holy paladin. Did not see that coming. The paladin got power-leveled in an orgy of dungeons and healiness and became my de facto main. My rogue was once again relegated to main alt. The shaman got a lot more play but still hasn’t reached max level as of this writing. The only character whose plan worked out was the mage; I play him, but he’s the most neglected of my three 85s.

So take my panda plans with a grain of salt, but if nothing else, it will be amusing to come back and see how few of my plans came to pass, so without further ado, I present my plans for Mists of Pandaria, arranged by character:

The rogue: I’m afraid to declare that I want her to be my new main after what happened last time. But, for what it’s worth, she’s the character I most enjoy, and rogue seems to be the one class that never really bores me or burns me out. Her future is the most secure, even if she never quite qualifies as main.

The mage: His fate is the one I struggle with the most. He was my first main, and he will always have a special place in my heart.

But it’s time to be honest. Being a mage isn’t much fun anymore. I’ve tried hard to like it in Cata, but I can’t. Playing a fire mage (frostfire, actually) in Wrath was exciting; my 60% crit chance (seriously) ensured an endless stream of hot streak procs, and it was exhilarating, if slightly mindless. Plus, my frostfire spec, while sub-optimal, was very interesting and versatile.

In Cata, frostfire specs are literally impossible, and my much lowered crit chance has turned my once dynamic rotation into an endless spree of firebalfireballfireballfireballfireball… Don’t even get me started on the new combustion. Frost spec still brings a measure of excitement with its interconnected procs, but now it’s a pet spec, so that kinda sucks the fun out of that. Plus, it’s not very PvE viable.

As much as it pains me, I think I may relegate my mage to merely an alchemy bitch in Pandaria. It’s time for a new character to shine.

The warlock: My mage’s likely successor. This fiery little Elven girl started as a mere experiment to see if playing a petless warlock was possible, but I’ve fallen in love with the class. It has a complexity that makes mages look like a joke, and you can’t deny the appeal of turning into a demon and ripping the souls from your foes.

Couple that with the insanely awesome changes warlocks are slated to get in MoP (including no pets as a viable playstyle), and we have a strong contender for my new main. I intend to get her to 90 and make her my Horde main, at the very least. (Yes, I have three mains — main, main alt, Horde main. The life of an altoholic is complicated.)

The paladin: This is the character whose fate carries the most uncertainty. After playing her to death in Cataclysm, I’m feeling pretty burnt out on healing. But I don’t really want to abandon her completely. Having a healer/tank at max level is just too damned useful, and I still think paladin healing is pretty fun, if a bit too easy these days.

I’d like her to be main alt material, but I fear the same things that led to her dominating my play so much in Cata will still apply. Healers will still be in far greater demand than DPS.

The shaman: Scheduled for retirement. Oh, I’ll still play him, but not often. I’ve had a lot of good times with him, but shamans just don’t grab me like some other classes. The fun of shaman healing is eclipsed by the greater fun of paladin healing, and enhance DPS just feels a little too stilted no matter how much I try to like it.

The monk: I’m not making any big plans for this one until I know if I actually like the class or not, but I intend to try one. It will be specced windwalker/mistweaver, because I still don’t like tanking much. It will probably be a Night Elf, unless they come to their senses and make Worgen an option. I’m leaning towards a male, but female is also possible.

If he gets high enough, I’ll mog him to druid tier lookalike gear, and he will be a Druid of the Fist.

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How about you? Have you jumped the gun enough to already have plans for Mists of Pandaria? What are they?

New writing:

Two more of my articles have been posted around the interwebz.

First, on Weird Worm, we have Six Famous (Canadian) Inventions. I wrote it before the recent fiasco, so misleading robocalls and public indifference toward electoral fraud did not make the list.

Second, on WhatMMO, we have Most Shocking MMO Incidents. I’ll warn you: some of this stuff in this article is seriously messed up. It’s not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach.