A week after Cataclysm Classic went live, MoP Remix went live.
MoP Remix is interesting in the fact although it uses Modern WoW as a base, you’re basically playing a special version of the Pandaria Campaign. In this version, characters you make for MoP remix are locked in until the event ends at the end of August. No access to Kalimdor, Eastern Kingdoms or other places that were available when MoP was current.
An issue I ran into when I hit the Trial Account Cap of Level 20 on a Lightforged Draenei Priest is an example of the rampant powerscaling issues that have been reported for days now. In short, things that should do almost no damage to you due to the unique mechanics are killing players in 2 to 4 hits. I ran into this while doing Operation Landfall progression over the weekend but I’ve been hearing the problem becomes very apparent and frequence once you reach level 65. As of May 20, Blizzard had hotfixed the major issues around that and is boosting both Bronze and Thread drops even further to compensate for that. It’s supposed to be a faceroll experience so kudos to Blizzard for moving so quickly to make things right.
I was actually planning to get 60 days prepaid game time specifically for this event but I’ve now decided to hold off on that until early next month. I signed up for college courses and I don’t want to sub or get prepaid time until I’m settled in with that. I have two expansions worth of backlog going back 6 years to play through right now on that note (Shadowlands and Dragonflight). I’m in no rush and I’m starting to like playing “old” content while most people are playing through the current expansion these days. I definitely plan to play WoW during the summer so it’s just a matter of deciding which of my two primary accounts I’ll get game time for because as of now, I’m only getting game time for one of them. I’m leaning heavily towards just doing it with my first and oldest account so I can play MoP Remix on a few commited chars while leveling my mains through SL and DF content for the first time. We’ll see.
MoP Remix has two primary purposes. The first is it’s a fun way to power level a new character to 70 ahead of the release of the upcoming expansion The War Within which was announced at BlizzCon last year. The other reason and the main reason I was planning to get game time this summer is specifically for those like myself who missed out on rare MoP-era drops and mounts from Raids and Heroic Dungeons when MoP was current. They’re now basically being given away via WoW Remix’s unique mechanics. I played MoP when it was current. I did complete the Siege of Orgrimmar when it was current via Raid Finder so I have the achievement but I didn’t get the rare drops the one time I completed SoO back then since they were locked behind SoO Normal and Heroic and I wasn’t strong enough to get into those tiers back then. By the time I was able to solo SoO Normal and Heroic, I got the proper achievements but none of the rare drops.
Apparently, Blizzard has set it in MoP Remix so rare drops are now guaranteed drops if you don’t have them already so you get the appearances. You also grind Bronze, which is the unique currency for MoP Remix for buying rare mounts and armor set appearances that became rare or outright unobtainable after Warlords of Draenor’s prepatch went live (for example the Shoulders of Mannoroth have a 1% chance of dropping in retail WoW). It’s free with a WoW Subscription or Game Time so…yeah.
Before I forget, the following restrictions are in place for WoW Remix:
- Cannot leave Pandaria unless a quest takes you somewhere
- No Professions
- No Heirlooms
- Pandaria Campaign Map can’t be used to reveal the Map + Flight Paths
- Almost no vendors (not really needed actually)
- Characters created for MoP Remix are locked to it until the event ends in August (as of now)
Well, there you go. You do get access to both Dragonriding and the highest version fo flying after you complete the intro quest chain. At level 10. If you never did the Dragonriding intro quest in Dragonflight–that was the case with me–you’ll be able to do it in MoP Remix as well as pick a Drake. This means you can acess all of Pandaria from the beginning by air, allowing you to simply fly to the 95% of Flight Paths across Pandaria. The remaining 5% are unlocked via quest chains including the faction-exclusive camps in Kun Lai Summit as well as the faction-exclusive Flight Paths on Timeless Isle and the Isle of Giants.
The Infitite Dragonflight have recruited the Alliance and the Horde for this special retelling of the Pandaria Campaign. For those who didn’t play through Dragonflight or don’t know story, Nozdormu settled things with his future self and won the alligiance of most of the Infinite Dragonflight. This faction of Infinite Dragonflight now friendly to mortals and all dragonkind has promised to leave the timeways as-is. In exchange for helping these Infinite Dragons with their “research”, they give you the Cloak of Infinite Potential. It’s a special Artifact item that gains in power as you complete quests and kill stuff. Once most of the stats gained reach the triple digits you’re basically able to take out anything in front of you. You’re brokenly powerful and that’s intended!
Even better is once certain conditions are met on your “main” MoP Remix character, current and future MoP Remix chars you make reap the benefits similar to heirlooms and Renown mechanics. Given there are Faction-exclusive transmog sets–such as Garrosh’s iconic Mannoroth’s Tusks shoulders–I’ll have a main for each faction to roll in MoP Remix. Since my Lightforged Draenei Priest is stuck at level 20 for at least two more weeks (Trial accounts can only level to 20), I’ll probably finish the Jade Forest Main Story Quest chains on that char, do Operation Landfall quests (unlocked at level 20) and then repeat the process on a Horde character. I should be able to do both by then fairly quickly. Once I have game time, I’ll level them to 70 and then start going crazy farming Bronze and achivements. We’ll see =)
As for what this could mean for both future Classic servers and future WoW Remixes. MoP Remix set the bar really, really high. Not gonna lie, it’s pretty exciting to think a WoD Remix (Warlords of Draenor) could make that expansion fun for people who didn’t like it. Same for BFA (Battle for Azeroth) and Shadowlands. Oh and we likely will get MoP Classic sometime next year. The question is weather or not Classic servers stop there or keep going. I would not be surprised at all if we got Classic, TBC, WotLK and Cataclysm Remixes at some point in the future.
I forgot to say this before but MoP remix ends on August 19. The next day, The War Within’s prepatch goes live. Earthen were revealed as a new playable race in TWW. Like Pandaren, they start Neutral but at the end of the story quest chain you can pick which faction to join. Earthen can be every class except Evoker (race exclusive to Dracthyr) and Demon Hunter (race exclusive to Blood Elves and Night Elves).
Here’s a bit of trivia from 2012: A WoW player created a Pandaren called Double Agent when MoP went live that has never left The Wandering Isle 12 years later. He completed the story quest chain up to the final decision but didnt complete it on purpose. As for how the character reached max level, he simply used gathering professions which gives a little EXP per node. He’s kept this up for 12 years now largely for his own personal amusem*nt. Presumably, he’ll do the same with an Earthen which also starts Neutral. We’ll have to wait and see.
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