MyMMO demon Cortyn has plunged into WoW Remix: Mists of Pandaria. At the beginning people were skeptical – now they are really excited.
WoW Remix: Mists of Pandaria has been live for a few days. Cynics might say that this is just a lukewarm rehash of an old expansion, packed with extra amenities to cater to the turbo-addicted community.
I’ll be honest: I laughed at it at the beginning. I loved Plunderstorm. I found that exciting and new. I didn’t like the prospect of running through Pandaria again at all. But I also have to admit: I was wrong.
WoW Remix: Mists of Pandaria is fun and almost endless.
I now believe that WoW Remix: Mists of Pandaria is proof that Blizzard has finally found a way to make good use of the vast amount of content that World of Warcraft has.
The effort is low – and the profit is so great that Blizzard itself will probably be surprised by its success.
WoW Remix: Mists of Pandaria – All features at a glance
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Infinite power and endless fun
The “worst” thing about the remix is actually the start. Because the experience is no different than with any other character. The first half hour feels like a tough quest without any special features. Fights take time and there is no real momentum.
But then it gets better with every single quest. Because absolutely every quest grants a reward chest, which can contain not only equipment, but also a permanent upgrade for the artifact cloak. The new rewards keep popping up on the screen: here 3 stamina, there 1 lifesteal or 3% additional XP gain.
I got my night elf warrior to level 65 in two evenings and I’ll probably turn 70 today.
My warrior doesn’t fight. It explodes in the enemies.
After charging, she throws a huge shadow sphere into the enemies. Ice projectiles attract enemies within a radius of 40 meters, who arrive in time with the explosion of the sphere and immediately lose 70% of their life. Critical hits cause me to emit flames, dealing even more damage to all nearby enemies. As soon as an enemy falls below 10%, my character automatically tries to “finsh” him – and if he has less health than twice my maximum health, he dies immediately.
Oh yes. And every time an enemy dies, it explodes into flames again, dealing fire damage to enemies and healing my allies.
In other words: As soon as an enemy dies, it triggers a chain reaction of explosions. 25 opponents are dead in front of me and my elf is already hopping to the next group.
Endless rewards
But it is also clear that a large part of the appeal comes from the many rewards. It’s raining bronze everywhere, which you can exchange at some merchants. You either upgrade your own equipment or collect transmogs, pets, mounts and other cosmetic rewards.
I haven’t yet calculated how much bronze I’ll need for everything – but the number will probably be somewhere in the million.
But it motivates me. There’s so much choice, so much interesting stuff and at the same time it’s all just optional. If I’m not interested in the fourth coloring of a leather set, then I won’t buy it.
If you want, you can just concentrate on the big “hits”, like the mounts or toys.
It all feels pretty casual and the grind is quite satisfying. Every few hours I can treat myself to something and then benefit from it for the rest of my WoW playing time.
How long does the joy last?
The question now is: Will this soon get boring? Does it stop being fun at some point? Because as absolutely powerful as you are, the challenge is of course lost a little.
You feel a bit like a cheater and the appeal might be lost. Because if all the enemies fall over just by looking at them, it’s nice at the beginning, but at some point it becomes a bit monotonous. Or?
Yes and no.
Because the remix characters live in their own cosmos and cannot enter the current Dragonflight content until the end of the event, Blizzard has not put any chains on the strength. You can literally make your character infinitely strong. Your cloak continues to grow in power, and everything you do contributes to this increase in power.
This is power, which is also transferred to other characters, because the progress of your cloak is recorded with achievements from which other characters then benefit. After my warrior, another hero will certainly follow – and he will start with a lot of additional strength (and additional XP).
I wouldn’t be surprised if in a few weeks it would be possible to complete the Pandaria raids with just a small group. Heroic dungeons can probably be done “solo” quite early on. I’ll try that out in the coming days.
I can’t yet predict how long I’ll spend in WoW Remix: Mists of Pandaria. But I intend to earn every single reward. Not because I necessarily need any of them. But because the Pandaria remix is simply fun, and at the same time it is probably the biggest but also most exciting grind in the history of WoW.
The future of legacy content
Maybe I’m going out on a limb here, but I’m convinced that events like “WoW Remix: Mists of Pandaria” could be the salvation of old content that hardly anyone else would play.
Blizzard doesn’t seem to have a plan for “the entire world” of Azeroth to be relevant at maximum level. That would also probably be quite overwhelming and overwhelming. But taking a single expansion and saying for 3 months, “Here, play this again and try out absolutely crazy abilities” is a near perfect solution.
The work that Blizzard has to do here is comparatively small. Of course, other events of this type require variety, perhaps new skills or other special features.
Even if no one wants to hear it yet, in my mind’s eye I can already see a “WoW Remix: Shadowlands” in 2 or 3 years with the twist that the anima powers from Torghast can also be found and used anywhere in the open world. Or how about a “Remix: Battle for Azeroth” where you use many of the former Azerite powers at the same time?
The possibilities are almost endless and Pandaria shows that the concept works.
So far, this type of content recycling has only been one thing: great.
So if you’re still skeptical, just take 2 hours and take a look. You might like it more than you initially think.