Well kids, another year has passed and we are close to a new World of Warcraft expansion. First though, let’s take a look back at the Cataclysm. As a guild, Geeks Of Doom had a pretty big expansion. We saw the return of a lot of old faces, the departure of some, but overall we added a ton of new members. We made further progression in raiding than we ever had before as a guild. While we stalled a little in Firelands due to healer issues and leadership changes, we came back strong in Dragon Soul (DS), and killed Deathwing before the nerfs really hit hard.

With the widespread down-time we’re experiencing at the end of this expansion (what’s the deal with that Blizzard? At least Wrath of the Lich King [WotLK] gave us Ruby Sanctum to make you feel like there was something different to do toward the end), I figured I would give a quick idea of where GoD is heading in the next expansion, and some of the things we’re looking forward to in Mist of Pandaria.

Moving forward in Mists of Pandaria, Geeks Of Doom will be keeping our raid leader and a pretty decent core group of raiders. So we plan to hit the ground running the first month of release. Assuming the new pet battle system doesn’t steal away all of our pet-collecting raiders, we should be fairly strong moving into the new expansion.

Assuming the rumors are true, we can expect to get our first taste of the new talent system sometime in late August. This will give everyone chance to try out their new specs in a raiding environment without feeling like they are damaging the team’s progression. The hope is that there will be some introduction into Mists of Pandaria. For example, there were the cool pre-expansion events that heralded the coming of the undead hordes of Wrath of the Lich King, and the sundering of the world events prior to Cataclysm. These events kept the citizens of Azeroth occupied for that final stretch of time between the end of one expansion and the birth of the next.

As with any new expansion there will a plethora of new mounts, pets, and transmogrification gear to keep collectors happy. Along with these aforementioned items for the collectors and fashionistas, there are factions beings added to the game that will provide tons of new daily quests and other fun things to do. One faction that bears mentioning is the Tillers who gain reputation with them will let have a farm where you can grow your own cooking mats. Add in challenge modes to existing dungeons, revamped guild perks, new zones and quests, a new race and class, and you suddenly have a lot to look forward to in Panda.

As of now I am doing my due diligence in the Panda beta to get a jump start on some of the additions to the game such as class changes, lore, and dungeons. Stay tuned for my next article in the coming weeks in which I will further elaborate on new features that I discover. Until then, starting farming your Valor because if your characters are Justice Point capped, all of that sweet, sweet Valor will roll over into pure, hard, gold!