Mists of Pandaria

Mists of Pandaria (MoP or Mists) is the fourth expansion. It was announced at BlizzCon 2011 on October 21, 2011, and its pre-expansion patch 5.0.4 came out on August 28, 2012. The main release date is September 25, 2012; one line of the source text gives September 15, but its release box and the expansion list both say the 25th.

The long-lost land of Pandaria appears out of its magical mists, and both factions land there. The story was told across several patches for the first time: it starts with the continent itself, then turns back to the Alliance-Horde war, and ends with the Siege of Orgrimmar against the Horde's warchief Garrosh Hellscream.

Pandaren can join either side. They start on the Wandering Isle, a living creature that roams the oceans, and choose the Alliance or the Horde at the end of its quest chain. Pandaren were opened to all players on September 25 even without buying the expansion.

Pandaria lies in the far south of Azeroth and draws on Asian landscapes. Flying there was locked until level 90, so players would explore it on the ground first.

The expansion added nine high-level Dungeons and Instances: six new ones in Pandaria plus reworked Scholomance, Scarlet Halls and Scarlet Monastery, all with Heroic modes at level 90. Challenge Modes asked groups to clear dungeons as fast as possible for medals. Scenarios were new: short queued instances for three players that do not need a tank or healer.

New Battlegrounds: Silvershard Mines, Temple of Kotmogu and, in patch 5.3, Deepwind Gorge. New Arenas and Solo Shuffle: Tol'vir Proving Grounds and, in 5.3, Tiger's Peak.

• Talent revamp: point-based trees were replaced by six tiers with three choices each, separate from your specialization.
• The Pet Battle System, a mini-game where companion pets fight and level up; see Battle Pets.
• Achievements, pets and mounts became account-wide, area looting picks up loot from many corpses at once, and characters per realm went up to 11.
• Player farms at Sunsong Ranch (with the Tillers), cross-realm zones for quiet areas, and later Brawler's Guild (5.1), Flexible raids, Proving Grounds and Connected Realms (5.4).