As Blizzard works through the 20 years of expansions that have hit World of Warcraft as a part of the MMO"s Classic variant, it today announced Pandaria is coming soon during the Warcraft 30th Anniversary stream. The originally 2012-released expansion will take over the current Cataclysm world and let players return to the hidden continent sometime in the summer of 2025.
For those unfamiliar, Mists of Pandaria Classic will bring forward the Pandaren race of monks to the game. It"s a favorite expansion among many MMO fans, too. Blizzard hasn"t yet announced what sort of changes the Classic release of the expansion will be compared to the original. In 2012, aside from introducing a new continent, race, and class, the expansion also raised the game"s level cap to 90 and added a pet battle system.
Meanwhile, as Blizzard slowly moves forward through the expansions, it also has some news for players looking to jump back into the "classic" World of Warcraft Classic experience. Warcraft Classic 20th Anniversary Edition realms land on November 21.
"It"s never too late to go back and re-experience World of Warcraft anew and gain the edge with a clean start on a level playing field, with fresh economies, on large realms, and just in time to celebrate 20 years of adventures in Azeroth," says Blizzard about this version. "And the journey doesn"t stop there—for our PvP and PvE realms, conquer the heat of Outland when these realms progress to the Burning Crusade Classic."
The studio promises quality-of-life updates from later versions of Classic in these realms, while a Classic Guild UI toggle will also be present. A "looking for group" tool, a dedicated services chat, and other features are being implemented, too.
To access these realms, World of Warcraft Classic players can choose to enter them when launching the MMO, with PvE, PvP, and Hardcore modes available starting next week.
As for the standard World of Warcraft, Blizzard also dropped a small teaser for the next installment in the Worldsoul Saga. Its second expansion, dubbed Midnight, will be unveiled fully next summer, and it will bring an official housing system to the MMO.