Blizzard Unveil Next World of Warcraft Expansion

From Blizzcon comes the official announcement of a new chapter in the World of Warcraft saga, Mists of Pandaria. It’s the game’s fourth expansion following last year’s Cataclysm, and with it comes a slew of new features for both veterans and newcomers, expanding the virtual realm of Azeroth even further.

Players will be able to roam the Eastern-themed continent of Pandaria, the expansion also unlocking the Pandaren (essentially panda-like humanoids) as a playable race and even an all-new class, the monk. For the first time World of Warcraft will feature a neutral race, Pandaren characters having to ability to side with either the Horde or Alliance. In addition, Mists of Pandaria raises the current level cap to 90 too, ushering new in-game elements including a pet battle system, PvE “Scenarios” and more.

Update: More details on the Pandaren and Monk for you. Pandaren can play as all classes, bar Death Knight, Druid (makes sense really) and Warlock. Goblins and Worgen won’t be able to select the Monk class, which has three specs: Brewmaster (tank,) Mistweaver (healer/fighter,) and Windwalker (melee DPS.) The class is very martial arts-oriented doing away with Mana and replacing it with Chi which powers a number of unique actions. It has also been revealed that Monk players can’t use auto-attack, all abilities requiring player input.