Why Mist of Pandaria Classic is the Best Version of WoW

Coming back to World of Warcraft for the millionth time, I have been enjoying the journey thus far as I play Mist of Pandaria Classic, which is a version of WoW that creates a happy medium between the classic versions and the more modern retail versions.  There are a number of reasons why I like this version the best, and I would like to share them with you all in case you were wondering which version of WoW you may be interested in trying yourselves.

First off, when you are playing a classic version of WoW, you are doing so because you enjoy the journey more than the destination.  Classic WoW is the perfect game for that because generally speaking, the journey is the longest part of the game to get to max level.  This is the case with all classic versions of WoW, but Mist of Pandaria Classic gives players the option to also level up in a faster way through its quality of life features that the other classic versions do not have.  There are primarily two qualities of life features that Mist of Pandaria Classic has that I am a big fan of:

1).  Built in Quest Tracker:  This makes it much easier to level up without the need to download any quest tracking addons like you would have to download for other versions of classic WoW.  It is not completely a modern take on the quest tracker, but it is sufficient to allow for players to have a much easier time traversing the zones and completing quests with.

2).  Built in Dungeon Finder:  This makes it much easier to level up because if you so choose, you can simply spam dungeons all the way to max level and quest in between them.  In other versions of World of Warcraft, this is a much harder process because you have to manually find people to do dungeons with and you also have to traverse the landscape to get to the dungeon locations unless you have a class that can summon you in the group.

These two qualities of life features make all the difference for me.  During my current playthrough that I have been streaming, I have personally taken the route of going through the zones and simply leveling up through that mechanism by doing the quests, leveling up my professions by killing skinning mobs, and just enjoying the journey of exploring the world.  During the current playthrough, there is also a Joyous Journeys buff that is providing a 50% xp boost until the next major update comes to Mist of Pandaria Classic.

In terms of classes as well, I personally prefer the streamlined, less complicated, version of the Monk class that I am playing versus the more modern take of the Monk in retail wow.  I think this is because the world does not get scaled to your level, so when I am playing on Mist of Pandaria classic, I am feeling like my character feels much more powerful than my character on retail WoW feels because on retail WoW, no matter where I am fighting, all the mobs are my level so I never really feel a power spike like I do in the classic version of WoW.  This is a fundamental difference that for many, makes all the different in why they like classic vs retail WoW.  Mist of Pandaria Classic provides that happy medium.

I have yet to get to the end game of Mist of Pandaria Classic but I plan on taking my time to an extent so that I can level up my professions as I level up my character and move through the zones.  This is already becoming a slight issue because I am over leveled with the joyous journeys buff already, so there will come a point where I am significantly over leveled for the zones that I will be grinding in, resulting in little to no xp being earned.  I suppose this is not a bad thing, so long as I understand that I am making progress elsewhere, namely my coin balance, my gear upgrades along the way, and my profession training.  The good news is, I can always turn off the Joyous Journeys buff if I wanted to if I feel like it is taking away from the general feel of the game leveling flow.

I just wanted to take a minute to express my gratitude for the Mist of Pandaria Classic game version.  I am personally enjoying it, but have also been looking around at other games as well as some new releases or new servers of old games may be coming out soon, but I hope I can still periodically stick with Mist of Pandaria Classic as my go to game to chill in.

Until next time,

Blackboa