With the next expansion for the World of Warcraft coming up in the near future it may be time to start getting ready for Mists of Pandaria. This new expansion is set to shakeup the game almost as much as Cataclysm did, since it will have a whole new race and class with the Pandarians and the Monk class, as well as completely redoing the talent and glyph system.

With all these changes coming it is a good idea to get ready for it.  While It will not be out until sometime later this year, most of us are probably heavily distracted with Diablo 3 now that it has launched, so anytime you can find some time to get ready it would be a good idea to fit it in.

This whole “getting ready” topic has been discussed before and will be again as each guild or group of players looks at what they believe is required to get ready for a new expansion. This changes from guild to guild and group to group since all players want something a little different out of the game, so try to relate these items back to your own group and remember they could be different.

So what should you all be looking out for with the release of Mists of Pandaria? What should you do to be the best prepared for it? Here are some of the things that my guildies and I are doing…

Stock up on gold - This is very plain jane boring one, but is also critically important.  Since traditionally everything required for either crafting professions or any new BOE items go for ridiculous amounts of gold for the first month or so after the release of an expansion, the more gold you can have on hand the better it will be for you.  This is even more important if you are looking to get into the new raids quickly since you will need to get some of the crafted items and consumables created in the first weeks of the expansion as everyone pushes through new content.

Due to the amount of gold that large high level guilds can generate through the guild perks this may no be an issue for the high end raiding groups, but it will still be a concern for smaller groups or individuals.

I never like going into an expansion with anything less than about 25,000 gold.  Given how easy it is to get gold now days though, that might be a little low.  You can never go wrong with lots of currency though, so stock up with as much as you can now.

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Remember to keep the items you transmogrify with.

Do some spring cleaning – Yeah I know it is pretty much summer already, and I know that Mists of Pandaria will most likely be a late fall release, but this still applies. When was the last time you really used all that old gear sitting around in your bank? Have you packed even more away in long term void storage now too?

Are you really going to use all those saved items?  Are you ever going to use all that low level leather or ore sitting there? Probably not, so get rid of it. Sell it all off and it will help with your stockpiling of gold.

Make sure you do hang onto anything that you want to use for transmogrifying though.  More than once already I have accidentally deleted or sold something that I then went back looking for to use for a transmogrification.  If you are picky about the look of things, keep a list of the items you want to save.

Part of your spring cleaning should also be making sure you make as much bag space free as you can.  Remember, in the new zones you are likely to find a whole lot of items that can be either useful or sold for some quick gold.  Make sure you have the space to carry them all.  After all while leveling you will not need your off spec gear with you or your PVP gear or any number of other items you carry around just in case.

Sell off your remaining high end profession materials – You could hang onto anything that can be used for crafting with any of your professions that are for items that can give you skill points as soon as the skill cap is raised.  The problem with this is that most of the time we are talking about very expensive materials.

Remember that when each expansion is released there will be new high level materials and the old ones drop in value significantly. Sell them all off now and make more profit.  Also when the skill cap raises there will be new lower cost materials that can get you those same skill points with new patterns instead of using the old high cost materials.  Some players like getting the jump on professions and keep the high cost materials stockpiled for an expansion, but I would get rid of them.

Max your professions skills – Speaking of professions, you do have all your professions maxed, right?  If you do not, what are you waiting for? Go and get off your lazy butt and do it. You do not want to get to the new areas, and see all the new crafted items, or worse find a great new pattern and then not be able to use it.  You would then have to go back to farm old materials to level your profession to be able to use it. Get all that over with now while you have time and are not under any pressure.

This should include any of your secondary professions that you want to level once you are able to.  Make sure cooking, first aid, fishing, and archeology are all maxed now rather than later.

Gear up for your leveling spec – When the expansion launches you will be leveling again, to make this as easy as possible you should make sure you have gear for your leveling spec. A lot of time your raid spec or PVP spec is not the spec that you will play while leveling. This is mainly for healers and tanks, but could apply to any class.

Since you have time now, and for most of us more valor and justice points than we know what to do with, get the gear to be able to level faster.  I know that as a tank player on my Paladin and a healer on my Druid, the gear sets are very different than what I need to be able to level (ok, I can manage with the druid by going boomkin, but you get the idea).  Do all that work ahead of time so that you can just go and play and not worry about it on launch day.

Spend your badges - As soon as the new expansion gets here, none of the old items will be worth much as they will be a much lower item level than the new max. Therefore the badge reward items will be next to useless as soon as you start leveling. Spend your badges now and either get items that will help you level in the expansion (like helping with your off spec gear set as per above) or just grab some items to sell off for gold. No matter what you choose to do with them, get rid of them soon!

Once the release date is set, stop raiding and PvP (unless it’s just for fun) - All your items are going to be very quickly replaced. While these activities are fun, the rewards are hard to justify any longer. Therefore unless you are doing a fun run, an achievement run, or just need that last item for your leveling spec, I would skip it. If you are trying for progress, it’s really kind of late, just skip it, you will replace the items fast, so why bother?

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Check out your guild perks for items that boost experience gains.

Stock up on materials now for any new characters – Many players will be starting new characters, either in the form of a Pandarian or a Monk, or both in the same form. If you are one of these players you should start getting ready now. Go through the auction house and grab materials for each profession you are going to do for your new character, grab items to help level, and grab bags for them. Get as many of the +experience items as you can as well, either from guild rewards or badge rewards.

Having all the items to help you level will make a huge difference in how fast you can get through the old content on a low level character and make it to the new content.  Get it all now while it is cheaper, once the expansion hits everyone will be looking for the good low level items to help them out and the price will go way up.

Find a guild to level or raid with – If you are looking at starting over at level 1 this is critical, if you are looking to raid as soon as possible it is as well. Most guilds will not be into raid mode for at least a month or two, so if you are not in a hard core raiding guild (which are the only ones that will really be raiding soon), then it may be time to find a friendly leveling guild to help get through the content faster.  If you want to raid by the first weekend, then it means finding a hard core raiding group and getting in with them now.

Get any character you need for that guild to 85 - While this seems like a no brainer, many of us still have alts kicking around that we want to play at the end game that are still at sub 85 levels. Your current main may not be the character that will be needed for your new progression group. If it isn’t, start working on leveling and gearing it up now.  If you are planning a whole new main and starting at level 1, then obviously this doesn’t apply to you.

 

 


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Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

About The Author

Byron has been playing and writing about World of Warcraft for the past ten years. He also plays pretty much ever other Blizzard game, currently focusing on Heroes of the Storm and Hearthstone, while still finding time to jump into Diablo III with his son.

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