Why World of Warcraft's Pandaria 'Remix' event is the PERFECT starting point for new players

Over the past few months, I have finally been getting into World of Warcraft after not giving it a chance for several years. This is mainly thanks to the changes I’m looking forward to seeing in the upcoming expansion, World of Warcraft: The War Within, and getting invited to an awesome guild that’s been showing me the ropes. A big part, however, is the recently launched World of Warcraft Remix: Mists of Pandaria event.

This limited-time event has been a joy to play through with its fun-over-balance approach that’s appealing for casual newbies like me while offering a ton of rewards that are difficult to obtain in the classic retail version of Mists of Pandaria. As someone who missed out on the storylines of classic World of Warcraft expansions, I enjoyed this Remix event so much, and hope Blizzard Entertainment decides to do more of them in the future. It's something fresh for veterans, but evidently, it seems to be a great introductory vector for new players too. 

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Here are my top reasons why I think World of Warcraft Remix: Mists of Pandaria is awesome and you should participate in it while you wait for The War Within.

Mists of Pandaria Remix: Overpowered fun

World of Warcraft is a storied MMORPG with 20 years of content just gathering dust. However, Blizzard's modern philosophy has explored "remixing" some of this content, adding hardcore Classic modes, fresh content to the original version of the game, and now, this Remix event. Mists of Pandaria launched originally back in 2011, over a decade ago, but Blizzard has given players a ton of reasons to return and explore one of the franchise's most popular expansions, and it's an ideal starting point for new players too. 

One of the key features of World of Warcraft Remix: Mists of Pandaria is being able to relive the Mists of Pandaria expansion and all its quests with reworked loot to collect. This loot includes the powerful Cloak of Infinite Potential which you get at the beginning of the event.

Linked to the light time travel plot elements of the event, it is an Artifact cloak that can power up all your character’s stats by upgrading it with Threads of Time you find throughout the event. As the name suggests, the Cloak of Infinite Potential can be infinitely improved, potentially giving you stats to rival that of World or Raid bosses.

But that’s not all. There’s all kinds of new gear to collect in World of Warcraft Remix: Mists of Pandaria that can be augmented with special gems that grant the player extra stat boosts, and passive or active abilities that would normally be impossible to use on certain classes. Ever wondered what a Warrior class would be like if they could use a Mage’s Blink ability or have a Hunter summon fireballs from the sky anytime they sic their pets on an enemy? Well with World of Warcraft Remix: Mists of Pandaria, that is possible and so much more.

It is so hilariously entertaining playing around with Remix gear and progressively getting stronger at a fast pace. My Tauren Warrior went from a middling Lv.10 militia to an actual god of war with nearly FIVE MILLION HIT POINTS, raining down holy fire and meteors anytime I attacked by the time I fully upgraded their gear and hit Lv.70. And that’s without mentioning some of the other players I ran into during dungeons and Raids, where I encountered Tanks with over 20 MILLION HP, and Healers that were healing the party for over millions of HP and buffed my Haste stat to over 250%. To put some of this into context, in the "balanced" retail version of the game, 40% haste is considered a lot, as is 1 million HP. Haste gives you the ability to attack faster and faster, leading to hilarious button mashing consequences. 

Is this balanced? Absolutely not, but World of Warcraft Remix: Mists of Pandaria is not meant to be balanced. It encourages you to find the most insanely overpowered gear and gems you can find, and experience the glorious, overwhelming power of what it's like to be a raid boss, and I love it. Plus, there's undoubted catharsis getting back at those pesky raid bosses that gave you trouble in the normal retail version of Mists of Pandaria when it first came in 2012 by giving them a taste of their own superpowered medicine.

It's a great way to create alt characters for your Warband

If you need to level up alt characters to include in your Warband in The War Within, but are tired of going through the Dragonflight expansion again, then World of Warcraft Remix: Mists of Pandaria has you covered. Warbands in the next World of Warcraft expansion are four characters that will share almost all forms of progress, making it easier for people to switch it up and experiment with different gameplay roles. While Mists of Pandaria's Remix event (set to end on August 19, 2024), it has become a great way to very quickly gear up new max level characters in preparation for The War Within, expected to launch on August 26, 2024. 

The character you create for World of Warcraft Remix: Mists of Pandaria (which will be marked by a Timerunning hourglass in the character log-in screen) will start at Lv.10 and will level up extremely quickly as you progress through Pandaria. When the Remix event ends, all the characters you created for the event will migrate into the normal retail version of World of Warcraft, just in time for The War Within expansion.

I guarantee that you will hit the max level of Lv.70 on a single character by the time you’ve done half of Pandaria’s questlines. With this, you can potentially create and level up under half a dozen alt characters via World of Warcraft Remix: Mists of Pandaria in just a couple of weeks and have more than enough potential candidates for your Warband.

Cosmetics and mounts galore

By far my favorite aspect of World of Warcraft Remix: Mists of Pandaria is the sheer, gigantic hoard of cosmetic rewards you can obtain from it. These rewards include transmog gear from every single Mists of Pandaria dungeon and raid, every mount from the expansion (including some unreleased color variants and new mounts exclusive to this event), fun toys with temporary effects, and more. 

Transmog is shorthand for Transmogrification, which allows you to apply the cosmetic appearance of an armor item to the stats of an item you actually need for your character build. Hunting down cool armor styles has become a key part of World of Warcraft's endgame, and Mists of Pandaria has mountains of it to add to your collection, usable across every modern WoW mode and compatible character. 

You can obtain these rewards normally by progressing through the Remix event or buying them at special bazaars using a World of Warcraft Remix: Mists of Pandaria-exclusive form of currency called Bronze. Bronze can be obtained by killing enemies, completing quests, and recycling gear you don't need.

One of the more illustrious cosmetic rewards you can get at this event is a transmog of the coveted Tusks of Mannoroth. This is a rare Shoulder gear piece that is dropped from defeating Garrosh Hellscream, one of the major antagonists of Mists of Pandaria in the Mythic-tier version of the Siege of Orgrimmar Raid.

It normally has a 0.3% drop rate in the retail version of World of Warcraft (according to WoWhead). However, in the Remix event, you can purchase it with Bronze and a special currency called Bones of Mannoroth, which is obtained by clearing the Siege of Orgrimmar raid. One bone drops on Normal difficulty, four bones drop on Heroic difficulty, and ten bones drop at Mythic difficulty. 

You can also use the Bronze and Bones of Mannoroth to purchase transmog versions of Garrosh Hellscream's iconic weapons. Many of these items were simply the result of grinding and RNG in the retail version of the game, but giving players who participate a more controlled avenue of acquisition has made the event all the more rewarding. It also helps new players catch up on iconic transmog items too, which has been a huge draw for me personally as a relatively new player. 

What’s cool is that unlike raids in the retail of World of Warcraft where loot rewards are locked out for a week after clearing it, the raids in the Remix event only have a daily lock-out. This means you can spend every day farming the currency you need to buy the transmog and mounts you want without having to wait a week.

I adore this because I hate having to wait a week in the retail version of World of Warcraft before being allowed a chance to obtain transmog or mounts after clearing a Raid's bosses. I can understand if the lockouts are for current Raid content, but not for Raids that are over a decade old which hardly any current players engage in anymore. So it's nice to see World of Warcraft Remix: Mists of Pandaria allowing fashion hunters like me the opportunity to farm for the transmog gear pieces we want at a much more immediate rate and without being held back by low-drop rates.

In addition, any transmog gear, mounts, toys, or any other cosmetic item you obtain in World of Warcraft Remix: Mists of Pandaria will carry over to your full accounts so you can take them with you when you start your adventures in The War Within expansion.

Here's hoping for more World of Warcraft Remix events 

Overall, I’ve had a great time with the World of Warcraft Remix: Mists of Pandaria event. The leveling-up progression is lightning-quick, the intentionally overpowered Remix-exclusive gear system is ridiculous and entertaining, and the mountainous amounts of rewards are too good to pass up.

I hope Blizzard Entertainment does more of these Remix-style events in the future for other expansions. I would like to see a Remix event for Wrath of the Lich King, The Burning Crusade, or Cataclysm for example, and see these older classic expansions with rescaled enemies fit to fight max-level characters with absurdly powerful gear and abilities.

Not to mention, more Remix-events could give players a chance to more easily obtain mounts or transmog gear that are quite hard to get nowadays. Perhaps future Remix-events could also reward players with brand new mounts or transmog gear based on old concept art that never made it into the full game or even entirely new mounts and cosmetic rewards.

We will have to wait and see to find out if Blizzard Entertainment decides to hold more Remix events for one of its best PC games. In the meantime, I need to get back to farming for transmog gear before the Remix event ends on August 19, 2024, so I can look as fashionably awesome as possible for when the upcoming PC title, World of Warcraft: The War Within, launches on August 26, 2024.

World of Warcraft: The War Within

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