Blizzard today announced World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria. Blizzard’s objective is to create new gameplay experiences. Whereas previous World of Warcraft expansions have always focused on an apocalyptic enemy, Mists of Pandaria wants to get back to Warcraft II – focusing on the conflict between the Alliance and the Horde.

The expansion introduces a new continent, Pandaria. It has a pan-Asian theme and is home to the Pandaren race. It is a single, unified continent much as Outland and Northrend were before it.

Following Deathwing’s fall, the Horde and Alliance resume their hostilities. After a devastating naval battle, both factions wash up on the shores of a new continent, Pandaria. The land had been shrouded in mist ever since the Sundering. The objective in the expansion is to save Pandaria from being consumed by the Horde and Alliance war machines.

In keeping with the theme of war between the Alliance and the Horde, Blizzard are considering three new Battlegrounds and three new gameplay modes. Stranglethorn Diamond Mines is Payload gameplay; Valley of Power is Murderball and Azshara Crater is DOTA.

The Pandaren will be introduced as a playable race. For the first time in World of Warcraft, they will be a neutral race. At level 10, players will be able to decide which faction they wish to align themselves with. The Pandaren starter zone is called “The Wandering Isle” a giant turtle with a forest upon its back.

At level 85, players will make landfall on Pandaria in the Jade Forest. The Horde wash up at one end, the Alliance at the other. There, they meet two of the new breeds of sentient creatures introduced into the game, the mischievous, monkey-like Hozu and the carp fish-like Jinyu. As the two factions meet in the middle, they create negative energy and unleash manifestation of the same: the Sha. Other new creatures in Pandaria include the Verming, a nuisance race much like the Kobold. The Mantid are a praying mantis-like race. They’re the Pandaren’s arch-enemies. Then there’s the Mogu, a brutish kind of creature that owned Pandaria before the Pandaren.

Beyond the Jade Forest lies the Valley of the Four Winds, a zone split in two with Pandaren farmland to the north, and shore-side jungle to the south. Blizzard were careful to point out that instances will have a physical exterior presence in each zone.

There will be six new dungeons in Pandaria. Additionally, Scholomance and the Scarlet Monastery will be revamped and given heroic treatment, just as Shadowfang Keep and Deadmines were reworked in Cataclysm.

At times, Cataclysm’s end-game feels a little “same old”, reckons Blizzard. That doesn’t mean that traditional raid content is to be cast aside, however. Mists of Pandaria is to ship with three raid instances, and will reintroduce World Raid Bosses.

Mists of Pandaria also introduces a new class, the Monk. Monks have three specs: the Brewmaster, a tank, the mistweaver, a healer, and the windwalker, a melee DPS. All specs, including the healer, will include an element of melee. All races but Worgen and Goblins will be able to be monks.

There will be significantly more combat animations for the monk. Their general attacks will be with hands and feet, with larger attacks or combination closes using weapons. Monks wear leather and cannot use shields.

There is no auto-attack for monks. Instead, they haven an energy resource called Chi. They use Chi to jab or roll attack. Jabbing generates light and dark force, which is then used to deploy other skills.

The talent system has also been overhauled. Blizzard suggests that players love the fantasy of hybridising talents but feel they’ve never really delivered. As a result, classes had “cookie-cutter” builds.

The new talent system breaks class progression into three: Class abilities, Spec abilities and talents. Players will choose a class, then choose a spec at level 10. Every fifteen levels they’ll be able to choose one of three talents – each one to have a use for each “build”. None of the talents should feel mandatory, says Blizzard.

The game will also introduce PvE scenarios, a kind of evolution of the group quest. Many of these are to repurpose old zones in new ways. To demonstrate, Blizzard hypothetically suggested the Goldshire could be turned into a scenario wherein players must kill attacking kobolds, escort an NPC and then kill a boss mob. These scenarios could also include the opposite faction in non-player form.

Challenge Mode dungeons are time trials much as Stratholme’s “45 minute Baron run” was in the original version of the game. Players’ gear will be normalised to a general level (or mobs will normalised to the group’s gear level). The purpose is to allow all players on the server to compete evenly in these time trials – players won’t be able to “outgear” challenge modes. There will be a leaderboard and items without any statistics that players will be able to use as transmography templates.

Finally, Blizzard introduced the Pet Battle System. Think of it as Pokemon in Azeroth. Players will be able to collect and train pets, building their skill-set and battling them against other players’ pets.

The system will be retrofitted to include most of the pets people already own. Pets will be able to be named, and can be sold on the Auction House at any time. There will also be “Wild Pets”, which can be discovered and defeated before being added to your collection. Some of these pets will have very unique spawning conditions. They may only spawn in the rain, or in spring, or at night, or in a specific zone – or all of the above. Pets are also to be account-wide.

Pet battles are to be turn-based. Players will be able to send their pets into battle with three skills only. The goal is to create a more strategic experience.

Gameplanet will go hands-on with Mists of Pandaria tomorrow.