Scenarios, however, present a high-level PvE activity that's raiding's polar opposite.

"It's a skill-oriented challenge for people that are really hardcore."

If you're hoping for a Cataclysm-sized crater in the quest system, you might be disappointed.

World of Farmvillecraft? A frightening thought indeed.

"It's called the World of Warcraft, not Peacecraft."

So, pandas. If you paid attention to last year's bombardment of BlizzCon coverage or -- I don't know --, you could be forgiven for thinking World of Warcraft's latest is a one-trick panda-commandeered pony. "Blizzard's jumped the shark," you might say. "How long until the 'What's your game' commercial starring Jack Black?" Pandaria, however, is a big place, and I ventured deep into the heart of Blizzard's headquarters last week to dispel Mists' myths. Here's what I uncovered.Back when I was but a naive, WoW-addicted youth, raids were a synapse-toasting adrenaline surge. My first guild run through Molten Core felt like a trip to Disneyland mixed with initiation into a secret club so secret that even other secret clubs wanted to join. Slowly but surely, however, raiding became a job -- capable of all at once pressuring and boring me to tears. Scenarios, however, present a high-level PvE activity that's more or less raiding's polar opposite."Right now we're going to focus on three-player scenarios," explained Lead Quest Designer Dave Kosak. "Don't need a tank, don't need a healer. They're instanced, so while you're doing the scenario, nobody's going to come in and kill your boss. It's all just about you guys personally going through a short series of objectives -- three or four stages, usually ending in some kind of big encounter. You get that nice 10 to 15-minute group experience that's not as high-pressure as a dungeon. It's more about the fun of questing in a group and being able to do things cooperatively that you couldn't do with a single-player quest experience."We were shown an example in which a group attempted to help a Pandaren brewmaster create lightning lager (which is exactly what it sounds like) during a storm. One stage required the ragtag trio to fend off lizardmen (also exactly what they sound like) who were attempting to bring down the brewery. This involved both traditional combat and frantically dousing fires to keep the electrifying beverage from going up in smoke. Eventually, the group confronted a giant lizardman in what could only be described as the most poignant anti-Prohibition symbolism I've seen in all my days.Admittedly, it doesn't seem terribly involved or particularly revolutionary. Blizzard was sure to note, however, that this is only an incredibly basic example of what it has in store.So scenarios are pretty casual, but that's the whole appeal. Dungeon challenges, meanwhile, fall on the opposite end of the spectrum. Basically, if dungeons normally feel like a half-marathon, consider these dungeon challenges a 100-yard dash. Gold, silver, and bronze medals will even be handed out to the best of the best, in addition to special gear. And, of course, leaderboards are in place to ensure that we'll all despise our friends and guildmates with a seething mix of rage and jealousy. (Those talented, dedicated bastards.) Best/worst of all, even if your armor was forged in the fires of Diablo III's development cycle and your sword has more backstory than Tolkien's "Silmarillion," it still won't even the odds."We cap your item level," noted Kosak. "We actually scale it so that everyone is at the same power level when they play through the challenge modes. So you can't out-gear them. It's all about if you and four other people can blast through that dungeon in the perfect time. That's a very skill-oriented challenge for people that are really hardcore."If you're not quitehardcore, there's plenty of more traditional dungeon content on the way. Specifically, level 90s will have access to nine heroics and three raids, each with three different difficulties. As an example, Blizzard took us on a tour of the Stormstout Brewery, which was overrun with drunken, knife-fighting monkeys, insane bunnies known as Virmen, and alcohol-infused "Alementals."The admittedly masterful punsmanship took a backseat, however, when I teamed up with a few other press types and tried running through the Temple of the Jade Serpent. Eventually, we made it to the Sha of Doubt, who spawned clones of each party member that -- if not quickly killed -- would explode, deal 50,000 damage to the party, and replenish the Sha's health. As you can imagine, that fight did not end well.WoW questing is hardly a question mark these days, and Mists of Pandaria isn't heaping a bunch of new ingredients into its not-so-secret sauce. In my time with the expansion's first level 85 zone, the Jade Forest, I encountered multiple lore-laden factions -- for instance, Pandaria's brutal former rulers, the Mogu, and wizened, fish-like Jinyu -- but they quickly had me marching to the beat of an eerily familiar drum. "Go here, kill 10 of this, collect six of that, free eight prisoners, and belch cider onto five burning trees." I'm not making that last one up.The new zones (especially the ethereally sun-baked Vale of Eternal Blossoms) look absolutely gorgeous, and some of the lore seems well worth poring over quest text to better understand, but deja vu set in quickly. Sadly, if you're hoping for Pandaria to leave a Cataclysm-sized crater in the quest system, you might end up disappointed. This time around, Blizzard's going back to the basics."In Cataclysm, we went with a very linear quest flow and big huge story moments," Kosak said. "This is great in that it allowed us to have a really big story buildup and a really big climax to each zone. The problem is that it felt less like an open world. We want to get that open world exploration back, so you'll find that the quests in Mists of Pandaria are very non-linear. We still want to keep those strong story elements that we learned how to do in Cataclysm, but we condensed those into bite-sized chunks of story that you can do in any order.""The other thing with our questing is, we try to tell the story with the core mechanics that let you play your class. If you're a mage, we want you to feel like a mage. We don't want to keep putting you on a vehicle or having you do crazy special stuff that doesn't put you in combat. We wanted to keep the class combat there, front and center, and let our class design shine."The traditional MMO endgame consists of raiding, PvP, and a smattering of repeatable quests. Or, translated into longtime MMO player-ese: "Yaaaaaaawn." But really, what else can you hand a player who's crossed the level treadmill's ever-moving finish line for the billionth time? Well, while conventional wisdom might suggest more of the above and maybe a cookie, Blizzard's going with a nice, refreshing kitchen sink.Pet battles, obviously, are a known quantity, and a quick showdown between Illidan and Arthas drove home the Pokemon-esque nature of the whole production. Among other things, however, Blizzard's also throwing in Chinese-style dragon mounts that you can hatch and train via daily quests. (Take that, Skyrim!) Also, there's a dragon-racing minigame, because why not? Or, if fire-breathing ultra-lizards aren't your thing, you can manage your own farm by doing daily quests for a faction known as the Tillers. World of Farmvillecraft? A frightening thought indeed.To some, this might suggest a lack of endgame focus. Blizzard, however, insists that variety's a pro, not a con."The whole idea is to have more for players to do," explained Kosak. "Pet battles is a feature we've wanted to do for a while. It's not like, as a raider, you're saying, 'Oh, I have to do my pet battles for the week in order to get my raid gear up.' That would be terrible. It's a completely different kind of side game for a player who's interested in a less competitive, more fun kind of collecting activity. The feedback is, casual players really don't like to get together in groups and go through dungeons and raids. So we're doing a lot more with factions and with daily quests to give you all kinds of story progression at max level. For the more casual players."The actual PvP content we were shown seemed interesting enough, but about as run-of-the-mill as mill-running simulator, all things considered. The Stranglethorn Vale diamond mine, for example, saw three mine carts function as separate moving capture points, while battleground involved desperately clutching an artifact that both scored points and harmed its holder. If it were an indie game, it'd be symbolism for bad relationships.That, however, is only the very tippity top of Blizzard's iceberg. Horde vs Alliance, we were assured, is the real main event of Pandaria. The Pandaren, meanwhile, just happen to get stomped on their own stomping grounds. Even so, MoP's big final showdown (to be added via patches, of course) won't actually take place in Pandaria. Instead, both factions make a siege on Orgrimmar in a bid to take down "big jerk" Warchief Garrosh Hellscream. "This expansion set is not a joke. It's not light and fluffy," lore master Chris Metzen explained. "It's called the World of Warcraft, not Peacecraft."Blizzard, though, has been oddly tight-lipped about the nitty-gritty details of this tooth-and-nail-and-adorable-panda-paw war. So, how exactly will it work?"We have some new PvP mechanics," said lead systems designer Greg Street. "Our design is that we'll have several PvP quests that you can do every day. And when you do those quests, the reward is that it increases your conquest cap. Not your actual conquest points, but it increases the cap that you can then fill up again by doing battlegrounds or arenas or something like that.""We have to be careful there, because we know not all of our players want to PvP. I don't know if it will be the first patch or the second patch, but when we actually have the fortresses constructed [on the beaches], there will be a daily quest area, much like the Molten Front, one for the Alliance and one for the Horde. The Alliance is going over and raiding the Horde base, the Horde is going over and raiding the Alliance base. We've talked about even turning that area into two dungeons, to have an Alliance dungeon and a Horde dungeon.": Fun fact: The entrance to Blizzard's headquarters is a mini-museum full of art and merchandise from Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo, and even The Lost Vikings. Completely unrelated: I'm not legally allowed to be within 50 feet of Blizzard HQ. I haven't the slightest idea why -- they can'tanything.