So, about a year ago... I told World of Warcarft....

"I think we should break up"

"It's not me, its you"

And I happily moved on, I had done quite a lot of cataclysm and while I will never have the patience to be a raider, I was very happy doing PuGs for dungeons... I dunno why, I just like it.

Fast Forward to Sunday afternoon "omg I should buy MoP"... Nooooooo.

Then I bought it.

"I just cant quit you!"

I've always enjoyed WoW, I have thousands of hours in, three level 85s and a couple in the 70s and a 50.... yes, its almost too much time put in to not just keep playing. Also, I'm pretty flush right now with cash, so money isn't really an issue. I'm a suuuuper cheap bastard, while most people are buying borderlands 2 for 59.99.... I'm gonna wait for it to hit 15 bucks.... I've been doing this for years, so when I do jump at something "new" it doesn't hurt my wallet very much at all.

Plunged on into MoP, was actually on as it "went live" on my 85 paladin... he recieved a quest asking him to come in to stormwind, but I thought nah, that content is gonna be there forever... lets get into the new race, new class... Monk class is definatly something that sold me quite a bit on MoP... it just sounded refreshing. More on that in a bit.

A weirdly large part of MoP is... Pokemon. Whhhhaaaat? Now I am not a copyright lawyer... anymore (just kidding) but between the movie Kung Fu Panda and Pokemon, I swear it feels like Blizzard is just begging for lawsuits, and why not? They could tie just about any company on the planet up in court and bleed em out of buisness with legal fees, and probably not even notice losing a billion dollars here or there... but... ok sorry rambling again....

Battle Pets are Pokemon, Battle Pets are Pokemon. Battle. Pets. Are. Pokemon.

It's actually good and bad... Its a fun system, that uses 99% of existing pets, and lots of new ones that you can trade or capture, to... well train and battle and trade. To start you can only have one pet "Set to fight" but that quickly changes once that pet gets to level 3, which unlocks a second pet, and then level 5 which unlocks a third.

I know, I can already hear you thinking something like... "THATS ENOUGH CHARLIZARD, GO ON PIKACHU! THUNDERBOLT". And yeah it is totally that. Is bat shit crazy how much exactly that... it is. That.

But it is fun, and if you like WoWs Pets and Graphics then... it looks great too. Pets have classes like beast, magic, dragon, critter, undead, as they level up they gain hitpoints, attack power, defence, and unlock new abilties like rend, or devour. Some abiltiies give status effects like a 5 turn bleed, and others "always go first"... stuff like that. Beasts are strong VS critter, Critter is strong VS... im not sure but you get the idea.

Its really a full game inside a game, there are quest lines, trainers to seek out and fight, (lol yeah trainers lol) and of course a bazillion pets to collect and level up, this could easily tie in with achivements that could give titles, tabards, and... other things that everyone seems to go so crazy for....

I'm surprised how much I actually like the whole thing. I didn't think I would spend even 10 seconds thinking about it, and now as I'm crusing around I cant help but look around for rare pets to try to catch. It's a good time sink / boredom breaker... and that is what MMOs need.

END OF PART 1

I'm tired, I'll try to jam out some thoughts on the monk class tomorrow or the next day. I will say the new starting area is just gorgegous but surprisingly boring... monk develops pretty slow and you really dont have much to click those first 15 levels. Its a real shame... but once your out and hit the 20s the class gets a lot more actiony with some pretty cool movement abilities that send you flying all over the place like a not copy written jack black.