How The Team Overcame Intense Challenges To Deliver Another Major Classic Launch

As World of Warcraft Classic has slowly been making its way through the expansions, many players have been interested in seeing what could happen to one of the most beloved of expansions, Mists of Pandaria. That wait is over, with WoW: Mists of Pandaria Classic releasing today. As the Alliance and Horde crash onto a mysterious new continent in Azeroth, players get to experience the new Monk class and playable Pandaren race while exploring this new world. Of course, all WoW Classic expansions get updated with #SomeChanges, and Pandaria is no different.

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria Classic launches on July 21, 2025, as part of the WoW Classic experience, which means anyone with an active World of Warcraft subscription can jump in and experience MoP Classic. Prior to this launch, ScreenRant had the opportunity to chat with Associate Software Engineer Claire Cullen and Associate Production Director Clayton Stone about what went into recreating the magic of Mists of Pandaria.

Bringing Fan-Favorite Pandaria To Classic Was A Lot Of Work

The Zones Had To Be Overhauled

Like many players, World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria has been my personal favorite in WoW history, and it sounds as though several of the people on the dev team felt the same level of excitement while thinking of bringing it to the Classic experience. As Claire said, “Everyone was so excited about it, so bringing it in was something that was really fun.” Of course, that doesn’t mean working on this project came easily, with the team facing several unexpected challenges during the process.

Claire added, “One of the big things that we did was the Veil of Eternal Blossoms. At the last patch of the original launch of Mists of Pandaria, the entire zone gets corrupted and kind of destroyed. We really wanted to preserve exactly how it was right in that first patch. So, surprisingly, there was actually a lot of engineering work that had to go into getting it back in that kind of pristine condition.”

Clayton explained that, “every time we develop one of these Classic expansions, we typically start from that final patch, as Claire mentioned, and kind of work our way backwards to put everything in the right state that it’s supposed to be. But the complexity of each of these expansions has increased exponentially since we started and released the 2019 version.

So much so, that to account for all the amazing systems and class changes and, of course, all the content, like the raids and the dungeons and the zones, looking back at the original launch and not at the end of the expansion or the way that that content currently looks in modern was a substantial undertaking for us, and easily the biggest challenge put before our team so far. But in my opinion, we did it gracefully and even better than I could have imagined, and I’m so excited for that to be delivered to players.”

The zones weren’t the only things that needed to be tweaked, with a few changes also happening for classes.

Classes Have Been Balanced A Bit, But PvP Still Should Feel Excellent

PvP Structure Is Changed Slightly, But Not Too Much

All the classes have received the new, revamped talent system and UI, including some class tuning and balancing that the team has been working on. To do this, they looked at how the balancing was originally done and tried to make things feel right for how Mists of Pandaria was originally, but still allowing for some tweaks to make things even better. It’s a fine balance for the team to keep things feeling authentic while also adding little improvements for the quality-of-life.

I asked how the team handles balancing changes against keeping things authentic to the original experience, and it turns out that in Mists of Pandaria there were even more unexpected surprises that they faced. Clayton said, “We have been much more hands-on with getting the classes in Mists of Pandaria Classic just right from the start… and that was done hand in hand with the community.”

He later explained, “All the class changes that we’re making were found around that time period when the game was out, and how we saw those classes progress through to the end.

Although, I will note that the way that the original team developed the classes actually left them in a state, in the 5.4.8 patch, just before Warlords of Draenor came out where they knew that the Warlords of Draenor patch was coming so soon, that they actually left some of the class work unfinished and didn’t finish it until the very start of Warlords of Draenor, because it was such a short amount of time.

But that meant that if we used that 5.4 patch and the class balance and the class design associated with it, we would have had the classes in basically that state where we didn’t want to launch with them in. So, there are actually changes made to the classes that didn’t come until the very beginning of Warlords of Draenor, which I think is also the only time that we’ve done that.”

Meanwhile, PvP has been said to have been at its best state during Mists of Pandaria, so changing much of that system could cause some frustrations in the WoW community. Clayton said, “players look back so fondly on the PvP in the original Mists of Pandaria and the class balance that’s associated with it. That was one area where we wanted to stay very much hands-off. The player base knows what to expect, and they view it as being almost perfect, if not perfect, and that’s one area we didn’t want to mess with.”

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One of the only changes that were made to PvP included bringing back gladiator and rank one titles to 2v2s and 5v5s. Previously, these rewards were only in 3v3s. Additionally, PvE items have been capped for the way they will operate in PvP instances so that PvP players won’t feel that they are being forced to hunt down PvE items.

Celestial Dungeons Are A New Type Of Dungeon Content

Loot Will Be Looking For Raid Gear

Celestial dungeons are a new type of dungeon coming to Mists of Pandaria Classic. Claire describes them this way, “Pandaria is actually going to get something new that we’re calling Celestial Dungeons, which are very cool. They are much in the same vein as what the community calls our Heroic Plus kind of dungeons, and you’ll be able to get a blessing from the celestials and get certain abilities that you wouldn’t normally have. And a really cool piece of it is that you’ll actually be able to practice some raid boss mechanics with the actual raid boss in these dungeons.”

Speaking of the loot in these dungeons, Clayton explained, “The gear that will be coming from Celestial Dungeons is the ‘looking for raid’ gear. That’s what the item level is set at.” Later adding, “That LFR gear provides a stepping stone in addition to the mechanics that players are encountering to want to then try to join up with a guild or a group and attempt some of the raid content, if not at a heroic level, then certainly at a normal level. It kind of fills the gap and creates a natural progression path for players to get into that content.”

New Mounts May Include “Some Surprises”

Rumors Of Unused Content Are True, And We Get To See It

Rumors have been circulating on the internet that the WoW Classic dev teams had uncovered some mounts that weren’t put out with the first Mists of Pandaria. Though they wouldn’t provide any specifics, choosing instead to leave it as a surprise for the players, Clayton did confirm that “this was a unique situation where we did find some unused content, and we were able to potentially bring it to light in a new way and make it available for players.” So, curious players will have to see for themselves what these WoW mounts could be.

Leveling Alts Will Be Much Easier, And Farming And Cooking Remains

But The Overall Expansion Is Still True To The Original

Finally, another of the big #SomeChanges coming to WoW Mists of Pandaria Classic is the new system of alt progression. Players, like me, who enjoy trying out different classes and have several alt characters will enjoy having an easier experience in leveling.

Claire said, “We want to make sure that no matter what point you come in at the game, you don’t feel like you’re behind. So, some of the things that we’re doing is that once your main reaches max level, level 90, you’ll unlock flying for that character and for every other character on your account. We’re also going to be doing commendations for reputation so that reputation is a little bit easier, exactly twice as much easier, after the first time you do it. And then also we’re going to have rolling caps for valor and conquest.”

Even the Pandaria experience of farming and cooking is still there, adding what Claire calls a “richness and depth to just running around the world.” Overall, Mists of Pandaria has always been a favorite expansion for many World of Warcraft players, and although the experience of bringing this fresh experience to WoW Classic was a challenge for devs, it could prove to be even better than originally seen.

World of Warcraft

Systems

Released

November 23, 2004

ESRB

T for Teen: Blood and Gore, Crude Humor, Mild Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol, Violence (online interactions not rated)

Engine

Unreal Engine

Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer

Cross-Platform Play

pc, ps