Whelp friends… I hopped on the bandwagon. I had finally seen enough folks talking about Pandaria Remix that after an evening of doing content in Guild Wars 2 I decided to fire it up and create a character. Since all of my Alliance characters are on Argent Dawn, I created my timerunner there and decided to choose a Dark Iron Dwarf since I had never leveled one of those since that race was added to the game. What is so weird about the way this works is that it is created as a normal World of Warcraft character on a normal server, but you ultimately play with only folks actively playing the remix content. When the event is over in roughly three months these characters transition to normal World of Warcraft characters and as such this becomes an alternate method for leveling something all the way to 70. Where this experience differs from normal leveling is that you start at level 10 and work your way up through the levels entirely on the Pandaria continent meaning there are significantly lower requirements to get into things like raids and scenarios.
The other thing that is significantly different about this experience is that normal loot does not exist. instead of quest rewards you get an item called the Cache of Infinite Treasure. Inside of these are what I can only describe as ARPG loot with some seemingly random stats and sockets for you to slot special kinds of gems. So far I have encountered Prismatic gems which give you a bump to a specific stat, Tinker gems which give you some proc or ability that can be used in combat similar to a trinket, and Cogwheel gems which give you a new ability that your class might not have had access to. For example, I found a gem that just gives me the Mage spell Blink. I have no clue yet how deep this rabbit hole goes because I have not made it super far, but so far it seems really cool.
Everything in this alternate version of Azeroth revolves around a currency called Bronze. This can be looted from individual monsters, is the reward for quests, and can be received from the loot boxes. You are also given an ability called the Unraveling Sands which pops up a crafting bench of sorts allowing you to salvage any loot you no longer need and turn it into Bronze as well. From what I understand there are traders scattered around Pandaria for the Infinite Dragonflight that allow you to trade in bronze for various items, some of which are unique to this game mode and I believe will transfer to your other characters after the event is over. Bronze becomes the currency you also use to buy eventual raid gear or probably more important mounts that are unique for this event like this 4400 Bronze Pterrordax.
I had a lot of fun last night and honestly, probably more fun than I have had since Pandaria originally shipped. Seeing this expansion again makes me realize how not into the last several World of Warcraft expansions I have really been. Pandaria has some deep Northrend vibes, of going to explore a whole new continent and seeing everything shiny and new about the cultures. I have no clue how far I will actually get in this because I would assume at some point it stops being fun and starts being super grindy… but until then it is a super chill way to play. Based on the general reception I am seeing, this seems to be breathing life into the game for a lot of folks. It is a more “classic” experience without falling into those super hardcore tropes, and so far it seems like everything is “Solo-Self-Found” to use the ARPG term. I don’t see a way to trade with anyone as mailboxes are turned off and you are walled out of guild banks or being able to leave the continent in any way.
Weirdly… the whole ARPG trope works for this experience. I have a feeling this is going to be one of those things that folks demand stick around in some form or another.