World of Warcraft : Mists of Pandaria A release date for the expansion was announced to be September 25th , 2012 with digital pre - orders starting on the announcement date of July 25th , 2012 . Details about the and the were included . MMO Champion ' s speculation that it might be the next expansion was met by skepticism by several media outlets . 1UP actually tried to contact Blizz ard about this and the reply was " not ready to reveal any details at this time " . Strangely , a gaming and technology blogger said that there was a leak about the next expansion being focused on the island of Pandaria back in March 2011 . Finally , Medievaldragon of Blizzplanet wrote a very nice , comprehensive article about the speculation surrounding the rumors and Pandaria in general . Some analysts doubted it would be released in 2012 . Also , in Activision - Blizzard ' s 2011 Q4 financials call , only Diablo III was confidently predicted to be released in 2012 with a possible second release being either Mists of Pandaria or " StarCraft II : Heart of the Swarm " . In early April 2012 , WoW Insider turned out to have a very accurate prediction of the end of the beta as September 27th being only 2 days from the actual announced release date . Technically , they were more than 2 weeks off , however , because they placed the release of the patch at August 15th . Debunked ? Blizzplanet interpreted a brief comment by Tom Chilton as potentially debunking Mists of Pandaria as the new expansion , something upcoming in World of Warcraft , or something like that ( it was all pretty vague ) . The interpretation turned out not to be a debunking and apparently just vague . BlizzCon 2011 announcement . At BlizzCon 2011 , Mists of Pandaria was announced as the fourth expansion to the " World of Warcraft " series . The expansion is set to include a new race for both factions , the Pandaren , as well as a new playable class , the Monk . Other features include a new talent tree system , challenge mode dungeons and a revival of classic Horde versus Alliance warfare . Beta . Annual pass customers were promised access to the Mists of Pandaria closed beta and access to a beta download page was briefly available around March 7th , 2012 , but it was apparently unintentional and access was removed shortly after . A test period was announced on March 20 , 2012 with invites going to Annual Pass holders , press , fansites , friends and family , and opt - in beta testers . MMO Champion may have gotten access soon after the opt - in announcement and an official announcement of the start of the Beta was released late March 21st , 2012 . The first version of the beta client was Patch 5 . 0 . 1 . Cinematics and trailers . The opening cinematic for Mists of Pandaria debuted on August 16th at gamescom 2012 in Cologne , Germany . Instance trailer . Dungeons , Raids , and Battlegrounds Other cinematics . " Courtesy of MMO Champion " System requirements . Blizz ard has confirmed that Mists of Pandaria will not support Windows 2000 or earlier . Full system requirements were updated July 26th , 2012 : New zones and types of zones . The Continent of Pandaria . Players will discover a new continent of Pandaria with a rich new source of creatures , environments , and lore . Pandaren . The expansion will introduce a new playable Pandaren race that will be available to both factions . Monks . A new class : the monk Races . " New info from March 2012 Press Event ! " New character creation screen . As of the beta Patch 5 . 0 . 1 build 15544 , a new character creation screen was announced and feedback requested . Here are some of the new features : Talent revamp . This expansion will make dramatic changes to how the talent system works that Blizz ard is calling " Talents 2 . 0 " . Talent revamp based on categorization evaluation of current talents : Scenarios . Re - use old content in new ways . New and updated dungeons . New for expansion and updates of classics : New raids . New raids : Quests . Quest generalities : New quest reward system : Factions . " New info from March 2012 Press Event ! " Pet Battle System . " This feature became testable in as of build 15851 . " While this feature will not be released until the Mists of Pandaria expansion is released , the expansion will not be required use the pet battle system and will be available to all players . New mechanics and expanded play for companions : Achievements . Upcoming changes : Class changes . Class changes and overall character structure changes : Interface . " New info from March 2012 Press Event ! " US : External links . EU : " US " " EU " WoW Monk Class Guide