Mists of Pandaria is fast approaching, while most gamers are distracted by Blizzard’s long-awaited release of Diablo 3 earlier this summer. Blizzard is still hard at work on its fourth World of Warcraft expansion.

Many exciting features are expected in MoP, including the addition of the first two faction race, the Pandarian. We will also see the first full-featured class, the Monk. Although the Death Knight was released in WoW’s second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, he was always treated as the black sheep, as he was only playable from level 55 to max level. The Monk will be able to heal, tank, and do massive DPS while questing, exploring dungeons, and raiding end-game content.

Other features that players are looking forward to include Challenge Mode dungeons, where specific objectives are set aside, character equipment is normalized so that it is not a factor, and players can team up and compete to complete the objective. High scores will be recorded and achievements awarded to players who do a good job.

Along with 5 new levels comes a brand new continent, Mists of Pandaria. At least 5 new zones, almost a dozen new dungeons, new battlefields, at least one new arena, and 3 new raids.

All of this is overshadowed in some people’s eyes by the promise to completely redesign the current talent system and replace it with a much simpler version. This new version gives players a choice of 3 talents every 15 levels. At level 15, for example, the warlock will be able to choose between Dark Regeneration (50% self-healing), Soul Leach (passive healing on damage), and Harvest Life (similar to current Drain Life).

The current talent system is a mess of dozens of talents in each tree, where players are forced to select their tree at level 10 and are not allowed to deviate from it until they put 31 points into that tree. Some talents can take several points and other talents depend on the previous ones. The current system has many problems, no doubt, that will be addressed by the next super simple system.

Each of the 11 classes (including the upcoming Monk) will have a total of 18 talents, in 6 groups. This will make customizing your character much easier and hopefully more enjoyable. Keep an eye out for more information on the talent system as the development of Mists of Pandaria progresses.