Further Information about the Pre-patch

Dear players,

are you excited about the launch of our Mists of Pandaria realm, Helios? So are we! Today, we bring you more information about the upcoming pre-patch period, and what to expect from it:

  • Based on your feedback and our further discussion, we have changed our mind about the experience rates: 3× XP rates will be possible, for level 1‒84 characters! However, we will introduce a new feature for players which prefer blizzlike: the XP rate will be saved to the character, and will be 1× by default (increased by .mod xp 3 as usual), so you can play effortlessly at any rate you wish!
  • At around 6:00 AM on February 12, Apollo will be temporarily shut down, for the database to be copied, and then the conversion will begin! Once all is done (which will take a few hours), Helios will be launched. To play on the new realm, you will need our Mists of Pandaria client. It is not possible to use the Cataclysm client to play on Helios, and if you keep using it, you will only be able to connect to Apollo with it.
  • Unfortunately due to technical reasons, we cannot launch any new Pandaria content during the pre-patch; we have to follow the course laid out by Blizzard for this period. During the pre-patch, you will therefore be able to enjoy only new class spells and talents. On March 1st, we will however launch Theramore’s Fall, the first new scenario in Mists of Pandaria.
  • For the same reason, the new PvP season on Helios will launch only after the pre-patch; the gates of arenas and rated battlegrounds will not be open during this period.
  • Valor Points will be converted to Justice Points for characters copied from Apollo. Chef’s Awards and Dalaran Cooking Awards will be converted to Epicurean’s Awards.
  • We have released a full game downloader for Mists of Pandaria. All you need is to launch the executable and it will download the whole game data for you. For more information, please see the here.

Have fun!

Helios Team