A few nights ago, I decided to queue up for another random in Pandaria. I expected the brewery and encounters for which I was at least marginally prepared. Instead, I got the monastery and had no idea even of the layout of the place. That turned out to be a mistake.
First, the place has a strange layout. It is several pagodas and dojos connected by rope bridges and guarded by archers. Second, I wasn't aware of boss mechanics (neither was our tank, apparently), so I suffered my first Pandaren instance death. It was during the Master Snowdrift fight and I didn't know that you could get away from his fists of fury move. After the tank went down, I ended up eating that move and dying. The remaining group beat him, though, and we went on our merry way.
The first boss fight, against Gu Cloutstrike and the azure serpent was visually appealing, but not much more than watch out for the lightning. As mentioned, it helps to know something about the Master Snowdrift fight before going in (avoid the tornado kick and fists of fury) to be able to defeat him. The fight is also interesting because before you go against the boss, you have to survive a couple of waves against Shado-pan novices. It's a nice change from trash/boss/trash/boss trap that the game seems to have fallen into as far as dungeon design. Sure, it is just trash, but the encounter makes it feel more than just the usual band of trash.
You also face off against Sha, this one of violence. Unlike the Sha of Doubt, this fight is just another ho hum watch out for the spike on the floor type. However, it does have an interesting mechanic that allows you to see a weak spot on the Sha. If you hit that spot with a few seconds of it being revealed, you will do an auto critical strike. Other than that, there is nothing cool like the figment of doubt routine. The last boss, though, Taran Zhu is pretty neat. You have a rising hate meter that when it gets to full, you have to meditate to release the hatred or else you won't be able to damage the boss. There are also orbs that fly around that need to be killed or else they will bounce you all around the area and not allow you to meditate off the hate. All in all, similar to the Sha of Doubt, this was a cool encounter with a lot happening to keep your interest.
Pros: The last boss (this appears to be a pattern in Mists) is a neat encounter that requires some thought and attention, the encounter before Master Snowdrift gives you more to do than just "pew pew" while the tank holds aggro.
Cons: Make sure you know the fights before you go in. Both Master Snowdrift and Taran Zhu have the ability to wipe a group that isn't ready. The layout of the area is a bit disorienting with all of the bridges.
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