Mists of Pandaria Classic will have a new dungeon type, Celestial Dungeons, instead of raid finder

Mists of Pandaria Classic launches this summer on July 21 and Blizzard has made the decision to remove the raid finder system from the expansion. Instead, a new type of dungeon, Celestial Dungeons, will take the place of LFR throughout the Mists of Pandaria Classic phases. Here’s what you need to know about this new dungeon type in Mists of Pandaria Classic.

What are Celestial Dungeons and how do they work?

Celestial Dungeons are the next iteration of Titan Rune Dungeons from Wrath of the Lich King Classic and the short-lived Elemental Rune Dungeons from Cataclysm Classic. These dungeons will go live in game two weeks after the Mogu’shan Vaults raid, which should be the week of August 4. Blizzard has confirmed that players will also be able to complete the legendary item questline through Celestial Dungeons, as well as through raids, with specific lore additions made to the dungeons that maintain continuity.

Like the systems before it, Celestial Dungeons will add a new difficulty tier beyond Heroic to the Mists of Pandaria Classic dungeons that are designed to grow in difficulty with each MoP Classic raid tier. Players will be able to queue for Celestial Dungeons in the dungeon finder system. These dungeons will implement raid-level mechanics and enemies, including raid bosses from the current MoP Classic raids, and to even the field players can gain powerful buffs from the August Celestials to help them overcome these challenges.

Completing Celestial Dungeons rewards players with loot at ilevels higher than Heroic dungeon gear as well as items from the original LFR loot pool, including set tier pieces. Certain rewards will also be target-farmable which implies there is a specific system in place that allows players to chase the gear they are missing out on, though, we don’t have enough information to confirm this. The items introduced in each phase remain available in each subsequent phase so players can chase them for as long as they need, or want, to. As always, there will also be a new currency-vendor system in place that gives players the ability to purchase gear that falls in either of the two above categories.