As soon as Blizzard announced the latest expansion to its iconic, massively multiplayer online game, I shut down my account. World of Warcraft’s grinding quests had grown tired well before the Cataclysm expansion, but the mere thought of rolling a new character with all the hokey charm of a Jack Black–voiced animated feature was just too much. Regardless, after months of ignoring a game that used to occupy ludicrous amounts of my time, I relented. And despite some persistent issues, World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria offers just enough innovation to draw a cynical player back from the void.

If you’re the type of fantasy role-playing gamer more accustomed to orcs and fearless paladins, sliding into the role of an anthropomorphic panda bear is admittedly difficult. But Blizzard has done a fantastic job of creating an engaging story around the Pandaren race. And the new, Asian-inspired continent, with its detailed shrines and stoic monks, may be some of Blizzard’s best work.

But almost as soon as you’re drawn into this conflicted narrative and forced to take sides — Pandaren characters can align with Horde or Alliance — World of Warcraft’s quest system starts to drag. Mists of Pandaria is a marked improvement over the original pyramid-shaped quest setup, but it’s still so much back-and-forth.

Thankfully, Pandaria also adds a new class, the Monk. The typical, replenishable magic/rage bars are replaced with a chi gauge, and the fluid, brisk combat is a nice breath of fresh air. While the “battle mage” type build isn’t necessarily unique to World of Warcraft, there’s something immediately refreshing to this class. As much as it’s awkward to admit, the panda theme actually works, in that sense. New player-versus-player arenas also add variety, while the higher level cap affords new experiences for all classes. And if I’m being honest, the old tingle — that impulse to ignore my real-world life — is rearing its ugly head.

The bottom line. Much as I’m lightly ashamed by the cartoon panda bears at its core, Mists of Pandaria’s narrative and combat are solid reasons to head back to Azeroth.