With the release of World of Warcraft's latest game mode, Remix: Mists of Pandaria, players are able to get their hands on a wild assortment of new items. Not only will they be spending a lot of time earning Bronze to buy cosmetics, but they will also be able to become overpowered warriors thanks to Spell Gems and the brand-new Cloak of Infinite Potential. And in the process, everything World of Warcraft fans have come to expect will be shaken up considerably.

While the Spell Gems are a cool addition, World of Warcraft's new Cloak of Infinite Potential may be the real standout here. According to senior game designer Brian Dowling, this cloak is unlike anything Azeroth has ever really seen before. Even though it may seem like just another form of progression, this cloak actually means so much more to WoW and is even its love letter to old-school RPGs of sorts.

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WoW Remix's Cloak of Infinite Potential is a Blast from the Past

What is the Cloak of Infinite Potential?

The Cloak of Infinite Potential is a brand-new item that players will obtain when they jump into World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria Remix. After completing a few quests, they will be able to equip this lavish cloak that will then grow and change with them as they push through Pandaria. It works almost like how heirlooms do, but with a different twist, with Dowling explaining that,

One of them is called the Cloak of Infinite Potential, which is an artifact cloak you'll get very early on, that's just going to power up from doing anything while you're playing. You're going to gather threads of time, which add permanent stats to that cloak, and you'll see a little buff on your character to tell you how much you've earned.

As players explore Pandaria, they will gather these Threads from practically every single activity. They will find them after dungeons and raids, from caches, inside chests, in loot, and simply littered across the continent. As they collect them, their character will grow in power with permanent stat bonuses. Additionally, when they hit certain level milestones, the cloak will be upgraded so that players can find even more Threads.

The Cloak Harkens Back to RPGs of Old

The Cloak of Infinite Potential sounds like an exciting addition to World of Warcraft, especially because it is unlike anything the game has really had before. While there have been items that boost stats, according to Dowling, the way it is done here is vastly different. Actually, it seems to be more in-line with old-school RPGs rather than the 20-year-old MMO.

One of the cool things from old school RPGs is when you get a Seed of Agility or a Potion of Strength, and your strength goes up permanently by three. And we were just thinking, 'Oh, we could do that.' This is like its own game event mode; we could capture that awesome feeling of seeing permanent stat increases in a way that usually doesn't make sense for WoW. That's kind of the origin, and we chose a cloak because the legendary cloak of the original Mists of Pandaria was such a core part of the identity there.

It sounds like the World of Warcraft developers really wanted to offer players something special with this Cloak of Infinite Potential. The permanent stat increases should give them a strong reason to grind out Threads, and if it is coupled with the Spell Gems, then players will likely feel overpowered pretty quickly. Plus, the fact that it is also a nod to Mists of Pandaria's Legendary Cloak makes it sound like the perfect nostalgia trip for fans.