So, I had just finished the revered-level Golden Lotus rep quest chain, where Zhi the Harmonious relocates from the Golden Pagoda to the chamber just east of Mistfall Village. I then went and did the Serpent’s Spine roll course daily because I’d missed it earlier. When the course ended, I was suddenly disconnected, and when I logged back in I appeared in the Setting Sun Garrison as normal, turned in the daily, and then mounted up and headed back toward the Shrine of Seven Stars. To my horror, when I got back over the hills, the Vale appeared destroyed as it does at the launch of patch 5.4, the Siege of Orgrimmar.
I panicked for a minute or two thinking that Zhi’s relocation meant that the game had skipped forward in progression somehow, and I wouldn’t be able to complete the Golden Lotus finale, which is one of my favorites from MoP and is no longer available in retail due to the aforementioned destruction of the Vale. Fortunately, after taking the Jade Forest portal to Stormwind and then logging out and back in, I returned to find the Vale in good condition again. Still, that seems like a pretty serious bug! This along with the many quests leading to unlocking the Vale erroneously having their 5.4 quest text and dialogue reflecting the Vale’s destruction despite that not having happened yet really makes it seem as though MoP Classic was copied (kind of badly) from the retail version of Pandaria, and wasn’t properly restored to the original launch state.
I hope this gets fixed soon, along with the quest text. Nothing shatters the illusion of playing my favorite expansion over again from the beginning like suddenly finding the Vale in ruins way earlier than we have to.