World of Warcraft: The War Within

After the decline of World of Warcraft with Shadowlands, Dragonflight experienced a surprisingly strong resurgence. More down-to-earth fantasy, the fun of flying dragons, and a surprising amount of content in the patch cycle won back many players, even though the typical Warcraft threat hardly materialised and many 'old' game systems remained. With World of Warcraft: The War Within, Blizzard Entertainment aims to build on the success of Dragonflight.

World of Warcraft is celebrating its 20th birthday this year, at least in the USA, in Europe, the MMORPG launched on 11 February 2005. Since then, Wrath of the Lich King has been one of the game's biggest hits, reaching 12 million subscribers before Battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands failed to catch on with players. With Dragonflight, however, the developers were able to turn things around, in part by taking player feedback more seriously, thanks in part to producer Holly Longdale. This will continue with The War Within.

For one thing, there will be a clear antagonist who will play a more prominent role in the mid- and end-game activities. This is Xal'atath, with her connection to the Void - Shadow Priests should be familiar with her from the artefact in Legion. The War Within is the first part of the new Worldsoul Saga, a three-part story arc for the Warcraft universe. Deep beneath the surface, an ancient Nerubian civilisation (a spider-like race) is rising to power, aided by Xal'atath, the Harbinger of the Void. Players will need to enlist the help of the Earthen, a new allied race available to both Horde and Alliance players, as they journey to the new level cap of 80 and make their way deeper, discovering an entirely unexplored world that has existed for centuries and whose inhabitants are preparing for conflicts. Players will notice that the main story is told in a fairly compact way, and that the four new areas of Khaz Algar have a number of stories that deepen the sub-story there.

As with Dragonflight, there is no one major feature that stands out - like the artefact in Legion, the Heart of Azeroth in Battle for Azeroth, or the covenants in Shadowlands. Instead, it will expand on some aspects, but also add new stuff. For example, delves have been added as a new pillar of end-game activity alongside raids and dungeons. Delves are scalable world instances for one to five players that offer rewarding gear progression that will contribute to a new reward track in the Great Vault for World Content players.

These are small instanced adventures or treasure hunts that should take between ten and fifteen minutes to complete, and are available in different levels of difficulty. There will be 13 Delves when the expansion launches. And because certain world events also count towards progression in the Great Vault, non-dungeon- or non-raid players will be able to get better equipment more easily. The map has also been redesigned to make it easier to see what events and activities are available - and which ones you should and shouldn't take part in. The War Within also retains the item upgrade system introduced in the Dragonflight content patches.

The talent trees that were (re)introduced with Dragonflight are being expanded with Hero Talents for each class specialization, with new skills inspired by Warcraft universe archetypes. One major feature of The War Within is already active on the live servers, namely Warbands - an account-wide progression system for all characters on the Battle.net account, regardless of faction, that includes a shared War Within renown, a Warband Bank, and Achievements. The system will be expanded over time and, with any luck, extended to older expansions. Speaking of expansions, the transmogrification system has been improved and players will be able to use many 'old' flight mounts with the new Dragonflight flight system, now called Skyriding.

"As we begin a new era at Blizzard Entertainment, I am inspired by the World of Warcraft teams' passion for players and their expansive vision for the future of their storytelling. The legacy of World of Warcraft spans generations, and the beginning of The Worldsoul Saga is the perfect time for anyone who has memories of this legendary universe to celebrate, rediscover, and come home to Azeroth." - Blizzard Entertainment's Mike Ybarra at the time of the expansion's announcement. Since the end of January 2024, Johanna Faries has been the new President of Blizzard Entertainment.

World of Warcraft: The War Within will be released on 27 August 2024 (in Europe at 0.00 CEST) for PC via Battle.net. Purchasers of the Epic Edition will receive access to the expansion on 23 August.

Conclusion

The War Within is the next step in the rejuvenation of World of Warcraft. Blizzard has tweaked many elements of the MMORPG, polished the familiar and added new features in the right places. It's a really good expansion that will hopefully meaningful receive regular updates, just like Dragonflight.

Features

• A stronger Warcraft feel and a clearer storyline
• Numerous useful additions and improvements to existing elements
• Delves as new content for in-between, but can also be challenging

Hit potential

AAA