The year 2024 also brings many innovations for World of Warcraft. We will tell you what fresh content is coming.
Fans are looking at the coming year in World of Warcraft with mixed feelings. Because although Blizzard has already announced the “World Soul Saga”, a cycle of 3 expansions starting with “The War Within”, now a rather annoying period is ahead: The time between two expansions.
Many are afraid of a “content drought” here, due to previous experiences. Because usually there is always some downtime between two expansions while the developers focus on polishing the next addon.
It will likely not be much different in Dragonflight, but at least there is already a timeline of what content we can expect in 2024 – and it is quite a lot.
Essentially, Blizzard has promised that around “every 8 to 10 weeks” new content will continue to be released. This at least speaks for a fairly tight schedule – whether it can be maintained remains to be seen.
Winter 2023 / 2024 – Patch 10.2.5
The next “major” update is Patch 10.2.5, which is already playable on the PTR and is currently expected to be released in January. This can already be inferred from the fact that the update brings some revisions of the Valentine’s Day event “Love is in the Air”.
But Patch 10.2.5 also brings a little highlight especially for night elves, as they can – like everyone else – visit Bel’ameth, the new capital of the Kaldorei.
After the Amirdrassil stepped from the Emerald Dream into the real world of Azeroth at the end of Patch 10.2, the night elves began to populate the new World Tree. They can be found not only at the trunk but have populated the whole island. There are several residential buildings, inns, temple facilities, moon wells, and a large harbor. There is even a dedicated portal area.
Even if the city may still appear a bit barren, one must not forget that Bel’ameth is still under construction. It might take a while until the night elves finally feel at home again.
“In addition, Blizzard significantly expands dragon riding with this patch. It will now be called “dynamic flying” and can be used in all areas that support ordinary flying. This also means that you can use many old flying mounts like dragons – even if some of them might not work yet, as Blizzard has to create a lot of animations here.
Spring 2024 – Season 4 and Patch 10.2.7
Presumably between April and June, Dragonflight will start the fourth season and will also release Patch 10.2.7.
This patch will also offer a bit of story – such as the recapture of Gilneas. The Worgen seem to be reclaiming their old home. However, how this will happen is still unclear.
We already know that Blizzard will bring back the “Fated” system from Shadowlands here. This means that all three major raids of the current expansion (Vault of the Incarnations, Aberrus – Crucible of Shadows, Amirdrassil – Hope of the Dream) will have their difficulty increased and will be equipped with better loot. This way, all raids will be relevant for a while.
This has the advantage that you can revisit the entire expansion, and those who did not play from the beginning can experience the raids in all their glory once again.
It can be assumed that with this patch, the “prologue” to The War Within will also begin. Thus, at least a few quests are likely to appear to push the story in the right direction.
Which dungeons will be in this season is still uncertain – but it seems likely that the “Dragonflight” dungeons will return as they were missing in the last season.
Autumn 2024: The War Within
In autumn 2024, that is between late September and mid-December, we can expect the next expansion. This, of course, goes along with the Pre-Patch 11.0, which will likely already bring some innovations and improvements. Smaller revisions of the classes and a few core features like the Warbands, in which many things will be unlocked account-wide – including reputation and fame.
Additionally, of course, there will be all the usual stuff of an expansion, including:
- 10 new levels
- “Delves” as endgame for outdoor fans
- Hero talents for all classes
- 4 new areas
- 8 new dungeons
- 1 new raid
- Additional patches with new raids, dungeons and more
Even though there is no official release date for the next expansion yet, Blizzard has at least roughly indicated “Autumn 2024”. However, the latest possible date according to pre-order would be December 31, 2024 – and Blizzard will want to meet that date at all costs. Which of the three versions is worth it, we have revealed here.
Is WoW worth it in 2024?
At first glance, the year 2024 may seem a bit quieter because it has to bridge the gap between two expansions. However, there are enough innovations and fresh (or rehashed) content to at least maintain a WoW subscription for a few months – even if it’s just to prepare all characters for the new expansion.
If you have concerns, you can, of course, also wait until the launch of The War Within and then take advantage of the (certainly) renewed hype to return to World of Warcraft together with many others.
Are you looking forward to the WoW year 2024? Or are you using the time to take a little break from Azeroth?
