World of Warcraft: The War Within is here, and now is the perfect time to learn all about the next expansion of WoW.
The next expansion of World of Warcraft is live. But what is WoW: The War Within actually about? What is the story? What are the major features and changes?
With this article, we want to give you an overview of all the innovations and information from World of Warcraft The War Within.
The article will be regularly updated with new information, so check back occasionally. The article was last updated on November 6, 2024.
The most important points at a glance:
- The release is scheduled for August 27, 2024, at 12:00 AM.
- Early access begins 4 days earlier, on August 23, 2027, at 12:00 AM.
- The alpha of WoW: The War Within has already taken place.
- The beta started on June 5, 2024.
- The pre-patch 11.0 was released on July 24, 2024.
- The new maximum level is level 80.
- The account will become the war horde, almost all resources and achievements will be account-wide.
- Each class will receive hero talents, new abilities with choices.
- Earth Dwarves will become a new allied race.
- No new class will be introduced.
Release of WoW: The War Within
When does WoW: The War Within release? The release date for World of Warcraft: The War Within has already been announced. The global release will take place on August 27, 2024 (in America, due to the time difference, it will still be August 26).
When does the early access of WoW: The War Within start? If you pre-ordered the Epic Edition of The War Within, you will enjoy early access and get access a few days earlier. In that case, you can already play on August 23, 2024, from 12:00 AM – right at midnight. Then you can experience the story and level up to level 80. Endgame content, such as raids or mythic dungeons, will, however, only start with the launch of the first season about 2 weeks later.
Pre-patch 11.0 of WoW: The War Within is already live
A new expansion is always preceded by a major pre-patch
. The pre-patch 11.0 already brings most of the major innovations and revisions that come with the release of an addon. This gives all players time to adjust to the changes before the expansion launches a few weeks later.
What’s included in the pre-patch 11.0? Update 11.0 already brings all the game data from The War Within, including class changes or adjustments to systems like the war horde. It also includes a major event that leads to the new expansion and initiates the story. The limited-time event Radiant Echoes has been introduced here in detail.
The beta of The War Within
The alpha of The War Within has already taken place, and only a few people were invited. Areas and features were gradually unlocked.
The beta started on June 5, 2024. For the beta, you can sign up traditionally. If you want guaranteed beta access, you can also pre-order the expensive “Epic Edition” of the expansion.
Meanwhile, the beta is in its final stages, as the release is just a few days away.
The major features of WoW: The War Within
The War Within has few major features that may not seem very significant at first glance. This is mainly because WoW is increasingly introducing new “evergreen” features that benefit the game over a long time.
Hero Talents
What are hero talents in WoW? Instead of continuing to inflate the previously known talent trees, each class receives new “hero talents”. These are smaller, separate talent trees. Each specialization has access to two sets of hero talents, with several specializations being able to share the same sets.
The hero talent trees are designed to slightly change the playstyle of your class and usually significantly enhance one or two abilities. At level 80, you will have unlocked all talents of a hero talent tree, although there are some “choice talents” where you have to choose between 2 options.
War Horde
One of the biggest features fans have been waiting for years is the “War Horde”. This is essentially not an actual feature, but a departure from the previously character-oriented design of the game.
What is the War Horde? The War Horde is an overarching feature that connects all your characters. In the future, nearly all achievements in the game will be account-bound. Progress with reputation factions (“glory”), achievements, and even completing story quests will apply to the entire account.
At the same time, you can much more easily send your resources back and forth between characters. This is also due to the new War Horde bank, which provides account-wide space for materials, equipment, and more. However, unlocking this bank is expensive and costs over 3 million gold if you want all the slots.
The War Horde also affects currencies earned by you. You can transfer many resources, such as timeless badges or war resources from one character to another – simply through a simple menu. Gone are the days when you had to awkwardly buy special items and then send them to your other characters by mail.
Delves – The Depths of Azeroth
What are the depths? For outdoor content fans, there will be depths (“delves”). These are something like mini-dungeons that you can find in the open world. Here, you fight alongside an NPC (like Brann Bronzebeard) and explore underground caves for treasures and special loot.
- The delves can be completed solo, but you can also set out in a group.
- The delves also count towards the weekly reward chest and are supposed to provide equipment approximately on the level of “Mythic+5” or heroic raids.
- Delves should only take 5 to 15 minutes, making them suitable for a short WoW session.
- Delves have multiple difficulty levels, allowing for better rewards and more challenge to be activated.
Delves thus fulfill the role of long-term endgame content that is also available to solo heroes. Each season is supposed to bring innovations, such as fresh NPC companions, but there will also be seasonal adjustments to the delves to keep the experience fresh.
The new areas in The War Within
At the launch of the expansion, there are 4 new large areas. 3 of them are underground caves, although they are so vast and vegetatively diverse that you often don’t even notice you’re underground.
Island of Thorn
The island was discovered off the western coast of Pandaria and represents the entry point to the new expansion. Here you will meet the Earth Dwarves and their land Khaz Algar. At the same time, the new capital Dornogal will be considered a new hub for both the Alliance and Horde from where expeditions into the lower areas of Azeroth will begin.
The Resonating Depths
The descent into the depths of the planet begins in the Resonating Depths. Earth Dwarves, known as “Machine Speakers”, also live here. They use ancient Titan machinery to shape the world and stand against those who block the Earth Dwarves – and there are now many who push up from the depths.
Healing Plunge
Healing Plunge is illuminated by a giant crystal hanging from the ceiling of the cave. This results in blooming vegetation, and several races can survive here. Among them is also a splinter group of the Arathi, light-faithful humans who are caught in a permanent battle against the Nerubians.
Azj-Kahet
Azj-Kahet is the center of the Nerubian kingdom and the focal point of their culture. Xal’atath has set off here to mutate the Nerubians with new powers and create an army that cannot be stopped by anyone (until we come by again).
The story of The War Within
So far, many details of the story are still uncertain, but at least roughly, the plot is already known.
All over the world, the inhabitants of Azeroth are beginning to have visions. Many see this as a warning that the world soul is in danger of being corrupted by the Void.
If you want to read about the general story of World of Warcraft, we have summarized it here.
These are probably the plans of Xal’atath, also known as “Harbinger”. This creature in the form of an elf is preparing to usher in the age of the Void and pave the way for the Void Lords.
To achieve her goals, she even destroys the mage city Dalaran.
To this end, she recruits the former servants of the Old Gods, the Nerubians, and wants to mutate them with the blood of the Old Gods into even more powerful beings.
How Xal’atath has recruited the Nerubians is revealed in this cinematic:
What exact plan Xal’atath is pursuing is still uncertain. However, it is clear that The War Within will have a significantly shorter campaign. However, there will be numerous side quests and story interactions for those who enjoy more lore.
If you don’t know who Xal’atath is, we have explained her entire story here.
In an attempt to uncover Xal’atath’s plans, we fight our way deeper into the planet and explore the areas mentioned above. In doing so, we mainly encounter more Nerubians, but also allies in the form of the Arathi, who are engaged in an everlasting battle.
First leaks also reveal how the story might continue in patches 11.1 and 11.2.
Overhaul of Mythic+
The endgame system of Mythic+ dungeons will be revised again. The first major overhaul already took place at the end of Dragonflight. The difficulty of the lower levels was increased, and what was previously a M+20 is now an M+10.
However, with The War Within, there are even more innovations. Blizzard is saying goodbye to a large part of the affixes and changing the philosophy behind them. Affixes will only make up a small part of the difficulty and will even have a positive component. At the same time, the base affixes, namely Fortified and Tyrannical, will be active in parallel at higher keystone levels, so the challenge remains at a similar level from week to week.
We have explained all the changes to the Mythic+ system of The War Within here.
What else is in The War Within?
Aside from the major features, The War Within also includes the “usual suspects” that come with every expansion. These include classics like new dungeons, but also small changes that are just nice. These include:
- 8 new dungeons
- Dynamic flying with most of the old flying mounts (“sky riding”)
- Transmog unlocking independent of the class being played
- Potions that sometimes make you worse
- Engineers once again create the best (and most useful) items in the game
- You can hide spiders if you suffer from arachnophobia
- Tanks and healers should soon be using the right trinkets, as all others will be worse for them
- The tier sets of The War Within will be deliberately more boring
- Some quests will only be available if you play evil characters
- Camera options will be revised and many issues will have passed
- Shamans receive a new raid buff that makes them even more important
- A really classy mount costs over 3,000,000 gold
- Tanks will be significantly weaker and need more help from healers
- The first raid of The War Within will be nerfed automatically
Even though The War Within may not seem to offer much at first glance, it should be noted that Blizzard has released an extremely high number of patches in a very short time in recent months. There are practically new contents coming out every few weeks, and that is also expected to continue with The War Within.
What are you particularly looking forward to in “The War Within”?
