World of Warcraft is in the midst of a renaissance. It’s last expansion, Dragonflight, was its best-received one in years. And now Blizzard is looking to continue that momentum with the next expansion, The War Within, with its release later this year.
It’s an impressive turnaround for an MMO that is turning 20 years old. World of Warcraft seemed past its prime after disappointing expansions like Battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands divided players over controversial narratives and gameplay features.
But with Dragonflight, Blizzard has focused on listening closer to fan feedback, resulting in the addition of long-requested features like cross-faction play. Now, player satisfaction and subscription numbers are reaching highs that we haven’t seen in over a decade. It’s a lesson that any developer for an ongoing game should heed.
I had a chance to play the alpha version of The War Within a bit early in a media preview. And although I only got a small sample of the expansion’s offerings, I came away impressed.
Dwarves time to shine
The War Within has players exploring the depths of Azeroth. This means a focus on the world’s dwarven races, including a faction called the Earthen that will eventually become a playable allied race.
I love World of Warcraft’s dwarves. My first WoW character was a dwarf hunter. I think that it’s great that we’re getting an expansion that focuses on them instead of humans, elves, or other races that usually get more of the WoW spotlight.
For the alpha, I wanted to stay in theme and played as a dwarf paladin. I got to explore the Isle of Dorn, a new, lush zone that will eventually lead to Azeroth’s depths. I enjoyed how direct the storyline was here, quickly moving my character from important quest to important quest. It also did a good job of including popular WoW characters like Thrall and Anduin along with new faces, specifically members of the Earthen.
Oh, and plenty of famous dwarf characters are here too. This includes Magni Bronzebeard, the once-king of dwarves who became a crystalized speaker for the planet’s soul (it’s, um, a long story). He’s now disillusioned with that role, and I’m curious to see where his journey in the expansion goes.
Much of Magni’s family is also along for the ride, including his daughter Moira Thaurissan and her son, Dagran. Yes, Dagran is finally an adult and part of the narrative, which is cause for excitement for a lot of WoW fans. He is heir to both Ironforge and Shadowforge, two of the largest dwarf kingdoms.
Magni’s adventure-seeking brother Braan is also here. In fact, he accompanied me during my first foray into Delves, one of The War Within’s major new features. Delve’s are like a kind of mini-dungeon. Braan accompanied me as an NPC character. I was able to choose either a healing or damage-dealing role for him.
During the Delve, we rescued some Earthen and escorted a mine cart. I also gained a few temporary powerups, including a double-jump. At the end, I got some gold and loot. It was a fun little adventure, and I’m curious to see how these scale into endgame content.
A talent for heroics
After a good bit of questing, my dwarf paladin hit level 71. This opened up Hero Talents, another major new feature of the expansion. This is a new talent tree that lets you further specialize your character.
As a damage-focused Retribution Paladin, I was able to choose between two Hero Talent trees. The Templar tree focuses on hammer-based abilities, while Herald of the Sun is about light-based powers.
This is a great progression system, as it lets you further specialize your class while giving your character even more of a unique identity. Plus, it gives you a bunch of new abilities to look forward to as you level up.
Alternative fun
With all of these Hero Talents, you’ll probably want to play as multiple characters. Doing that in World of Warcraft can often be a pain, though. While some progression and items are persistent between characters, much of it sticks with the original. This used to be a point of contention between players and the developers.
Blizzard has slowly been making more and more content persistent between characters, but now its fully committing to alt-friendliness with Warbands.
This means account-wide progression with all of your characters. You’ll even be able to equip the appearance of any gear one of your characters has unlocked, opening up a lot of new transmog possibilities.
Warband even changes the look of the login experience, as you’ll now see your favorite characters grouped together by a campfire. This is a brilliant move by Blizzard, as people playing as more character generally means that they’re playing more World of Warcraft. It’s another example of Blizzard giving players what they wanted and benefitting from it.
A win within
Again, I only got to spend a few hours with The War Within so far, but I’m impressed. I love the aesthetic and flavor of the expansion with all the dwarven-centric content, and Hero Talent, Delves, and Warbands all look like exciting features.
I have a feeling that World of Warcraft’s recent upward trajectory is going to continue, even as its adventures take players to the deepest depths of Azeroth.