- Author: Zara
- Date: August 13, 2024
- Updated: August 14, 2024
- Expansion: World of Warcraft
Whether you’re new to the world of Azeroth or a returning Champion, now is an exciting time to jump back into World of Warcraft. With Dragonflight coming to a close and The War Within on the horizon, vast changes have taken place in the last season and are still to come when The War Within launches on August 26th. Don’t know what’s changing? Have no fear, this article is covering major changes we have and will be seeing before the end of August.
Warbands
A major update that has already hit World of Warcraft in our expansion pre-patch is Warbands. Players are able to exchange items and currency across characters, but that isn`t the only benefit to having your Warband set up. Renown is also shared across all of your Warband characters, making those reputation grinds easier and only having to be done once. You can turn on Warband Completed Quests in the Quest Log. This will allow you to see what quests have been completed by other characters inside your Warband.
Want to get gear for your alts easier? Warbound Until Equipped will allow for you to run end game content and receive extra items. These will be bound to your Warband until you equip the item onto a character, then it becomes bound to that character.
User Interface
With the Warband banks comes the ability to craft directly out of it, removing the time old tradition of mailing materials back and forth between characters. The updates to the UI hasn`t stopped at just the bank, for those end game content focused players. The group management tool has been updated to provide easier application of raid markers, limit who can ping during the raid, and change instance difficulty.
To reduce the clutter of quests, dailies, dungeon & raid locations, and all the little icons we`ve memorized, Blizzard has come out with Hubs. It is shown as a small castle on your map, it will prioritize what the most important content for the player to focus on in the area. Hubs will also provide a new style of quests called Meta Quests, these are end game repeatable quests that have to be completed in a specific timeframe. Completing these quests will provide quality end game items for players.
Two other additional changes to the User Interface are the Self Highlight and Show Silhouette when Obscured Both of these can be found in the options menu under Combat.
- Self Highlight: Provides the player an easier time finding themselves during large encounters, outlining their character and placing an icon above them
- Show Silhouette when Obscured: Provided the ability to see your character’s Silhouette when they are blocked by objects
Delves
Composed of vaults in which groups of players 1-4, along with NPC Companions can complete for treasures. The rewards from Delves do stop at tier 8, but the challenge of Delves extends to tier 11. When you complete tier 11, players will receive a hard mode of Zekvir, a new solo challenge, which when completed will unlock a void version of the customizable Delve mount.
There are thirteen Delves in total, each with multiple variants. Providing players with more seasonal end game content. As you complete Delves, it will also add additional items to your Great Vault. Blizzard has stated that the Great Vault items from Delves should be better than a Mythic +10 end run chest. user Interface changes have also been made for Delves. Players can now select Delves in the Adventure Journal, where you will be able to see your progression and adjust Bran`s specialization if needed from Healer to Damage.
Mythic Dungeons
Dungeons received an update in season four of Dragonflight, with player feedback stating the following:
- Heroic Dungeons are barely distinct from Normal dungeons at maximum level, and that distinction mostly only matters during a few days after players first reach max level.
- “Mythic 0” dungeons rapidly loose relevance a few weeks into an expansion, once the M+ season starts, with occasional exceptions for the weekly event quest.
- The only truly endgame dungeon mode (M+) currently revolves around a timer, This means that other than new mega-dungeons, there isn`t really a place for end game players who enjoy more methodical dungeon pacing and gameplay.
With these three major focuses from player feedback, the dungeon system was revamped to fill a gap in two underutilized difficulties. The revamp included the following changes:
- Heroic difficulty and rewards will move up to a Mythic 0 .
- Mythic 0 difficulty and rewards will move up to roughly a Mythic 8-10 (the difficulty range is due to not having affixes or a timer, the difficulty is close to a M10).
- the existing Mythic+ system will pick up where that leaves off, meaning a Mythic +5 is equivalent to a Mythic +15 in the previous season three system.
From player feedback in The War Within Beta the following Affixes have been removed:
- Sanguine
- Bolstering
- Raging
- Busting
Affixes that were part of the last Mythic Keystone that will no longer apply to Keystones:
- Reckless
- Focused
- Attuned
- Thorned
The new Affixes that we will be seeing with The War Within are Xal’atath`s Bargains, they come in four different Affixes. Each one will be applying different additional stats to either the players or the dungeon itself.
- Xal’atath`s Bargain Ascendant: Orbs appear the empower nearby enemies, increasing their Haste and Movement Speed, players can disrupt these orbs and claim the effect for themselves
- Xal’atath`s Bargain Voidbound: Void Emissary summoned to empower enemies, gradually increasing damage, when defeated, players increase their critical change by 20% for 20 seconds
- Xal’atath`s Bargain Oblivion: Crystals from the void that can be absorbed by enemies or players. Players can absorb these crystals to gain increased Mastery and Leach
- Xal’atath`s Bargain Devour: Rifts open that devour the essence of players. The rifts unleashes its energy after 15 seconds, healing all enemies in combat. The rift collapses if its dispelled or players receive enough healing
In addition to these new Affixes, we will see the return of Fortified and Tyrannical. They will be changing week over week if they are applied to a Mythic +4 or Mythic +10. When players reach a Mythic +7 keystone, they will receive another new Affix called Challenger’s Peril: Dying subtracts 15 seconds from the time remaining rather than 5 seconds. When players reach a Mythic +12 keystone, they will receive Xal’atath’s Guile: Xal’atath betrays players, revoking her bargains and increasing the health and damage of enemies by 20%.
Player vs Player
A new battleground feature has been crafted for players, called Rated Battleground Blitz. Players will be able to experience a battleground with a smaller number of players and earn the same rewards. Battleground Blitz was brought about in order to bridge the difficulty between playing in a battleground and an arena, allowing players a path to improving smaller group skills in the PvP environment.
Raiding
A new addition to raiding coming in The War Within is allowing players the ability to complete the end of the raid in a solo environment. This is to ensure that players who are engaged in the story, but might not have a group or the ability to raid can experience the end game story.
For the raiders a new quest that unlocks after a month after The War Within launches, will provide a buff called Severed Strands: Damage dealt increased by 2.25% Healing and absorption effects increased by 2.25%. This will increase week over week to provide players an additional vehicle to not be stop gapped by missing gear pieces and allow them to progress through raids. This buff will not just be applied to a single character, but rather your entire Warband.
As Azeroth continues to evolve, the updates seen in season four of Dragonflight and those upcoming in The War Within provide an exciting time for current, returning, and new players to join the fun. To see these changes in action and get a visual of what’s in store, check out Warcraft’s interview on YouTube.
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