Summary
World of Warcrafthas announcedThe War Within, part one of its Worldsoul Saga, and one of its features will finally connect all characters from a player’s account under a single, new, unified system called Warbands.World of Warcraftplayers have campaigned in favor of more alt-friendly features for a long time, and years of feedback have finally yielded Warbands, the evergreenfeature coming inWorld of Warcraft: The War Within.
As a contrast to the era of borrowed power, Blizzard has resoundingly pivoted in the opposite direction for bothDragonflightand the Worldsoul Saga. Given thecontroversial reception thatShadowlandsreceivedover the course of its content cycle, it is arguably an obvious choice for Blizzard to make. On paper, Warbands are meant to provide a solution to all the major annoyances that players have had when switching from one alt to another. Given how important alts can be inWorld of Warcraft, this feature fromThe War Withinmay well be its most important one, at least when it comes to ensuring the game’s longevity. The way the Warband system accomplishes this is simple.
World of Warcraft Characters Share Reputation Through Warbands
Not only willWorld of Warcraftplayers finally have shared reputations across all their characters, but thanks to the Warband system, any transmogrification piece that players unlock – even if they can’t equip it on their current Class – gets automatically unlocked across the entire Battle.net account forWorld of WarcraftRetail servers.Farming old raids inWorld of Warcrafthas gotten even more convenient thanks to Warbands, and player reception to the feature has been nothing short of overwhelmingly positive.
As pointed out during theBlizzCon 2023panel forThe War Within, the guiding philosophy for the new expansion (and beyond) is about respecting the player’s time behind the keyboard. In addition to the Warband system, features coming toWorld of Warcraft: The War Withininclude dynamic flying for all non-draconic mounts, the new Earthen allied race (available to both factions), and Delves – which will be a new outdoor endgame activity complete with Great Vault support.
It cannot be denied thatWorld of Warcraftplayers are excited about the Worldsoul Saga, and having Chris Metzen on stage once again to unveil the next chapter set the tone thatWorld of Warcraftwas returning to its roots with renewed vigor. Though it remains to be seen ifThe War Withinwill stick its landing, players can expect to play the next expansion in late 2024.
World of Warcraft
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World of Warcraft is an incredibly successful MMORPG that has been going strong for almost two decades. It’s one of the highest-grossing franchises in history and is widely considered the most popular MMORPG ever made.
