Part 1

After a two-year break, I am back playing World of Warcraft, because I will always go back to Azeroth; it’s like coming home. While Final Fantasy 14 was scratching that MMO itch for a bit, and I was enjoying my time there for the most part, it just does not compare to WoW in so many ways. Now this is not going to be a comparison piece between the two games, there are more than enough of those, this is just going to be an overview of The War Within and my feelings about it so far. We’ll start with a look at the new zones, a bit about the stories there, and then go into the new features and mechanics that have been introduced with this latest expansion. Part 2 will then be about the two major content updates released so far: the Siren Isle and Undermine.

There are going to be story spoilers throughout this post, so just a heads up to stop reading now if the story for The War Within is something you want to experience for yourself. I’m not going to go into a lot of details surrounding what happens, but enough that I think a spoiler warning is needed.

A Brief Look at the Story

Four new zones are introduced with The War Within, with three of them being fully underground, and it is here that the World Soul Saga begins. We start your adventure on the Isle of Dorn (after the destruction of Dalaran at the hands of Xal’atath), learning about the earthen as a people and helping them with their nerubian problem. After that, we descend into the earth via the Coreway and come to the Rigging Deeps where we help the Machine Speakers and kobolds with their problems, as any good adventurer would. After that we head into the cavers of Hallowfall, and it is here that we meet and learn about the Arathi, their history and why, and how, they got here as well as their constant war with the nerubians. Finally, we find ourselves in Azj-Kahet, the home of a nation of nerubians who are in the midst of a war of succession, and coming as no surprise, we end up getting involved in the conflict for the good of the arachnids we ally ourselves with.

It is against the backdrop of these zones that we chase Xal’atath as we try to stop her and her allies (more like pawns). She is always one step ahead of us, and maybe it’s just because I played a shadow priest during Legion, but I am a huge fan of her as a villain and how she has been characterized so far: she is cool and collected, and confident in her abilities and in her vision. I really hope we don’t kill her off at the end of the expansion, and that she is one of the driving forces behind the World Soul Saga. I hope that when we do eventually face her in combat, it feels like a worthy experience, and an event that has some solid build up.

I like that the story has some gravitas to it, and that it’s more than just personal relationships between quest givers and the like. I found in Dragonflight, every side quest had me helping some couple with their troubles, and they had basically nothing to do with the overarching story of the expansion. While I know that’s not true, it felt like nothing of note was happening in the world while the dragons were doing their thing. The side quests in the War Within tie into the narratives of the zones and help to reinforce the themes and stories that are being told there; I enjoy that everything feels important again, and that we’re doing more than being counsellors to random NPCs.

The Zones

The Isle of Dorn

Dungeons: Cinderbrew Meadery, The Rookery

Delves: Earthcrawl Mines, Fungal Folly, Kriegval’s Rest

After the destruction of Dalaran at the hands of Xal’atath, we find ourselves on the shore of the Isle of Dorn in the midst of a battle with nerubians. Quickly after that, we start helping the native earthen with their problems as any good adventure does, with helping them to find their place in the world now that the Titans have long since gone, and with the recent incursions and attacks made by the nerubains. It is also here on the Isle of Dorn that the expansion’s hub city is located: the large and densely packed city of Dornogal. I do like Dornogal more than Valdrakken, and I find the former a lot easier to navigate than the later. While Valdrakken is visually cooler, I like the easy of finding everything in Dornogal, but I am hoping that we get something new in Midnight, because I am not in love with it.

The Isle, in my opinion, is the most classic ‘WoW’ feeling zone of the bunch. The Isle is home to forests, some mountains and rolling hills, a bit of coastline, a few open fields, and a couple of towns along with Dornogal. While this is not a bad thing, this zone is very much the safest in terms of design when it comes to the War Within; this is a zone that would be right at home in the Eastern Kingdoms with its pallet of greens and grays.

The Isle of Dorn also seemed like the quickest of the zones to get through. I’m not going to look at the number of quests per zone to compare them, but I feel like I spent more time in the others versus the Isle.

The Ringing Deeps

Dungeons: Darkflame Cleft, Operation: Floodgate (11.1), The Stonevault

Delves: The Dread Pit, Excavation Site 9 (11.1), The Waterworks

Descending deep into the earth via the Titan constructed Coreway brings us to the second zone, the Ringing Deeps. It is down here that we meet with the group of earthen known as the Machine Speakers whose directive it is/was to maintain the Titan machines that are scattered across the Isle of Dorn and within the Ringing Deeps.

I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about underground zones after the mediocrity of the Zaralek Caverns from Dragonflight, but I was pleasantly surprised by the Ringing Deeps. There is a surprising variety when it comes to the environments found within the Deeps, ranging from the mechanical town of Gundargaz, to the candle lit caverns of the Lost Mines, the verdant shores of the zone’s two rivers, and the kobold settlement known as the Warrens. Despite being underground, the zone is wide open with a heavy focus on verticality, and makes flying around a lot of fun. The verticality of the zone is quite a step up from the Isle of Dorn, and the Deeps was clearly designed with us being able to fly in mind.

The narrative of the Ringing Deeps is not too bad, but nothing we have not seen before: the ruler of the Machine Speakers is a dick, and it is up to us to deal with him. The highlight for me was going into a bit more depth with the kobolds, and their brand of wacky antics. Learning that their candles and fear of the dark is a fear of the void, and the mind-bending horrors that lurk there, is a fun way to tie them into the story of the War Within.

Hallowfall

Dungeons: The Dawnbreaker, Priory of the Sacred Flame

Delves: Mycomancer Cavern, The Sinkhole, Skittering Breach

Hanging from the roof of this zone is the massive crystal known as Beledar. The crystal is the defining feature of the zone, and it is a visual waypoint that can be seen from almost anywhere in Hallowfall. As a radiant source of the Light, it is little wonder that the Arathi peoples of Hallowfall reviver Beledar and consider it to be a sun, or even a godlike, figure. Yet ever since Sargeras plunged his sword into the world, Beledar shifts between the Light and the Void, with the darkness bringing out monsters and other troubling things related to the void. Now the people of Hallowfall seek refuge when the darkness comes, relying on the Lamplighters and The Church of the Sacred Flame to keep the darkness at bay.

I find Hallowfall to be visually striking, and a treat to adventure through. Beledar hanging from the ceiling is such a unique landmark, and really unlike anything seen in WoW before. The way the crystal shifts from light to shadow is a cool way to reinforce the theme of the zone, showing the internal struggles the Arathi are facing within their society. The verticality here is also ramped up compared to even the Ringing Deeps, and it’s nice to see a zone designed around the simple fact that we are flying all the time. The high cliffs with their insane drops, and the deep caves give the cavern a real sense of scale.

The city of Mereldar, the capital of the Arathi empire is also a treat to behold and to wander through. The sense of scale in not only the city, but in the zone itself, is something else. I am a big fan of the larger zones we have had since Dragonflight, and while I know it would never happen, I would love to see the old zones expanded in size to match these new ones. The world feels huge right now, and I hope this trend continues.

Azj-Kahet

Dungeons: Ara-Kara, City of Threads

Raid: Nerub-ar Palace

Delves: The Spiral Weave, Tak-Rethan Abyss, The Underkeep

The final zone of the expansion upon release, Azj-Kahet is the nerubian zone we have all been wanting since Wrath of the Lich King; well, maybe not all of us, but I have been wanting something like this ever since the rumoured Azjol-Nerub never happened. The focus of the zone is the hanging nerubian capital known as The City of Threads, which is suspended above the cavern’s floor with countless threads and webs. During our adventure here, we end up infiltrating the city and helping to ferment revolution among the people to bring down the current ruling class. This subterfuge leads us into the expansion’s first raid as we attempt to overthrow the current queen of the nerubian kingdom, and stop her, and by extension Xal’atath’s plans.

The other focus of the zone is on the substance known as Black Blood. From what I am gathering from my adventures, Black Blood is a residue leftover from the Old Gods, which is a terrible thing for everyone involved. This storyline also introduces a new tribe of trolls who come from a mysterious realm somewhere deeper underground, and I am hoping that we explore their home and learn more about them in the years to come.

The deep purples and reds and the nerubian architecture is something I have always loved, so it is really no surprise that I am in love with the aesthetic of this zone. The whole look of the zone is top notch, and I enjoy doing my world quests here day after day as I work on my reputation with the Severed Threads.

The New Systems

Like with every past expansion, The War Within brings a host of new systems and features to the game, along with the classic additions of new dungeons and the first raid tier. The dungeons play as you would suspect, and the raid is excellent (if only looking at it from a raidfinder perspective, because gone are my raiding days).

Delves

Delves are instances designed for one to four players, offering something other than the usually four or five bosses and trash. If you’re going in on your own (maybe with a party too, I honestly don’t know, because I have only done them on my own), you’re accompanied by Brann Brozebeard in either one of the two specs (three now with the release of patch 11.1): healer or damage (and now tank). The delves have a variety of objectives, with them seeming to change week to week, as well as multiple tiers of difficulty that unlock as you complete the pervious level. Completing a delve on a higher tier gives better rewards both at the end of the run as well as in the weekly vault.

Overall, I am a big fan of the delves, and they are something I hope Blizzard keeps iterating on and improving going forward. Season 2 seems even better, with the new objectives really changing up how each delve plays, and with the three new ones giving me a good challenge.

I can see delves being easy for someone who is raid or mythic+ geared, but for me, I am enjoying the challenge and using them to gear up my priest and rogue.

Skyriding

Dragon flying was amazing, and now it is baked into the game, and usable by all your flying mounts as skyriding. As someone who has a large collection of mounts, being able to use all my flying ones again is great! I was getting tired of using nothing but the dragons, so being able to swoop and soar with my carpets, bugs, horses, and pterosaurs, makes me a happy camper.

I do like that they included a way to change back to classic flying (known now as steady flight), because why take something away when something new is added?

Warbands

I am a big fan of this new feature, and the idea that your characters are a adventuring party. It’s awesome to finally share most of what I have across characters and seeing them all together on the log-in screen, hanging out together, is a treat. Having a bank that the warband shares is also awesome, as well as giving you a buff to leveling based on how many max level characters is great!

The warband system has encouraged me play my alt more, which is nuts for me. Usually I only play my alt (the rogue) toward the end of the expansion when my priest is done with everything, but now I am already gearing him up. Hell, it is making me want to make another character to join the warband, which is saying something as someone who only ever played one character most of the time.

Conclusion

I am having a great time with WoW right now, especially now that I am playing for myself and not to get ready to raid. While Dragonflight was good, especially coming after the train wreck that was Shadowlands, I felt it lacked real direction and personality; to me, Dragonflight did not feel like Warcraft, it felt more like a generic fantasy game/story that just happened to take place in Azeroth. With the War Within though, the game feels like the WoW I knew and loved from years and years ago. I feel like the ship has been righted, and we are back on course.

I am excited to see where the World Soul Saga takes us, and with (what looks to be) an amazing housing system coming in Midnight, I know the future of Warcraft is brighter than ever.