News:
World of Warcraft - The War Within
Anduin has been wandering alone for years and grappling with what he went through.
Visions are plaguing the denizens of Azeroth called the Radiant Song.
Xalatath is the Harbinger of the void’s dark machinations. The Black Empire has fallen, and the Old Gods are dead.
Xalatath wants to help a new power rise, one that knows our strength.
In return for their loyalty, Xalatath has granted the Nerubians a form of evolution that we will clash with during the expansion.
Main characters - Anduin, Thrall, Magni, and Alleria.
Alleria is a “Void Hunter.” She has to wrestle with her nature and the call of the void. She has a unique rivalry with Xalatath.
This saga is just beginning and will be an epic worthy of the 20 years of Warcraft.
Zones
New Continent - Khaz Algar (Designated Sector AR-938)
The Earthen - Follow the edicts of the Titans and live in a fractured society in decline.
- Larger than dwarves
- Exist in three groups - Oathsworn, Unbound, and Machine Speakers.
- Join Alliance or Horde
- Beards for all body types
The Arathi Race
- Bastions of Light against the darkness
- Holy fire wielders
- Unrelenting struggle from Nerubians
Nerubian Race
- Ancient Survivors of the Black Empire
- Embrace Xalatath’s gift of evolution
- Some Nerubians disagree with their queen
- Use domesticated insects as beasts of burden
The Isle of Dorn
- Hosts walled city of the Oathsworn
- The city is the hub of the new expansion
The Ringing Deeps
- Smithery of the Titans
- Underneath the Isle of Dorn
- This is where the Machine Keepers thrive.
- Lots of areas that embrace natural beauty. The zone won’t feel entirely like its underground.
- Kolbold presence, including the Candle King leader.
Hallowfall
- Home of the Arathi
- Open spaces and bright light. Meant to feel like we are on the surface.
- Light Crystal in the sky acts as a sun.
- Certain portions plunged into darkness.
Azj-Kahet
- Major city of the Nerubians
- Has areas of intense beauty with denizens that have learned to live among the Nerubians.
- Nerubians are gathering the black blood of the Old Gods.
Zones are all connected via the same technology used for Zaralek Caverns.
Built for dynamic flights without a loading screen.
3 of the 4 zones are underground, but the team made sure it didn’t feel like it was completely underground.
8 New Dungeons
Leveling Dungeons
- The Rookery
- The Stonevault
- Priory of the Sacred Flame
- City of Threads
Level Cap Dungeons
- Cinderbrew Meadery
- Darkflame Cleft
- The Dawnbreaker
- Old City
Nerub’ar Palace - 8 boss raid with launch
- Final boss is the Nerubian queen
- Raid is more vertical.
Features
Focus is on evergreen features with new systems.
Something for everyone
Build on the philosophy of respecting players’ time
Delves
- Outdoor world experience
- Join the Dragonscale Expedition in search of lost treasures.
- Seasonal content and rewards for outdoor content.
- Outdoor row added to the great vault for the expansion.
- 13 Delves at launch. Role Agnostic and scale between 1-5 players.
- NPC companion joins you each season. Season 1 is Brann Bronzebeard. Customizable to what you need.
Warbands
- Account-wide unlocks for almost everything.
- Transmog unlocked when farming regardless of whether or not you can use the item. You can unlock Plate gear on a Druid.
- Reputation shared between entire account.
Hero Talents
- 3 per class, with 2 shared between each spec
- Self-containted talent tree that builds on top of what each specialization already has.
- System automatically unlocks at level 71. Earn 1 talent point per level to 80. 10 talents in total.
- Low friction to swap between the nodes or talent tree.
- Follows all the same rules as the current talent trees.
Dev:
War Within
- Cross-realm guilds and cross-realm mythic are coming in the next expansion.
- It is easier to add 10 points to a new talent tree than the current ones.
- Hero Talents, Warbrands, Delves will be evergreenish, at least for a few expansions.
- Account wide reputations will only be for the new factions, TBD what will happen with the older factions.
- No Patch 10.3 is planned, but there is more story to tell after 10.2 and before the next expansion.
- Warbound items can be shared across your Warbrand. Soulbound items are still bound to your character.
- There will be a new battleground based in the Ringing Deeps with more information coming on BlizzCon Day 2.
- The Earthen Dwarves can be all classes except for Druid, Demon Hunter, and Evoker. They will be 25% larger than other Dwarves.
- Your Warbrand will share gold and a materials bank. Currency can be shared, potentially at a cost.
- Dragonflight flying talents will remain in Dragonflight.
- Over 100 old mounts will work for dynamic flying.
- Delves will be cross-faction and can’t be queued for.
- The team has been working with machine learning to fit rigs and make new shiny armor rather than always getting stuck on making sure elf ears don’t fit through
- Outdoor content for the Great Vault will consist of world bosses, doing public events, and delve progression. Upper item level limit won’t be as high as mythic raids.