World of Warcraft: The War Within Review

This November, I will have been playing World of Warcraft for 20 years, which is hard to even comprehend. And while I've certainly had a bit of a love-hate relationship with it, I think I can confidently say that The War Within represents the best it's ever been. From the story, to the environments, to the music, to the new features, this is WoW firing on all cylinders.

The biggest improvement, philosophically, is that Blizzard seems to actually want everyone to get to see the whole expansion this time around. As someone who began my journey with this series in Warcraft II and is very invested in the story, but doesn't really like to interact with randos and doesn't have any friends left who still play this game from the group I started out with in 2004, this has never previously been the case.

All the juicy plot stuff was locked behind either joining an endgame guild, which can be like a part-time job, or queueing for pick-up-groups which, let's be honest, has almost always been a terrible experience, and I don't even know if it's fixable. Random groups always want to finish a dungeon as fast as possible. If there's a dumb shortcut where you have to jump across a one-pixel ledge to skip one pull, they expect you to do it. And they assume everyone should have already studied every mechanic in every boss fight before even attempting it, ruining any surprises if it's your first time through. It's kind of a rancid culture, and WoW's game design has unintentionally encouraged it.

In contrast, the first time I ran through one of The War Within's follower dungeons, which let you take in the story solo at your own pace with a group of NPC helpers, I am not playing it up to say I almost cried. As a type of player who feels like they've been left behind for twenty years, this is the most listened to I've ever felt by these devs. It's not just the repeatable follower dungeons, either. Some of the five-man instances even have a separate, tailored story version with tweaked mechanics and bosses that you play through with important lore characters at your side, and you might even be treated to a well-produced cutscene at the end.

I can't overstate how much World of Warcraft is completely transformed for me now that, if I see something cool on the wall of a dungeon that an artist worked really hard on, I can stop and look at it for as long as I want and I don't have to worry about four other people getting mad at me. I can pause and casually read through a boss's journal entry when I get to them, instead of having to spoil the entire instance before I even go in by familiarizing myself with fights I haven't seen yet.

If I do want to eventually run with other people, I can practice these fights on my own, as many times as I want, without ever getting yelled at or wasting anyone else's time. I can get up in the middle of a dungeon to make a sandwich, or use the restroom, or take the dog for a walk, or go get a beer at the bar. I'm living every Hunter's dream: pulling every trash group when I feel like it and knowing the tank will happily just go along with whatever I want and make it work. Because she's not real. I'm the main character. Also Azeroth's favorite princess, and the most interesting girl in the world.

This is, simply put, a vastly more enjoyable way to play a video game for me. And it might be the biggest step WoW has taken forward design-wise in the two decades I've been playing it. They're even adding a story mode for raids in a later patch, and while I'm a little bit disappointed it will only feature the final boss instead of the whole instance, at least it will let you see the goddamn ending. In almost every previous expansion, I've had to look that up on YouTube, which is absurd considering I paid for the whole expansion.

I think the main reason I didn't like Dragonflight as much as a lot of longtime WoW players did, is that it was an expansion for people who already liked what WoW has always been. The War Within is an expansion for people like me, who have always wanted to love the endgame but never quite could. For people who adore these characters and this world, and may have bonded with them back when they were introduced through a single-player RTS, but don't have the ability or desire to weave a raid schedule into all of our other responsibilities or put up with the stressful, fun-ruining ordeal of pick-up groups.

The blatant catering to my playstyle continues with Delves, the new solo dungeons that are meant to be something of an alternative to raids and Mythic+ in the endgame. They feature the same kinds of silly and ridiculous temporary power-ups I adored from Torghast, including one that gives you a double jump and another that greatly increases your damage as long as you never fall below half health. If Torghast has only one fan, it is me. If Torghast has no fans, then I am gone from this Earth. So it's great to see some of the things that worked about it coming back.

One Delve I played has what are effectively the jump mushrooms from Sonic the Hedgehog, allowing you to explore vertically in a new way, and another features wall-mounted ledges you can zip up to with a grappling hook. They get really, satisfyingly hard at the highest tiers, too – though I think certain mechanics, like unavoidable AoEs that can one-shot less tanky characters are a bit annoying, since they're purely a gear check and don't care about player skill. But clawing my way up the gear ladder to the point that I could do high-level Delves more comfortably felt extremely rewarding. I pushed myself to the limit and took on something that was intended for players well above my item level, got better gear, and was able to then do it more comfortably. This is what top-level content should feel like.

At least, that's how it works in theory. As I'm writing this, Blizzard just pushed a hotfix that broke scaling in high-level Delves for everyone and made them almost impossible to complete. And this is only one of many bugs I've encountered. Unfortunately, this isn't a highly polished endgame experience. From missing voice lines in some cutscenes to max-level world quests with spawn rates so low, they have flocks of players circling the area on flying mounts like condors and rushing in to fight over one objective, there's a lot that feels like it could have used more testing once you hit 80. Some or all of this may be resolved by the time you're reading this, but I think it's important to point out that the state it’s in around launch is disappointing.

Calling All Hunters

On the class design side, obviously I can't speak to every specialization as a single human being with limited time on this Earth. But I can speak quite intimately to the Marksmanship Hunter, which has been my main spec since 2018's Battle for Azeroth. And we're lucky in that I don't think we've ever been really let down by the devs, at least since I joined the archery team. The reason I've stuck with it so long is that it's consistently one of the most fun and thematically cool specs in WoW, and The War Within isn't an exception. The fundamentals are still strong.

As for our hero talents, I've tried out both the night elf-themed Sentinel and the tortured soul, Sylvanas-inspired Dark Ranger, and I'm not in love with either one yet. Dark Ranger is the stronger of the two thematically, and if you've always wanted to play as Sylvanas, I think it scratches that itch really well. But it adds a new single-target attack, Black Arrow, which honestly makes the rotation just a little too complicated for my taste. The 20th Anniversary patch later this year is tying it to Kill Shot and also making Precise Shots a single-charge ability, which I think are great changes to streamline the rotation. But for now, it can be a lot to juggle.

Sentinel doesn't add any new attack buttons, but rather relies on passive effects that change how I think about my existing ones. So far, so good. In theory, that's exactly what I'd like hero talents to do. And the capstone, Lunar Storm, puts a sparkly circle at your target's feet when you cast Rapid Fire that increases your damage toward anything inside of it. This has been a template for endgame Marksmanship abilities in previous expansions, and overall I think it works great. You call out an area and say, "I'm going to kill those fools right over there."

The issue with Lunar Storm is that it's tied strictly to Rapid Fire, and the area it creates is fixed to wherever the target was standing the moment you used it. This gives me very little control over where that area of increased damage is going to be. It's basically going to end up wherever my target happened to be standing when Rapid Fire came off cooldown, because it's rarely worth it to delay casting Rapid Fire to position Lunar Storm better. That can be a noticeable DPS loss, and it's assuming that there's even an enemy you can tag in an ideal spot anyway.

I can't plan ahead and place it where I know my target is going to be in a few seconds to maximize its effect. It also doesn't come with the multitarget utility of my beloved Faerie Death Circle from Shadowlands, which allowed me to entirely ignore the idea of having a separate talent build for trash fights. I'll never forget you…

I know I said I didn't want more buttons. And you could say that Lunar Storm's inflexibility increases the skill ceiling for the spec, which is generally a good thing in my opinion. But in this case, it's only in the same way that using toothpicks instead of chopsticks would increase the skill ceiling of eating a bowl of noodles. It's kind of disappointing and annoying, and I don't find that it leads me to making interesting tactical decisions. It works great in boss fights where the boss stands still for long periods of time, and in no other situations. As the lesser of two evils, I kind of do wish Lunar Storm had its own button, and I could place the area wherever I wanted. In a perfect world, maybe it would just replace an existing targeted area ability like, say, Binding Shot, and add that utility to its effects.

Okay, if you don't play Marksmanship Hunter, you can rejoin us now.

As for the other classes I play, Retribution Paladin is also in a good place. The auto-attack haste build has never been more hilarious, for if you really don't want to push any buttons at all. I've been leveling a Resto Shaman for the first time since Cataclysm, and I haven't gotten into a good groove with it yet, but I also haven't hit 80 to try out their hero talents.

Arcane Mage, if I'm honest, isn't where I'd like it to be this time. Fans of damage meters should have no issues, since they're doing great DPS, but as much as I don't mind them being the "PhD spec," I don't think you should need a PhD just to optimize DPS when so many other classes can do comparable or better numbers with their far less complex rotations. In my mind, the big brain theming and high skill ceiling of Arcane should be expressed in its utility. I want to be like Doctor Strange, using teleportation and crowd control and time travel to make ingenious plays that don't purely rely on big damage numbers.

Whatever class you play though, the new Warband system is excellent, including a shared bank between all characters on the same realm, and shared reputation tracks for all of The War Within's factions.

Setting the Stage

If you missed the big announcement last BlizzCon, The War Within is intended as the first part of a trilogy of expansions that aim to tell a larger, complete story. This is something WoW has never done before, and I'm pretty excited about it. Without spoiling too much, the first hour of that story definitely feels like we're going full speed ahead into something sweeping and epic. Some major sacred cows in the lore are actually on the chopping block (not literally – Baine is fine, don't worry). And Xal'atath is a compelling new nemesis.

The first of The War Within's zones, the verdant and picturesque Isle of Dorn, which exists on the surface just above where the other 80 percent takes place, feels very familiar to a long-time WoW player in a lot of the same ways the Dragon Isles did. And basically all of the best features from Dragonflight are back. You get Skyriding (what used to be called Dragonriding) almost immediately, which I'm still conflicted about just because I think exploring new zones for the first time on the ground gives you more of a sense of place and grandeur. But I'm not conflicted at all about the return of thrilling aerial race courses and the fantastic expanded profession system.

Dornogal, the capital of the Earthen who protect Azeroth's depths, is one of the coolest hub cities we've ever gotten thanks to its majestic Titan architecture and an interesting political storyline to unravel. It's also quite a bit more organized and easier to navigate than the sometimes disorienting vertical layout of Valdrakken. Though performance has gotten pretty rough around here, at least during peak times, even on my 4070 Super.

Down below, the Ringing Deeps is maybe the least impressive zone so far, with a theme that could best be described as "big cave." But that's only in comparison to the Isle of Dorn and the show-stopping Hallowfall. I know people throw around poetic words like "breathtaking" a lot. But what I want to stress to you is, when I saw Hallowfall for the first time, I actually stopped breathing for a couple seconds at least. It might be the most unique, awe-inspiring zone Blizzard has ever designed, with a complete underground sea stretching out into the misty depths, beneath a colossal crystal embedded in the cavern's ceiling that serves as a subterranean sun. The scale of it is hard to get my head around.

Going even further down the rabbit hole, Azj'Kahet, the seat of Nerubian power, is like a whole other capital city, and the game board for a fascinating spy thriller power struggle that evokes some of the best parts of Suramar from Legion. The way the entire expansion is designed is kind of a photo negative of Dragonflight, in which you were slowly climbing the island to get to Thaldraszus at the top. Each of The War Within's zones takes you deeper into the bowels of Azeroth, which gives it some of the effective feel of a classic dungeon crawler.

And the music! I can easily say The War Within has some of my favorite music in WoW since, dang, Wrath of the Lich King maybe? Since Blizzard’s composers always kill it with their orchestral excellence, it's really something when they release this many tracks that stand out even by their high standards.

Lorecraft

Just like Dragonflight, the smaller zone quests are often memorable and touching. I think the one everybody's going to be talking about this time involves one of the semi-immortal Earthen realizing that his mind is starting to deteriorate, and asking you to help him set his affairs in order as he plans to end his own life instead of undergoing a hard reset to continue his duties without any of his prior memories. I never get tired of being reminded that, for all the world-shaking, high-fantasy shenanigans driving World of Warcraft at the plot level, these kinds of heartfelt and relatable tales are what actually make it special.

As far as the plot is concerned, there have been plenty of exciting and significant moments already. I've enjoyed adventuring with Dagran Thaurissan II, the boss's kid who insisted on coming with you to the war, and who clearly shouldn't be here, but that's an argument I didn't have the time or energy for so now I just have to make sure he doesn't die. I was worried about Alleria Windrunner, who has been one of my favorites since she first appeared in Warcraft II. The whole edgelord vengeance thing has been done so many times before, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that the writers have made her very much her own person, and chosen to highlight what makes her different from her sister Sylvanas instead of retreading tired tropes.

As much as I adore the new solo content, the group stuff is pretty strong this time around, too. The five-man dungeons, overall, are a step up from Dragonflight, which I thought played it a bit too safe and delivered some unmemorable adventures. There are a couple duds like that. The Rookery – which, to be fair, is the introductory dungeon – is about as simplistic as modern WoW dungeons get.

There are some that took big risks and maybe didn't stick the landing: The Dawnbreaker is a swashbuckling action movie that has you flying between different airships, and while I think it's a bit janky in execution, I would always prefer them to try new stuff like this rather than play it safe. Then you have some that hit just the right spot. Cinderbrew Meadery comes to mind, where one fight requires your group to serve drinks to angry patrons or they'll pound on the tables harder and harder to deal AoE damage to the whole group. Not every boss in every dungeon is unique or exciting, but there are plenty that are.

The raid, Nerub-ar Palace, is a satisfying capstone to the Queen Ansurek storyline with some tricky but not overly annoying bosses. The vibes and area design are creepy and epic. Even on Raid Finder, the encounters don't feel like totally mindless DPS races. This extends even to normal difficulty dungeons, too, where it seems like Blizzard has opted to include less punishing versions of mechanics you'll see on Heroic and Mythic from the very start instead of surprising you with new stuff as you climb the progression ladder. Instead of going, "What is that?" you'll be going, "Oh, I've seen this mechanic before, but it's killing me a lot faster now." And that makes the learning process so much smoother.

I also really like the pacing of the endgame season so far. It feels like there's just enough for me to do without ever feeling like I have to put in dozens of hours a week to maximize my progression. Eight max-level Delves will give you three pieces of vault gear that are basically equivalent to what can drop in a Heroic raid, which is much more generous than I was expecting. And the refresh rate on daily quests means that if you want to log in once a day, you can clean up your map in about 20 minutes, or play for an hour or so every three days, which is just about right.