World of Warcraft: The War Within Review – Better Than Ever

I thought Dragonflight was the absolute peak of modern-day World of Warcraft, but I didn’t think it could be topped. At first, I didn’t have much hope for The War Within when diving into it. However, the action started immediately, and my interest was immediately piqued. While World of Warcraft has had some questionable choices in villains (looking at The Jailer from Shadowlands), Xal’atath feels multi-faceted and genuinely evil compared to other villains that have popped up over the years.

The Warbands feature was one of the best features added in this new expansion. You could choose up to four characters in a Warband, regardless of race, class, or faction. By having those four in the Warband, you could transfer supplies between them, including currencies, appearances, Renown levels, and achievements! With the Warbands feature came the feature of learning a transmog appearance, regardless of whether you could equip that type of armor or weapon, making the potential to get great transmogs even easier.

Admittedly, this feature did break the Guild bank, with my guild, in particular, losing a ridiculous amount of supplies and materials. Many mounts were in there for players to get if they didn’t already own them. There is no update on whether Blizzard will resolve that, and neither my guild nor I am hopeful about this situation.

What surprised me most about getting stuck into World of Warcraft: The War Within was how Alliance tailored it felt. Although I play as a Blood Elf Arcane Mage, I immediately noticed that the main characters I interacted with were all Alliance except for Thrall, who is part of the Alliance, and Horde. I went into this expansion without knowing anything about it other than that it centered more heavily around the Void, which I was incredibly excited about. Since Void Elves were introduced in World of Warcraft: Legion, I have loved everything to do with the Void and was excited to see it come back to life in a new expansion.

While the action started brilliantly, I was shocked to see it take such a turn and for them to kill off a main character so soon into the expansion. I’d barely done five quests before seeing the cutscene, and it still feels like a questionable choice. Whether it was done to get rid of a powerful character or to get back at Alleria is something that I’m still figuring out.

The new areas we are introduced to in The War Within are stunning. Khaz Algar and the surrounding areas are incredibly tranquil and feel like something out of Middle Earth. Pair that with the accompanying music, and completing side quests or working on your professions is very peaceful. I usually spend a lot of time completing the surrounding side quests and grinding reputations, and I found the daily quests and world quests enjoyable, as well as some of the mount and pet farms available.

Compared to previous expansions, I was thoroughly impressed with how well the expansion seemed optimized from the outset. During all the last expansion releases I’ve experienced, servers have been packed, or immense lag has made it difficult to get anything done. This time, the expansion seems to be running like a well-oiled machine, with barely any hiccups along the way.

My main gripe with The War Within is now from an update Blizzard pushed a couple of days ago, making the enemies more challenging to deal with overall. I could initially take care of a pack of five basic enemies alone, but I had to heal and use all defensive cooldowns to deal with just one. Even Delves have become pretty much impossible, even at the lower levels. Regardless of whether you set Brann Bronzebeard up to be in a healer role or a DPS role, his attacks and abilities aren’t of much use to you at all.

I find that he’s of more value as a damage dealer. Although he drops potions in the healer role, it feels as if the potions don’t actually provide any healing whatsoever, and now Delves will only be possible if you are overgeared, which won’t be able to happen for a while yet.

Once I get some new gear for my Arcane Mage and max out my Hero Talents, I’ll enjoy the challenge of Delves again without dying before completing the first mission. I enjoy being a glass cannon class as my rotation is simple and fun, and I hope I don’t have to swap to my Paladin just to be able to progress and complete the Delves entirely.

Compared to some previous expansions, the story for World of Warcraft: The War Within is very well thought out. It’s been fantastic to see characters such as Alleria again, bringing hidden characters back into the limelight after not being seen for multiple expansions.

Each area throughout Khaz Algar felt unique, with their features that made them stand out from each other. For example, Dornogal is very peaceful, and you can have a great time while leveling professions there. In contrast, the atmosphere in Hallowfall is very different, with far more tension than the other areas in the expansion.

Thus far, I’ve found the dungeons to be a little bit samey. They remind me of multiple expansions in the past, specifically Warlords of Draenor and Cataclysm. The dungeons feel inspired by other dungeons from previous expansions, with Priory of the Sacred Flame reminiscent of a dungeon from Shadowlands.

Although there is now the addition of collecting Skyriding Glyphs in the latest expansion, despite collecting a massive amount of them, it seems bizarre to me that the point of these Skyriding Glyphs is to provide the players with a new mount. They served a purpose in Dragonflight, as they offered your Dragon abilities during flight. I like that they were reincorporated into this new expansion, but I feel that it could have been built upon rather than just being used to provide players with a new mount grind.

I look forward to seeing what the first season of this expansion brings and seeing my Arcane Mage become more powerful with some better gear, especially with the addition of Hero Talents, which have revolutionized my gameplay as an Arcane Mage. Nothing is quite as cool as summoning your own Arcane Phoenix (even if it can sometimes be a bit temperamental.)

As someone who has always played the weakest spec of Mage in World of Warcraft, it’s been fantastic seeing the Arcane Mage thrive and finally have a spot on the DPS charts. This has been boosted substantially by the Hero Talents, which, as stated above, can give you awesome abilities like summoning an Arcane Phoenix when using Arcane Surge. Depending on what stats you spec into, your Arcane Phoenix can even help with interrupts, utilizing its own Spellsteal.

Interacting with the Earthens and getting to know Magni and his family has been a highlight of the expansion. I wasn’t expecting Magni ever to be freed from the curse set upon him by Azeroth, and it was a complete shock to the system to see him as a normal Dwarf rather than one made of stone.

Overall, World of Warcraft: The War Within has been a delight to experience, from fun and rewarding mount grinds to surprisingly adorable pets (looking at you, Oop’lajax), as well as some genuinely heartbreaking quests that you get to experience in the main story campaign. Admittedly, I ignored the main campaign for quite a while and decided to do many of the side quests and Skyriding Glyph collecting, but even then, I had fun at every interval. I can’t wait to sink even more hours into World of Warcraft: The War Within and I look forward to seeing what comes next in future updates.

Review code provided by the publisher.

World of Warcraft: The War Within

World of Warcraft: The War Within

The expansion was so close to perfect. If it wasn’t for the update that Blizzard released where they went from undertuning everything to overtuning it, the expansion would have been perfection. The quests are fun, Hero Talents provide lots of cool options, and the music really makes the areas of Khaz Algar magical and threatening, all at the same time. Admittedly, the story for this expansion could have done with being a little longer, as it felt quite short overall compared to previous expansions. However, there is still time for them to add more in future patches.