World of Warcraft Executive Producer Teases New Warbands Feature

World of Warcraft recently teased a new feature for Warbands that would enable fans to bring their alts into Follower Dungeons. If this were to happen, players could clear certain dungeons with AI-controlled versions of their own World of Warcraft characters.

The alpha testing period for World of Warcraft: The War Within began not long ago, signaling another major milestone towards its release. To celebrate the alpha, World of Warcraft held a special media event in London, featuring tons of content creators in attendance, including WoW gamer couple Taliesin and Evitel.

However, Taliesin recently shared an interaction he had with World of Warcraft executive producer Holly Longdale at the event. According to his recounting of the event at the 2:03:00 mark of the podcast, Longdale approached him as he was on the new Warbands character select screen in World of Warcraft. Then, she leaned in and asked, “Wouldn’t it be cool if those were the characters that you took as your followers in your Follower Dungeons?” After Taliesin confirmed it would be cool, she stood up and cheekily said “Hmm…” before walking away. While far from a confirmation, this unprompted comment heavily implies World of Warcraft might be working on such a feature, or is at the very least considering it.

WoW Teases AI-Controlled Alts in Follower Dungeons

Follower Dungeons are a new system World of Warcraft added in Dragonflight that allows players to challenge certain dungeons with AI companions, letting them try out new roles, take their time in dungeons, or simply play solo. In The War Within, World of Warcraft is making some dungeons a required part of the main story, a feat made possible by the addition of Follower Dungeons.

As it stands, the Follower Dungeon NPCs are currently characters from the Exile’s Reach starting experience World of Warcraft introduced in Shadowlands. That said, World of Warcraft has said it is looking into ways to let players team up with other important lore characters when it makes sense in various dungeons. However, the ability to fill one’s dungeon parties with their character roster is a prospect that excites many fans, who seem to be in unanimous agreement that it would be awesome to adventure with their own alts.

The Warbands system looks like it will be revolutionizing the way players play World of Warcraft. Beyond an updated character select screen, tons of game features are getting alt-friendly facelifts, with new ways to share storage, currencies, and even gear. Most achievements and many reputations are being made account-wide, and while this overhaul comes with some bad news, like the removal of the World of Warcraft Human Diplomacy racial reputation boost, Warbands overall seem like a massive win for WoW so far.

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight was developed by Blizzard Entertainment and is the ninth expansion pack for the iconic massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft.

Dragonflight features an overhauled user interface, raises the level cap to 70, and introduces a new race and class. 

Released

November 28, 2022