WoW's The War Within pre-expansion patch has already made the 20-year-old MMO so much better

GamesMMOWorld of WarcraftWoW’s The War Within pre-expansion patch has already made the 20-year-old MMO so much betterWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

(Image credit: Blizzard)

The War Within pre-expansion patch

Even at my most jaded—and boy can I be jaded—I’ve never been able to cure myself of the unbridled enthusiasm that infects me whenever a new World of Warcraft expansion is just around the corner. Normally, though, these launches come after I’ve taken a break from the game—not so this time, however. The War Within’s imminent arrival coincides with me being in the throes of a deep WoW obsession; so much so that I’m as giddy about today’s pre-expansion patch as I’d normally be about a brand-spanking new game.

I reckon this is pretty justified, mind. Several major, long-awaited features have been bundled into the patch. These aren’t specific to The War Within, but rather enhancements that impact the entire MMO. To the uninitiated, they might seem like minor improvements, but to those of us shackled to Azeroth they represent substantial quality-of-life buffs that excise some extremely annoying sources of friction that have been plaguing WoW, in some cases, since its earliest days.

(Image credit: Blizzard)

The War Within pre-expansion patch

The headline attraction is theWarbands system—the announcement of which played a rather sizable role in bringing me back. Warbands is the culmination of Blizzard’s attempts to unify our characters. Once, each character was an island, with their achievements uniquely theirs. For years, though, Blizzard has been bridging these islands. The transmog system lets you gussy up your alts with gear appearances earned on other characters, all mounts and toys are shared, and completing campaigns and major quests on one character lets you skip them on the rest.

(Image credit: Blizzard)

The War Within pre-expansion patch

WoW might not be the fashion-focused MMO that FF14 is, but around 50% of my impetus for raiding is earning fancy new clobber, so I really couldn’t be happier. Now all my alts can look hot AF with minimal hassle. I’ve been saving a lot of stuff in my bank for this moment, so I’ve got a stupid number of new pieces in my collection just waiting for the catwalk. Oh yeah, and you can finally pick a “hidden pants” option when creating a transmog outfit. You won’t be able to go full Donald Duck—armour on top, stark bollock naked below—but this still gives you a bit of extra flexibility if you want to put together a look that shows off your gams.

Warbands isn’t just all about peacocking, though—shared renown is arguably an even bigger deal. Check out your Dragonflight reps today on a fresh alt and you’ll see that they’re at the same level as the character who’s advanced the furthest. The grind has been vanquished, at last, and other reps will follow suit over time. A variety of currencies, meanwhile, are now transferable between members of your warband, allowing you to pool your resources for a big spending spree. Finally I can delete that one character who I’ve only kept around because of their massive stash of timewarped badges. Cheerio!

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

This is obviously a work-in-progress, however, and there are some elements that could do with some polishing. It’s a complicated system, for one, and without just going through everything yourself it’s hard to know how exactly it works. There’s no way to see what currencies can be transferred without clicking on each individually, for instance; though I suspect that will change, given that you can use a filter on the rep menu that shows you warband reps exclusively.

An ugly blast from the past.(Image credit: Blizzard)

The War Within pre-expansion patch

Character selection is a bit messy right now, too. When you fire the game up, you’re presented with a huge list of every character, in some cases even ones you might have deleted, and it’s just a touch too busy and disorganised. Like, it’s cool that everyone’s invited to the party, but I probably don’t need to be reintroduced to that weird-looking orc in his vanilla armour who I stopped hanging out with in 2007. And frankly it’s a bit awkward now that I’m hanging out with a much sexier orc who has exactly the same name.

That said, I am a fan of being able to select four favourites, who sit at the top of the list and are also represented in the main Warbands screen, where they’re all chilling out in a cosy forest camp. It’s the VIP section, essentially. Blizzard has promised more warband scenes will be added over time, too, but I’d also love to see it add multiple fave lists, so I can have an undead crew hanging out in a graveyard, a bunch of pretty belfs enjoying a lakeside picnic and my orcs having a blast in dusty Durotar.

Flight test

The joys of flight have been tempting me away from my exploration of Warbands, however, because the pre-expansion patch has also liberated dragonriding from the shackles of Dragonflight and its small (but wonderful) roster of customisable mounts. Now you can switch from regular flight to dragonriding—now called skyriding—and oh my, what a dream. Speeding around the skies above Orgrimmar on my Astral Emperor’s Serpent has left me with a big dumb grin on my face. I’ve got a stupid number of mounts that have been languishing in my collection for ages, and now I actually want to ride them again.

(Image credit: Blizzard)

The War Within pre-expansion patch

Regular flying—now called steady flight—did have some advantages, like consistent speed and not requiring much input, but the moment dragonriding was added to WoW it just felt stiff and dull in comparison. I couldn’t go back. It’s worth noting, though, that steady flight has also been given a nice boost, so if you can’t be arsed paying attention to your dragon (or floating disc, flying fish, magic carpet, goat etc), you won’t have to sacrifice quite as much speed. Across the board, getting around just feels more pleasurable.

Playing dress-up and travelling to work takes up a not inconsiderable amount of my time in WoW, so these changes have already had an overwhelming impact. Even more than the talent changes, which are substantial but will take more time for me to dig into. I suspect any build I create now will quickly be reconsidered when hero talents arrive next month, anyway. The talent screen has already been tweaked to make room for them, but you won’t get your first until level 71. With each, Blizzard is trying to lean hard into the class fantasy, and I’m particularly excited about what this means for my Death Knight, who’ll be able to summon four horsemen and actually mount up during combat. Proper knightly shit. I can’t wait.

Blizzard’s also used this as an opportunity to give the UI a welcome refresh. Quest icons are now blessed with a bit more clarity that should be helpful for new players, though it will be less impactful for veteran adventurers—we already know what a blue exclamation mark means without the assistance of some arrows denoting that it’s repeatable. More impactful for me is the overhaul of the spellbook, which now takes up more real estate but also shows more abilities on a single screen, and no longer puts specialisations in separate tabs. It’s handy to see everything just laid out like this, especially for classes I’m less familiar with.

(Image credit: Blizzard)

The War Within pre-expansion patch

There are lots of wee tweaks, too. I likely wouldn’t have noticed it if I hadn’t seen people discussing it, but the camera no longer has an extreme reaction to objects entering the foreground, and now that I’m looking out for it, it’s just so much smoother. Previously, the camera would make a big, jarring zoom if an object appeared in front of your character, but now it just chills out and is happy for you to hide behind a tree. I do not like to be perceived.

Dragon-lovers, meanwhile, are no longer restricted to a single dracthyr—if you already have one, you can roll a new one and they’ll start at level 10. For the time being, though, they’re restricted to Evokers, but Blizzard is planning to remove this limitation during The War Within. Another excuse for more alts. I will never sleep.

Naturally, the pre-expansion patch has not been without its issues, some of which you can see in thisofficial post. One notable issue not referenced in the post is that currency transfer has been bugging out for some players, swallowing up their currency rather than transferring it. Broadly, though, this has been a superb first step on the road to The War Within. And there hasn’t been a better time to muck around with some new alts—especially with MoP Remix running for another 26 days. While your Remix characters will be restricted to that game mode until it ends, it’s still the best way to get a character up to level 70 at the moment. Running heroic dungeons for a few hours should do the job.

(Image credit: Blizzard)

The War Within pre-expansion patch

That said, don’t ignore Dragonflight. Every expansion renown has a 50% bonus at the moment, in case you haven’t completed them all yet. All three raids will be Awakened until The War Within, too, so this is a great opportunity to clear off your checklist.

Ultimately, this feels like a tantalising teaser for WoW’s new trajectory. More flexibility and accessibility, more excuses to conjure up new characters, and an approach to progression that goes so far beyond individual characters, making your achievements echo throughout your entire roster. And this is just the first chunk of the pre-expansion update. It’s feature-rich, but is devoid of new storylines and activities—those are coming soon, though. Next week, on July 30, theRadiant Echoes eventwill kick off; a memorial for WoW’s past as it hurtles towards the future.

TOPICSActivision Blizzard

TOPICS

More about world of warcraftDragonflight got WoW back on its feet, now we get to see if Blizzard can make the Worldsoul Saga runWoW’s finally upgrading its dreaded swirlies so players can actually tell where it’s safe to standLatestToday’s Wordle answer for Sunday, January 12See more latest►

More about world of warcraft

Dragonflight got WoW back on its feet, now we get to see if Blizzard can make the Worldsoul Saga runWoW’s finally upgrading its dreaded swirlies so players can actually tell where it’s safe to stand

World of Warcraft The War Within screenshots

Dragonflight got WoW back on its feet, now we get to see if Blizzard can make the Worldsoul Saga run

World of Warcraft

WoW’s finally upgrading its dreaded swirlies so players can actually tell where it’s safe to stand

LatestToday’s Wordle answer for Sunday, January 12See more latest►

Latest

Today’s Wordle answer for Sunday, January 12

Wordle today being played on a phone

Today’s Wordle answer for Sunday, January 12

See more latest►

Most Popular

This bizarre roguelike has a new take on the Vampire Survivors formula: letting you build your own custom weapons out of brains, eyeballs, and chimpanzee spines

18 games the PC Gamer team can’t wait to play in 2025

The Witcher 3’s now 2-year-old bonus quest is our first taste of the ‘vibe’ CD Projekt is going for in The Witcher 4

2024 was the year updates for old games beat out all the new ones for me

Train like you game with this adventure-inspired workout

‘It’s simply impossible to make a difficulty level that’s just right for all players’: How Final Fantasy 14’s lead battle designer has been playing a precarious balancing game for Dawntrail’s dungeons and raids

Please join me in getting super excited for all the cool looking survival games coming in 2025 (and beyond)

Competitive shooters are at a crucial crossroads in 2025: ‘sweaty’ teamplay vs. casual fun

Call of Duty’s $28 Squid Game skins are the perfect crossover for our capitalist dystopia, and Activision knows exactly what it’s doing

These are the 14 biggest upcoming RPGs of 2025—get ready for another amazing year for the genre

HARDWARE BUYING GUIDESLATEST GAME REVIEWS1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads2Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop3Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most4Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands5Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review: An anarchic treasure trove of jokes and skits2Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review—like juggling chainsaws on horseback3WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review4Ikea Utespelare desk review5Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

HARDWARE BUYING GUIDESLATEST GAME REVIEWS

1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

A bunch of the best Steam Deck accessories on a blue background.

1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

2Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop

Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop

3Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most

Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most

4Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands

Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands

5Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested

Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested

1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review: An anarchic treasure trove of jokes and skits

Thank Goodness You’re Here review

1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review: An anarchic treasure trove of jokes and skits

Thank Goodness You’re Here! review: An anarchic treasure trove of jokes and skits

2Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review—like juggling chainsaws on horseback

Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review—like juggling chainsaws on horseback

3WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review

WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review

4Ikea Utespelare desk review

Ikea Utespelare desk review

5Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals#

Flight test#

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

Flight test