It’s been a while since I’ve played World of Warcraft, but that doesn’t stop me from listening to the Elwynn Forest theme whenever I need to unwind. And as I understand it, WoW’s latest expansion, The War Within, adds to a game that’s largely unrecognizable from its vanilla days. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, and with TWW coming out right now, it makes me think, “Hmmm, what if I made a comeback.” It’s happening. each time. I would love to see the new continent, new class features, and expanded Skyriding.
First up is the new continent: Khaz Algar, which lies off the western coast of Pandaria (a good time, this DLC) and fits the theme of an underground war. Here you'll find the city of Dornogal on the surface level that acts as the city center, so to speak, with three other zones all below the surface: The Ringing Deeps, Hallowfall, and Azj-Kahet. The level cap has been increased to 80, so each of these zones, starting with the Isle of Dorn, will feature a gradual leveling process with new dungeons.
Watch on YouTube
New instances called Delves can be tackled with up to four friends, as well as an NPC companion Brann Bronzebeard (who is customizable via a skill tree). These instances act a bit like bite-sized dungeons, taking about “10 to 15 minutes on average” to complete, and feature puzzles, platforming challenges, boss fights, and rewards that will help you in future Delves. Check them off and you’ll earn “end-game rewards,” similar to those offered by dungeons, raids, PvP, and more.
Additionally, Hero Talents are unlocked for players at level 71 and allow you to specialize classes even further. Basically, there are talent trees to choose from based on classes and specializations. You select a single talent tree to activate, and then each time you level up, you put a point into it. They give you bonuses galore – the technical term. Here's Blizzard's article on them, which explains it in more detail.
New mounts are available for parachuting, and you can now switch between dynamic flight (the type of fast flight introduced in the last expansion) or stable flight (a type of normal flight introduced in The Burning Crusade).
There is of course much more to say, and it would take ages to cover them all here. Blizzard's page on the War Within tells you more about it.
And if you want to know what it was like to start WoW as a beginner a while back, why not check out our Inventory Space video? A relic from a bygone era when Edders and Liam (RPS at peace) would make fun videos together. I miss it terribly.