World of Warcraft The War Within: Warbands & Account Wide Everything!
INTRODUCTION
Hello everyone and welcome to another InstantCarry blog post! This time around we will be focusing on The War Within which is the upcoming and the 10th expansion for World of Warcraft Retail. This epic saga continues after a two decades long journey and is still going strong.
There has been a plethora of potential Games that wanted to challenge WoW for that no.1 MMO seat. We’ve seen New World, Diablo IV, Path of Exile (with it’s upcoming Path of Exile 2 – you can read more about it here), Throne and Liberty as well as the talk about League of Legends MMO taking the scene (which won’t happen anytime soon), but World of Warcraft is simply multiple Tiers above the rest in any aspect.
It has been going strong to modernize and to follow up on the community feedback in order to keep the game going, and so far even though many would want it to fail or always complain – realistically we all go back to it, one way or another. With the recent Classic implementation and the rest of the derivatives that came out of it such as WotLK, Classic Era, Hardcore, Season of Discovery and now Cataclysm Classic on the way, it seems like there is no stopping Blizzard to provide for all the Players and basically destroy even the private server competition and gain those players back.
Aside from these we’ve seen the release of the Plunderstorm as well as the recently announced WoW Remix: Mists of Pandaria to keep people occupied before The War Within comes. Now we’ve discussed a bit about the Road that World of Warcraft will take in both Classic and Retail in our previous posts, as well as touched a bit on the subject of The War Within expansion when it was announced on Blizzcon 2023. However, this time around we won’t be talking about Hero Talents, and the Worldsoul Saga.
Instead we will focus a bit on who the story will revolve around and the biggest recent update for The War Within – Warbands and Account Wide Leveling, Transmogs and Everything. So without further ado – lets get into it!
World of Warcraft – The War Within Announce Cinematic
What is The War Within Story about?
The War Within has a pretty good background in terms of it’s starting story. With Sargeras plunging his sword into Azeroth at the end of BFA, Blizzard left the story with a bad taste in our mouth. Things that were unsaid and things that required explanations are necessary in order to fully comprehend the meaning of Azeroth getting stabbed by the huge sword. The idea is for “The War Within” expansion to cast some light upon these events and to bring us the full picture of what is actually going on.
From what we saw in the announcement cinematic(you can see it above), is that Thrall and Anduin as well as many others(the Players and other Champions of Azeroth), are hearing a voice calling out to them(presumed to be Azeroth itself), as well as images of the Void that have been displayed. The cinematic itself doesn’t explain much, except that Blizzard is going ‘too hard’ on the emotions and Anduin blaming himself for everything he did during Shadowlands, trying to hide away or find meaning.
However, the place where they are located is Silithus and the last scene where Thrall and Anduin look at the sword does actually show that the beginning of the next expansion should revolve around the sword itself or will at least have something to do with it. Possible it will be the starting point of the storyline that will make us descend into Azeroth itself and try to find out what is going on.
Who will be the ‘Main Characters’ of The War Within?
The Main Characters will definitely be Anduin Wrynn and Alleria Windrunner. With her affinity to the Void and being the first Void Elf to ever exist, Alleria is the perfect protagonist to lead the story and with Anduin being the one that took the brunt of the Damage back in Shadowlands, it is only natural to have him seek the light and with the Light and Dark together – there might still be hope for Azeroth.
However, aside from them, there will be many Characters especially those that are closely connected to Dwarves considering we are going underground and we will learn more about the Earthen, that are an ancient Dwarven race.
Now that we’ve cleared that up, lets talk more about The War Within Warbands and what we actually know will happen in terms of the gameplay and which changes are in store!
What are The War Within Warbands?
The upcoming Warbands system in The War Within expansion will revolutionize how players interact with their characters and items in World of Warcraft. Essentially, your Warband will encompass all the characters, items, collections, and progression shared across your Battle.net account.
It’s worth noting that your Warband is restricted to characters within a single region, such as Americas, Europe, Korea, or Taiwan. However, it extends across every realm, faction, and subscription you have within that region.
Traditionally, certain aspects of WoW, like pets, mounts, transmogs, and heirlooms, have been shared across your account. With Warbands, this integration goes even further. Here are some key changes.
Key Changes
- New reputations and Renown tracks will apply to your entire Warband, providing a unified progression experience.
- The introduction of a Warband bank will streamline item management, allowing easy storage and sharing of items between your characters.
- Most item appearances can now be collected by any character in your Warband, regardless of their gear restrictions.
These updates aim to enhance the cohesion and convenience of your WoW experience, ensuring that your characters and items work together seamlessly across the game.
Goals of the Warband System in The War Within
Before delving into the specifics of each change brought about by Warbands, it’s essential to understand the overarching goals behind the introduction of this system:
- Alt Experience: With Warbands, the aim is to make playing alternate characters (alts) easier and more enjoyable. Many players already have multiple alts and enjoy playing them, so our goal is to enhance this experience further.
- Character Switching: Blizzard wants players to be able to switch between characters without feeling like they’re falling behind. While certain aspects of progression will remain character-specific, Warbands should allow players to freely enjoy multiple characters without sacrificing efficiency or long-term progress.
- Player Achievements: The aim here is to celebrate player accomplishments within the Warband, acknowledging the player behind the screen rather than focusing solely on individual characters. This means that your achievements can carry over to any character you choose to play.
- Account Management: Warbands will provide clarity regarding which aspects of the game are account-wide versus character-specific. We’ve made adjustments to the UI to ensure that players understand these differences, replacing the term “account” with “Warband” throughout the game.
Now, let’s dive deeper into the specific features and changes introduced by the Warbands system.
Warband Conversions
Warbands are set to revolutionize how players experience World of Warcraft, particularly by converting several character-specific aspects into Warband-wide features. Here’s a breakdown of what to expect from Warbands:
Conversion Process
Upon the release of The War Within pre-expansion patch, certain aspects of the game that were previously limited to individual characters will automatically convert to Warband-wide. This process will occur upon the first login after the patch goes live. While there may be some initial wait time as the system processes your Warband, rest assured that this conversion is designed to streamline your gameplay experience.
Warband-Wide Reputation
With the introduction of Warbands, many new and existing reputations will become Warband-wide. This means that any progress made on one character will be shared across all characters in your Warband. Rewards unlocked through reputation will also be accessible to all characters, albeit in different forms depending on the reward. Additionally, reputation progress will reflect the highest level achieved by any character within your Warband.
First-Time Quest Rewards
To ensure a balanced experience for players with multiple alts, a new concept of first-time quest rewards is being introduced. Completing quests for the first time on your Warband will grant bonus rewards, while subsequent completions will offer different bonuses. This system prevents players with many characters from rapidly advancing in reputation over those with fewer characters.
Account Wide Achievements
Achievements will now be considered “Warband” achievements, reflecting the accomplishments of the player rather than individual characters. This means that all achievements will contribute to a total Warband achievement score, eliminating the need for a character-based achievement score. Additionally, approximately 2000 achievements will be converted to account-wide, with progress shared across all characters.
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Important Note: Achievements such as Gladiator will remain Character Specific.
Shared Flight Points
Flight points will become account-wide, meaning that any points collected by one character will be unlocked for all characters within your Warband. This streamlines travel across your characters and removes the need to collect flight points multiple times.
Map Exploration
Map exploration will remain character-specific, preserving the experience of uncovering new areas of the map. However, players will have the option to use The Warband Map to Everywhere All At Once toy for easier exploration.
Currency Management
While most currencies will remain character-specific to avoid confusion, there will be options for transferring shareable currency between characters within your Warband. This makes it easier to manage currency across your characters without the need for complex item transfers or mail.
These changes are designed to enhance the alt experience, streamline progression, and celebrate player achievements within the Warband. With Warbands, players can enjoy World of Warcraft with greater flexibility and efficiency across all their characters.
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The War Within Warband Items and Gear
In The War Within, managing items and gear across your characters is about to get a whole lot easier with the introduction of the Warband Bank. Here’s how it works:
Warband Bank: Located conveniently at bankers throughout the game, the Warband Bank offers up to five tabs with ninety-eight inventory slots each. You can purchase additional tabs for increasing amounts of gold. These tabs can be customized with icons and organized similar to a Guild Vault. It’s important to note that the Warband Bank operates separately from your individual character’s bank vault.
Item Management: Almost any non-soulbound item can be stored in the Warband Bank. All characters within your Warband will have access to deposit and withdraw items freely. Similar to the reagent bank, you can craft using materials stored in the Warband Bank without needing to withdraw them first.
Gold Management: In addition to items, the Warband Bank allows you to deposit and manually withdraw gold across all characters within your Warband. This makes managing your finances more convenient and centralized.
Simultaneous Multi-Character Play: Players who engage in pet battles or play multiple characters across multiple World of Warcraft accounts simultaneously should be aware that only the character that logs into the realm first will have access to the Warband Bank.
UI Improvements: While not immediately available at the launch of The War Within, future updates will enhance the UI and functionality of character-level banks to include tabs similar to the Warband Bank. This update will eliminate the need for bags in the character bank and ensure a seamless transition of slots from bags to tabs without altering the total number of available slots.
With these improvements, managing items and gear across your characters in World of Warcraft becomes more streamlined and efficient, allowing you to focus on your adventures without the hassle of inventory management.
Warbound Until Equipped (WuE) Gear
Warbound until Equipped (WuE) gear is an innovative new gear binding system making its debut in The War Within. With WuE gear, you can freely trade it across your Warband until it’s equipped by a character, at which point it becomes Soulbound.
In the past, high item-level account-bound gear wasn’t feasible because it could easily be transferred between characters, potentially disrupting gameplay. However, with WuE gear, Blizzard is excited to introduce higher-level gear more frequently in a manageable and rewarding manner.
How does it work?
WuE gear will be obtainable within raids, dungeons, and the new Delves feature. When you earn loot, there’s a chance to receive an additional piece of WuE gear as personal loot. This gear will typically be one tier lower than other loot from that source, ensuring balance and progression. Plus, it may be usable by any class, offering versatility.
By simply playing the game, you’ll occasionally acquire WuE gear that’s a tier lower than your current gear. This gear can be sent to assist an alternate character or used for trying out a new class. Additionally, you may come across WuE gear while adventuring, so keep an eye out for these valuable finds during your travels.
Transmog Collection Changes with The War Within Warbands
Expanding your transmog collection has never been easier with the introduction of Warbands in The War Within. Previously, you had to meticulously plan gear runs based on armor types to collect appearances, even though these appearances were shared across the account. Now, with Warbands, the focus shifts to a more Warband-centric approach, allowing any character to collect any item appearance, regardless of their ability to equip the item.
While class-specific appearances remain exclusive to their respective classes, this restriction has minimal impact on your ability to collect the majority of transmogs for your Warband. Most class-specific items are obtainable only by those specific classes through set piece tokens, with few exceptions.
Important Note: These changes affect only the ability to collect appearances; existing rules regarding which characters can use specific appearances remain unchanged. For example, if a Priest receives a plate helm drop, the appearance will unlock for your plate-wearing characters, despite the Priest not being able to use plate appearances.
With these changes, viewing appearances on any character of any class or race within the appearances UI becomes possible. Additionally, collecting appearances from unbound items is now more convenient. You no longer need to equip the item to add it to your collection. Destroying an item via disenchanting, deleting, or selling it will automatically add the appearance to your collection. Furthermore, there’s a new option to directly collect appearances from Bind on Equip (BoE) gear that you cannot equip by converting it to “Warbound until Equipped” instead.
Existing gear in your character-level bank or bag inventory will be automatically added to your transmog collection upon logging in to that character for the first time.
To accommodate these changes, a slight adjustment is made to how rolling for gear in raids with Group Loot works. Any gear that drops with a transmog appearance you haven’t collected yet will have the Transmog option available for rolling, with higher priority than the Greed option. When rolling for Transmog, gear that can be equipped by your current character will have higher rolling priority than gear that cannot be equipped by them.
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The War Within Warband – Updated Character Selection Screen
The updated Character Selection screen in The War Within, where you can now view your entire Warband in one convenient list of characters. Gone are the days of switching between realms to see characters on different servers. Now, all your characters, regardless of realm or faction, are neatly displayed in one place—except in the rare instance where multiple World of Warcraft subscriptions are linked to one Battle.net account. In such cases, you’ll only see characters from the logged-in account, even though all characters across subscriptions are part of your Warband.
But that’s not all! Another addition that adds a touch of fun by allowing you to see some of your Warband characters hanging out together on the screen. Initially, you’ll be able to assign four characters to this scene, but fear not! Blizzard is already working on creating more scenes for you to collect in the future. Get ready to earn these scenes as you journey through the expansion.
And there’s more! To help you make decisions about which character to play, Blizzard enhanced the character selection process by providing additional information about each character right on the screen.
The Warbands system is a dynamic feature that will continue to evolve over time.
CONCLUSION
That would be all for the newest updates for The War Within Warbands. We hope you enjoyed the read and that it helped you get a glimpse of what is to come and that is truly great. The Warbands will definitely give an edge to players that have been struggling and doing same content over and over on the mains and alts. Also for the transmog collectors it will be far easier to farm them now since you won’t be locked to one specific Class in order to obtain transmog for the rest.
The War Within as a whole is bundling up to be an amazing expansion that might even rival that of Legion and WotLK on their release, but we are yet to see, with Blizzard you never know and we don’t want to get our hopes up too much.
On the other hand if you need help with anything regarding any World of Warcraft iteration, feel free to check out our services. If you have any questions you can always write to us on Livechat or Discord we have 24/7 Support, or if you wish to get a specific service that we do not offer, simply Request a Service!
Thank you once again for reading our The War Within Warbands post and if you liked it, then feel free to bookmark our InstantCarry blog. We will do our best to bring you all the latest News, Updates and Changes coming to the Gaming World and the Games that we all love and play. As always we will leave you with a video that sums up some of the things that will happen in the next expansion with a live interview so enjoy and stay safe!