Is it worth playing World of Warcraft in 2024?
The answer is "yes" for returning players. But for totally new players, it's a bit more complicated. World of Warcraft is arguably in a better place than it has been in years, with vastly improved base game systems, improved visuals, and more investment in story delivery. The previous expansion Dragonflight was well-received, albeit a bit on the "safe" side. The story delivery overall was good, giving players a breather from the apocalyptic plot beats of the previous saga. Professions and talent trees got a much-needed depth pass, and the game is arguably more balanced than ever, although some classes still pull ahead in certain situations. Where WoW fails (still) is inducting new players into the game. Returning players will enjoy what the latest expansion, The War Within has to offer. New players will be met with messed up story pacing, poor tutorials, and overlapping content, frustrating the game for anyone without a hand-holding friend to guide them. Read on for more detail.
TL;DR: Should you play World of Warcraft: The War Within?
- World of Warcraft's current expansion, The War Within, has just launched.
- The previous expansion, Dragonflight, was relatively well-received, owing to revamped talent trees, improved profession systems, and a solid overall story.
- Dragonflight launched in December 2022, and washed away the previous design ethos that led unpopular expansions like Shadowlands to give players heaps of additional freedom. The War Within continues that trend even further.
- Making alternative characters is easier than ever, with players able to skip the story campaign and move straight ahead into world questing, similar to Diablo 4. Reputation also tracks for your entire account, rather than per character. You can also send equipment to other characters in your "Warband," and also share currency.
- The new talent trees introduced in Dragonflight incorporate some popular abilities from previous expansions, while also sprinkling in new ones. On top, The War Within adds new mini trees called Hero Talents. So far, the delivery of this system has been mixed, with some Hero Talent trees being far, far more interesting and well-developed than others.
- WoW: The War Within takes place in the underground world of Khaz Algar, and features some of the best zone designs Blizzard has ever built. However, there are also fewer zones than what's typical for a big expansion launch, which adds some questions about how quickly the expansion may get stale.
- The War Within also added Earthen as a playable race for both factions, with the storyline focusing heavily on how these Titan constructs have broken free of their programming.
- The War Within kickstarts a new story saga called The Worldsoul Saga, which features Xal'atath as the central protagonist. Xal'atath emerged initially in the Legion expansion, and was simply a small part of the Priest class hall quest. Her popularity led Blizzard to develop her into a more central character, and now, she's wreaking all kinds of havoc across Azeroth for, as of yet, reasons unknown.
- Given that The Worldsoul Saga is fresh as of The War Within, getting into the game right now is ideal, given that it's the start of the story. The Worldsoul Saga will take place across three expansions over the next few years, including The War Within, Midnight, and The Last Titan.
- World of Warcraft's endgame is more varied and rewarding than ever, I would argue. Players can get high-end rewards now even in 1-5 player mini dungeons called "Delves," which seem quite good so far, although it's unknown how repetitive this might feel over time. Mythic+ remains incredibly fun and challenging, and WoW: The War Within will get its first raid tier, challenging Xal'atath's Nerubian allies.
- World of Warcraft now also has WoW: Classic and WoW: Classic Hardcore servers. These servers (on the same subscription) let you play through classic WoW expansions.
- WoW: Classic Hardcore and "Season of Discovery" add a unique spin on the vanilla formula. Season of Discovery adds new "Rune" abilities for classic player classes. Blizzard has been releasing new content updates for Season of Discovery relatively slowly, adding a new spin on the Classic formula. Hardcore adds perma-death, too, which turns WoW into a high-stakes experience that has proven popular.
- While The War Within is a great experience for returning players, for completely new players, WoW remains incredibly problematic. New players are sent off to the Dragonflight expansion campaign, which while better than the previous Battle for Azeroth option, it's still outdated content that does little to connect players with their race or chosen faction. World of Warcraft really needs to do a full Cataclysm-style revamp on the entire old world, with evergreen content and characters, so that new players can experience the game more holistically.
- So far, The War Within has been a great experience for me. While the new player experience is still awful overall, returning players should find a lot of things to love in Khaz Algar. New players may find WoW: Classic a friendlier, more immersive way to get into the universe of Warcraft.
What is World of Warcraft?
World of Warcraft (WoW) is a game near and dear to my heart. I've played on and off since the game's closed beta in 2003, and have struggled to put it down even during its "worst" periods. I've said before, World of Warcraft at its worst still makes it better than the vast majority (if not all) of other MMORPGs out there, owing to its decades' worth of lore, rapid and responsive combat, and uniquely satisfying endgame loop.
World of Warcraft has now entered its 20th year with The War Within expansion, which kickstarts a brand new story arc dubbed The Worldsoul Saga. WoW expansions add heaps of new content, deliver new stories, revamp existing systems, and polish the game's graphics to keep it feeling fresh. Some expansions totally miss the mark, but coupled with the popular previous expansion Dragonflight, World of Warcraft seems to be on a big upwards trajectory.
WoW expansions are near full-priced games in essence, given that they provide hundreds (maybe thousands) of potential hours of gameplay with new systems and landmasses. The game is also funded via a subscription model, which means that every 2-4 months new free "seasons" drop during the expansion's lifespan. These seasons tend to heap on even more new features and content, moving the story forward while adding new dungeons, raids, and bosses for you and your friends to take down.
World of Warcraft has many imitators (and WoW itself borrowed heavily from other MMOs that preceded it), but few have managed to achieve Blizzard's level of execution. WoW is an action RPG that is responsive, exciting, and quite honestly, somehow gorgeous despite rocking an engine that's more two decades old. WoW is going strong, although the game has had a rocky few years owing to poorly received expansions like Shadowlands. However, 2022's Dragonflight represented something of a new beginning for the team, with a total change in direction and a time skip in the story, offering a brighter view on the horizon.
The War Within builds on Dragonflight's success by boosting player freedom, doubling down on permanent systemic features, while also improving the game's technology. The War Within has some of the best story delivery the game has ever seen, with a massive investment in facial animation technology and writing.
Beyond the retail experience, a big part of WoW's modern success story is WoW: Classic and WoW: Classic Hardcore, both of which have revitalized and reintroduced the game to a new generation of MMORPG players. WoW: Classic "Season of Discovery" revamps the vanilla experience with new content and new abilities, giving players yearning for a more "old school" experience something new to enjoy as well.
Whether you're interested in the classic WoW experience or the modern retail gameplay, WoW is in a stronger place than it has been in years.
WoW: The War Within: The total newcomer experience
I have experience trying to persuade dozens of friends and family to get into WoW, so I know many common complaints. Thankfully, you don't need the best gaming PC out there to run WoW, since it runs on fairly low-spec PCs, which makes it pretty accessible. That said, the last time I updated this guide, World of Warcraft's new-player levelling experience was abysmal, to say the least. I'm updating the guide again, and I'm sad to say, the levelling experience is still abysmal for new players.
The overlapping timelines from over a decade of content additions made levelling an utterly confusing, convoluted experience, and WoW's attempts to fix the issue amount to little more than a band-aid on a gaping wound.
When you make a new character, you start on a brand-new island dubbed Exile's Reach out in the ocean. Shipwrecked away from your faction, you'll begin experiencing the game with a modernized, up-to-date perspective. Blizzard has mildly updated this area to remove some of its timeline-specific content, and it does serve as a solid overall tutorial on how to play the game, teaching players controls and basic mechanics. However, I would argue it's probably not a solid experience for a 2024 RPG. Exile's Reach is overly simplistic and unengaging, which I would argue will make it hard for new players to see the "fun," which really comes from the endgame complexity on offer.
There's no reason for WoW to be like this. World of Warcraft's classes have a lot of tools to overcome difficulty, and I don't think it serves the game to make it as easy as a mobile game.
World of Warcraft's original levelling experience was vastly superior in every possible way, giving each core race their own starting experience, in zones that matched their chosen RPG fantasy. Blizzard absolutely needs to just revamp the old-school starting areas that immersed you, instead of this jump-through-hoops island replete with very basic voice acting and objectives.
If you do make it through the boredom of Exile's Reach, you'll be dropped into Dragonflight to level from 10 to 69, to prepare you for The War Within at level 70. Dragonflight is naturally more interesting than Exile's Reach, but it's still occupying a bit of an odd place in the timeline. Players here will basically be unable to fully experience the story of Dragonflight, making it, again, feel odd for new players. I would once again advocate that Blizzard simply revamps the per-zone low-stakes evergreen feel of World of Warcraft's vanilla experience, where storylines were contained to zones, and most characters weren't central to the endgame overarching story.
One way players tend to level quickly is by running auto-grouped LFG dungeons. However, these again aren't a particularly great experience for new players. They're full of impatient veterans grinding out new characters, who will get angry at you if you don't have prior knowledge of the tactics. The game has become a little more welcoming to new players in this regard. You can now do dungeons with NPC players instead, who will actually give you tips instead of screaming at you.
If you do decide to pick up WoW: The War Within, you get a token to jump straight to the current expansion and skip everything prior. The downside to using this as a new player is you don't get to "learn" your character in a gradual way. You could solve this by using a YouTube video class guide to get yourself up to speed.
What about WoW: Classic?
Responding to player feedback (and tons of pirated servers), Blizzard added WoW: Classic to the World of Warcraft subscription. There's a couple of dozen servers in EU and US that run classic expansion servers, including the vanilla WoW experience, on-going classic expansion update severs that are currently running Wrath of the Lich King, and WoW: Classic Hardcore, which grants you perma-death. WoW: Classic Hardcore especially was inspired by a user addon where players could opt-in to "perma-kill" their characters upon the first death. Blizzard loved the idea, and baked it directly into the WoW: Classic experience.
In some ways, WoW: Classic is a better way to experience World of Warcraft for new players. It embeds and immerses you in a bigger world, and gives you a more immersive class and race fantasy than modern WoW does. World of Warcraft: The War Within might have all the bells and whistles, but WoW: Classic had a kind of magic that Blizzard has found difficult to replicate in recent years. Both WoW: Classic and WoW: The War Within are available on the same subscription, so you can easily switch between both clients if you fancy.
State of World of Warcraft: The War Within (Patch 11.0)
As of writing, World of Warcraft: The War Within is in its pre-season state, and it has been a fun ride to get to max level.
The War Within starts a new story saga as noted, following Blizzard heroes like Anduin Wrynn and Alleria Windrunner deep into the bowels of the planet itself. The Worldsoul itself has been crying out to the heroes of Azeroth, including the player, summoning them to the ancient isle of Khaz Algar for reasons unknown.
The self-styled Harbinger Xal'atath is on the move too, armed with the Dark Heart artifact from Dragonflight, she seeks to absorb magical energy of all forms, travelling across Azeroth in search of sites of power. To that end, she has allied with the subterranean spider people known as the Nerubians, returning from Warcraft 3 and Wrath of the Lich King. She has also gathered void cultists of all stripes, and aligned with the forces of the void (apparently), it could spell doom for Azeroth and its denizens.
World of Warcraft's story telling has taken a big leap forward this expansion. A huge volume of high-quality voice acting, writing, and cinematic treatment has made The War Within one of the most engaging storylines in Blizzard history. Long-time Blizzard veteran and series architect Chris Metzen has returned from retirement to lead the game's creative vision for the next several years, and the team has worked hard to give WoW a more 3-dimensional approach, with great villains and complex character relationships.
If the storytelling is a 9/10 right now, some of the new gameplay mechanics still have a big of a question mark over them. Namely Hero Talents.
Hero Talents were the big new feature for World of Warcraft: The War Within, building on the talent tree revamp from Dragonflight. The new Hero Talents are essentially an extension of your class fantasy, adding new mechanics to certain abilities without increasing overall complexity. However, their delivery so far has been a very mixed bag.
Each class spec gains access to two different Hero Talents, and I think the design of these systems hasn't landed as well as Blizzard might have hoped. In some cases, players have to choose between aesthetic preference and playstyle, which again, is reminiscent of the wildly unpopular "Covenant" system from Shadowlands, which Blizzard seemingly didn't learn any lessons from. Furthermore, some of them are just poorly designed, and in some cases, under designed. My demonology warlock is eating good, with the ability to summon a pitlord, or let a demon infest my soul for added power. Conversely, my hunter has the ability to get a damage over time passive that doesn't have a visual, or regain access to a previous ability that used to be baseline. Despite druids having a variety of unique cultures, all of the hero talent themes are night elvish, which clashes with other race's unique roleplaying fantasy. Blizzard could solve some of this with unique cosmetic glyphs, or adding more per-race visual effects, but clearly they decided it wasn't worth the investment here.
World of Warcraft: The War Within takes place within a new subterranean area known as Khaz Algar. The caverns represent some of the best zone design in World of Warcraft history, with a wide array of biomes despite the reduced landmass size.
Khaz Algar begins with the Isle of Dorn, which is the home installation of the Earthen. The Earthen there were the original titan constructs designed to maintain different titan facilities around Azeroth, with some appearing in Uldaman and Ulduar in previous expansions. The original city of the Earthen has begun to break away from its titan programming, owing to the titan's long absence, and has answered the call of Azeroth's biggest factions to fight back against the encroaching dark forces Xal'atath has unleashed.
There's a large abundance of activities, quests, and storylines to experience within Khaz Algar, but I worry about how quickly players will burn through the content here. Blizzard has worked hard to make heroic dungeoneering more relevant again this expansion, and it has worked well, but the true endgame will be Mythic+ and raiding, and we've yet to see how that will play out. Season 1 starts this month, so I'll be sure to write a bit more about that after the fact. So far, though, the new dungeons have been interesting, although only a couple have really showcased something truly new. I think I preferred Dragonflight's dungeons to the offering from Khaz Algar so far, but part of me is wondering if that's because I've mainly been playing them on Heroic difficulty, which isn't too much of a challenge. We'll see how it feels once I'm stressing out in Mythic+ difficulty layers. It's not all about the more hardcore players, though.
Indeed, if you're a solo player, World of Warcraft now has a new feature you may be interested in: Delves.
Delves have been interesting to experience so far, but a lot of the "rewards" are tied to the Season track, which isn't yet available. There are over a dozen Delves scattered around Khaz Algar, offering players quick 10-20 minute mini dungeons complete with bosses and rewards at the end. You can play them solo or with up to 5 players, with scaling difficulty and rewards for higher tier play. There's even a secret "13th" Delve that will contain a high-end challenge for players who have truly mastered their class.
Delves will also give players weekly high-level rewards in the Weekly Cache, up to Heroic Raid level gear. This gives players who go solo the opportunity to progress their characters too, or even support and supplement raiders who perhaps can't keep up with their guild due to work or family commitments. It's a pretty interesting system, with a variety of different dungeons and biomes explored. It's definitely more interesting than Blizzard's previous attempts at solo dungeon experiences, but it remains to be seen how repetitive they may (or may not) feel after a few more weeks.
Blizzard's focus on improving features for casual and solo players has also bled over into the new Warbands system, which is now effectively the name of all your created characters. Now, reputation and Renown tracks for your entire account (Warband), rather than on a per-character basis. Jumping into other classes has never been easier, complete with campaign skip options, and speedier levelling for subsequent characters.
What does the future of World of Warcraft bring?
Dragonflight proved itself a bit of a turning point for Blizzard. After years of "borrowed power" mechanics and systems that only lasted for one expansion, Blizzard has begun working harder on building permanent evergreen systems to make the overall game richer. Professions are more interesting than ever, the story technology has taken a great leap forward, and the new talent trees have also breathed new life into WoW's aging classes.
Critically speaking, I still have some major concerns about World of Warcraft's priorities in some cases. I think World of Warcraft: The War Within could have used more time and investment in beta. Hero Talents are not consistently landing across the board, with some classes having much better trees than others, at least in terms of design and quality. We won't know about balance until the Season starts, but it isn't looking too disparate right now, at least.
I'm also concerned that the new player experience remains just awful overall, making it hard to recommend the game to total newcomers. I wish Blizzard would revamp the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor for a new era, baking them with low-stakes evergreen stories that focus on your race and faction fantasy. Blizzard has by its own admission spent the bulk of its time investing in hardcore players. And while soloable Delves and lifted restrictions on playing alternate characters are signs of change, there's still not enough work being done to bring in new blood.
Regardless, I would say WoW is in one of the strongest places it has been in years. There's a 20-year WoW anniversary celebration coming up, which will revive nostalgic dungeon Blackrock Depths as a mini raid for the game. The famed T2 sets will also get HD textures and new models, too. The story delivery has been better than ever. Xal'atath is the most convincing villain WoW has had in a long time. And the new visual tech has kept the aging engine at pace with more modern counterparts. I think returning players will have a blast in The War Within, but if you're wondering whether it's worth playing as a total newcomer, I would avoid it unless you have a close friend to guide you through the game's weird levelling idiosyncrasies.
