Staff – August 9, 2018 at 4:02 AM
World of Warcraft’s newest expansion, Battle for Azeroth, is being released today. The expansion sends players to a pair of new continents, adds, inventive new game modes like Island Expeditions, and promises a compelling storyline that digs deeper than ever into the Alliance-Horde conflict that has been a major pillar in WoW’s plot. Here’s what you need to know about the new expansion.
The story
In the previous expansion, Legion, the Horde and the Alliance joined forces to defeat the Burning Legion, an army of destruction-seeking demons, and their creator, Sargeras. The events of this conflict led to Sargeras’ wounding of Azeroth, causing it to bleed Azerite, a crystalline, magically powerful substance.
The emergence of Azerite reignited the rivalry between both the Horde and the Alliance, neither of whom wanted the other to have control of the substance. During a series of events called the War of the Thorns, Horde Warchief Sylvanas Windrunner marched into Alliance territory to attack the World Tree Teldrassil as a means of cutting off the Alliance’s access to Azerite on the continent. Her decision to burn Teldrassil and the night elf capital city of Darnassus sparked the events leading into the expansionand instilled a solemn new tension between the Horde and the Alliance. Both factions are now tasked with finding recruits and preparing for the upcoming war.
Faction-based continents
The tense conflict lays the foundation for the structure of the expansion, which sends the two factions to two new continents: Kul Tiras for the Alliance and Zandalar for the Horde. Players will spend their time leveling primarily on their faction’s continent, though once they’ve reached the newly capped level 120, they’ll take the war to the opposing faction’s continent.
Each continent has three zones: Kul Tiras contains Tiragarde Sound, Dustvar, and Stormsong Valley, and Zandalar contains Zuldazar, Nazmir, and Vol’dun.
War Mode and the enhanced PvP system
The game’s new “War Mode” is designed to allow players a more flexible relationship with PvP gameplay. The mode can be toggled on and off while in the capital faction cities of Orgrimmar or Stormwind at any time.
While activated in Battle for Azeroth, War Mode provides players bonuses to experience while leveling and grants them access to all their PvP talents wherever PvP battles can happen. What’s more, War Mode only allows players to see others who have War Mode turned on themselves, opening up world PvP in a whole new way. When battling in Battle for Azeroth’s zones, players can also expect to battle over air drops that occasionally arrive in the zone or to chase after particularly notorious players with bounties on their heads.
The Heart of Azeroth
Blizzard has also replaced the Artifact weapon system from Legion with the Heart of Azeroth, a legendary neck piece that will aid players in absorbing the power of nearby Azerite and using it to upgrade their armor, unlocking latent traits in a player’s gear based on its power level. One difference between the Heart of Azeroth system and the Artifact weapon system is that, with the Heart of Azeroth, players can consolidate their progression for specializations in their player’s class. The Heart of Azeroth is also not itself customizable like Artifact weapons were; rather, it helps awaken special properties in specific armor the player collects, and each armor piece can have its own distinct set of traits.
Island Expeditions
Battle for Azeroth includes a host of creative PvE game modes that add welcome changes of pace to WoW’s typical challenges. Among them are Island Expeditions, which require players to form role-agnostic teams of three and to travel to islands that are each populated with different, ever-revolving challenges and events.
The catch, however, is that players will be facing off against an “Advanced NPC” AI team composed of members of the opposing faction who are trying to complete the same objective. This premise leads to the advent of “PvPvE” gameplay, a creative way of crafting new competitive experiences while using the PvE and PvP mechanics with which players are already familiar.
Warfronts
The other big addition to content comes in the form of Warfronts, the first of which — Stromgarde — opens soon after the game’s launch. Warfronts represent a small homage to Warcraft’s roots as a ‘90s and early 2000s real-time strategy series: Teams of twenty players are tasked with building a home base, researching upgrades, and fending off AI opponents.
This addition to the game illustrates Battle for Azeroth’s overall willingness to expand and iterate on the series’ successes while encouraging new ways to interact with players, advance the story, and explore the vast world of the game.
Battle for Azeroth might just be one of Warcraft’s most emotionally gripping and innovative expansions yet. Whether your heart lies with the Alliance or the Horde, thrilling adventures and exciting new playstyles await.
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