WoW has multiple classes for players to choose from and a lot of them come with the healer specialization. Some of them are easy to use while others are a bit hard.

If you are new to the game and would like to start as a healer then choosing a class that is easy-to-play is essential if you want to perform your role well. Healers have gone through a lot of changes throughout the history of the game and will probably do so in the future as well.

But in this guide, I will show you the best healer classes that are currently the easiest to use.

Best Healer Classes For New Players in The War Within

Out of all the healer classes in the game, there are 4 right now that a new player can easily get into. Although playing as them is easy, fully mastering them on the other hand will definitely take time and effort.

Holy Priest

The Holy Priest is a ranged healer with a reactive style of play which suits new players very well. This class is pretty good in providing single target healing with okay group healing capabilities. Has a good amount of spells so mastering them will take some time but overall this spec is very easy to play.

Restoration Shaman

One of the best healing specs to play in the first season of The War Within is Restoration Shaman. And due to the recent changes and significant reduction of the button bloat, it has become quite beginner friendly.

Restoration Shaman is also a ranged healer with good AOE healing abilities and an exception toolkit which is pretty flexible. The abilities have short cooldowns so you will have to be aware of your mana utilization. If the Holy Priest is not your style then you can not go wrong with the Restoration Shaman.

Holy Paladin

As a Holy Paladin, you build up your Holy Power through Judgment or Crusader Strike. Then spend that Holy Power to use various types of healing abilities which excel at spot and single target healing. Lacks in healing allies that are spread far due to heavy reliance on Light of Dawn ability for AOE healing. However, this spec has good damage reduction abilities.

The Holy Paladin relies on a melee style of gameplay so it is a bit harder to use compared to the two specs mentioned above. If you have no problems using a melee healer then this is a good option as well.

Mistweaver Monk

Out of all the specs I mentioned, Mistweaver Monk is the hardest. It is a little harder to play than Holy Paladin. But it is still relatively easier to play when compared to some other healing specs in the game.

Mistweaver Monk is also a melee based healer with exceptional burst AOE healing capability. Depending on what you need, Mistweaver Monk can excel in both, group and tank healing. The trickiest part for new players with this spec is going to be mana management.

These 4 healing classes are the easiest to use for newcomers and you can choose whichever appeals to you the most without any worry. One more thing that can help you out immensely are addons. Check our list for the top 10 addons for The War Within.

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The War Within expansion pack of WoW is right around the corner and you might be wondering which addons will work well with it. If so, then you are in the right place.

Addons make the game easier and more fun to play but there are way too many addons out there. Selecting which ones to install can easily baffle a player. To help you out with that, I will give you a list of top 10 addons that you must have.

Top 10 Addons For The War Within

Addons are useful but if you install a lot of them, it can slow down your game or even result in bugging your game entirely. Ten is the sweet spot and you will not require any other addons than the ones mentioned below.

Leatrix Plus

Leatrix Plus allows you to change your interface to suit your needs and it also comes with a lot of cool automation features. The automation features in particular are very time saving.

Such as automatically selling all the junk you have when you interact with a vendor or getting your gear automatically repaired when it is possible. Other than that, there’s also a faster loot option which you should enable as well to save even more time.

BtWQuests

BtWQuests simply put is a quest journal that neatly shows all the quests of different campaigns in the game, both current and future ones.

It shows how different quests are linked with each other and what you need to complete in order to progress in a questline. You can also see what rewards you will get for completing quests in advance. And all of this is packed in an easy to use interface.

Dialogue UI

If you are not a fan of the default quest interface then Dialogue UI is a simple fix for that. It gives it a cleaner look with two modes, light and dark. With it, you can easily accept a quest by pressing Spacebar or decline it with the “Esc” key.

Leveling Guide Restedxp

If you want to level up faster then Leveling Guide Restedxp is the addon for you. It has different ways of leveling up and you can choose whatever you prefer.

Since it is developed by some of the best players of WoW, you will be guaranteed to level up in a very fast manner. On top of that, it has a plethora of other options such as marking enemies or items you need, automatically skipping cutscenes and accepting new quests, etc.

OmniCD

OmniCD is a lightweight addon which can be used to track the cooldown of any spell in the game. You can also track the cooldowns of your party members which is pretty helpful in raids. You can tell what skills your party members used and act accordingly.

Details!

One of the most widely used addons in WoW is Details!. It provides a comprehensive breakdown of all the damage you deal. Such as what ability did the most damage, what mob was the damage done to, which buffs helped out with it, you get the picture. And all of this can be tracked in real time with customizable bars.

But damage done is not the only thing that can be tracked with this addon, you can also track other stuff such as, damage taken, healing done, mana restored and a whole lot more!

RareScanner

RareScanner is an addon that detects rare NPCs, treasure or events nearby you. It shows this through a button on the screen which gives more information if you click on it.

Other than that, it also adds markers on your world map for all the rare NPCs, treasures and events. And clicking on those markers reveals further information about them. It is also capable of showing spawn locations of entities that you want to track.

BigWigs

If you have trouble fighting bosses in the game then the BigWigs addon can help you out with that. It gives you information on various encounters in the form of alert messages, sounds, or even timers so you can avoid or deal with them before they happen. You will know in advance what moves a boss is going to use and in what amount of time.

WeakAuras

WeakAuras is a pretty famous addon that can be used to show or track pretty much everything you could want in the game. What makes it even better is that you can import other players’ custom profiles and use it without having to come up with your own.

There are a lot of different profiles available out there for various purposes. The best place to get them is from Wago.io.

BetterBags

BetterBags is a replacement addon for the default bag system of WoW. It is far better than the original because of its clean look with multiple categories. You can easily search for an item by using its search bar. And if you want, you can also create custom categories.

And these were all the top 10 addons that you should definitely try out! On a different note, if you are a beginner and want to dabble as a healer then check out our guide on which healer classes are the easiest to use.

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The War Within which is the upcoming expansion pack of WoW will feature 8 Treasures for Tailoring that you can find and get. It is possible they can add more treasures later on but at launch, there will be 8.

If you know where to look then these treasures are an easy way of getting some Knowledge Points and Artisan’s Acuity. The Artisan’s Acuity in particular is very useful in this expansion. It will be used in crafting, buying recipes, etc.

In this guide, I will provide the locations of all 8 Tailoring Treasures and the waypoints which you can use with the TomTom addon.

All Treasures for Tailoring in The War Within

Consuming a single treasure gives you 3 Knowledge Points of Tailoring and 15 Artisan’s Acuity. So, getting all the 8 treasures will result in a total amount of 24 Knowledge Points and 120 Artisan’s Acuity.

Earthen Tape Measure

The Earthen Tape Measure is located on the Isle of Dorn in Khaz Algar, Azeroth. You will find it near Boulder Springs. The waypoint for it is “/way Isle of Dorn 56.17, 60.97 Earthen Tape Measure“.

Upon getting to the location, collect the treasure from the counter of General Goods NPC.

Dornogal Seam Ripper

The Dornogal Seam Ripper is found in Dornogal which is located on the Isle of Dorn in Khaz Algar. It is located above the Stoneshaper’s Atrium. You can set a waypoint for it like this “/way Isle of Dorn 61.54, 18.65 Dornogal Seam Ripper“.

Once you get there, go inside the building. You will find the treasure on top of a table between two beds at the end of the room.

Runed Earthen Pins

To get the Runed Earthen Pins, go to The Ringing Deeps located in Khaz Algar. You will find the treasure in the area above The Waterworks. Waypoint for this is “/way The Ringing Deeps 48.87, 32.88 Runed Earthen Pins“.

Once you get to the location, make your way inside the Inn. And then go to the room located to the right of the Innkeeper NPC.

After that, head inside the door directly in front of you on the other side of the room.

Once you do that, go inside the room on your right.

You will find the treasure on the shelf at the bottom.

Earthen Stitcher’s Snips

Earthen Stitcher’s Snips is also located in The Ringing Deeps in Khaz Algar. Go to the enemy territory near Taelloch. Waypoint for this is “/way The Ringing Deeps 64.21, 60.31 Earthen Stitcher’s Snips“.

You will find the treasure on top of a table under an open structure. Since this is an enemy territory, you will be attacked by mobs when you try to get it.

Royal Outfitter’s Protractor

You can get the Royal Outfitter’s Protractor from Hallowfall in Khaz Algar. It is located close to the Veneration Grounds. Set a waypoint for it like this “/way Hallowfall 40.13, 68.10 Royal Outfitter’s Protractor“.

Once you reach the location, go inside the building and you will find the treasure sitting atop some boxes to the left.

Arathi Rotary Cutter

The Arathi Rotary Cutter is located in the same general area as the treasure mentioned above in Hallowfall near Tenir’s Ascent. This is the waypoint “/way Hallowfall 49.29, 62.29 Arathi Rotary Cutter“.

The treasure will be lying on top of a table out in the open.

Nerubian Quilt

For the Nerubian Quilt, go to the Azj-Kahet in Khaz Algar. It is found in The Weaver’s Lair. This is the waypoint for it “/way Azj-Kahet 53.26, 53.02 Nerubian Quilt“.

You will get the treasure from opening the chest located inside the building which is located there.

Nurubian’s Pincushion

Nurubian’s Pincushion is located inside the City of Threads in Khaz Algar. You will find it in Umbral Bazaar. And the waypoint is “/way Azj-Kahet 50.25, 16.69 Nerubian’s Pincushion“.

You will find the treasure on top of the counter of Tailoring Supplies NPC.

Those were the locations of all 8 Tailoring Treasure which will be available on launch of The War Within. If you happen to be new to the game then our class picking guide will help you choose a class that’s perfect for you!

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If you simply want to choose the strongest class for your main in WoW: The War Within, you have 5 different classes that are generally considered the best right now.

This is all based on what we know from the beta for The War Within and previews, of course. There are a lot of massive balance changes coming, not to mention the new Hero Talent mechanic!

But, let’s cut right to the chase, shall we? Let’s now take a look at the 5 best classes you should main in WoW: The War Within.

Top 5 Best Classes To Main in WoW: The War Within

Evoker

The Dracthyr continue to dominate the meta with their exclusive Evoker class, which is easily one of the best classes in WoW: The War Within. They provide the most utility out of all classes with their Augmentation spec, while also being fantastic Healers with the Preservation spec.

Augmentation overall is possibly the single most useful Class Spec in the entire game right now. It allows the Evoker to provide insane buffs to every other role. More damage for DPS, more survivability for Tanks, and more Mana for Healers… what more could you possibly want from a single class? Besides, the Evoker is also quite capable of dishing out solid damage on its own on top of that.

Preservation, while not quite as game-changing as Augmentation, does make the Evoker into a top-tier Healer. It’s a very unique Healer spec as well, due to its slower pace: you’ll rely on charging up spells to provide massive healing in bursts. These powerful healing spells also have a large AoE, making it easy to keep your entire party topped up no matter how hectic things get.

Simply put, Evoker might be the singular best class in the game currently!

Death Knight

As you might have heard from anyone playing The War Within’s beta, Death Knight is easily one of the best classes in the game currently. Whether you go for the DPS specs (Frost, Unholy) or the Tank spec (Blood), this class has earned its spot at the top of the meta.

All their Hero Talents are pretty great as well and work extremely well with the Death Knight’s innate strengths. This is very important, considering that Hero Talents is a new mechanic in The War Within and some classes weren’t as lucky as Death Knights.

Death Knight is a class with a lot of potential builds and playstyles, as well. You can play as a vampiric Tank who relies on dealing damage to boost their health and strength or you can choose to summon demonic forces to aid you in battle, for example. No matter what, you’ll have some of the best survivability and damage output in The War Within!

Mage

If you’re all about spellcasting, Mage is your best bet for a spellcasting DPS. All 3 of its specs are DPS-focused, and all 3 of them are currently extremely strong. This ensures that the class has long-lasting power and shouldn’t have to worry about any upcoming balance changes, making it an easy pick for one of the best classes in WoW: The War Within.

Similar to the Death Knights, Mages were also blessed with 3 strong sets of Hero Talents as well. These further bolster the Mage’s innate strengths. As you might notice from this list, this is a common trend for all of the best classes in The War Within! These Hero Talents are extremely important.

The only real downside for Mages is that you really do need to master them. Their overwhelming DPS potential comes at the cost of low survivability. However, you’ll easily dominate all your foes if you can overcome these skill issues. Good Mage players are always guaranteed a spot for Raids due to their insane damage output.

Warrior

Say what you will about how straightforward the Warrior class is to play, you can’t deny that it brings results. This class is all about Melee DPS with the Arms and Fury specs, but the Protection spec can also turn them into a top-tier Tank. Just like with the other best classes in The War Within, all of the specs are viable and extremely strong.

If you go the DPS route, you’ll be dishing out millions of damage with fairly simple skill rotations that are easy to manage. If you choose to be a Tank, your ability to take damage will be second only to Paladins and you also don’t rely too much on Healers. Either way, you’ll be a key asset to any party you’re in!

There are very few downsides to the Warrior currently, and this is definitely the best class for anyone who likes straightforward Melee DPS. If we had to come up with a weakness, you could say that their simplicity means they have very low build variety and they don’t provide much utility to parties. But if that’s no issue for you, Warrior has basically no downsides.

Shaman

A bit of a surprise, the Shaman class has been climbing the ranks of best classes in WoW: The War Within as we approach the full launch. It has received a lot of fantastic buffs and reworks during the beta, making it into a meta favorite.

It has the potential to Tank no matter its spec as well as provide high DPS with the Elemental or Enchantment specs. What’s more, it can also turn into a top-tier healer with the Restoration spec. That said, the DPS specs seem to be earning the most favor right now simply due to how strong they are currently.

Another thing that makes the Shaman shine is their ability to lay out totems across the battlefield. These totems provide excellent utility to the party, be it by providing Crowd Control, healing, or even deflecting enemy attacks. The new Totemic Hero Talent tree also makes these totems stronger and easier to use, making Shaman shine brighter than ever!

But well, that was the last class on our list of the top 5 best classes to main in WoW: The War Within. If you want a more general and less meta-focused look at all the classes, check out our class picking guide for The War Within.

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The War Within expansion for World of Warcraft (WoW) is set to release on August 26th, so you should use the upcoming days to prepare for it.

It’s important to make sure your character is properly ready to take on the new expansion. You should clean your bags of junk and get useful consumables ahead of time, for example. Minimize having to waste time on release instead of playing the new content.

In this guide, we’ll give you tips on how to do just that. We’ll tell you how to make sure that you can be ready to fully enjoy The War Within the exact second it becomes available!

How to Prepare for WoW: The War Within

Clean Out Your Bags

If there’s one thing you’ll need once WoW: The War Within releases, it’s Gold. What you won’t need is junk items cluttering your bags and making resource gathering needlessly cumbersome. So, it’s a good idea to kill two birds with one stone: start selling all your unnecessary items in the Auction House right now.

This is doubly true if you played through the Dragonflight expansion, as the items from that expansion seem to be selling quite well currently. Either way, we also recommend taking out any useless items you have in your Warband Bank and selling them too. You want as much free space for new items as possible! Make sure to do this on all of your characters, as well.

Get Useful Items

Got rid of all the junk and earned some Gold already? Use that Gold to get any consumables that you’ll need for leveling. Remember, The War Within will raise the Level Cap in WoW to 80 upon release, so you should prepare to level up.

The main items to get are stat-raising Flasks, such as the Phial of Tepid Versatility, for example. This is especially true if you start replacing your gear with new loot from The War Within and get unfavorable stats. Use the boosting Flasks to temporarily increase any stats you need as you keep Leveling, it’ll make the whole process faster.

Make sure you get items that aid mobility, as well. Sure, Skyriding will be the main way to travel in The War Within, but it’s not always available. For those instances, you’ll want to have items like the Goblin Glider Kit and Gunshoes. We also highly recommend Light-Step Hoofplates, as they make your mount faster. You know how it is: the faster you can get around, the more efficiently you’ll be completing quests and leveling up.

For more help with leveling, check out our leveling tips for WoW: The War Within.

Clean the Quest Log

If you still have unfinished quests leading up to the release of WoW: The War Within, you might want to prepare by getting rid of them. Complete any quests you actually want to do and have the time for, but remember that the expansion’s launch is quickly approaching!

As for any quests you don’t want to bother with or simply don’t have the time for… abandon them all. Empty out your quest log so that you can fill it exclusively with quests from The War Within later. It’ll make it much easier to track your progress in the expansion. Besides, you can always return to do the quests you abandoned later.

Take Part in the Radiant Echoes Event

The War Within’s pre-patch event is currently ongoing, called “Radiant Echoes.” This event started on July 30th and will last until August 26th, ending as soon as The War Within releases.

This event is mainly meant for catching up with any alts that you didn’t play much during Dragonflight. Nonetheless, it’s worth doing even if that doesn’t apply to you. It grants loads of Veteran ILvl 480 gear, the “This Takes Me Back” Feat of Strength, the “Band of Radiant Echoes” Heirloom Ring, a couple of Warband-bound bags, and even some battle pets and mounts. Don’t miss out on these goodies, go do the event while you can.

Optimize Your Game Settings

If you’ve been playing World of Warcraft for a while, you should know what to expect once The War Within releases. The floodgates will open and lots of players new and old will start rushing into the game, causing massive lag spikes and other performance issues.

There’s not much you can do about the masses of players jumping into the game, but you can try to minimize its effects on your client’s performance. Disable add-ons you don’t really need and lower your graphics settings as much as possible. It’s better to make sure that the game runs well during the expansion’s launch, even if you’re gaming in potato mode for a bit!

Log Out at Dalaran

Once you feel you’re done and don’t need to prepare anymore for the release of WoW: The War Within, just go to Dalaran and log out there. Dalaran is the starting point for The War Within, based on the information we know from the beta and various previews. Having your character parked there will make getting into the expansion much quicker!

Additionally, we do recommend logging into all of your characters after The War Within releases and the Level Cap is raised to 80. Just log in and log out if you don’t want to play with these characters so that they start getting the Rested bonus.

Other than that, though, follow all our steps and you will be all set to play The War Within expansion for WoW on release. It’s only a few days away now, it’s right around the corner!

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The War Within is raising the level cap in World of Warcraft (WoW)to Level 80, so we have our best leveling tips ready to make the process less of a chore.

There are a lot of tried-and-true classics for leveling that still work, such as making sure you get the Rested bonus. However, some neat new mechanics make leveling easier in this expansion, such as the Warband Mentor system.

In this guide, we’ll give you our best leveling tips for WoW: The War Within so that you can get that Level 80 cap in no time flat!

Best Leveling Tips | WoW: The War Within

Make Sure to Have Helpful Items

We’ve covered this before in our guide on how to prepare for the release of The War Within, but it’s worth repeating here. Once you have amassed a decent amount of Gold, you need to get items that’ll make the leveling process less of a pain.

The main items to get are stat-raising Flasks, such as the Phial of Tepid Versatility, for example. This is especially true if you start replacing your gear with new loot from The War Within and get unfavorable stats. Use the boosting Flasks to temporarily increase any stats you need as you keep Leveling, it’ll make the whole process faster.

Make sure you get items that aid mobility, as well. Sure, Skyriding is the main way to travel in The War Within, but it’s not always available. For those instances, you’ll want to have items like the Goblin Glider Kit and Gunshoes. We also highly recommend Light-Step Hoofplates, as they make your mount faster. You know how it is: the faster you can get around, the more efficiently you’ll be completing quests and leveling up.

Get Rested

As a last quick tip before we dive further into this guide, make sure to get the Rested buff if you wish to maximize your XP gains. You just have to hang out with your character at inns or any city to start accumulating Rest, which will multiply your XP gain.

This also works for logged-off characters, so we recommend logging in and out of your alts and leaving them at inns or cities. Start accumulating Rest on them while you play with your main so that leveling is quicker later.

Look For Campaign Quests & Focus on Them

One noticeable change with the release of The War Within in WoW is that the quest icons on the map have been changed. Most notably, the Campaign quests now have a shield-shaped icon with an exclamation mark as shown above.

Campaign Quests are the main source of XP, as well. You’ll want to focus on doing these first of all while you’re still leveling, so familiarize yourself with the new quest icons so you can track them easily.

Do World Quests & Bonus Objectives

Completing the main Campaign for The War Within will also unlock World Quests and Events across the map. You don’t actually need to reach Level 80 to access these! You’ll also unlock Adventure Mode which gives your other characters more freedom and the Earthen Allied Race Quests.

Most importantly for Leveling here is that World Quests can give you a massive boost of XP upon completion. Simply put, you should focus on doing these if you want to level up efficiently.

Similarly, you’ll see various Bonus Objectives pop up across the map, like the example above. These are another type of World Quest and they grant massive amounts of XP when completed. Make sure that you do these whenever they are available.

Plan Out Your Side Quests

Thanks to the release of The War Within in WoW, Renown and Reputation are now Warband-bound, which makes leveling alts easier. You no longer need to complete all of the Side Quests with all of your characters. Instead, spread them out across your various characters so that they can all gain XP from completing them.

You should complete the entirety of a Covenant’s questline with a single character, however. For example, doing all quests for the Council of Dornogal on your main and all quests for the Hallowfall Arathi on an alt. That’s just to ensure that you get to see the full questline.

Anyway, the main takeaway here is that you can spread out Side Quests across characters to make it easier to level up alts. Doing so won’t punish you by making you miss out on Renown and Reputation rewards this time around!

Dive Into Delves & Dungeons

Delves are one of the first new mechanics you encounter in The War Within. They’re short instanced adventures you can complete either solo or with others, and they are a fantastic source of XP. More Delves become available as you progress through the expansion’s Campaign, and we highly recommend doing them.

Similarly, you should also complete Dungeons as part of leveling. Frankly, it’s unlikely that you’ll reach Level 80 without completing at least a few of them. Worry not, you can easily complete all of the dungeons in The War Within by using the Follower Dungeons and playing with NPCs.

Don’t Ignore Professions

Professions are, as always, part of our best leveling tips for WoW and this is still true in The War Within. Using your Profession provides a nice amount of bonus XP to your character, which is especially true for Gathering Professions this time around.

If you want to min-max your leveling, you should pick Herbalism and Mining as your Professions. You’ll encounter many gathering nodes as you play through The War Within’s campaign and explore the new content and each single gathering node will reward you with some XP.

Alternatively, all Crafting Professions can get a lot of bonus XP whenever they craft one of the new items for the first time. However, this bonus XP seems to have a cap and should only be about 2 levels worth of XP, similar to how it worked in Dragonflight. Nothing to scoff at, though!

Alts Have It Easier

Another important part of the leveling process in The War Within is the Warband Mentor system. Anytime you get one of your characters to Level 80 they will be marked as a Warband Mentor, which makes all other characters in your Warband earn 5% more XP from all sources. That means it’s a good idea to focus on leveling up your main to 80 before you even start playing with your alts.

This catch-up mechanic is aided by things like the Adventure Mode we mentioned previously, which allows alts to do areas in any order. What’s more, your alts can skip the introductory part of the campaign if you’ve already progressed far enough with another character! Just talk to Thrall at Magni’s Encampment and choose to skip until you reach Dornogal.

But well, that’s the last on the list of our best leveling tips for WoW: The War Within. You should now know everything you need to make the leveling process smoother and hit that new Level 80 cap ASAP!

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WoW: The War Within is right around the corner, so we’re sure there are lots of new and returning players eager to dive into it.

Of course, World of Warcraft is pretty challenging to get into, all things considered. It’s been around for like 2 decades now, so there’s a massive number of complex systems and content to learn about. Whether you’re new or returning, there’s a lot to learn about to get into the new expansion!

In this guide, we’ll talk about the most important things you should know about so that you can start to dive into WoW and The War Within more easily.

New / Returning Players Guide | WoW: The War Within

Class Specialization & Hero Talents

Classes in WoW currently have one class-wide Talent tree, but you can also choose from 1 of 3 different Specializations that provide an additional Talent tree. These two Talent trees define your character’s role and playstyle. On top of that, The War Within is also adding a third tree known as the Hero Talent tree. It’s the smaller tree shown in the middle.

These Hero Talents are based on various key characters from WoW lore and every Specialization gets to pick 1 tree out of 2. Essentially, they’re the cherry on top to expand your class. Maxing them out requires 10 Hero Talent points, which you’ll get naturally as you level up to the new Level Cap of 80. You can max out the Hero Talent tree with no worries!

Picking the right Class is important since they all play differently, so check out our class-picking guide for The War Within if you want to know what to expect from each one.

The Warband System

One of the biggest changes coming to WoW with The War Within is the Warband sytem.

To simplify things, a “Warband” refers to all of your characters collectively. That means your main and any alts you’ve created are all your Warband. All characters will able to access features like the Warband Bank, which is a loot stash shared between all your characters. Your Warband also shares certain Feats of Strength (Achievements) and other account-wide progression systems.

Most notably, The War Within is making it so that your Renown and Reputation are shared by your Warband. Renown and Reputation are a progression system tied to completing the quests for various factions across the expansion, and their rewards will now be shared amongst all your characters. For the most part, that means you no longer need to complete all side quests with all your characters!

In short, the Warband system is an account-wide progression system that makes it easier for you to maintain multiple characters.

Dungeon Difficulties

Dungeons in WoW: The War Within currently come in 3 basic difficulties. From easiest to hardest, they are: Normal, Heroic, and Mythic. These basic difficulties each scale up the Dungeon’s enemies to make them tougher, but they also give you much better loot.

You can queue up for Normal and Heroic Dungeons from anywhere by using the Dungeon Finder tool. Just press the “I” key to bring it up. Mythic dungeons require you to make groups yourself and manually go to the dungeon, however.

You can also clear certain dungeons as Follower Dungeons. These will let you select NPCs to fill your party instead of players, but they work the same as regular dungeons otherwise.

Aside from those basic difficulties, there’s also Mythic+ which is exclusively for endgame content. To enter these Dungeons, at least one player in your party must have a Mythic Keystone. You can get Mythic Keystones by completing regular Mythic dungeons, participating in Mythic+ Dungeons led by others, or purchasing them from Keystone Vendors in cities.

Mythic+ Dungeons rotate every season, but there are always 8 different ones to choose from. They are much more challenging than standard Dungeons, so be well-prepared! These dungeons require you to beat all the bosses and enough trash mobs within a time limit, so you’ll need to be efficient. Completing these dungeons will give you and your allies high-end loot.

Understanding Item Level & Item Upgrades

Besides your character’s level, you also have to pay attention to your gear’s Item Level (referred to as ILvl or ilvl). Whether you’re a new or returning player, ILvl can seem confusing in WoW: The War Within but it’s relatively simple.

An item’s ILvl is simply telling you how strong that item’s stats are. The higher the stats, the higher the ILvl will be. You can use it to quickly tell how good an item is at a glance when compared to other items. At the same time, the average ILvl of all your equipped gear will define your character’s ILvl. Having higher ILvl is required to be able to tackle higher-difficulty Dungeons and Raids!

Some items can also be upgraded using Valorstones and Harbinger Crests. These are special currencies you get from pretty much everything. That means completing Quests of any type, Dungeons, Raids, etc. Of course, harder content will reward more of both types of currencies, but you’ll get them constantly by just playing the game.

If you’ve played the previous expansion, Dragonflight, these currencies are identical to Flightstones and Awakened Crests. They simply renamed them.

To see if an item is upgradeable, just check its description. Upgradeable items will have a text like “Upgrade Level”. This is followed by how many times it’s been upgraded and the maximum number of upgrades possible. You can visit any Item Upgrade NPC in the various cities across the game to upgrade your items. Just bring enough Valorstones and Harbinger Crests and upgrade to increase an item’s level!

Returning Players: Understand the Level Squish

One big oddity that returning players will notice in WoW: The War Within is that their level is now different than it used to be. That’s because the Shadowlands expansion introduced a “level squish”, reducing the Level Cap from 120 back to 60.

While it was a controversial change, it was done to make numbers more manageable and speed up the leveling process going forward. However, it does mean that your old characters will no longer be at the max level if you had reached it pre-Shadowlands!

What’s more, the release of The War Within will raise the Level Cap further to Level 80. If you want to get up to speed by reaching the level cap, check out our best leveling tips for WoW: The War Within!

Nonetheless, that brings us to the end of our WoW: The War Within guide for new and returning players. We hope this helps you dive into the game and its latest expansion a bit more easily, but there’s still a lot more to see and learn in this incredibly deep game.

If you’re already playing WoW, make sure to check out our guide on how to best prepare for The War Within’s release as well.

The post WoW The War Within: New / Returning Players Guide appeared first on Games Fuze.

August has arrived. That means a fresh new calendar of game releases, from massive AAA titles to potential new indie darlings.

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Blizzard came pretty close to recreating 2012 by dropping an expansion release on top of a Guild Wars 2 launch date… not that I believe the conspiracy theories from the Mists of Pandaria era, but it was a memorable enough moment that I made reference to it when posting about the Guild Wars 2 Janthir Wilds expansion last week.

The War Within – Coming in August

And so it goes, the Janthir Wilds expansion will launch on August 20th, and The War Within will start rolling out with early access… for those who spent the most money on the expansion… on August 22nd, with the poors joining in on August 26th according to the launch schedule posted by Blizzard.

The War Withing Launch Roadmap

That will be a busy week between Tuesday the 20th and Monday the 26th.

As for what is coming with the new WoW expansion… well, nothing as deep as actual player housing, but there are the usual more levels, more zones, more dungeons, and more raids along with some new features:

• Delves: Deep beneath the surface lies treasure vaults waiting to be discovered. Explore these world instances solo or with up to four friends, along with an NPC companion, to defeat bosses and gain epic end-Learn more about Delves in our overview article.
• Warbands: Expand the potential of your alternate characters with account-wide progression across your family of characters on your Battle.net® account. Share your Warband Bank access, War Within Renown, achievements, collections, and more. Visit our latest article to learn more about Warbands.
• Hero Talents: Rise to new heights of power with new Hero Talent trees. Each class specialization has access to two choices of self-contained Hero Talent trees inspired by iconic Warcraft® universe archetypes. Revisit our previous Hero Talent previews to get a glimpse at what is in development.
• New Battleground: Deephaul Ravine
• Professions: New Recipes and Enchantments, updated NPC Work Orders
• UI Updates: Improved quest icons to make types of quests clearer.
• Skyriding (previously Dragonriding): Take to the skies on one of your favorite flying mounts with all new flight mechanics. Learn more in our Skyriding overview article.

Blizzard also has an announcement cinematic to go with the news, as one has come to expect… though I do remember a time when they were so rushed to announce something that the cinematic wasn’t ready yet.

Meanwhile, Blizz is still encouraging people to join The War Within Beta and to please pre-order the expansion, which comes with a level boost at all tiers so at least one of your retail characters can avoid the bland voyage through the Dragonflight content.

I am personally a bit attracted by the idea of this expansion, but not enough to throw any money at it yet.  I am happy enough in WoW Classic for now.

Related:

• Blizzard – World of Warcraft: The War Within Goes Live August 26!
• Massively OP – World of Warcraft The War Within launches August 26
• WCCFTech – World of Warcraft The War Within, WoW’s Most Ambitious Story Arc to Date, Launches August 26
• PC Gamer – World of Warcraft: The War Within gets a release date, marking the exact start of the MMO’s new 3-expansion long era

Summer is Coming!

I live in California, so I don’t worry too much about winter as even when it is bad… storms and rain… that is generally good for us.  Summer though… it is going to be a hot one.  It was already up in the 90s this week and the first official day of summer, June 20th, hasn’t even arrived yet.

On the good news front, we got a heat pump central forced air system for the house, so after 17 years in our place we will have air conditioning in the summer.  We’ll be getting solar installed at last early next month so we’ll have the electricity to drive the heat pump which, while it is energy efficient, still draws power.

But that is neither here nor there for this post.  I wanted to list out some things coming up in June.  I know, isn’t that what the “Coming Up” section of my month in review post is for?  Sure, but I forgot some things, found out about some new things, and I’ll put pictures and links in this post.  So let’s go!

• WoW: The War Within Beta – June 5th

Yeah, that was Wednesday, but you’re not too late if you want to participate.  There is a whole page dedicated to the beta, what content will be available, and how to join here.

The War Within 30 minutes or it is free

The War Within is, of course, the next expansion due later this year for retail WoW.  Being somewhat divorced from retail since early in Shadowlands, I have some mild interest in the expansion, but going to retail these days is like going to a foreign country… they do all the same stuff as us… or classic… but it is all slightly different and awkward for a naive traveler like myself.  But I’ve been over all of that already, haven’t I?

But a beta… I haven’t done a retail WoW beta since Cataclysm, and we saw how that went.

• Valheim on MacOS – June 10th

2021’s huge indy survival success, Valheim, will be making the move to MacOS as the developers look for new markets to conquer.

Are there apples in Valhalla?

I guess it will be on Steam.  Does Microsoft Games even support MacOS?  Maybe?  I don’t know.

But Iron Gate assures us that it will support cross-play, so if you setup a server for you PC buddies and a friend with a Mac shows up, they can play too.  I don’t have a Mac anymore… I mean, technically there are at least three MacOS computers in the house as I write this, but I do not actively work or play on the Mac these days.

• EVE Online Equinox Expansion – June 11th

I suppose if I am listing things out I need to include this.  The big old Equinox expansion is coming on Tuesday.

Equinox – Seize Control – June 11, 2024

We shall see then who exactly is seizing control and whether or not null sec will be upended or if it is a great big nothing burger.  The ship SKINR should be neat, depending on how they plan to tax people to use it.

• EverQuest II Anashti Sul Origins Server – After June 13th

The jump back to a more authentic 2006 experience with the EverQuest II Anashti Sul Origins Server is slated to land this month.  The beta is slated to end on June 13th… so maybe the following Tuesday, the 18th?  Or maybe the 14th?  We’ll have to see.

Anashti Sul is a mystery in her way

It may seem a bit odd to go back 18 years for a 20th anniversary celebration, but the 2006 experience marks the settling point for the game, where it finally decided what it was for the moment and moved forward with content.  I wrote my views on this decision a while back, and plan to give it a peek when it shows up.

• Pax Dei Early Access – June 18th

Pax Dei is entering Early Access.  What does that mean?  All sorts of things I suppose and they have a whole post about it.

Coming to Early Access

As a title it has been kind of on my watch list… I subscribe to their Discord server news channel so updates there show up in the blog’s Discord server… you can join if you like here… but given all the other stuff I have on my list for June, I feel like Pax Dei might not make the cut… especially since they want $40 to be a founder.  I already have $40 unplayed games in Steam, I am not sure I need another.

Also, there will be pwipes.  I don’t have time for that.  Call me when it ships.

• Steam Summer Sale – June 20th

The first day of summer, the summer solstice, and Steam is usually pretty good about kicking off the Steam Summer Sale on that day.

Will I buy anything?  That is always the question.  As noted above, I have my share of unplayed titles already, and I bought a bunch over the Winter Sale… and then ended up playing Valheim.

My Steam Played Stats

You can see your own Steam stats over at SteamDB.

Also, as it came out last week, when you cannot pass on your Steam titles.  You die, your account is dead… unless your give your kids your password and have family sharing on or something.  I am sure there is a work around, but it is just a reminder that nothing “digital” you buy is actually yours.  (Word is GoG.com might let you pass things on to your heirs, but there is paperwork involved.)

You want to have access to something it needs a physical… though even that isn’t a guarantee.  Sonus loves to brick their older sound systems and Spotify is bricking their car player later this year… though you might get a refund after a lot of outrage at their “fuck you” attitude about the whole thing… and all sorts of “smart” home devices end up getting bricked by Google or whoever buys the company then discontinues them.

Anyway, side rant there.  But for our new heat pump I got a dumb Honeywell thermostat.  No Wi-Fi, no Bluetooth, no other connectivity or ability to host Russian bot nets, and no way for Honeywell to shut it down without showing up at my doorstep.

• Tarisland Launch – June 21st

Tarisland, Tencent’s everybody-says-it-is-a-WoW-knockoff MMORPG title is set to go live on Windows, Android, and iOS on the second day of summer.

Coming soon and Free to Play

Tencent is promising all the things, diverse classes, challenging raids, a flexible talent system, excellent graphics, all in a free to play package with a cash shop that I am sure will have all the usual items in it.

Still, it is the first MMORPG from a big player to hit our market since maybe Lost Ark.

As with everything Tencent has a big post about joining in on the fun.  We’ll see if I can find the time for it come launch day.

• ICQ Shutting Down – June 26th

Children of the 90s… or maybe those of us who were young-ish adults of the 90s… hear me and weep.  What might have been the first instant messenger platform I ever used, ICQ, is going away on June 26th!

ICQ Logo Evolution

This was one of those one-two punch bits of news where I was saddened to find that ICQ was going away, but first I was surprised it was even still around.

What to say?  Way back in the day we used to use it to tell people to log in for a zone in TorilMUD.  I kept the login going well into the 2000s with Trillian.  Somewhere along the line I let it go, forgot the password, couldn’t remember my number, and basically moved on.

Still, it was quite a thing back in the day.  I told somebody I had a 5 digit ICQ number… but it might have been a 6 digit number.  This was like 25 years ago or more, right?  I had it before I had a Yahoo account, and they sent me a 25 year anniversary notice last year. (I noted the 24th anniversary message they sent me, but decided that didn’t have to be an EVERY year thing.)

Anyway, that was all I had for June.  Did I miss anything?  I mean, at least anything there is a chance I might play?  I am not really primed for things like the Elden Ring expansion of whatever is going on in FFXIV.

Today, June 9, 2024, Xbox took to the stage to show off a ton of games over the course of its nearly one-and-half-hour-long event. It was a healthy selection of games that featured a wide variety of genres and the return of a certain chainsaw-gun-wielding, bandana-wearing dude who’s ready to take it to the Locusts.

Read more...

This year, World of Warcraft will get its 10th expansion, the War Within, which as an occurrence is nothing particularly remarkable - there have, after all, been nine of them before. This time though, things seem slightly different. There's an air of change around Blizzard, at least as far as World of Warcraft operations go. It's personified by executive producer and vice president for World of Warcraft, Holly Longdale, who joined the WoW team in 2020 (from EverQuest) and stepped into the EP role about two years ago. She talks - in a presentation at a WoW War Within event in London - about the team trying, for about a year-and-a-half, to be more transparent and share development more openly with the community, then elicit feedback more readily from them. And though team-leaders tend to say things like this, there does seem to be some evidence to back it up. Look on the World of Warcraft website: there's a string of in-development posts about War Within that reveal considerable information about it - there don't seem to be cards held close to chests. There are also posts detailing recent experimental ideas like battle royale mode Plunderstorm, which came out of nowhere, and the equally unexpected new Remix idea, which supercharges an entire previous expansion's content - in this case Mists of Pandaria's - for a speedy recap levelling experience. It sounds like a great idea.

Things have needed to change. World of Warcraft has never faced more competition - not only from other MMOs like Final Fantasy 14, but also from games that might as well be labelled MMOs, such as Fortnite. Whether or not World of Warcraft still rules the roost, I don't know, because Blizzard won't talk numbers, which in itself is probably telling. More importantly, Blizzard has had to weather some ferocious storms. There was the lawsuit that alleged sexual discrimination at the company, which although it was settled last year for multiple-millions, has caused considerable harm. There was also, at the same time, the whole will-they won't-they saga of the Microsoft Activision Blizzard buyout, which has now finally gone through and will bring changes of its own, such as Microsoft-enforced layoffs announced earlier this year.

It's against that backdrop Blizzard tries to answer the not inconsiderable question of how to make a 20-year-old game still feel relevant today. It's a remarkable innings, and it staggers me to think of how many millions of people and lives World of Warcraft has touched during it, but how do you bring those people back? Partially, some of the answer seems to be to go big. The War Within, unlike any previous WoW expansion, will belong to a trilogy - the Worldsoul Saga - which will build and build in scope until we're facing those legendary titans we always hear so much about from the game's foundational lore. Expansions two and three - Midnight, and The Last Titan, respectively - are already in development, and should combine to deliver the most ambitious connected storyline the game has ever seen.

Read more

World of Warcraft will, in its 20th year of operation, implement an arachnophobia mode. It's been developed for the new War Within expansion, which heavily features the spider-like Nerubian race, but it won't be exclusive to it.

"We made it retroactive so it does everything," associate design director Maria Hamilton told me during a roundtable interview during a War Within event in London earlier this week. That means you'll be able to turn it on and off and spiders all over the World of Warcraft world will be transformed into something else - specifically, crabs.

It works very well; I was able to test it during an alpha playthrough of some early War Within content. The enemy models change seamlessly, and because crabs are not too dissimilar to spiders, the transformation doesn't erase a sense of what you're fighting. They look, if you squint, vaguely the same. More importantly, as Maria Hamilton explained to me, the crabs share the same hitboxes as the spiders, so positioning and reading attack animations is all pretty much the same.

Read more

This year, World of Warcraft will get its 10th expansion, the War Within, which as an occurrence is nothing particularly remarkable - there have, after all, been nine of them before. This time though, things seem slightly different. There's an air of change around Blizzard, at least as far as World of Warcraft operations go. It's personified by executive producer and vice president for World of Warcraft, Holly Longdale, who joined the WoW team in 2020 (from EverQuest) and stepped into the EP role about two years ago. She talks - in a presentation at a WoW War Within event in London - about the team trying, for about a year-and-a-half, to be more transparent and share development more openly with the community, then elicit feedback more readily from them. And though team-leaders tend to say things like this, there does seem to be some evidence to back it up. Look on the World of Warcraft website: there's a string of in-development posts about War Within that reveal considerable information about it - there don't seem to be cards held close to chests. There are also posts detailing recent experimental ideas like battle royale mode Plunderstorm, which came out of nowhere, and the equally unexpected new Remix idea, which supercharges an entire previous expansion's content - in this case Mists of Pandaria's - for a speedy recap levelling experience. It sounds like a great idea.

Things have needed to change. World of Warcraft has never faced more competition - not only from other MMOs like Final Fantasy 14, but also from games that might as well be labelled MMOs, such as Fortnite. Whether or not World of Warcraft still rules the roost, I don't know, because Blizzard won't talk numbers, which in itself is probably telling. More importantly, Blizzard has had to weather some ferocious storms. There was the lawsuit that alleged sexual discrimination at the company, which although it was settled last year for multiple-millions, has caused considerable harm. There was also, at the same time, the whole will-they won't-they saga of the Microsoft Activision Blizzard buyout, which has now finally gone through and will bring changes of its own, such as Microsoft-enforced layoffs announced earlier this year.

It's against that backdrop Blizzard tries to answer the not inconsiderable question of how to make a 20-year-old game still feel relevant today. It's a remarkable innings, and it staggers me to think of how many millions of people and lives World of Warcraft has touched during it, but how do you bring those people back? Partially, some of the answer seems to be to go big. The War Within, unlike any previous WoW expansion, will belong to a trilogy - the Worldsoul Saga - which will build and build in scope until we're facing those legendary titans we always hear so much about from the game's foundational lore. Expansions two and three - Midnight, and The Last Titan, respectively - are already in development, and should combine to deliver the most ambitious connected storyline the game has ever seen.

Read more

World of Warcraft will, in its 20th year of operation, implement an arachnophobia mode. It's been developed for the new War Within expansion, which heavily features the spider-like Nerubian race, but it won't be exclusive to it.

"We made it retroactive so it does everything," associate design director Maria Hamilton told me during a roundtable interview during a War Within event in London earlier this week. That means you'll be able to turn it on and off and spiders all over the World of Warcraft world will be transformed into something else - specifically, crabs.

It works very well; I was able to test it during an alpha playthrough of some early War Within content. The enemy models change seamlessly, and because crabs are not too dissimilar to spiders, the transformation doesn't erase a sense of what you're fighting. They look, if you squint, vaguely the same. More importantly, as Maria Hamilton explained to me, the crabs share the same hitboxes as the spiders, so positioning and reading attack animations is all pretty much the same.

Read more

Dataminers are doing their thing with World of Warcraft expansion The War Within now that developer Blizzard has made an alpha build available for early testing, and already there are some interesting discoveries.

Warning! Potential spoilers for World of Warcraft The War Within follow.

As Wowhead reports, The …