Even after hearing everything that Blizzard had to say about World of Warcraft’s Worldsoul Saga in general and next year’s The War Within expansion in particular, you’re understandably likely to still have a pile of questions. So what better to possibly answer those than to dig into several subsequent Q&As from the show floor!
Blizzard isn’t giving out the precise timeline for the three revealed expansions other than to say that the rollout “will be faster” than the every-two-years expansion cadence of the past and that the studio is aiming to have it fully completed before 2030. The studio’s created parallel teams to develop these expansions, with work being done on World of Warcraft: Midnight right now alongside The War Within.
“We can’t get into specifics, but yes it will be faster. We want to ensure that players aren’t completing this saga in 2030. Teams have been restructured to be able to create this whole saga.”
The new race, the Earthen, will be the first time that the Horde has a Dwarf race to play, even if it is a bit bigger than your standard Dwarves. The studio said that Earthen can roll every class except Druids, Evokers, and Demon Hunters.
While the studio confirmed that Dragonflight will not have a 10.3 patch, it did say that the current expansion cycle has more story and content coming, including a new battleground.
The War Within’s warbands are getting a lot of positive reception from players (with alt-friendly moves like “warbound” items), and Blizzard said that they can expect that this system, hero talents, and delves (which will be cross-faction) will persist across the next few expansions at the least. The studio keeps tossing around the term “evergreen” without quite understanding what that means, but considering the tumultuous design-and-replace philosophy of the past, it’s a step in the right direction for stability.
There’s been some controversy over the fact that the $90 edition pre-orders for The War Within include a three-day headstart, which some fear will give others an unfair advantage. While Blizzard didn’t acknowledge the fact that these headstart players will be able to gain more gold faster than everyone else, it did say that the thee-day period will lock players out of endgame progression during that timeframe, including Mythics.
