Deep Dive into World of Warcraft: Liveblogging the BlizzCon 2023 Panel

Welcome to the WoW: Deep Dive panel at BlizzCon 2023! As we move into day two, Game Director Ion Hazzikostas is here to give us an exciting look into all things War Within. Today, we'll be discussing two major features - Delves and Warbands - that are set to revolutionize the outdoor world experience and improve alt gameplay. Let's dive in!

Delves: A Deeper World Experience

Delves are a new addition to the endgame content in WoW, offering a more structured and exciting experience for outdoor world-focused players. If you've spent most of your time completing events in the open world, but felt a lack of upgrades and reasons to get excited, Delves are here to address that.

Unlike traditional dungeons, Delves are all about exploration, unraveling mysteries, and seamless extension of the open world content. Think of them as true open world adventures with the opportunity to discover a whole lot more, including precious treasure and occasional bosses. But don't worry, not every Delve will have a boss waiting for you.

What sets Delves apart is their integration with seasons. As the seasons change, Delves will increase in difficulty and rewards, offering a different pace and challenges for players. To enhance the experience, each season will introduce a new NPC companion. In Season One, players will meet Brann Bronzebeard, who will not only serve as a narrative hook but also join you in your Delve adventures. Brann can be geared up and specialized to complement your playstyle, whether you need a tank, DPS, healer, or control specialist. He will even help you solve puzzles along the way!

But the excitement doesn't stop there. To further differentiate Delves from traditional dungeons, chests found within Delves may require keys obtained from other activities outside the Delve itself. This means that Delves seamlessly complement the rest of the open world content and provide a fresh and engaging gameplay option for outdoor world enthusiasts.

With twelve different themed Delves planned, each corresponding to specific zones and ecologies, players will have plenty of content to explore. And who knows, there might even be a secret Delve hidden somewhere, waiting to be discovered!

Warbands: Enhancing Alt Gameplay

Warbands is a new system designed to improve alt gameplay and make playing multiple characters a breeze. Recognizing that the old systems were not built with modern alt play in mind, the developers have created Warbands to eliminate clunky solutions such as mailing items between characters.

At its core, Warbands is an account-wide bank that allows you to easily transfer currency and items between your characters. No more tedious mailing and juggling inventories! The system includes a giant reagent tab, which means you can craft using any of your characters without the need for constant item transfers.

Another exciting addition through Warbands is the introduction of Warbound Until Equipped items. These items, while soulbound once used, can be taken by other characters for their immediate use. They drop as personal loot at a slightly lower item level, making it easier to gear up your alts without funneling power to your mains.

Transmog is also getting an account-wide upgrade. Mages, for example, can unlock Plate items in their transmog collection, allowing their Warrior alt to transmog them without the need to refarm the armor type. Reputation and Renown progress will also be shared across your Warband, starting with Dragonflight content and potentially expanding to include past reputations and renouns.

With Warbands, you can say goodbye to the hassle of maintaining separate inventories and reputation grinds across your characters. Enjoy a more streamlined alt gameplay experience!

Hero Talents: Power Customization and Complexity

As we enter the War Within expansion, the level cap will be raised by 10, allowing players to gain 10 new talent points. However, instead of adding more rows to the existing talent trees, the developers have taken a different approach with Hero Talents.

Hero talents are inspired by class fantasies and iconic heroes from WoW's rich history. These talents provide a completely flexible system, similar to the current Dragonflight talents. They are not restricted by Shadowlands covenants but are instead focused on deep power customization and complexity.

By level 80, players will have the Hero Talent tree fully unlocked. However, there will still be choices to be made regarding the active hero spec and choice nodes within the tree. For example, a Balance Druid can choose between Keeper of the Grove, which focuses on treants, or Elune's Chosen, which enhances lunar abilities. This ensures that players can nudge their gameplay in a specific direction while still having a variety of choices.

The Hero Talent tree also includes passive abilities that further increase power throughput. Keep in mind that these systems are still a work in progress, and class design remains an essential area for iteration. The developers aim to make everything testable from the start of the Alpha, allowing players ample time to provide feedback and help shape these new systems.

Other Exciting Features

While Delves and Warbands are the major highlights of the War Within expansion, there are several other notable features to look forward to:

• A new 10v10 PvP map set in the Ringing Deeps, where players fight over resources while battling for control of a central point.
• Gameplay and interface updates, including a modernized spellbook, improved quest log and window filters, and cross-realm guilds to enhance social gameplay.
• Dragonriding, now called dynamic flight, becoming the default mode of transportation. Most mounts will be enabled for dynamic flight, making your collection even more enjoyable.

With Patch 10.2.5, dynamic flying will also be introduced to the old world, granting players the freedom to explore previously inaccessible areas from the skies.

As we wrap up the deep dive into the War Within expansion, it's clear that WoW is evolving to provide more engaging and accessible gameplay experiences for all types of players. Whether you're an outdoor world adventurer, an alt enthusiast, or a PvP fan, there's something exciting waiting for you in the upcoming expansion. Stay tuned for more updates, and we'll see you in Azeroth!