WoW The War Within: New / Returning Players Guide

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.