After Legion corrected the mistake that was Warlords of Draenor, Blizzard is taking World of Warcraft into a new direction with the upcoming seventh expansion, Battle for Azeroth - and that new direction is going straight back to the roots. The game’s first expansion, Burning Crusade, began a tradition of waylaying the war between the Alliance and the Horde by tossing progressively bigger and bigger ancient forces of evil, which could only be defeated if the two factions put aside their differences and worked together.
“BfA”, the least-pronounceable and catchy expansion acronym in the history of WoW, is shifting the focus back to good ole red vs. blue faction warfare. Once again the unending war between the races of the Alliance and Horde takes center stage, with a new precious material named Azerite being the plot device used to get the strenuous allies to have at each other’s throats again. Battle for Azeroth will introduce two new regions, both of which have been present in Warcraft lore for a long time but never before in the game itself - Zadalar and Kul Tiras.
Additionally, players will be tasked with diplomatic quests alongside the more familiar roster of in-game tasks, with the goal being to recruit more species into your respective faction. Blizzard has created a set of spin-off species from existing races for both the Horde and the Alliance, such as the Lightforged Draenei and the Highmountain Tauren. Players who pre-order the game can already begin the allied races quest-chains as an in-game sneak peek at what the new expansion has in store.
Island Expeditions seek to replace the tried and true, but also tired dungeon/raid framework for end-game content and high-level item farming, instead presenting players with procedurally generated self-enclosed locations sporting constantly changing combinations of objectives and enemies. A new breed of PvP battlegrounds, named Warfronts are also coming to World of Warcraft with the new expansion. Of course, no expansion can go without a level-cap increase, with Battle for Azeroth buffing it out to 120.
The expansion’s Collector’s Edition has also been unveiled. Blizzard never failed to amaze with their fantastic CEs, and this one is no different. The stunning box contains, alongside the game of course, a two-sided novel telling the same tale from two perspectives, a double-sided “mark of allegiance” with its own stand, the expansion’s soundtrack and a wealth of in-game goodies spanning all of Blizzard’s current game library. In WoW, you’ll get a mount for both factions, a new pet and a character boost to level 110.
World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth launches on the 14th of August.
