World of Warcraft®: The War Within™ Early Access Now Live!

Get back in the fight as you defend Azeroth from the shadows below. Journey through never-before-seen subterranean worlds filled with hidden wonders and lurking perils, down to the dark depths of the nerubian empire, where the malicious Harbinger of the Void is gathering arachnid forces to bring Azeroth to its knees.

World of Warcraft’s next expansion—The War Within—will launch in the Americas, Europe, Taiwan, Korea, and Australia/New Zealand at the same time globally. Wherever you live and whatever faction you represent, you can be part of one globally unified front as the way into the Khaz Algar opens.

Check the details below for the exact time you can begin logging in to explore all that this new expansion has to offer.

Players who pre-purchase the Epic Edition of The War Within will also gain early access to The War Within on August 22 at 3:00 p.m. PDT. The War Within will go live globally on August 26 at 3:00 p.m. PDT. Players who pre-purchase the Epic Edition can also get bonus content—Gryphon Rider Sets and Squally’s Siblings.

Early Access Launch Times

Los Angeles	New York	São Paulo	London	Paris	Taipei	Seoul	Sydney
3:00 PM. PDT August 22	6:00 PM EDT August 22	19:00 Brasilia August 22	23:00 BST August 22	00:00 CEST August 23	06:00 CST August 23	07:00 KST August 23	08:00 AEST August 23

Global Launch Times

Los Angeles	New York	São Paulo	London	Paris	Taipei	Seoul	Sydney
3:00 PM PDT August 26	6:00 PM EDT August 26	19:00 Brasilia August 26	23:00 BST August 26	00:00 CEST August 27	06:00 CST August 27	07:00 KST August 27	08:00 AEST August 27

Table of Contents

Meet the Earthen, A New Playable Allied Race

A new playable race arrives in The War Within—the Earthen. Unlock playable Earthen characters after completing their quests and the overall level-up campaign. Enlist this titan-forged race made of living stone by aiding them in their endeavors.

Champions of Azeroth must aid the Earthen and seek a way to restore their harmony and population. They can also be unlocked as a playable race, and you can choose Alliance or Horde to begin your journey starting at level 10 in their capital city of Dornogol. Learn more about them from our previously published article.

Uncover the Secrets of Delves in The War Within

Take your adventure to a new level with Delves.  Explore bite-sized world instances, gain experience, and epic rewards! You can explore alone or with up to four additional friends, along with an NPC companion—Brann Bronzebeard— you customize through their talent tree. Learn more about this new feature and the rewards you can earn either solo or with a few friends in our previously published article.

Take Your Character to the Next Level with Hero Talents

The War Within™ expansion introduces Hero Talents to World of Warcraft classes. They are an evergreen form of character progression for each class specialization that introduces new powers and class fantasies. There are 11 nodes in a Hero Talent tree. The first of these unlocks with the system at level 71, and you earn 1 talent point per level from level 71 to 80, so you get every talent in the tree by level 80. Learn more about the available Hero Talents for your class and specialization in our article here.

Ride Into Battle in Deephaul Ravine

Set your sights on your next PvP adventure within Deephaul Ravine in the Ringing Deeps where you’ll work with your team to secure resources in the mine. Teams earn points by controlling one of the two active mine carts on the map or by capturing the Deephaul Crystal located in the middle of the map. The first team to earn 1500 points wins! Learn more from our article.

Explore the Zones and Dungeons of The War Within

Uncover a land fraught with danger but ripe for exploration. Journey through never-before-seen subterranean worlds filled with hidden wonders and lurking perils. In the opening chapter of the Worldsoul Saga™, adventure down to the dark depths of the nerubian empire, where Xal’atath is gathering malicious forces bent on bringing Azeroth asunder.  Learn more about the zones of Khaz Algar—Isle of Dorn, The Ringing Deeps, Hallowfall, Azj-Kahet— along with the dungeons that await within their lands in our article here.

Get the Band Together for Warbands (Now Live)

With the arrival of The War Within, upon first logging into World of Warcraft, the Warband conversion process automatically enables many of the game’s progression systems to be account-wide. Players will not need to log into each character individually for all progression, items, etc., to convert; however, there may be a short wait for the system to completely process your Warband the first time you log in. The Warband conversion process can take up to 20 minutes or longer, and depending on the amount of data being processed, there could be a login queue.

The new Warbands system is effective for all characters on a player’s Battle.net account and the items, Collections, and progression they share. It’s important to note that your Warband is limited to characters within a single region (for example, the Americas or Europe) but spans every realm, faction, and even subscription you may have within that region.

Please note that as the character selection screen shows all characters on the Battle.net account in one convenient location, some may show up as “gray” in the listing and are not available to select to use a Character Service on. To use a service for that character, you will need to select the realm that the character is from first by clicking on the “Realm” selection at the top of the screen and then apply the service to that character. You can also hover your mouse cursor over a character listed on the right side of the screen to see additional information including the realm it is currently on.

Learn more about Warbands in our previously published article.

Take to the Skies with Skyriding (Now Live)

Dragonriding is here to stay and is available for many flying mounts in all flyable areas. Players can also toggle between Skyriding (previously known as dynamic flight) or the flying style introduced originally in The Burning Crusade (TBC) which we’re calling Steady Flight.

You can easily identify the mounts that are enabled for Skyriding from within the Warbands Collection tab (Shift-P) which is noted as Skyriding. To switch between Skyriding and Steady Flight, you can do so directly in the mount collection by clicking on the Skyriding icon in the middle of the interface and selecting “Switch Flight Style” in the drop-down menu. It’s important to note that any mount that doesn’t support Skyriding will be grounded if Skyriding is active. You will also be able to open your Skills Unlock here as well.

The ground mounts in your collection will continue to stay grounded, but most flying mounts will be able to be put to use for Skyriding save for a select few such as the Otterworldly Ottuk Carrier, some fish mounts, and brooms.

User Interface and Quest Updates (Now Live)

We’ve made some improvements to the User Interface and to quest icons in The War Within that will help navigate your adventures even better— including a new map legend, quest log updates, spellbook updates, crafting reagent tooltips, and even a new arachnophobia filter! Learn more from our previously published article.

The War Within Season 1 Schedule

With the start of Early Access on August 22, Normal difficulty dungeons will become available.

Dungeons

• Ara-Kara, City of Echoes (Levels 70-80)
• Priory of the Sacred Flame (Levels 70-80)
• The Rookery (Levels 70-80)
• The Stonevault (Levels 70-80)
• Cinderbrew Meadery (Level 80)
• City of Threads (Level 80)
• Darkflame Cleft (level 80)
• The Dawnbreaker (Level 80)

With the launch of the expansion on August 26, Heroic difficulty dungeons will be available to play.

On September 10, The War Within Season 1 will begin with Heroic and Raid Finder Wing 1 of Nerub-ar Palace opening, Mythic 0 dungeons also become available along with Heroic Seasonal dungeons and the new World bosses.

World Bosses

• Kordac, the Dormant Protector
• Aggregation of Horrors
• Shurrai, Atrocity of the Undersea
• Orta, the Broken Mountain

On September 17, Mythic raids, Raid Finder Wing 2, Mythic+ dungeons and raid Story Mode will open.

On September 24 Raid Finder Wing 3 will open.

Dungeon Item Rewards:

The Story So Far

Catch up on the story so far with our video.

Additional Media

WoWCast: Dive into The War Within’s Delves, Dungeons, PvP, and Raid