WoW The War Within Pre-Expansion Update Notes - World of Warcraft Guide - IGN (2024)

The Pre-Expansion Content Update Notes for WoW: The War Within have arrived, introducing Warbands, bringing changes to Dragonriding, various system and class updates, and more!

This page acts as a comprehensive breakdown of the Pre-Expansion update notes for The War Within expansion in World of Warcraft, including a link to the full Patch Notes.

Radiant Echoes Event

Running from July 30th to August 26th, this event allows you to collect Residual Memories which can be used to purchase new items for your Warband collection. Players Level 70 and above will gain a quest that'll lead them to Dalaran, whilst players under Level 70 will go to Dalaran immediately.

This event occurs between 3 different zones, in 4 stages and cycles. Various portals within Dalaran can be used to access each staging area. Some of the rewards available within this event are:

• Item Level 480 equipment
• 30 slot reagent bag
• 32 slot bag
• Pets
• Mounts
• Heirloom Ring

Warbands

Warbands have also been introduced with this update, letting you share across your entire Battle.net account regardless of character faction. This includes:

• Shared Renown
• Warband Bank
• Achievements
• Collections

Regardless of whether a given character can equip an item, you can still collect any item appearance and will be automatically transferable between characters. This also pertains to Class tokens from Legacy raids, though Class-specific appearances can only be collected by that class.

Skyriding

Dragonriding is now a mainstay within WoW, and have been renamed to Skyriding as players will have access to the mechanic via many flying mounts in all flyable areas. You can toggle between Skyriding and the new Steady Flight flying style as you see fit.

• Dragonriding renamed to Skyriding and is now learned at level 10 (was 60)
• New Ability: Switch Flight Style – Switch between Skyriding and Steady Flight styles for flying mounts. Mounts that don't support Skyriding will be grounded if Skyriding is active. 5 second cast time. Learned at level 20. This ability is located in the Mount Journal
• Upon learning Skyriding, the Skyriding talent tree is now accessible via a button within the Mount Journal
• The Skyriding talent tree has been updated and many talents are now passive
• Skyriding glyphs are no longer required for the talent tree
• Druid Flight Form is now able to Skyride
• Journeyman Riding (100% ground speed) is now learned at level 10 (was 20)
• Apprentice Riding (60% ground speed) has been removed
• Expert Riding now increases steady flight speed by 220% (was 150%) and is now learned at level 20 (was 30)
• Master Riding now increases steady flight speed by 420% (was 310%) and is now learned at level 30 (was 40)

Characters

• Dragonflight content is now the new default leveling experience for levels 10 to 70 (was Battle for Azeroth)
• Guilds are now able to invite characters on different realms. Cross-Realm Guild bank functionality will become available in the next update (11.0.2)
• New Human Racial: No Place Like Home – Your Hearthstone cooldown is reduced by 5 minutes and gains an additional charge
• Diplomacy has been removed
• The Character Restoration service is temporarily unavailable
• The Paid Character Transfer service has been disabled for transfers between Battle.net accounts
• The level-60 character Boost now provides item level 327 gear (was Lvl 180)

Classes

Various classes have received hundreds and hundreds of updates and tweaks to their abilities and traits, which you can examine in full via the link at the bottom of this page!

Items

• The item levels of leveling gear have been adjusted to be rewarded at an appropriate item level through level 70
• DPS trinkets and items with additional effects reduced by 33% for tank and healer specializations
• The sell value of the Elegant Canvas Brush has been reduced to 100 gold

PvP

• NEW SOLO QUEUE: RATED BATTLEGROUND BLITZ
  • Rated Battleground Blitz is 8 versus 8 battlegrounds at an accelerated pace that you can queue solo or duo queue as a healer.
• ARENAS
  • All arena maps now have levers players can click on to indicate they are ready for the game to start. Once all players have hit the lever, the arena start timer will skip to 10 seconds remaining.
  • Shadow Sight now highlights enemies that are stealthed with a red outline that can be seen through walls.
• CLASSES
  • DEATH KNIGHT
    • Strangulate (PvP Talent) now overrides Asphyxiate, but its cooldown is decreased to 45 seconds (was 60 seconds), its duration is increased to 5 seconds (was 4 seconds), and its range is increased to 20 yards (was 15 yards).
  • DEMON HUNTER
    • Cleansed by Flame now cleanses 1 magical effect (was all).
  • DRUID
    • New PvP Talent: Tireless Pursuit – For 5 seconds after leaving Cat Form or Travel Form, you retain up to 40% movement speed.
    • High Winds has been redesigned – Increases the range of Cyclone, Typhoon, and Entangling Roots by 5 yards.
    • Call of the Elder Druid has been removed from PvP talents and is now a Restoration Druid talent.
    • Feral
      • Wild Attunement (PvP Talent) has been removed.
  • HUNTER
    • Mending Bandage (PvP Talent) now heals for 18% of maximum health over its duration (was 30%).
    • Tranquilizing Darts (PvP Talent) has been removed.
  • MAGE
    • New PvP Talent: Fireheart – Blazing Barrier's damage is increased by 500%.
    • Flamecannon (PvP Talent) has been removed.
    • Fire
      • Blazing Barrier’s effectiveness is no longer reduced in PvP combat (was 75% effective).
      • Unleashed Inferno is now 30% effective in PvP combat (was 20%).
  • MONK
    • New PvP Talent: Absolute Serenity – Celestial Conduit now prevents incapacitate, disorient, snare, and root effects for its duration.
    • Grapple Weapon (PvP Talent) range reduced to 20 yards (was 30 yards).
    • Brewmaster
      • Charred Passions is now 100% effective in PvP combat (was 0%).
      • Elusive Footwork is now 100% effective in PvP combat (was 50%).
      • Niuzao’s Training is now 100% effective in PvP combat (was 50%).
    • Mistweaver
      • New PvP Talent: Rodeo – Every 3 seconds while Clash if off cooldown, your next Clash can be reactivated immediately to wildly Clash an additional enemy. This effect can stack up to 3 times.
      • Enveloping Breath is now 100% effective in PvP combat (was 111%).
      • Invigorating Mists is now 100% effective in PvP combat (was 112%).
      • Soothing Mist is now 100% effective in PvP combat (was 115%).
      • Ancient Teachings is now increased by 120% in PvP Combat (was 150%).
    • Windwalker
      • New PvP Talent: Rodeo – Every 3 seconds while Clash if off cooldown, your next Clash can be reactivated immediately to wildly Clash an additional enemy. This effect can stack up to 3 times.
      • New PvP Talent: Rising Dragon Sweep – Whirling Dragon Punch knocks enemies up into the air and causes them to fall slowly until they reach the ground.
      • Rising Star’s critical strike damage is now 100% effective in PvP combat (was 50%).
      • The following PvP talents have been removed:
        • Mighty Ox Kick
        • Alpha Tiger
  • PALADIN
    • New PvP Talent: Wrench Evil – Turn Evil’s cast time is reduced by 100%.
    • Judgments of the Pure (PvP Talent) has been removed.
    • Holy
      • Barrier Faith is now 50% more effective in PvP combat (was 100%).
  • PRIEST
    • Mindgames is now a PvP talent (was a Class talent).
    • Mindgames duration increased by 2 seconds.
    • Mindgames damage, damage reversal, and healing reversal increased by 33%.
  • ROGUE
    • Vanish's guaranteed stealth duration now 1.5 seconds in PvP combat (base 3 seconds).
    • Shadowy Duel now applies a screen effect so it is more noticeable that you are inside the duel.
  • SHAMAN
    • Skyfury Totem has been redesigned – Now triggers when casting Primordial Wave (was actively cast).
    • The following PvP talents have been removed:
      • Traveling Storms
      • Seasoned Winds
    • Elemental
      • New PvP Talent: Electrocute – When you successfully Purge a beneficial effect, the enemy suffers Nature damage over 3 seconds.
      • New PvP Talent: Shamanism – Your Bloodlust and Heroism spell now has a 60 second cooldown, but increases Haste by 20%, and only affects you and your friendly target when cast for 10 seconds. In addition, Bloodlust and Heroism is no longer affected by Sated or Exhaustion.
    • Enhancement
      • New PvP Talent: Electrocute – When you successfully Purge a beneficial effect, the enemy suffers Nature damage over 3 seconds.
    • Restoration
      • Living Tide now reduces the cooldown of Healing Tide Totem by 45 seconds (was 60 seconds).
      • Lightning Bolt damage increased by 44% in PvP combat.
  • WARLOCK
    • Call Fel Lord damage increased by 80%.
    • Fel Obelisk (PvP Talent) has been removed.
  • WARRIOR
    • Master and Commander now reduces the cooldown of Rallying Cry by 90 seconds (was 60 seconds).
    • Battlefield Commander (PvP Talent) now increases the radius of Piercing Howl by 50% (was root targets for 2 seconds).
    • Death Sentence (PvP Talent) has been removed.
    • Arms
      • Storm of Destruction has been redesigned – Now reduces healing on affected targets by 25% for 10 seconds (was reduce the cooldown of Bladestorm and Ravager).
      • Duel (PvP Talent) duration increased to 12 seconds and its sound effect has been changed to be more noticeable.
    • Fury
      • Enduring Rage (PvP Talent) can now activate Recklessness without Enrage active and the duration of the Recklessness granted has been increased by 1 second.
      • Slaughterhouse now stacks its effect if another healing reduction effect is active and overrides its effect once its effectiveness would surpass the active healing reduction effect or the active healing reduction effect is removed.
      • The following PvP talents have been removed:
        • Bloodrage
        • Storm of Destruction (Fury only)

Professions

• New Ability: Concentration – Concentration is a resource that you have a separate pool of per crafting profession. It represents your ability to heavily focus on your recipes and exceed your normal capabilities. You choose when you want to Concentrate using a button within the crafting window, empowering your next craft(s). Doing so will cause the craft to automatically reach the next level of quality, no questions asked
• New Stat: Ingenuity – You have a chance to have an ingenious breakthrough when you Concentrate on a craft, refunding a percentage of the Concentration spent
• Inspiration has been removed

Full Patch Notes

If you wish to read the Patch Notes in full, you can do so via the official Blizzard websites War Within Pre-Expansion Update Notes blog post.