It's been a while since I last played World of Warcraft, but that doesn't stop me from listening to the Elwynn Forest soundtrack when I want to relax. And from what I understand, WoW's latest expansion, The War Within, contributes to a game that's largely unrecognizable from its vanilla days. That's not necessarily a bad thing, and the fact that TWW is out now makes me think, “Hmmm, what if I went back?” It's happening Each time. I'd love to see the new continent, new class features, and expanded Skyriding.
First on the agenda is the new continent: Khaz Algar (a good-time DLC) located on the western coast of Pandaria, and fittingly fitting with the theme of the war underground, so to speak. Here you’ll find the surface-level city of Dornogal, which acts as the city center, and three other areas below the surface: The Ringing Deeps, Hallowfall, and Azj-Kahet. The maximum level has been raised to 80, so starting with the Isle of Dorn, each of these areas will offer a gradual level climb with the help of new dungeons.
New instances called Delves can be taken on by up to four friends, along with an NPC companion, Brann Bronzebeard (customizable via a skill tree). These act as mini dungeons that last “10-15 minutes on average” and offer puzzles, platforming challenges, boss fights, and rewards to help you with future Delves. If you check them out, you'll earn “end-game rewards” similar to those offered by dungeons, raids, PVP, and the like.
Elsewhere, Hero Abilities unlock for players at level 71, allowing you to specialize classes even further. Essentially, there are skill trees to choose from depending on classes and specializations, you pick a single skill tree to activate, then you throw a point at it every time you level up. These give you buffs out the wazoo — the technical term. Here’s Blizzard’s article on the subject, which explains it in more detail.
More mounts are available for soaring through the skies, and you can now switch between dynamic flight (the fast and agile type of flight introduced in the last expansion) or stationary flight (the normal type of flight introduced in The Burning Crusade).
Of course, there's a lot more here that would take ages to cover, and Blizzard's War Within page has you covered.
And hey, if you're wondering what it was like to start out as a newbie in WoW a while back, why not check out our Inventory Area video? It's a relic from a bygone era when Edders and Liam (peace RPS) would make fun videos together. I miss it so much.