At the start of January, I picked up World of Warcraft: The War Within. It was one sale, and it was something I was curious about last year. I’m not a big WOW player. So, for the last 30 days, I’ve taken advantage of the game time that came with the Epic Edition of the game. This was the first time I played a campaign and it was a true learning experience.
Not exactly friendly to newcomers
I’m not sure how I would classify myself when it comes to World of Warcraft. I’m not a complete newcomer, but I’m also not well-versed in the intricacies of this universe. Back in late 2023, I dabbled in a few MMOs and found was enjoying my time with the game. Then last summer, Blizzard offered a deal on two-month subscriptions. It gave users the chance to “catch up” in advance of the launch of The War Within. I bought this, and played a bit, but didn’t complete the Dragonflight campaign.
So, when I jumped into The War Within, I knew a bit but I did not know everything. Because I didn’t have a seasoned character, I used the level-70 character boost to play as a Death Knight. In RPGs, if given the choice, I pick an Archer/Hunter. But, when I saw that the Death Knight was a good character to choose for this campaign I wanted to try it out.
It was a good choice, but it wasn’t a seamless experience. Although the game helps you pick a specialization when using the boost, I had no idea how to effectively play as a Death Knight. I struggled for a while to understand what moves I could use. My character had a lot of great attacks, but I didn’t grasp how to switch moves so that I could use my stronger ones. It also took me a while to realize I had an effective attack that helped replenish my health.
It’s easy to keep on track but also easy to get overwhelmed
Not only did it take me a while to get a handle on my arsenal of attacks, it also took me a while to understand other aspects. Specifically, how important it is to complete sidequests. WOW does a great job of moving through the main campaign. What they don’t tell you is how important sidequests are.
Attacking enemies doesn’t earn you enough XP. The best way to earn XP is to complete sidequests. It’s also the best way to get better armor and other items to improve your character. Even with enemies leveling up at the same time, the key to victory is having high-level gear. This was also something that I didn’t understand. I focused too much of my time on making sure I had the highest level. There is more to gear than their level, and that’s something that went over my head.
With regards to sidequests, they are important for other reasons. For starters, the only way to unlock the new Earthen class is to complete a specific series of sidequests. I didn’t know this until after I completed the campaign. To be fair, the game does make this obvious, if you pay attention. This is more on me being so overwhelmed with content that I didn’t pay attention.
When the Campaign Complete Screen doesn’t mean what you think it means
After a pivotal cutscene involving Xal’atath, you return to the hub city of Dornogol. When I began the next main campaign goal, I got a “Campaign Complete” notification. For someone like me who’s new to this, this confused me. The story didn’t feel like it reached a logical conclusion. Even though there was a cliffhanger, there was no way this is how the story ends.
I thought I missed something. This was confusing. Then, when I looked at my map, I saw something called “The War Within” and I learned that there was more to the game. Unfortunately for me, I couldn’t access it yet. The reason was that my character wasn’t Level 80. You only unlock the end-game story content after you reach the max level.
So, I now needed to go back and complete as many sidequests as I could. I was at Level-79, so I was already pretty close to the max. It doesn’t take too long to level up your character. The only problem was that I wasn’t prioritizing important sidequests. I could have used this time to complete the necessary Earthen Achievement. Instead, I was completing any quest that was closest to me.
Relying on walkthroughs
Up to this point, I was playing The War Within at my pace. I wanted to avoid walkthroughs or searching for tips. Although I didn’t use them to help me complete quests, I did visit sites like WOWHead and WOW Wiki to see what I needed to do. If I had used these sooner, I would have also had a better understanding of how to maximize my Death Knight.
So much of WOW relies on spending time searching around and doing research. Again, had I dug into the achievements list, I would have known how to unlock the Earthen race. The game may explain the importance of digging into the lore. If that’s the case, it went right over my head.
For some people, this sense of discovery is part of the adventure. From a business perspective, Blizzard wants to keep you engaged. Forcing us to look up things keeps us playing for longer. For these 30-days, I wanted to maximize my playtime. It’s not as if I was playing every day. I was trying to rush things when I had time to play.
I never managed to take full advantage of my gear. My character has two professions, but I never bothered to go deep into the two jobs I chose. Heck, I skipped over most of the Max Level side content, such as Delves, because I only wanted to finish the main story.
I did almost everything I could up to this point
With my 30 days of game time over, I think I took full advantage of it. Using “/played”, it took me around 27 hours to go through The War Within’s main story. Since then, I played through a few of the recent post-game content. Specifically, the content released with patch 11.0.7.
From what I can gather, there are only two aspects of The War Within I didn’t do. The first is that I didn’t play through the campaign as a Horde character. There might be a difference between the two sides, but I don’t know how major or minor that change is. Heck, there might be no difference at all. The other thing I didn’t do was to try the new Earthen race. From what read, they do have a unique start, so it might be worth checking out.
Based on Blizzard’s roadmap for the game for 2025, they have a lot more content planned. That includes stuff related to the story. At this stage, I have no idea how much of it is important leading into the game’s next expansion, Midnight. All I know is that Midnight won’t launch until 2026. Because of that, I don’t know if there is a reason for me to re-subscribe.
The War Within was a lot of fun
To be clear, I loved my time with The War Within. This was a fun experience even with my limited knowledge of the lore heading into the game. The opening cinematic does do a good job of catching me up to the story. As for the campaign, it kept me engaged from start to finish, even if I did get confused by some of the story beats. If I don’t go back to the game in 2025, I do plan to jump back when the next part of the Worldsoul Saga drops.
