World of Warcraft

This Week in WoW: 31 May, 2024

Blizzard Entertainment

Catch up on all the latest World of Warcraft news from the last week!

The War Within Beta Test Begins 5 June!

The World of Warcraft®: The War Within™ beta test begins June 5! Over the course of the test, we’ll be inviting community veterans, press, fansites, friends, and family to check out the upcoming expansion and give us feedback. Players who purchase or who upgrade to the Epic Edition of The War Within will also gain immediate access to the beta and gain a minimum three-day early access to the expansion.

Players selected to participate* will receive an email invitation directing them to download the game client directly from the Battle.net desktop app. Players who purchase the Epic Edition may also receive email notifications. As always, please be aware of phishing attempts—if you’re unsure whether your invitation is legitimate, please log in to your Battle.net account to verify that there is a The War Within beta license attached (under Your Game Accounts).

Getting Started

Join us in testing The War Within. Players who have opted in can be selected to be testers, and invitations will go out regularly throughout the test. If selected to participate in the beta test, your Battle.net account will already be flagged for access. Players who upgrade to the Epic Edition of The War Within will also gain immediate access to the beta.

Make sure your graphics drivers are up to date.
Run the Battle.net® desktop app—it may need to update itself if you haven't run it recently. If you don't have the app installed, get started here.
Once Battle.net is installed and updated, select World of Warcraft from the list of games.
In the Game Version drop-down menu above the Play button, choose The War Within (listed under In Development) option, then click Install.
Allow installation to complete, click Play, and select any available Test Servers.
Create a new test character or use the character copy to import your existing Dragonflight character.
Enter the game and test the available content.

If you have issues installing and operating The War Within Beta, please check our Common Technical Issues and Solutions to begin troubleshooting.

What's Available in the Beta?

New systems, the complete leveling experience, zones, dungeons, delves, Warbands, and the new playable Earthen are all available in the beta. Raid testing will come at a later time.

Cataclysm Classic Raid Dungeons Now Live!

Take your new adventures into three new raid dungeons: The Bastion of Twilight, Blackwing Descent, and Throne of the Four Winds.

The Bastion of Twilight

The Bastion of Twilight stands as a dark symbol of the Old Gods’ burgeoning power on Azeroth. Various branches of the Twilight’s Hammer dwell deep beneath the towering form— considered the cult’s foremost command center— along with their twisted leader, Cho’gall. There he, and his servants, conspire to bring the Old Gods’ apocalyptic visions to fruition by bleeding Azeroth of all sanity, hope, and life.

Zone: Twilight Highlands
Difficulty: (10) Normal, (10) Heroic,Th (25) Normal, (25) Heroic
Bosses: 4 (5 on Heroic difficulty)

Halfus Wyrmbreaker: Imbued with unnatural power and stamina by Cho’gall the ettin Halfus Wyrmbreaker captures dragons for use as fodder in the Twilight’s Hammer’s rituals. To this end, he has enslaved a behemoth proto-dragon to aid him in hunting down his winged prey.
Theralion and Valiona: Magically aged to adulthood, Valiona and Theralion were to be paragons among a new clutch of twilight dragons, leading their brood in scouring Azeroth of life. Instead, they waste their incredible powers constantly bickering and fighting each other.
Ascendant Council: As the most powerful Twilight’s Hammer cultists to be twisted into elemental beings, the Ascendant Council members have long forgotten their existence as mere mortals. From their wicked sanctum they oversee the selection of new ascension candidates.
Cho’gall: Under Cho’gall’s control, the orcish Twilight’s Hammer clan was transformed into a murderous cult obsessed with the Old Gods and their herald, Deathwing. Extended contact with his dark master has hideously warped both Cho’gall’s mind and body.
Sinestra (on Heroic difficulty only): Originally Deathwing's prime consort, Sinestra created the first twilight dragons, but was later obliterated by one of her terrifying creations. Now a ravaged husk reanimated by insidious magic, Sinestra oversees the creation of new twilight clutches.

Blackwing Descent

Nefarian and his warped attempts to create a new breed of dragon were thought to be defeated after his death in Blackwing Lair. Yet tales have emerged that his father, Deathwing, has reanimated Nefarian and set him to work in Blackwing Descent. The gruesome experiments being conducted there are feared to be on a level of wickedness far surpassing Nefarian’s previous crimes against nature.

Zone: Burning Steppes
Difficulty: (10) Normal, (10) Heroic, (25) Normal, (25) Heroic
Bosses: 6

Omnotron Defense System: The Omnotron Defense System was once touted as the Dark Iron dwarves’ greatest technological marvel. When Nefarian arrived in Blackwing Descent, he repurposed the run-down system to annihilate anyone intruding on his laboratories.
Magmaw: Magmaw is a colossal lava worm summoned from the Firelands centuries ago by Ragnaros’ Dark Iron servitors. Nefarian largely considers Magmaw a worrisome pest but has grown fond of feeding the beast his failed experiments… and servants.
Atramedes: Atramedes, or Experiment 25463-D, is a failed attempt to bestow enhanced senses on a black dragon whelp. The toxic salve applied to the broodling robbed him of sight, forcing him to rely on sound and smell for survival. A tragic story… if Atramedes weren’t so evil.
Chimaeron: Terrifying. Ugly. Evil. Kill it.
Maloriak: The human Malory was a bright young alchemist until he was kidnapped by Nefarian and fused with the corpse of a dragonspawn. The result— Maloriak— is a bumbling minion who possesses only a dull glimmer of his former intelligence.
Nefarian’s End: Deathwing’s son, Nefarian gained infamy for his horrifying efforts to create chromatic dragons from the essences of Azeroth’s various dragonflights. After his death in Blackwing Lair, he was reanimated and charged by Deathwing to continue his insidious endeavors.

Throne of the Four Winds

Al’Akir the Windlord’s personal lair, the Throne of the Four Winds, glides high among Skywall’s boundless vistas. Now the barriers of the Elemental Plane have been ruptured, Al’Akir is free to travel Azeroth’s winds at his leisure. He has mustered his fiercest tempests to scour Uldum of life and seize control of the mysterious titan-forged Halls of Origination.

Zone: Uldum
Difficulty: (10) Normal, (10) Heroic, (25) Normal, (25) Heroic
Bosses: 2

The Conclave of Wind: With Siamat, Lord of the South Wind, imprisoned by the Neferset tol’vir, Al’akir’s lieutenants are vying to fill the power vacuum that now exists in the Conclave of Wind. The remaining conclave members are Anshal, Lord of the West Wind, whose gales can heal allies or poison enemies; Rohash, Lord of the East Wind, whose tempests can grind the mightiest mountains to dust, and Nezir, Lord of the North Wind whose frigid storms have claimed more lives than all other cardinal wind lords combined.
Al’Akir: Gifted with great intelligence and cunning, Al’Akir the Windlord once served as the foremost tactician in the Old Gods’ horrific armies. In the wake of the Cataclysm, he has aligned with Deathwing and turned his godlike power against many of the air elementals’ ancient tol’vir nemeses.

Cataclysm Classic PvP Season 9 Now Live!

Engage in an all new PvP season beginning with weekly resets. Gather your team to take on the challenge of Rated Arenas and Rated Battlegrounds and earn Conquest points to spend on new and more powerful PvP gear.

Season 9 also brings with it two new battlegrounds, Battle for Gilneas and Twin Peaks, and sets the stage for a dynamic PvP experience.

Get Summer Ready During the June Trading Post

Summer is just around the corner and it’s the perfect time to gear up for the season.

This Month's Bonus Reward

male gnome in summer attire next to a stand with several water guns while another character shoots water from another water gun — **X-treme Water Blaster Display**
*“It’s time for war, a water war!”*

Visit T&W (Tawney and Wilder) just outside the Mage District in Stormwind or the Zen’shiri Trading Post next to Grommash Hold in Orgrimmar to check out all the latest items they have available.

Grab the Crusty Crawler Mount and Clamber Aboard

Make waves and get cracking! Help this crabulous crustacean claw out of nautical nonsense and shellebrate life on land—now available through the in-game shop.

Add the Crusty Crawler to your collection before it skitters back to the deep blue sea on June 30, 2024. This offer requires a World of Warcraft® subscription or Game Time and is not available in World of Warcraft Classic progression games.

Follow along on the official World of Warcraft news site for all the latest developments as we journey through the week together.