Form Warbands and rematch classic raid bosses in World of Warcraft: The War Within's pre-expansion patch

What you need to know

• Blizzard Entertainment has announced that a pre-expansion patch for World of Warcraft's upcoming The War Within expansion will go live on July 24, 2024.
• This pre-expansion patch will include the Warbands feature, the Skyriding feature, a new prologue questline for The War Within, and a limited-time event called Radiant Echos in which players will get to fight classic raid bosses for lucrative rewards.
• World of Warcraft: The War Within will launch on August 26, 2024, on PC for the public, while players who pre-order the Epic Edition will get Early Access to it on August 22, 2024.

The long wait is almost over as we are a month and a half away until World of Warcraft's tenth expansion, The War Within releases on August 26, 2024, for PC. However, we won't have to wait to get a taste of its vaunted gameplay features as Blizzard Entertainment has announced that a pre-expansion patch for World of Warcraft: The War Within will go live on July 24, 2024.

This update will implement all kinds of new content for World of Warcraft, including the highly anticipated Warbands and Skyriding features, a new questline, a limited-time event called Radiant Echoes, and more.

WoW: The War Within pre-expansion patch — Warbands

In this update, players can look forward to getting their hands on one of The War Within's biggest gameplay features - the Warbands. This feature will allow players to share achievements and renown progression, cosmetic Transmog items, money, crafting materials, gear, and more across all their created characters on their Battle.net account in a single region (such as America or Europe).

WoW: The War Within pre-expansion patch - New quests

If a player has reached level 70 on a character and completed the final chapter of World of Warcraft: Dragonlight's questline, they will be able to take part in the first chapter of the "Visions of Azeroth," which will act as a set the stage for World of Warcraft: The War Within's main storyline.

WoW: The War Within pre-expansion patch — Skyriding

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight's Dragonriding feature proved to be so popular that Blizzard Entertainment has enabled it for many zones outside of the Dragonflight-exclusive zones and renamed it to Skyriding.

In addition, a vast majority of mounts will be able to use the Skyriding method of flight instead of only the customizable Dragonriding mounts from World of Warcraft: Dragonflight. If players prefer the old method of mount flight (renamed to Steady Flight), they will have the option to switch between Steady Flight and Skyriding at will from the mount collections menu.

WoW: The War Within pre-expansion patch — Radiant Echoes

The biggest surprise of this patch is a new limited-time event called Radiant Echoes, which will run from July 30, 2024, to August 26, 2024. In this event, ghostly spirits that resemble characters, monsters, and bosses from previous World of Warcraft expansions (which have been dubbed 'Radiant Echoes') have suddenly appeared out of nowhere and are causing havoc across Azeroth.

After accepting the quest to participate in this event at Dalaran, players will be dispatched to various zones via teleportation to destroy these 'echoes' of Azeroth's past before they can harm the living. Defeating Radiant Echoes will not be easy as some of these specters can even take the form of classic World of Warcraft Raid bosses like Ragnaros, Onyxia, and even Arthas the Lich King.

As you defeat Radiant Echoes, you will obtain a new, unique form of currency called Residual Memories, which players can use to purchase all kinds of rewards, including weapons, armor, heirloom rings, mounts, and pet companions.

Are you ready to begin the first chapter of World of Wacraft's epic 'World Soul' saga?

Official Trailer - Shadow and Fury | The War Within | World of Warcraft - YouTube

Watch On

After having a blast with World of Warcraft's Pandaria 'Remix' event and seeing all the exciting gameplay changes coming in World of Warcraft: The War Within, I can't wait to get my hands on this upcoming expansion for one of Blizzard Entertainment's best PC Games. 

The Warbands feature will make creating and powering up backup characters easier than ever. I will be able to fly at high speeds with my favorite mounts instead of only Dragonflight's Dragonriding-exclusive mounts thanks to Skyriding, and the upcoming Hero Talents will make classes more diverse and fun to play than ever.

And that's without mentioning the new playable Earthen Allied Race, dungeons, Raids, the Delves endgame content, and other gameplay changes that had my colleague and World of Warcraft veteran, Jez Corden thrilled during his hands-on preview for The War Within.

World of Warcraft: The War Within launches on August 26, 2024, on PC for the general public, while players who pre-order the Epic Edition will get to play this upcoming PC title sooner via Early Access on August 22, 2024. 

World of Warcraft: The War Within

Travel deep into the heart of Azeroth to follow a foreboding vision in World of Warcraft's next major expansion — World of Warcraft: The War Within. 

Pre-order at: Battle.net