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Warbands will make WoW The War Within the most alt-friendly experience in the game’s history. Unlike Final Fantasy 14, World of Warcraft is definitely an alt-focused game, which means players will almost certainly have multiple characters on each server, all different classes in most cases. Once you’ve got a character geared up and at max level, it’s time to play someone else!
While releveling reputations is off-putting, Warbands will make that far less frustrating in the upcoming WoW The War Within expansion. By adding characters you have to your Warband list, you can give them access to far more than what they normally might. It’s coming soon, and players in the Alpha Test can already take a look.
Warbands are the new “Account Bound” setting in WoW The War Within
WoW The War Within’s Warbands take Account Bound items to the next level and beyond. Any character on your Warband list on the main screen after logging in can take advantage of all the new features and improvements to the gameplay. It doesn’t matter which faction they’re in, either.
However, this is region-exclusive, so if you have characters in another region, they won’t be able to join. Many of the most important things to a character will be account-wide for WoW The War Within, thanks to the new Warbands system. The following things will be sharable:
- Achievements (with notable exceptions)
- Reputation
- Currencies
- Flight Paths
- Transmog Collection
- Renown
- A shared Warband bank
- Warbound Items
The newest feature is the Warbound item type. These are items you can transfer into your Warband bank to give to an alt. Once it’s equipped, that’s it, though—it’s bound to them. It’s just another neat way to have account-bound gear. Speaking of which, the Bank is worth discussing. This lets you store/remove items you want to share with alts. You can purchase additional tabs for it, but it gets pricey:
- Tab 1: 1,000 gold
- Tab 2: 25,000 gold
- Tab 3: 100,000 gold
- Tab 4: 500,000 gold
- Tab 5: 2,500,000 gold
Another factor worth pointing out is that while currency won’t be completely Warbound, you can transfer them around much easier than before to make unlocking specific items on a character much faster. Some of these won’t be transferable (Crests, Cosmic Flux, etc.). However, the thing I want to talk about the most in Warbands for WoW The War Within is Reputation.
The flight paths are neat, and having a transmog collection that any class can wear is incredible. But the most useful of the new features is Reputation. An account will have the highest rank of a reputation, among all of your characters.
It will only count for The War Within and Dragonflight for now, but Blizzard will go back and do this for all expansions eventually. Most reputations will be a part of this, but specific examples will not be (EG: Winterpelt Furbolg/Glimmerogg Racer).
Another great feature of this system is how Quest Rewards will work. The first time you complete a quest in the upcoming WoW The War Within expansion, you’ll gain a bonus reward. Completing them on alts later will still give rewards, but you’ll gain a bonus for the first completion.
Warbands in WoW The War Within will completely transform how you approach playing on your alts in the future. As an altoholic, I’m incredibly excited to dig deeper and see how this improves my overall experience.
The Alpha testing phase is going on right now, and you can also look forward to WoW Remix: Mists of Pandaria coming soon in 10.2.7.
