news

The time is over, Firestorm's next expansion: The War Within will be released on Monday, August 25th on its realm Dornogal!
The call to explore the hidden depths of the world has been answered.

This expansion has been in development for over a year and in Beta phase for the past two months, and it's finally at a point where we can confidently say it's stable and with tons of content. Almost every part of the patch has been scripted and implemented.
The time spent in both the Closed and Open Beta has truly paid off, and we really appreciate everyone who supported us by reporting issues, triggering crashes, and helping us identify and fix them.

Before we jump into TWW's content, let's clarify something that will likely interest many of you, character copy and restrictions:

• Every character from Valdrakken will be copied over to The War Within oficial realm on August 23rd, 2025.
• The gold on the characters will be limited to 1.000 gold coins per character over level 60. (Lower-level characters or deleted characters will have their gold set to 0).
• The gold on the mailbox will be deleted.
• The auction houses will end and return to the mailbox automatically.
• The guild banks are gonna be wiped (items deleted and gold set to 0). Your guild bank won't be affected on Valdrakken, don't worry.
• Inventory items will no longer be considered tradeable, and you won't be able to sell them.

Important note: The client will actually run on version 11.1.5, but the content will be from patch 11.0.2, and class balance will reflect 11.1.5.
Download the client via our new launcher!

Also, we will be giving a special and unique reward for those players who connect during the first week of release of The War Within (August 25 - August 31), so don't forget to connect in time and get yours as well! More info at the bottom!

Well, it's time, let's talk about The War Within. Enjoy it!

 

LEVEL EXPERIENCE

For new, returning, or current Firestorm players who want to level a character from the beginning, the starting zone is Exile's Reach and from there, you'll continue your experience by talking to Chromie and choosing where to go next.
 

• From levels 1 to 10: When you create a new character, you will automatically begin in Exile's . This zone includes a tutorial and a series of simple quests designed to help you get started in World of Warcraft.
  • Allied races will start level 10, meaning they can skip the first part. Demon Hunters and Dracthyrs will still pursue their starting questline.
  • The Earthen, the new allied race, begin in their own starting zone. After finishing it, they’ll be directed to Chromie to start a leveling zone.
     
• From levels 10 to 70: At the moment, you can choose between Dragonflight, Shadowlands, and Battle for Azeroth. Dragonflight is selected by default, as it currently works best overall.
   
• Finally from levels 70 to 80: You'll make your way into Khaz Algar and uncover the mysteries hidden within Azeroth, starting in Silithus, the beginning of the conflict, there you will find the introductory storyline "Visions of Azeroth"

 

WELCOME TO KHAZ ALGAR

Khaz Algar is a never-before-seen subterranean world off the western shores of Pandaria, full of secrets and hidden wonders. Discover four leveling zones filled with world activities and events and rare creatures, all teeming with loot waiting to be uncovered. Enlist a titan-forged race made of living stone by aiding them in their endeavors.

• Isle of Dorn (Levels 70‑73): Located on the surface of Khaz Algar, the Isle of Dorn is a lush paradise where Dornogal, the main capital, stands as a massive Earthen fortress at the center of the isle.
  Here, you will also find the world activity The Theater Troupe.
   
• The Ringing Deeps (Levels 73‑75): A colossal cavern where the Machine Speakers have been excavating and melting down raw materials in a massive, lava-fueled forge. 
  The world activity Awakening the machine is also placed here.
   
• Hallowfall (Levels 75‑78): This once-glorious underground region is bathed in light from a massive crystal overhead. The people here, known as the Arathi, worship this light and have built a culture around it.
  The world activity Spreading the Light is located here.
   
• Azj-Kahet (Levels 78‑80), down to the dark depths of the nerubian empire, where the malicious Harbinger of the Void is gathering arachnid forces to bring Azeroth to its knees.

 

NERUB-AR PALACE

Located in Azj'kahet, the first raid of the expansion, Nerub-ar Palace, introduced 8 new bosses with new systems.
The raid will not be available during launch, but it will be open a week later alongside Season 1. When it becomes available, every difficult mode except Mythic will be available.

After a revelation of traitors in her court, Queen Ansurek decides she must eradicate the palace’s invaders herself.
However, paranoia over whom she can trust gnaws at her psyche. With her allies dwindling, Queen Ansurek may delve into dark powers to attain victory, even if that means her most loyal soldiers become her next meal...

Here's a list of its bosses:

• Ulgrax the Devourer
• The Bloodbound Horror
• Sikran, Captain of the Sureki
• Rasha'nan
• Broodtwister Ovi'nax
• Nexus-Princess Ky'veza
• The Silken Court: Anub'arash and Skeinspinner Takazj
• Queen Ansurek

 

THE WAR WITHIN DUNGEONS

The 8 new dungeons from The War Within will be available as soon as the realm opens, providing the first reliable and extensive PvE content of the expansion. Four of them can be accessed while leveling, and the remaining ones will unlock once you reach level 80.

Level-Up Dungeons 70 - 80:

• The Rookery: The Stormperch, located in the Keeper's Terrace in the northwest of the city, serves as the home of the Stormrooks and the base for Stormward Baelgrim and the Stormriders. Though it stood unbreeched for thousands of years, defending it is harder when the threat comes from within.
  • Kyrioss
  • Stormguard Gorren
  • Voidstone Monstrosity
     
• The Stonevault: High Speaker Eirich has neglected the Machine Speakers and their Stonevault, obsessed with the broken Awakening Machine. As earthen culture decays and their population declines, Machinists labor, loyalists patrol, and Eirich hides behind fanatical, corrupted followers. Sequestered behind Titan tunnels, he has undergone a terrifying transformation.
  • E.D.N.A.
  • Skarmorak
  • Master Machinists, Brokk and Dorlita
  • Void Speaker Eirich
     
• Priory of the Sacred Flame, once a place for worshipers to contemplate the emperor's vision, is now led by acolytes who scorn the people of Mereldar for their weak faith. Sister Etna Blayze has called for help to uncover the secrets hidden in Prioress Murrpray's inner sanctum.
  • Captain Dailcry
  • Baron Braunpyke
  • Prioress Murrpray
     
• Ara-Kara, City of Echoes: Beneath the City of Threads lies Ara-Kara, City of Echoes, the deserted ruins of an older layer. Ansurek's forces are gathering deadly materials to force the ascension of all nerubian civilization, whether they are willing or not.
  • Avanox
  • Anub'zekt
  • Ki'katal the Harvester
     

Max-Level Dungeons:

• Cinderbrew Meadery,  is a focal point of Unbound earthen culture, once under the dotage of Wenbrandt, who crafted a fiery, potent brew enjoyed by all earthen. After a hostile corporate acquisition by goblin entrepreneur Goldie Baronbottom, it now enters a new age of mass-produced cinderbrew.
  • Brew Master Aldryr
  • I'pa
  • Benk Buzzbee
  • Goldie Baronbottom
     
• Darkflame Cleft was once a prosperous earthen mine until the Machine Speakers left and kobolds swarmed in. The workers fell under the rule of the tyrannical Candle King, a tall, bulky brute. It's time to liberate the intimidated kobolds!
  • Ol'Waxbeard
  • Blazikon
  • The Candle King
  • The Darkness
     
• The Dawnbreaker: The Arathi have completed The Dawnbreaker, a warship built to shift the war against Azj-Kahet. As its ceremonial launch begins, General Steelstrike has called for heroic outsiders to witness the historic event, but things won't go as planned, and you'll need to act.
  • Speaker Shadowcrown
  • Anub'ikkaj
  • Rasha'nan
     
• City of Threads: Deep within the City of Threads lies the Transformatory, once a sacred hall of nerubian evolution. Now used to transform "worthy" nerubians into ascended, it must be stopped before it consumes all of Azj-Kahet. The Weaver and the Vizier are determined to do just that.
  • Orator Krix'vizk of the Fifth Strand
  • Fangs of the Queen
  • The Coaglamation
  • Izo, the Grand Splicer
     

 

MYTHIC DUNGEONS

Similar to what happens with the raids, the Mythic dungeons will not be available until Season 1 starts (on September 1st, 2025).
Following the same system, 4 dungeons will be from the current expansion, and the other 4 will be from the previous expansion:

• Ara-Kara, City of Echoes
• City of Threads
• The Stonevault
• The Dawnbreaker
• Mists of Tirna Scithe (Shadowlands)
• The Necrotic Wake (Shadowlands)
• Siege of Boralus (BfA)
• Grim Batol (Cataclysm)

During this first season, we will have Some new additions regarding affixes: 

• At Mythic Keystone level 2, players will see their first affix depending on the week:
  • Xal'atath's Bargain: Ascendant
  • Xal'atath's Bargain: Voidbound
  • Xal'atath's Bargain: Oblivion
  • Xal'atath's Bargain: Devour
• At Keystone Level 4, Tyrannical or Fortified become active, alternating each week.
• At Keystone Level 7, a new affix named Challenger's Peril becomes active.
• At Keystone Level 10, both Tyrannical and Fortified become active at the same time.
• At Keystone Level 12, Xal'atath removes her bargains, and Xal'atah's Bargain is replaced with Xal'atath's Guile.

 

DELVES

Delves are a new type of short-form instanced content that you can run solo or in a group of 2-5 players, accompanied by an NPC companion, Brann Bronzebeard, who can take on the role of DPS or healer. Brann has both Combat Curios and Utility Curios and you can select 1 of each type to be active at any time. Like roles, Curios can only be swapped by clicking on the Explorers' League Supplies box and selecting "View Brann Bronzebeard's supplies". Curios drop from the treasure chests found in the Treasure Rooms at the successful conclusion of Delves.

Completions count toward the Great Vault, where the previous PvP tag will be replaced by "World Activities," which will now include this new feature.

Players can access Delves while leveling, with the first tiers (1 to 3) available during zone progression. Higher tiers (4 to 11) unlock at level 80, once the campaign is completed. Each Delve features rotating story variants that change daily to keep the experience fresh. Sometimes, a Delve is marked as a Bountiful Delve, offering an extra chest at the end if you bring a Restored Coffer Key earned through world activities.

Important note: Delves will be limited to Tier 4 until Season 1 begins.
 

Isle of Dorn	The Ringing Deeps	Azj-Kahet	Hallowfall
Earthcrawl Mines	The Waterworks	The Spiral Weave	Skittering Breach
Kriegyal’s Rest	The Dread Pit	Tak-Rethan Abyss	Nightfall Sanctum
Fungal Folly		Underkeep	The Sinkhole
		Mystery 13th Delve	Mycomancer Cavern

 

CLASSES AND HERO TALENTS

This new expansion brings heavy rebalancing between classes and introduces the brand-new allied race, the Earthen.
But the major feature is the Hero Talents system, an evergreen progression layer unlocked at level 71. Hero Talents offer self-contained talent trees with three unique paths per class (except Druids with four and Demon Hunters with two), each containing 11 talent nodes. Players earn one point per level from 71 to 80 to fill the tree.

Each Hero Talent tree starts with a keystone talent that defines the core mechanic and identity of the tree. This might be a new ability, an upgrade to an existing cooldown, or a triggerable buff. At the bottom sits the capstone talent, which reinforces the tree’s theme or adds new power to the keystone.

The system allows switching between Hero Talent trees at will, similar to current class talent management, and aims to offer both flavor and meaningful customization options without bloat.
 

In addition, the expansion extends class availability for the Dracthyr race, who will be able to choose from Hunter, Mage, Priest, Rogue, Warlock, and Warrior, opening entirely new gameplay paths for them beyond the Evoker class.

 

PvP

The War Within introduces several updates focused on improving the PvP experience. Of course, it brings the classics, like a new PvP season, with transmog sets, custom achievements, titles and mounts, and also weekly map pool rotation to keep matches exciting and fresh week to week! 
 

POOL A	POOL B	POOL C
Nagrand Arena	Nagrand Arena	Nagrand Arena
Dalaran Sewers	Ruins of Lordaeron	Hook Point
Tiger's Peak	Tiger's Peak	Tol'Viron Arena
Enigma Crucible	Empyrean Domain	Ashamane's Fall
Empyrean Domain	Blade's Edge Arena	The Robodrome
Ashamane's Fall	Maldraxxus Coliseum	Mugambala
Maldraxxus Coliseum	Black Rook Hold Arena	Enigma Crucible
Nokhudon Proving Grounds	Nokhudon Proving Grounds	Nokhudon Proving Grounds

 

Let's talk about PvP features:

• DeepHaul Ravine, the new battleground this season.
   
• War Mode gets some changes too: Bloody Tokens are now the sole currency for open-world PvP.
  Also, PvP gear scales up in arenas and battlegrounds as usual, but not in War Mode activities. For open-world combat, you can use valor stones and crests to upgrade your gear to the highest item level available outside instanced PvP.
   
• Solo Rated Battleground Blitz is one of the main PvP features this season. It's a fast-paced 8v8 battleground mode where you queue alone or with a healer, climb the ranks, earn titles, and unlock seasonal rewards. Matches are objective-focused and packed with power-ups that keep the action moving.
   
• Season 1: The first PvP Season, the Forged Gladiator: The War Within Season 1, will start one week after the realm's release (on September 1st, 2025). Consider the first week as some kind of inter-season period. After the season starts, players will compete on the PvP leaderboard to be able to win the Seasonal Rewards!
   
• Weekly Caps:
  • The Bloody Token cap starts at 1,350 and increases by 550 every week.
  • The Conquest cap starts at 1,600 and increases by 600 every week.

PvP guide - Season 1 TWW

 

WARBANDS

This expansión introduces a new account-wide system, aspects such as renown, transmog, gear that has the "Warbound Until Equipped" attribute and currencies are shared, making progress feel smoother no matter which character you're playing.

Let's talk about this features:

• Warband Bank: this is a new feature, which allows you to utilize resources account-wide and share them easily between alts, including gold. The Warbank has five different tabs, each capable of holding 98 items for a total of 490 slots. It can hold any item that isn’t soulbound to a character. By default, your Warbank has zero tabs unlocked. You can check the price to unlock each tab below.
   
• Warband reputations, with this new change  players will no longer need to determine which characters to focus on a given faction for profession or power reasons (not available for all reputations in the game). For now is working for the Dragonflight factions and for the 4 new TWW factions.
   
• Transferable currencies:  It brings the option to transfer some currencies easily between alts without having to buy items and mail them. 
  When you go to your currency tab, some currencies will have an icon showing they are transferrable. By clicking on that icon you will be able to select another character from your account to transfer the currency from.
  Note that some currencies have a conversion rate.
   
• Warbound Until Equipped Gear: This is a new way to equip your alts. Whenever players earn loot, you have a chance of having warbound until equipped bonus loots in dungeons, delves and raid. You can send these items by mail or put it in the warbank and use them with the character you prefer.

The Warbanding Together questline is available and rewards the spell Warband Bank Distance Inhibitor, which summons a personal portal directly to your Warband Bank for 10 minutes.

 

SKYRIDING

Inspired by the Dragonflight system, Skyriding is a dynamic form of flying that uses momentum and abilities to reach high places and move quickly across the world. It uses a resource called Vigor, which regenerates naturally while gliding at high speeds or descending. Mastering altitude and momentum becomes key to maintaining flight. With proper use, players can reach a maximum speed of 705%, making Skyriding one of the fastest travel methods available.

Skyriding becomes fully available once players reach level 80 and complete the main campaign.
Unlike in Dragonflight, you begin with a solid set of baseline abilities, so you can take off and maneuver from the start. However, to unlock the full talent tree, you’ll need to collect 38 Skyriding glyphs scattered across the expansion's four main zones.

Hundreds of mounts have been updated to support this mode, including Druid flight forms. Evokers can also skyride using their racial ability, Soar. Players can freely switch between Skyriding and the classic Steady Flight at any time using the new spell Switch Flight Style. To use Steady Flight on this new continent, you will need to unlock the achievement The War Within Pathfinder, as usual.

Each zone in Khaz Algar also features its own set of Skyriding race courses, with six per region, offering challenges, achievements, and rewards for those looking to test their flying skills.

 

OTHER FEATURES

This expansion offers a lot of content, let's talk about other features:

• Professions: this feature now requires strategic planning and pacing of crafting activities:
  • Patron NPC Orders System: A brand-new mechanic where specific NPCs (Patrons) in each Khaz Algar zone issue crafting orders for players.These orders reward Knowledge Points, Acuity, and Concentration, depending on the difficulty. Patrons solve the unpredictability of the old order system by guaranteeing rewards upon completion.
    Orders can require Rank 2 or 3 quality crafts and may cost significant Concentration, compelling players to plan around recharge timing.
  • Two interconnected systems now integral to crafting progression
    • Concentration: Acts as a reservoir (max 1000 points) that slowly regenerates and allows crafters to guarantee a higher rank output when slightly under-skilled.
    • Ingenuity: A system chance-based that can refund 50% of used Concentration expense per craft if it triggers (“ingenious breakthrough”).
       
• New Allied Race, the Earthen: Forged of living stone deep beneath Khaz Algar, the Earthen march into The War Within as the first neutral Allied Race, ready to fight for either faction. Also, you can choose to be any of nine playable classes: Hunter, Mage, Monk, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, or Warrior.
  Their strength comes to life through racials such as:
  • Azerite Surge: Channel the ore in your veins to release a cone of azerite energy that damages enemies, heals allies at mid-charge, and detonates in a heavy burst at full power.
  • Titan-Wrought Frame: Stone-hardened bodies add 10 % extra base armor to all equipped items, turning Earthen into walking bulwarks.
  • And there's even more, additional racials boost gathering, exploration, and self-sustain, ensuring these granite heroes leave their mark on every battlefield.
     
• The New Map Legend: A new feature that will facilitate your progression in the game. It will be easier to find quests, Limited Time Activities, dungeons, raids, delve or cave entrances, flightpoints, etc.
   
• The new interface feature: Arachnophobia.
   
• Trading Post: There are no significant changes to the trading post, and it will work as usual.

 

BORIS RETURNS AND A SURPRISE

Gear up, heroes!
To celebrate the arrival of the expansion, we have two epic surprises waiting for you!

First, the legendary tauren Boris returns for one entire week, ready to boost a single character on your account straight to level 70. He'll even give to you a full set of starter gear, letting you charge into quests, dungeons, and more! But choose wisely, because Boris can only help a single character on your account.

And as a special token of our gratitude for your constant support and loyalty, every adventurer who logs in during the first week will receive the Timbered Sky Snake mount, letting you soar across Azeroth in unmistakable style. Enjoy the head start and charge into this new chapter with flair!