World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth release date, times, and features

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth is Blizzard’s next expansion pack for their colossal MMO, and it’s on track to be another Legion-scale shake up of everything Alliance and Horde. The expansion will explore the wounds suffered in the long-running feud between Azeroth’s two key factions. There’s no love lost between them, and their tensions come to a head in the story as heroes duel and armies clash.

The expansion is more than just a climatic chapter in the Alliance and Horde war, though. Battle for Azeroth adds numerous new gameplay mechanics and systems. From brand new playable Allied Races, through Island Expedition PvP scenarios, to the RTS-style Warfronts mode, there are plenty of bold new design decisions going on in this expansion.

In addition to these new modes, there’ll be the traditional expansion enhancements as well. The world will get bigger with two new continents, the stables stocked with new mounts, every class revamped and their talents remixed, and the overall level cap increased to 120. New quests will keep you busy until the endgame, and then fresh dungeons and raids will occupy you for many hours after.

The expansion is going to be huge. The headline features you’ll find in Battle for Azeroth are:

Two new continents, Kul Tiras and Zandalar, with zones and dungeons
Allied Races, three for each faction
Warfronts, an RTS-style game mode
Island Expeditions, three-player scenarios with a PvP option
Level cap increase to 120, and all the associated questing
Classes have been revamped with new and remixed talents
A collection of new mounts
The Heart of Azeroth, an artifact-style necklace all players will have that upgrades your other gear through new resource Azerite

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth release date

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth will release on August 14, 2018. The final date was revealed by game director Ion Hazzikostas at a preview event, according to PC Gamer.

As with previous expansions, Battle for Azeroth will receive a pre-patch that will bridge the gap between Legion and the new storyline. This prologue patch will launch a few weeks earlier than the expansion’s August release date, and feature the Alliance retaking the Undercity and the Horde burning Teldrassil. These smaller conflicts will eventually erupt into the titular battle between Alliance and Horde players.

On top of this, the pre-patch will implement the Battle for Azeroth class changes, phasing out artifact weapons, introducing the new social systems, and heralding another stat squish – the lowering of stat values on items to ensure the numbers don’t get too out of control. The most interesting social updates implemented in the pre-patch will be the introduction of realm and cross-realm communities, an extension of the guild system.

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth pre-orders

Battle for Azeroth pre-orders are available for purchase from the Blizzard store right now, and comes in two forms: standard and deluxe, priced $49.99/£39.99 and $69.99/£52.99 respectfully.

Pre-ordering either version will allow you to boost a character to level 110, ensuring that you’ll be ready for the new expansion quests. A pre-order will also allow you to begin recruiting Allied Races in-game right now, granting you a head start on Battle for Azeroth’s release.

The deluxe version of the game includes a few extra goodies for your WoW character: Alliance players get a Seabraid Stallion mount, while Horde members get the Gilded Ravasaur (both are pretty neat, but they’re no WoW frog mount, are they?). All players get a baby Tortollan pet.

Also included in the deluxe edition is a variety of WoW-themed extras for Blizzard’s other games.

Overwatch: Torbjorn gets Horde and Alliance voice lines, Tracer will have some new emotes, and everyone will have access to WoW-themed sprays and player icons
Hearthstone: You’ll get a dual-toned Azeroth is Burning card back.
StarCraft II: Horde and Alliance sprays will let you cover the map while declaring your allegiance
Heroes of the Storm: You can ride into battle on a Primal Flamesaber mount, available in green, white, and toast colours

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth Launch Time

Battle for Azeroth is launching simultaneously across the world, but there’s that pesky time zone nonsense to be dealt with, of course. Here’s a rundown of what time BfA goes live across the world:

America: August 13 @ 3pm
Europe: August 14 @ midnight
Australia: August 14 @ 8am
Korea: August 14 @ 7am

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth pre-patch

As with previous expansions, Battle for Azeroth has a pre-patch that bridges the gap between Legion and the new storyline. This prologue patch will launched a few weeks earlier than the expansion’s August release date on July 17, and features the Alliance retaking the Undercity and the Horde burning Teldrassil. These smaller conflicts will eventually erupt into the titular battle between Alliance and Horde players.

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth zones

All the new BfA features and content are on the two new continents, Kul Tiras and Zandalar, which are explored by the Alliance and Horde respectively. Horde players will need to persuade the trolls of Zandalar to lend their naval might to the war effort, while Alliance players will travel to the home of Jaina Proudmoore and rally its inhabitants to fight for their cause.

In gameplay terms, you’ll level on your own continent, then both will open up once you hit max to do world quests and continue the storyline. They each contain three zones, broken down like this:

Kul Tiras
- Stormsong Valley – the place where Kul Tiran ships are blessed by Sea Priests. There are probably Old Gods here
- Drustvar – playable at BlizzCon, this area concerns a mysterious village and its frozen inhabitants
- Tiragarde Sound – overrun with pirates, as well as Jaina’s mother Katherine Proudmoore. Likely the Alliance capital of the expansion
Zandalar
- Nazmir – also playable at BlizzCon, this is a Blood Troll focused area where you defeat various spirits. It also has Old Gods in it
- Zuldazar – capital of Zandalar, and thus the Horde capital for the expansion. An uprising provides the narrative focus
- Voldun – a desert and prison for the Zandalari, it also has a race of almost certainly adorable fox people. Plus: Old Gods

During all of this you’ll also be progressing through the War storyline that explains what’s going on in the wider world – such as the burning of Teldrassil and the invasion of Lordaeron that leaves Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor each dominated by one faction. Expect things a bit like this, from Legion’s levelling experience:

Only more of it, as there won’t be the individual class campaigns to design this time around.

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth dungeons

New dungeons are also on the way – ten in all. Here’s the rundown, which is split by faction while levelling up, but all ten are available at max level for both:

Alliance
- Freehold – A pirate flavoured dungeon in the underworld of Tiragarde Sound. Irontide Raiders have brought the town under their control, and a small team of heroes must infiltrate their leadership and destroy them. Was playable at BlizzCon 2017
- Waycrest Manor – A stately manor in Drustvar, haunted by a Kul Tiran noble house
- Tol Dagor – The “prison island” of Kul Tiras
- Shrine of the Storm – Stormsong Valley’s ship-blessing dungeon with Old Gods and sea priests. It was featured in the Boss Design panel at BlizzCon 2017
- Siege of Boralus – Set in Tiragarde’s capital, this is a max-level dungeon akin to Court of Stars from Legion
Horde
- Atal’Dazar – “undead dinosaurs” inhabit this troll-based dungeon in Zandalar. Fun
- Temple of Sethraliss – Vol’dun’s snake-people temple
- The Underrot – Also at BlizzCon 2017, this dungeon is where Nazmir is being corrupted from
- King’s Rest – An ancient tomb probably filled with the undead kings of Atal’Dazar. Dungeon inception
- Kezan – The Horde max-level dungeon is the Goblin starting zone reconfigured as the little green ones go digging for Azurite

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth raids

Two raids have been announced so far:

Uldir, Halls of Control

A Titan facility where they experimented on Old Gods – “It didn’t go so well.” Details are massively unknown so far, but it will have eight bosses: Harlan Sweete, Gluttony, Witch, T’zane, Taloc the Corrupted, Priestess Alun’za, Council o’ Captains, and the Blood God (the grisly beast you can see in the artwork above). Don’t expect too much of a challenge as it’s very much an initial raid. You’ll also be defeating the heart of corruption in Zandalar.

The Uldir raid opens at Normal and Heroic difficulties on September 4, a few weeks after Battle for Azeroth’s August 14 release date. Following the initial launch, the first wing of Looking For Raid difficulty opens on September 11, followed by the second wing on September 25, and the third and final wing on October 9.

Queen Azshara

Even less is known about this, as it will be the second – possibly third, if there’s a surprise extra – raid of Battle for Azeroth. Even the name is TBD, but will involve eventually fighting Queen Azshara and her Naga.

Zulzadar

Dataminers recently discovered evidence of another raid possibly coming to Battle for Azeroth, Zulzadar. So far all we have is a minimap with the title ‘ZulzadarRaid’. The map looks like a raid layout, but at this point it’s difficult to say exactly what it could be.

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth allied races

New races will be joining each faction, with six confirmed so far. They are:

Alliance
- Lightforged Draenei
- Void Elves
- Dark Iron Dwarves
- Kul’Tiran Humans
Horde
- Nightborne
- Highmountain Tauren
- Zandalari Trolls
- Mag’Har Orcs

In addition, datamining also suggests that the new Vulpera race could be playable, too.

Allied Races start at level 20 with their own questlines, then transition into the normal levelling experience – supplemented from patch 7.3.5 onwards with scaling. Getting an Allied Race character to max level will unlock a ‘heritage’ armour set unique to that race.

The first two on each list are from factions we initially encountered in Legion, and you can unlock them at the end of the expansion, rather than waiting for Battle for Azeroth, provided you pre-order. If you’ve been playing Legion regularly then chances are you already have all the prerequisites unlocked for the Allied Races, which involve having Exalted reputations with factions from Legion’s storyline and finishing most of the expansion’s major quests. As for theDark Iron Dwarves and Mag’Har Orcs, they’ll be unlocked at launch, while the others will be unlocked during the Battle for Azeroth storyline.

If you don’t want to level a new Allied Race character they will be available through the race change service. It’s also fully intended that this system will be expanded to include more Allied Races – there have been plenty over the course of WoW’s existence – and likely soon. We’d expect at least a couple added in patches for Battle for Azeroth, and if the system proves successful and repeatable, more in expansions going forward.

For more information, take a look at our WoW Allied Races guide.

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth story

Warning: potential spoilers for both the end of Legion and the beginning of Battle for Azeroth.

The climatic final Raid of Legion ended with the imprisonment of Sargeras by the Titans, ending his quest for domination… for now. Nothing disappears completely in World of Warcraft, after all. Before his imprisonment, he plunged his sword deep into Azeroth itself – more specifically, into the zone of Silithus – causing massive damage, and creating a bleeding wound in the planet. The wound leaks Azerite, a powerful new substance, and tensions start to flair between the Horde and the Alliance over control of this valuable resource. Anduin Wrynn, now King of Stormwind and leader of the Alliance following the death of his Father at the hands of Gul’dan, attempts a peaceful solution and reaches out to the Forsaken. Unfortunately, a misunderstanding results in a violent falling out during a diplomatic meeting.

The cold war now well and truly hot, Sylvanas assaults the Night Elf capital of Teldrassil, seeking to drive out the Alliance presence in Kalimdor and secure the Azerite in Darkshore. The battle for Teldrassil results in the great city being set ablaze, cutting off the Alliance from their foothold in Kalimdor.

In retaliation to this attack, the Alliance besiege Lordaeron, the home of the Forsaken. Before the Alliance can take the city for their own, however, Sylvanas unleashes blight upon it, taking it from the hands of both the Horde and the Alliance.

And with that, Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms are purged of the Alliance and the Horde respectively.

For help in the war, the Alliance reaches out to the seafaring Kul Tiras empire, and the Horde send heroes to investigate the Zandalari trolls. It’s on these two continents, Kul Tiras and Zandalar, where the events of Battle for Azeroth will take place.

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth Island Expeditions

Island Expeditions are three-player scenarios that are designed for any type of team composition – feel free to head in as a trio of tanks or healers, though it may not be as efficient. The goal is to obtain some Azerite for both you and your faction. The whole expedition should take under 20 minutes.

Essentially, these are mini plundering missions, but with a key difference to typical WoW activities: it’s all created on the fly. It’s not quite random or procedural generation – there are rules to ensure the island you land on tells a ‘story’ with the right combinations of enemies and loot – but it means there’s enough variety to keep up the replay value.

They’re also time pressured; the enemy faction has dispatched a team of champions who are also hunting that precious Azerite. Those champions can be controlled by AI in normal, heroic, or mythic difficulties, or real players in the PvP version. The NPC versions also have a significant AI boost, with actual intelligence rather than rote patterns and simple aggro.

The new AI system, specifically for use in Island Expeditions, means that the enemy team plays much more intelligently than your average mob. Traditionally in WoW, an enemy will use its abilities on cooldown, in a set priority, on the target with the highest aggro unless otherwise specifically stated.

These enemies will consider far more options. For example, they might crowd control a healer and then attempt to deal massive burst damage to DPS or tank players. Equally, they may avoid combat altogether, rather than mindlessly railing on you until death, if they determine the fight isn’t going in their favour or there are better ways to spend their time completing objectives in the scenario.

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth Warfronts

Warfronts is a 20-person activity that looks back to Warcraft’s RTS days for inspiration. The mode sees each faction build a base, develop an army, and attempt to defeat the enemy in battle. Those core RTS loops will be present and correct here; you’ll head into the world to find resources and claim territory. Lumber and iron will allow you to construct new buildings and train units, while claimed territory will increase your tech tree. That tech tree is modelled closely on the one used in Warcraft 3. Your buildings – such as a barracks – will create AI troops who will march on the enemy’s based in a similar style to MOBA creeps.

A Warfront battle is triggered when a region has stockpiled enough crafting materials. So, for example, if the North American Alliance players have collectively gathered enough resources to launch an attack, they can do so on any Horde Warfront zone. Should the Alliance succeed in attacking the Warfront fortress then special activities and world bosses will be made available. The Horde can reclaim their lost zone, but only once they have stockpiled enough resources.

The first Warfront will be in Arathi Highlands, with further zones being made available as Battle for Azeroth is updated.

Warfronts are PvE only, and are part of the ongoing battles between the Alliance and Horde. They’re longer than Island expeditions, expected to take 40+ minutes, more akin to a full dungeon. Difficulty and rewards are still in development.

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth Heart of Azeroth

A key part of your character’s progression will be based on the Heart of Azeroth, an artifact-grade neck piece entrusted to each hero by Magni Bronzebeard. The pendant absorbs Azerite, a rock-like mineral that crystallises around fissures in the ground – it’s the very lifeblood of Azeroth made stone. Goodness knows how that started bubbling to the surface.

Here’s how the process works from a gameplay point of view:

Any Azerite picked up is automatically absorbed into your Heart of Azeroth, levelling it up
At certain threshold levels, your Heart of Azeroth empowers your helm, shoulders, and boots with new powers
These powers are selected from tiers of a wheel, as seen above. All the choices on the same tier should be for similar situations, meaning you’re never choosing between utility and damage, for example
Each item that can be empowered has specially selected powers, rather than anything being dependent on RNG, and the higher the level, the stronger those powers
These items cannot Titanforge so as to avoid it getting too complex and aid with balancing. Level differences will come down purely to which difficulty of a dungeon or raid the item was acquired on
Respeccing these is a consideration, but not yet decided

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth legacy loot

Battle for Azeroth transmog changes is altering the way loot rewards work. Patch 7.3.5 essentially ruined proceedings for transmog loot hunters by introducing the personal loot system, but the expansion’s rethink will help people more easily track down older gear for use in transmog.

A new legacy loot mode will be activated when entering a dungeon or raid that is ten or more levels lower than your character’s level. This mode will ensure all items on the loot table have a chance to drop, not just items relevant to your character. The amount of loot dropped will also be equal to a full party’s worth, so if you’re doing a five-player dungeon solo you will pick up five players’ worth of loot.

This system should hopefully make farming for older gear much easier, allowing people to complete armour sets without too much hassle.

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth mounts

Datamining has discovered a huge variety of exciting new mounts coming to Battle for Azeroth. Wowhead has provided plenty of the goods, and you can see the best of them by following the links below.

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth beta

Testing as part of the Battle for Azeroth beta is underway! An alpha test client for patch 8.0, which will eventually include Battle for Azeroth, is now available for download.

Unfortunately, only a portion of lucky players who have opted in to WoW beta testing have been selected to join the PTR for Battle for Azeroth. At this point it’s fairly unlikely that many new people will be added into the test, but here’s how to opt-in just in case.

Login to your Blizzard account on the studio’s website and go to your account overview. Hit the tab that reads ‘Games & Codes’, then click ‘Beta Profile Settings’. On this screen, you can tick boxes to mark which Blizzard game beta tests you’re interested in. Tick ‘Warcraft’ and then ‘Update Preferences’. From there, just hope you get an email inviting you to join the beta! Fingers crossed.

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth class changes

Tradition dictates that a new World of Warcraft expansion makes every class in the game feel at least refreshed and rejuvenated, if not shiny and new. Battle for Azeroth has a huge list of changes, the full set of which you can find over in Wowhead’s datamining excavations. The biggest changes to each class can be found below.

Death Knights have two new abilities: Thoughtsieze and Death’s Advance. The former steals a beneficial magic effect from a target, which can be applied to yourself or a friendly target. The latter makes you immune to slow and resists movement effects
Demon Hunters have had many talents revamped, while some have been removed and replaced with new ones. Among new talents are Cycle of Hatred, which refunds Fury when using Chaos Strike, and Immolation Aura, which causes fire damage to enemies within eight yards. Blade Turning, Prepared, and Fel Barrage have all been removed, along with others
Druids have access to Hibernate and Sooth once more, while Frenzied Regeneration has an increased recharge time and Tiger Dash now requires level 30 and has a reduced cooldown
Hunters can use Tranquilizing Shot again. All three specialisations have been dramatically revamped, with many new talents, changes, or removals
Mage’s Arcane Intellect has returned, a talent that increases an ally’s intellect by 5% for one hour
Monk specialisation Windwalker has several new talents, while the Brewmaster’s Stagger talent has had its effectiveness reduced by half
Paladins now have increased cooldowns for both Divine Steed and Blessing of Freedom
Priests have regained the Power Word: Fortitude spell. Several talents have swapped tiers. Most importantly, though, Surrender to Madness is no longer fatal. Instead you take damage equal to 90% of your max health, and can no longer generate Insanity for 30 seconds
Rogues have suffered nerfs to Cloak of Shadows and Feint. Poison Bomb makes a return, and there are many new talents
Shamans can use Tremor Totem once more
Warlocks have many new talents, and Life Tap has been changed to grant a Soul Shard and be subject to a cooldown
Warriors have a general scattering of talent changes, including new skills such as Deep Wounds, which causes Mortal Strike, and Execute to inflict Deep Wounds that cause bleed damage over three seconds

If you’re a hunter, be prepared for some big changes to your pets: tank and DPS creatures are being scrapped completely. Instead, pets will be specced into both Ferocity and Tenacity, allowing them to fulfil all forms of pet duties, no matter their family. By default, every pet will have all offensive and defensive passive abilities, such as Blood of the Rhino and Combat Training.

The broad categories of Ferocity, Tenacity, and Cunning will be maintained, and each has a new passive and active ability designed to be useful in any situation. Pet families without unique special abilities will finally receive one, and exotics will gain new abilities, too.

Battle Res for pets is being completely removed, eliminating pet resurrection from a Hunter’s tool kit, while Bloodlust will be available to a third of pet families rather than just two.

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth profession skill changes

The new expansion is squishing profession skills. Difficulty levels for each profession are being reduced right down to 100, with everything relating to these skills scaling with it. This means that the maximum potential skill level will now be 100.

Professions are receiving numerous tweaks and new items, all of which can be seen in Wowhead’s datamine. The highlights of the new additions can be see below.

Alchemists are able to brew new potions and elixirs, including the Elixir of Replenishment, which grants the user’s helpful spells the potential to cast a short heal-over-time buff in addition to the main effect
Blacksmiths can forge the Khaz’gorian Hammer, which allows the user to repair all equipment instantaneously, as well as potentially imbue a smithed armour piece or weapon with the ‘indestructible’ property
Enchanters have a long list of new weapon enchants with a wide variety of buffs, but most interesting is a new glove enchantment that increases the speed of your Hearthstone cast, crafting of expansion items, and gathering
Engineers can produce some really fun goods, largely comprised of utility bombs and other items that do special damage. More curious is the Interdimensional Companion Repository, which is great for hunters as it summons a temporary Stable Master for two minutes
Scribes can create Contracts that allow you to gain reputation with a faction every time you complete a relevant world quest. Some contracts summon followers to aid you
Leatherworkers can craft a new scuba suit that allows you to breathe underwater and increases your swim speed by 100% for 15 minutes
Tailors are able to craft new Battle Flags that can reduce damage and CC and increase mount speed. There are also new 30 and 32-slot bags, and a hot air balloon

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth system requirements

Battle for Azeroth’s system requirements are a touch higher than previous WoW expansions due to an introduction of more intensive tech. Can you run it? Compare your setup against the World of Warcraft system requirements.

Minimum requirements

CPU: Intel Core i5-760 or AMD FX-8100 or later
RAM: 4 GB
OS: Windows 7 / Windows 8 / Windows 10 64 bit
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GT 560 2GB or AMD Radeon HD 7850 2GB or Intel HD Graphics 530 (45W)
HDD: 70 GB

Recommended requirements

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770 or AMD FX-8310 or later
RAM: 8 GB
OS: Windows 7 / Windows 8 / Windows 10 64 bit
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 960 or AMD Radeon R9 280 or later
HDD: 70 GB

Can you run it? Check the World of Warcraft system requirements on PCGameBenchmark.