The Warbands System in The War Within: A Comprehensive Guide

The War Within Warbands Guide

The War Within expansion introduces Warbands, a new account-wide progression system for World of Warcraft. This innovative feature is designed to enhance the gameplay experience for players who frequently use multiple characters (alts) by providing shared progression across all characters on a single account, regardless of faction.

This guide offers a comprehensive overview of the Warbands system, exploring its features, benefits, and the significant changes it brings to the game.

Overview of Warbands

The Warbands system in The War Within expansion is designed to enhance the quality of life for players with multiple characters (alts) by addressing key objectives:

• Simplify Alt Gameplay: Provides a shared progression system, making it easier for players to enjoy their alternate characters without additional grind.
• Seamless Switching: Allows players to switch between characters without losing significant progress, ensuring a smooth gameplay experience.
• Account-Wide Achievements: Makes achievements and other forms of progress account-wide, reducing redundancy and increasing convenience.
• Transparency: Clearly indicates which parts of the game are account-wide, helping players plan and manage their progress more effectively.

How Many Characters Can Be in Warbands?

The Warbands system in The War Within expansion allows all characters on a Battle.net account to be part of a single Warband. There are no restrictions on the number of characters that can join, and the system includes:

• Characters from any server.
• Characters of any faction.
• Characters of any level.

This comprehensive, account-wide system ensures that every character on your account benefits from the shared progression provided by Warbands.

Account-Wide Progression Systems in The War Within

Warband Conversions

A major feature of the Warbands system is the conversion of many character-specific progressions into Warband-wide progressions. This ensures that progress across various activities is shared among all characters on the account.

When players log in after the pre-expansion patch, they will see that many progression elements have been automatically converted to apply to their entire Warband. This process happens automatically, and while it may take some time to complete, players are not required to log into each character individually for their progress to unify.

The Warbands system simplifies the player experience, consolidating achievements, reputations, collections, and other account-wide progress into a single framework that benefits every character.

Warband Bank

The Warband Bank is an account-wide storage system accessible by all characters on an account. This innovative feature removes the hassle of mailing items between characters, simplifying inventory management across your roster.

Storage Details:

• The Warband Bank includes five tabs.
• Each tab provides 98 inventory slots for storing items.

Purchasing Tabs:

• Players must purchase each tab in-game with gold.
• The cost increases progressively with each additional tab.

This shared bank makes it easy to transfer reagents, crafting materials, and other items between characters, streamlining inventory management and enhancing quality of life for players with multiple characters.

Gear in the Warbands System

The Warbands system introduces a new type of gear called "Warbound until Equipped", which simplifies the process of gearing up alternate characters and improves item management. This gear can be freely transferred between characters on the same account until it is equipped. Once equipped, the gear becomes Soulbound and can no longer be transferred.

Warbound until Equipped gear is available from raids, dungeons, and Delves, providing players with multiple ways to obtain it. Additionally, players have a bonus chance to earn extra Warbound gear as personal loot. Bonus gear is one tier lower than the source loot and is often usable by any class, adding flexibility for equipping alternate characters efficiently.

Transmog Collections

The War Within expansion introduces a significant revamp to transmog collections. Transmog collections will now be armor type-agnostic, allowing any character to unlock appearances for armor types they cannot wear. For instance, if a Priest loots a piece of plate armor, the transmog for that item will become available for any plate-wearing characters on the account.

Class-specific appearances will remain exclusive to their respective classes, ensuring these unique looks retain their identity. However, the majority of transmog collections will now be more accessible across all characters. Additionally, the appearances UI is being updated to allow players to view appearances for any character on their account, simplifying transmog management and ensuring a smoother experience.

Achievements

The introduction of the Warbands system in The War Within brings a significant overhaul to the way achievements are managed. Many achievements will now become Warband-wide, meaning that once an achievement is earned on one character, it will apply to all characters on the account. This change eliminates the need to complete the same achievement multiple times across different characters.

A unified Warband achievement score will replace individual character scores, providing a streamlined and cohesive way to measure progress across the account. However, some achievements will remain character-specific due to their unique nature or because they are designed to be particularly challenging or interesting on a single character.

Additionally, rewards granted by achievements, such as titles and dungeon teleports, will also become Warband-wide, making them accessible to all characters on the account. This ensures that achievement rewards are more flexible and easier to enjoy across multiple characters.

Currencies

Although currencies in The War Within are not entirely Warband-wide, the system for managing them has been significantly improved. Shareable currencies can now be directly transferred between characters on the same account using the current User Interface, eliminating the need for workarounds or complex processes.

This streamlined system simplifies currency management, making it easier to allocate resources where they are most needed. It also reduces the risk of accidentally spending a valuable currency on the wrong character, ensuring a more seamless and efficient gameplay experience.

Warband-Wide Reputation

Reputation systems introduced in The War Within expansion will become account-wide, allowing progress made on one character to be shared across all characters on the account. This change removes the need to grind for Exalted status on multiple characters, streamlining progression for players with alts.

When a reputation is converted to be Warband-wide, the progress will reflect the furthest level any character on the account has achieved. Some reputations from the Dragonflight expansion will also be included in this system.

However, certain minor reputations, such as Winterpelt Furbolg and Glimmerogg Racer, will remain character-specific to preserve their unique design. Additionally, the Human racial Diplomacy, which granted a 10% bonus to reputation gains, will be removed from the game as it does not align with the new Warband-wide system.

Additional Changes

New Character Select Screen

The Character Select screen has been given a visual makeover. Characters now appear gathered around a campfire, creating a more immersive atmosphere. The main list of characters is displayed through a drop-down menu, streamlining navigation. While this update doesn’t add new functionality, it offers a fresh and visually appealing take on the character selection process.

Rolling for Gear in Raids

A minor change has been introduced to the Group Loot system in raids. When rolling for uncollected gear, players now have a Transmog option instead of the Greed option, giving it higher priority for those who don’t yet have the appearance. Additionally, characters who can equip the gear immediately are given priority in Transmog rolls, ensuring gear goes to those who can benefit from it right away.

Conclusion

The Warbands system introduced in The War Within expansion enhances the quality of life for players managing multiple characters. By providing shared progression across all characters on a Battle.net account, the system simplifies various gameplay aspects, offering a cohesive and flexible experience.

Features like the Warband Bank, Warbound until Equipped gear, account-wide achievements, and reputation streamline the game, making it easier to explore Azeroth without losing progress when switching characters. The Warbands system ensures a more efficient and enjoyable experience for players, redefining what it means to play across multiple characters in World of Warcraft.