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Battle for Azeroth is World of Warcraft’s newest expansion. Upon release, it will add two new continents to explore and the new Heart of Azeroth artifact system, as well as raise the level cap to 120. Not to mention the new mounts, new unlockable races, and new dungeons and raids to challenge. There’s also the new ‘War Mode’ setting that will replace PvP servers. It’s shaping up to be one of the most exciting expansions of the game.
One of the biggest things about World of Warcraft’s newest expansion is the Warfront battle mode. It’s been said to be an RTS (real-time strategy, like classic Warcraft) experience, but how does that work, exactly? Well, this article will explain according to what we know during the alpha:
Warfront
It’s a 20-player cooperative mode where all of you must dominate an area. Similarities have been drawn to the Battlegrounds mode, but Warfronts will focus on base-building, area control, and resource gathering rather than the various objectives the former has.
The first of these warfronts focus on the Arathi Highlands, a highly disputed land that’s right in between the Horde’s and Alliance’s territories. Either side wants to control it because it’s in the way of Horde supply lines and that where the Alliance is pushing toward.
The Gameplay
You may be wondering about the RTS experience right in an MMORPG, but that’s surprisingly an apt way to describe the game mode. However, you’re not controlling troops in a top-down view. Think of it as something like DotA, but you’re controlling a hero, you, in third-person view. So really, it has elements of an RTS game, a MOBA, and the basic gameplay of an RPG.
You’ll defeat champions, take over areas, gather resources, and build stuff. ‘Stuff’ includes barracks which will spawn minions to help you and your friends defend your territories or attack new ones. You may also build the ‘Altar of Storms’ which will give you various buffs or skills in exchange for some resources.
Rewards for the faction (or players, it isn’t clear yet) that are victorious in their round of this mode are still unclear. However, some of the possible rewards are gear, unique WoW mounts, or you know, bragging rights. Well, we can only be sure once the expansion is released, or this specific information is announced.
PvP, PvE, or… Both?
The game mode is unclear. Nobody’s sure that when one faction ‘wins,’ players on the other faction have the option to mount another Warfront and challenge the winners. So, maybe you’ll get minions and other AI-controlled creatures to defeat, as well as the champions of the opposing faction. It could be a mishmash of different game modes, all in the flavor of an RTS. Well, we’ll only really know when either more information is announced, or the expansion gets released.
A Word of Warning
Upon release, the game mode might not be exactly what is depicted here. As the mode is in alpha testing, they’re still going to iron out kinks and bugs in the programming, and maybe even adjust or change some features. The final product would be very similar, but also slightly different. With that, we can only wait until the next wave of testing, or the official release of the expansion before we can try this new game mode out.
Are you excited for the release yet? Be sure to check out other channels for more information. The expansion goes live on August 14. Can’t wait? Continue playing and enjoying World of Warcraft, and time will fly by.
Battle for Azeroth is launching on August 14th. World of Warcraft is currently available for Windows PC and Mac. In related news, a new “Classic”, Vanilla-content version of the game is coming, and PVP-only servers were removed.
