Following an explosive BlizzCon showing, which peered much further into the future than ever before, World of Warcraft’s 2024 roadmap promises a year packed of updates and content as the Dragonflight expansion nears its conclusion, making way for The War Within to kick off the three-part Worldsoul Saga.
World of Warcraft’s 2024 roadmap aims to replicate 2023’s steady content cadence, which kept Azeroth animated throughout the entire year. With five planned patches on the way alongside testing phases for the next expansion and much more, we’re looking at one popular MMORPG that’s about to get bigger and better.
World of Warcraft 2024 Roadmap
Things kick off with Seeds of Winter, the first of the final three WoW: Dragonflight updates which see its story arc concluding while laying the foundations for the events of the next expansion.
World of Warcraft: The War Within will allow us to provide feedback during both alpha and beta testing phases before its pre-patch brings the Warbands system, new world events, and more in early summer.
The expansion proper seems to be aiming for a late August/early September release. Here’s a detailed look at what we can expect from World of Warcraft’s 2024 roadmap.
WoW Patch 10.2.5
Release Date: January 16, 2024
Having made its way to the PTR in November 2023, WoW: Dragonflight’s patch 10.2.5 is currently expected to go live on January 16, 2024 (US)/January 17, 2024 (EU).
It introduces the Follower Dungeons feature, which allows us to bring NPC companions that play the roles of tank, healer, and DPS when attempting the expansion’s eight original dungeons on normal difficulty.
The Outland Cup offers more opportunities to show off our Dragonriding chops, while new customization options are also planned.
Then, as the Night Elves work on constructing their new home of Bel’ameth, the Worgen set their sights on taking back Gilneas.
WoW Patch 10.2.6
Release Date: Early 2024
Soon after, World of Warcraft: Dragonflight’s update 10.2.6 will hit live servers. Its content is a bit of a mystery at the moment, although the black flag marked with a skull icon has pirate enthusiasts eyeing it out with great amounts of curiosity.
At some point between it and the launch of Season 4, World of Warcraft: The War Within alpha testing will kick off, giving lucky players a peek at the expansion’s promised content alongside an opportunity to provide feedback.
World of Warcraft: Dragonflight Season 4
Release Date: Spring 2024
Breaking away from tradition, WoW: Dragonflight’s Season 4 will seemingly not launch in tandem with a content patch, let alone a major update. Even so, it remains a major stop on World of Warcraft’s 2024 roadmap.
It will, however, revisit the expansion’s raids, in a similar manner to Shadowland’s experimental season did. New PvP and Mythic+ Seasons are also planned, while those of us who enjoy exploring the open world will find new rewards to claim.
WoW Patch 10.2.7
Release Date: Late Spring 2024
Aiming for a late spring 2024 launch and named Dark Heart, WoW’s 10.2.7 update promises a new event named Timerunning: Pandamonium.
Although it hasn’t been detailed yet, it could see us revisiting some of Mists of Pandaria’s content or having something new to do in one of the expansion’s zones.
We’re also getting Harbinger quests, while Trols and Draenei have heritage armor sets to look forward to. Lastly, a new holiday event is planned.
At some point after its release, The War Within’s beta testing phase will begin.
WoW: The War Within Patch 11.0.1
Release Date: Early Summer 2024
World of Warcraft: The War Within’s pre-patch is slated to drop at some point during early summer 2024, provided everything goes according to plan. As is tradition, it introduces some of the upcoming expansion’s systems, making it easier for us to adjust to the planned changes.
This includes Warbands, which see the MMORPG making a strong push towards more things being account-wide, as well as Dynamic Flight, a system that turns Dragonriding mechanics into the default way to fly wherever one can take to the skies on their mounts.
Guild updates are also planned for the pre-patch while new world events will also be introduced.
WoW: The War Within Launch
Release Date: Late Summer 2024/Early Autumn 2024
Without any doubt the biggest moment on World of Warcraft’s 2024 roadmap, The War Within’s launch sees the expansion arriving in full force, with four new zones to explore and eight new dungeons to complete.
It marks the proper start of a new story arc that will feed into the events of the next two expansions that make up the Worldsoul Saga.
Delves are meant to become a new endgame pillar, offering an alternative means of gearing your character in parallel to dungeons and raids.
Found in vaults spread across the open world, we can enter these smaller PvE activities seamlessly and complete them solo or alongside a group. As opposed to dungeons, they won’t all focus on navigating a linear path while taking down an end boss.
Hero Talents then add another customizable section to the MMORPG’s recently expanded skill trees, allowing us to further specialize our characters.
Aside from the Earthen Allied Race, we can also look forward to the new Nerub’ar Palace raid as well as fresh PvP season.
WoW: The War Within Patch 11.0.5
Release Date: Autumn 2024
Following the expansion’s launch, World of Warcraft: The War Within’s update 11.0.5 brings more story and quests while expanding upon its content and bringing various system updates.
Since it also features the game’s 20th anniversary event, there’s a good chance we’ll see it going live at some point in or around November.
That is what we can expect from World of Warcraft’s 2024 roadmap. As long as Blizzard continues its streak of steady content drops, Azeroth should remain a place worth visiting frequently throughout the whole year.
Curious how the year looks for WoW Classic? Check out its list of planned updates.
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