Summary

  • World of Warcraft is revamping the zones of Quel'thalas and Northrend for the first time in over 15 years.
  • The goal of the revamps is to preserve the zones' histories while expanding storylines and giving more opportunities for exploration.
  • The updates will make the zones physically bigger and ensure that Dynamic Flying doesn't make them feel too small.

During a recent interview, World of Warcraft gave players the first glimpse of how the soft world revamps coming during later expansions in the Worldsoul Saga will work. Though still several years off, World of Warcraft fans have a better idea of what to expect in the remastered zones coming in Midnight and The Last Titan.

During BlizzCon, World of Warcraft announced the Worldsoul Saga–a multi-expansion narrative that would play out over the next several years. The War Within, the first of the three expansions it announced, would take players to new zones, but Midnight and The Last Titan would be returning to the familiar lands of Quel’thalas and Northrend respectively, revamping the zones for the first time in over 15 years.

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Recently, Warcraft general manager John Hight gave players a closer look at what these localized world revamps might look like. In an interview with But Why Tho?, Hight clarified that World of Warcraft’s goal with these remastered zones would be to preserve their histories and past landmarks while expanding and enriching the storylines found within. Players can also expect the zones to be physically bigger than they were before, largely to give more places to explore, and to ensure Dynamic Flying does not make the areas feel too small.

wow blood elf high elf sunstrider quel'danas

"We’re giving our world builders some free rein to expand. Those areas may be geographically larger than they were. That’ll give them more opportunities to introduce some of the smaller points of interest where you’ll have a culture or a local tribe and give them the ability to have storylines that center on that. We don’t want people to feel like, oh, wait a minute, it’s that same place I know. It’s gonna feel like the same place; it’s just that it is literally going to be a little bit larger than what you’ve experienced. Flight being much more accessible, we need to have a larger landmass for people to be able to explore.”

World of Warcraft just reached its 19-year anniversary on November 23. However, 13 years ago, it did a massive revamp of Vanilla WoW zones during Cataclysm, but The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King zones were not included in these changes. Given the circumstances, it is no exaggeration to say zones like Quel’thalas and Northrend, which haven’t been updated since they were first added, can definitely use the update.

Though it seems like World of Warcraft won’t be doing another complete world revamp like Cataclysm did, Midnight and The Last Titan suggest it may be focusing on localized remasters instead. Updating specific zones in smaller batches will give the developers more chances to show each place love and attention, and many fans hope it will allow them to create a richer experience. What’s more, some of these new assets may bleed into the old world, like with the new World of Warcraft ship models coming in Patch 10.2.5.

It is a little too far out to have much concrete information about what Midnight will entail. The War Within is planned for release in 2024, meaning players probably won’t see Midnight until late 2025 or early 2026. Even so, World of Warcraft confirmed it is working on both expansions simultaneously, so there’s a good chance that specifics about Midnight will start coming earlier than players expect.

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World of Warcraft: Dragonflight Tag Page Cover Art

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight
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MMORPG
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Systems
PC-1
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Top Critic Avg: 84 /100 Critics Rec: 100%
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Released
November 28, 2022
ESRB
t
Developer(s)
Blizzard, Activision
Publisher(s)
Blizzard, Activision
Engine
Unreal Engine 5
Multiplayer
Online Multiplayer
Cross-Platform Play
mac, windows
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WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL
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World of Warcraft: Dragonflight was developed by Blizzard Entertainment and is the ninth expansion pack for the iconic massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft.

Dragonflight features an overhauled user interface, raises the level cap to 70, and introduces a new race and class. 

Franchise
Warcraft
Platform(s)
PC
Genre(s)
MMORPG