The public alpha for World of Warcraft: The War Within is about to begin, giving fans their first hands-on look at what the expansion has to offer. Of course, no expansion would be complete without a slew of new dungeons to explore – and The War Within has eight of them planned for launch. From rookeries overrun by the forces of the Void and daring airship battles to the depths of the Nerubian Empire, World of Warcraft brings players to a wide range of locations to fight through in The War Within.

Game ZXC talked to assistant lead encounter designer Drew De Sousa and game producer George Velev about the impending World of Warcraft: The War Within alpha. De Sousa also spoke quite a bit about the expansion's dungeons, gave a sneak preview of some encounters fans will find, and talked a little more about the decision to include some of these dungeons in the main story campaign.

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World of Warcraft: The War Within Dungeon Preview

Each of the four zones in World of Warcraft: The War Within has two dungeons – one that players can challenge while leveling up and another at max level. These dungeons cover a variety of locales, with some being straightforward dungeon crawls and others being unique settings and new mechanics.

Dungeons in World of Warcraft: The War Within

Dungeon

Location

Type

The Rookery

Isle of Dorn

Leveling

Cinderbrew Meadery

Isle of Dorn

Endgame

The Stonevault

The Ringing Deeps

Leveling

Darkflame Cleft

The Ringing Deeps

Endgame

Priory of the Sacred Flame

Hallowfall

Leveling

The Dawnbreaker

Hallowfall

Endgame

City of Threads

Azj-Kahet

Leveling

Old City

Azj-Kahet

Endgame

De Sousa was particularly excited about The Dawnbreaker, as it utilizes Dynamic Flying similarly to the iconic Nokhud Offensive dungeon from WoW: Dragonflight, but in an all-new way.

"It's actually named after an Arathi airship – like a giant battle airship that we're escorting. Imagine you're interceptors, diving off the side of this airship to take on smaller ships, or handle units on the ground."

De Sousa gave fans a rapid-fire preview of some of the highlights from other dungeons as well:

"There's a lot of cool cultures we're going to touch on. We have a dungeon that explores why you really shouldn't take candles from a kobold... Maybe there is something in the dark they're worried about that we'll have to deal with in that dungeon!"

Additionally, the Skardyn – void-corrupted dwarves introduced in the Night of the Dragon and connected to Xal'atath in World of Warcraft: Legion – will appear in the Rookery, as well as other places throughout the story.

He was also excited about the two dungeons in Azj-Kahet, as they show off a side of the Nerubians World of Warcraft players haven’t seen yet. "We had dungeons like that in Wrath of the Lich King, for example, but these were undead Nerubians in crumbling ruins of their former empire," De Sousa explained. "But here, with these dungeons and the Nerub'ar Palace raid, we're going to see them at the height of their power, see Nerubians for what they are, and actually get a cool look into their culture and what they're all about." If De Sousa’s words are any indication, World of Warcraft: The War Within dungeons will give players a wide variety of places to explore.

"There is value in the classic dungeon crawl experience, and we do try to strike a balance. We do have traditional 'fight your way through, find out who the big baddie is, and put a stop to him.' But, we do like to look for something that is memorable, or that feels like a hook or a unique way you're going to navigate the dungeon... We try to be cautious to still have a straightforward experience... But we're looking for variety, we're looking for places where we have opportunities to really upsell this fantasy, and just try to balance the overall experience."

Two of these dungeons – The Rookery and The Cinderbrew Meadery – are available for testing in the first build of the alpha. "I'm really excited about the Rookery myself," De Sousa said. "Stormrooks are awesome. I fly mine around on live still, so I'm ready to go and get some of them back up in the air and free them from the Skardyn... [And] as you campaign through, there might be some damage to [The Cinderbrew Meadery] and they might need to contract out a goblin faction to do repairs. Hijinks ensue, and we need to clear them out." These dungeons weren’t available during the press event, so the first wave of lucky fans who are chosen by World of Warcraft for The War Within alpha will be the first ones to try them out.

Telling a Story Through World of Warcraft Dungeons

One of the biggest changes in this expansion is that some dungeons are a mandatory part of the main story campaign. Before, World of Warcraft would sometimes have major events happen in dungeons, even if they were optional content. That’s all changing in The War Within, as the level-up dungeons are mandatory to complete the campaign. "We really lean on the overall story for any dungeon we make," De Sousa said, "but any place where we can have it as a part of the core campaign is an awesome bonus, and really lends itself to making a bigger, better boss fight, or a bigger, better dungeon, whenever we can do that."

A big factor as to why this is possible is the new Follower Dungeons feature added in WoW: Dragonflight. Previously, WoW was hesitant to make solo players do dungeons, as they would be forced to join up in a group. But, with the ability to bring AI allies into dungeons, even these fans can enjoy dungeon stories without forcing the social aspect. "We wanted to have AI bot support for [these dungeons]," De Sousa said. "If you do want to experience it as a solo player, the Rookery will have that available if you want to go through and just experience the story. We're making those kinds of considerations where we can." What’s more, De Sousa said this will allow World of Warcraft to let players bring special story NPCs into some dungeons to create an even better narrative experience.

"I can't speak for all of [the dungeons], but in the case of The Rookery, we will have specific characters there to support the events that are going on, so we're looking for opportunities to do that where we can, and where it makes sense."

Between both mechanics and narrative weight, dungeons in The War Within are setting a new standard for World of Warcraft in The Worldsoul Saga. When it was first announced, this multi-expansion storyline was said to be the most ambitious tale World of Warcraft has ever told. While fans will have to decide if that is the case for themselves, The War Within seems to be a promising start.