World of Warcraft: The War Within will be the tenth global expansion for the WoW series, which will be released in late summer or early fall and looks promising as it will bring a lot of changes and interesting mechanics to the game. One of these features will be the Warbounds system. In this WoW Warbands guide, you will find out what it is and what its purpose.

What are Warbands in WoW The War Within?

The next update will introduce a new system called Warbands, which will allow players to combine several of their heroes into one group, thus making it possible to share their equipment, resources, bank, reputation, achievements, etc. Warbands can contain characters from both Warbands factions: Alliance and Horde. This update will give players many advantages that they lacked before, and will be especially useful when leveling up alt characters. However, this system does not work between different regions, which means that characters from EU servers cannot be added to the same Warband from NA servers.

• List of features that Warbands will introduce:
• Bank
• Fame and reputation
• Achievements
• Warband items
• Flight paths
• Collection of transmogs
• Currency

How do I create a Warband?

You will be able to create your Warband only after The War Within update is released, or in the pre-patch for this event, and the full release should be expected when patch 11.0 is launched. Until then, you have To get started, think about and choose the four best characters you want to combine into one group. In the main menu, you will see the corresponding buttons, which you can click to add the characters to Warband. You can make a lot of such groups, but there is currently no information on the number of groups. You can add your main Warband to your favorites and the heroes from this group will be displayed in the main menu of the game. You can change them at any time. After you add heroes to your Warband, they will be synchronised, which will take some time. After that, you can enjoy all the features of the Warband system.

Warband bank 

One of the main features of Warbands system  will be the ability to more easily transfer items and gold between characters, which will be provided by Warbank. Now, in addition to the usual tab for saving items, players will have new ones that can be used by all characters in your Warband group. A total of 98 cells will be available, which means they are not infinite, but they are not free either. Players will be able to buy only five columns, the amount of which increases each time. The total amount of all cells will be 3,126,000 gold:

Column 1: 1,000 gold

Column 2: 25,000 gold

Column 3: 100,000 gold

Column 4: 500,000 gold

Column 5: 2,500,000 gold

Just like the guild bank, the Warbank can also be customised to your liking, sorted, icons changed, etc. You can freely send and receive any items to and from the bank, as long as they are not tied to a specific character: armour, weapons, consumables, resources, etc. Gold can also be deposited and withdrawn between characters, which makes it easier to transfer it to starting characters to buy the best equipment at the beginning levels. 

However, there is a slight limitation. If a player uses multiple World of Warcraft Warbands accounts on the same Battle.net account, then only the first character they logged in as will have access to the bank.

Warband reputation changes and renown

Once you create a Warband, all the reputation and Renown level progression you earn will be distributed to all the heroes in your group. This means that all rewards will be distributed among all Warband heroes, and you can receive them only once. When you merge characters, they will automatically receive the highest reputation level available. 

For example, if you have reached the maximum level of Dragonscale Expedition on at least one of your four characters, regardless of whether he is an alt or main, then all your characters will receive the maximum level of Renown. However, reputation is not stackable, which means that if you have one character with one level of reputation and another with a slightly different level, but not the maximum, they will not stack.

While many of the different reputations available will be merged, some will remain tied to a specific character, such as Winterpelt Furbolg or Glimmerogg Racer. At the beginning of The War Within, the merger of reputation and fame will apply only to the current expansion and the previous one (Dragonflight). However, Blizzard plans to return and add progress from previous expansions, which will work according to the same rules as here.

In addition, the Diplomacy racial bonus, which gives 10% to people's reputation, will be changed to something else so that players are not artificially forced to play for a specific race to progress faster.

Rewards for WoW Warbands quests

Now, when you complete main campaign quests or side quests in The War Within, you will receive various rewards as usual. But now, you'll get a bonus for completing the quest for the first time, mostly in the form of extra reputation points, and sometimes it can be Warbound gear. You will not receive anything for completing quests on alt characters, or some resource, like the current Dragon Isles Supplies.

Achievements

Most of the current achievements in World of Warcraft apply to the entire account, and some of them are tied to a single character. But with the arrival of Warband, this system will change, and it will become easier for achievement hunters to get all the achievements, as they will now be credited to all characters in the group. Combining characters into one Warband will convert about 2000 achievements. Additionally, achievement points will now be totalled based on the progress of the entire Warband, not just the current character. 

However, some achievements will remain in the unmerged category, including very difficult achievements and those that do not make sense to transfer. Achievements related to dungeons will mostly be in the shared category, and those that require specific actions from a particular character will be personal.

Warband gear

Now the game will have a new type of equipment with a Warbound type binding, which can be transferred between characters in your Warband group through the same Warbank. However, once you wear this item, you will no longer be able to send it to another character. You can get this type of equipment while completing dungeons, raids, and some other activities. Hunting for items of this type is good for those who plan to level up their alt characters.

Previously, it was impossible to do this, let alone send a high-level item to another character, as it would have ruined the gameplay. Most likely, Blizzard has decided to reconsider its approach to this issue and adapt to the fact that players need more freedom, given the large amount of content.

Warband transmog

The process of replenishing the collection of cosmetic items, namely transmogs, will become much easier after the release of The War Within. The equipment you receive during the game will be automatically added to your transmog collection, without the need to put them on. 

Any other actions with the item: destruction, sale, or unenchanting will also add the item to the collection. All items in your character's bank after the first login will be added to your transmogs.

Also, such items will not be tied to the WoW Warband classes or the type of armour that the character can wear. Let's say you're playing as a rogue, and you pick up an item that can only be worn by a warrior. Previously, in such a situation, you would not have been able to get this item in the transmog collection, but now you can. This means that hunting for transmogs during raids and dungeons will become faster, more convenient, and richer.

Currencies

In World of Warcraft The War Within, various currencies will not be directly distributed to all characters, forming a single amount. That is, the amount of your gold and various currency resources will not form one single bank between the characters of the Warband group. However, as we have already mentioned, you will be able to freely transfer a certain amount of gold or currency to your other characters through the Warbank system. This is to prevent players from accidentally spending gold or other currency on the wrong character. Still, there will be some restrictions on the transfer of resources. For example, items like Cosmic Flux, which were present in World of Warcraft Shadowlands, or Awakened Crests in Dragonflight.

Flight points

Another change will be that now flight points between different locations will be saved and distributed between all Warband heroes. This means that you won't have to constantly search for and activate flight points near the respective masters in cities. This makes quick travel between locations much more convenient in the early stages.

The map exploration progress will remain unchanged and locations will not be automatically explored for all characters. Still, players will have the opportunity to have a scouted map with the help of The Warband Map to Everywhere All At Once.

Additional experience

Playing as a hero of the highest level, you can level up your other characters in the Warband group. They will receive an additional 5% of your earned experience, allowing you to level up your alt characters a little bit.

Conclusion

WoW Warbands explained! So as we can see, a seemingly insignificant change that simply unites heroes into one group hides a lot of things that greatly improve and facilitate the game on different characters. All of these changes will allow players to speed up the game on their alt characters, allowing them to try out different builds, gameplay types, and complete more content at a faster pace.