WoW Battle For Azeroth Expansion's New PvP War Mode, Bounties, And More Detailed

There's only a little over a month and a half left until the release of World of Warcraft's forthcoming expansion, Battle for Azeroth. We've seen gameplay, collector's editions, and more, but now it's time for some nitty-gritty details on PvP and other new additions coming in the expansion.

We first saw Battle for Azeroth teased in November of last year. The world has been plunged into a war between the Alliance and Horde, and we also know that the expansion will add several new continents and increase the level cap to 120. But that's not all that's being refreshed. PvP talents are seeing some change, and there are three new additions to sink your teeth into: War Mode, bounties, and the Dueler's Guild.

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The WoW blog details all of these features. This time around, PvP talents might be a little different than what you're used to. In Legion, talents are earned through playing in PvP and earning honor levels--but this puts newcomers at a disadvantage. In Battle for Azeroth, talents will become available as you level. Instead of rows to choose from, you'll have groups of talents to choose from, and by level 110, all talents will be available to choose from.

Stemming off from that is a whole new way to get into PvP: War Mode. Gone are boundaries like server rule-sets. Any player can play in any realm and opt-in and opt-out when they please.

"With War Mode, we wanted to solve the problem of some players feeling 'locked' into one play style or another by their realm choice," the blog reads. "They might have picked a PvE realm purely because their friends were there, even though they were interested in open world PvP. Conversely, they could have chosen a PvP realm to start, but later decided it wasn’t for them anymore. War Mode provides a way for both styles of gameplay to co-exist for every player--and with the way realm sharding works now, we felt this was the right opportunity to let players choose."

There are several perks to opting in, namely experience bonuses when leveling. At max level, War Mode also offers gold, resources, and artifact power bonuses. You can jump in at level 20 by visiting Orgrimmar or Stormwind.

Within War Mode is another feature: bounties. Since War Mode is a PvP mode, you can gain infamy by killing other players--kill enough without dying and you'll earn the rank of assassin, and a 15 percent increase to health and damage. But there's a danger to this too. Assassin-ranked players are more likely to be spotted on maps for other players to kill and earn bounties from, as well as conquest points.

The new Boralus or Zuldazar areas have outdoor arenas, perfect for the new Dueler's Guild. Like the Brawler's Guild, you'll face off in 1v1 matches with rival players. Once you lose, you're out, but keep winning and you'll get some achievements and a chance at the Contender title.

Battle for Azeroth launches on PC August 14. Pre-order it now and get a one-character level boost to 110.