WoW devs confirm Warbands are bringing major change to itemization in The War Within

World of Warcraft: The War Within recently entered its Alpha phase, and a limited number of players are diving into its world for the first time. Part of that is a first look at Warbands, and the system could revolutionize characters when the expansion launches in full.

For those who are unaware, Warbands is an exciting change that should make WoW a much more hospitable place for those who play multiple characters. It allows for greater cross-progression and greater clarity on account-wide rewards and achievements.

In a recent interview with Wowhead, The War Within’s Production Director, Michael Bybee, confirmed an interesting new itemization change being introduced with Warbands. The launch of The War Within will see an entirely new loot type added to the game, beyond bind on pickup or bind on equip.

“We’ve added a new designation called Warbound, and there’s a Warbound Until Equipped designation. So once equipped, it still becomes Soulbound and then can’t be traded, but the intent is that you’ll be able to actually get quite a lot of gear at endgame – maybe not the max level, highest item level gear that you’re collecting, but a little bit below that – that you’ll be able to collect to share with alts.

“We’re still working on exactly where and when and how much, but that’s definitely something that we’re going to take a lot of feedback from on the Alpha and really iterate on, because we want Warbands in general to feel super meaningful.”

The developer also later confirmed that characters can be added to the player Warband, regardless of whether they are on separate servers.

No full release date has been confirmed for The War Within, but it likely won’t arrive until the final quarter of 2024. Cataclysm Classic is set to arrive on May 20, giving players plenty to do while they wait.