The War Within beta test: What you need to know

The War Within officially rolls from the alpha to the beta on June 5, so now is a great time to catch up on all the information you might need to know — and lucky for you, here’s a rundown of all the information on the The War Within‘s beta test.

Getting into beta: The War Within release calendar

First, if you haven’t signed up as a beta tester yet, it’s quick and simple, and we’ll walk you through the beta sign up process. Remember, there are lots of beta key scams out there, so if you’re not familiar with some of the common phishing tactics, we have a primer/warning about common beta key scams. If you’d like to take a minute to sign up for Blizzard’s other franchises, now’s a great time to do so. If you already got into the beta and you’re wondering what to do next, we have some helpful tips and tricks for beta testers.

If you’d rather wait until the live game, we’re predicting the 11.0 pre-patch will land sometime in July. We’re also predicting the release date for The War Within expansion will be the week of September 17 — but if you spring for the Epic Edition, you’ll have three days of early access before that.

Content you might want to try during beta testing

The first thing to test in the beta phase may start before you even get in-game: Warbands are coming, and by logging in at all you’re already testing them. Since they represent a new way of mashing together all the characters on your account — and yes, we really want to repeat that it’s all the characters on your account — including shared Warband reputations, and Warband banks, expect them to break some unexpected things. Also, before you get to go into the game itself, you may want to try out all the options for the new Earthen race. They have a lot of customization options to look through, all gorgeous.

When choosing realms for the beta, there are 2 general types: the “These Go To Eleven” server, and the rest. The rest are like a regular server, where you can roll a template character or copy over one of your own from live servers. The These Go To Eleven server is a special server used specifically to test end game content. All the characters on the Eleven realm are templates at max level, and outdoor content is inaccessible, since the purpose of these servers is instanced content. If you want to quest or explore the new zones, pick any server other than the Eleven server. You can find out more on this in the beta patch notes.

When you’re finally in-game, you’ll find yourself in Khaz Algar, and from there, the world is your oyster. Before you take off — literally — remember that dynamic flight is the way of the world now, though you can customize it a bit. Also, you might want to turn on the new arachnophobia mode, even if you’re not afraid of spiders. It’s hilarious. Don’t forget to pick your new talents — or try out Wowhead’s TWW talent calculator to make sure you get it just right the first time in-game.

Once you’re ready for combat, why not take new game feature Delves for a spin? They’re an instanced adventure like a dungeon, though with the perk that you can do them with any number of players from 1 to 5, with NPCs filling the roles you haven’t brought along with you. And while that does sound great, NPC interactions always need a little smoothing out in the beta phase.

The raid testing schedule

Another thing which is typical of the beta process is that certain content — specifically the new raid — is available strictly by appointment. Nerub-ar Palace is no different. The development team released a list of dates, times, and encounters to watch if you’re interested in storming the chitinous castle in beta. One note, though: the final boss, Queen Ansurek will not be available for public testing.