‘Shallow’ and ‘tedious’: WoW players agree The War Within’s standout feature misses the mark

With The War Within just around the corner, WoW players are antsy to know whether the new expansion lives up to their expectations. The War Within adds the usual slew of world and PvE content alongside Delves—short mini-dungeons that promise lucrative endgame rewards.

In an Aug. 7 Reddit thread, a Redditor asked The War Within community, “People who tested beta: are delves good?” It’s a great question. The user said they’ve seen many pro players running Delves, but they want to hear whether run-of-the-mill WoW players like you and me find them “fun,” regardless of their rewards.

The top comment explained that Delves are essentially like solo mini-dungeons, but they “don’t think that gives [Delves] the right impression.” The commenter continued, “[Delves] may or may not be your thing. I think they’ve made more interesting solo content in the past; they’ve just attached a larger scaling and reward system to this one.”

Blizzard has introduced similar, more focused instanced content to its expansions before, like Battle for Azeroth’s Island Expeditions and Shadowlands’ Torghast, but neither went down well with the playerbase. It’s understandable if you’re skeptical about Delves.

A few comments are positive, with some Redditors saying they enjoyed Delves, but most users aren’t so optimistic. One user thinks Delves “should be good content while watching Netflix, but [they aren’t] great gameplay.” Another said “[Delves] focused on annoying mechanics instead of fun mechanics which makes higher difficulties a real chore.”

Others felt Delves were totally lackluster: “I was somewhat hyped i think. post test i wouldn’t say im disappointed but im for sure not hyped anymore,” one Redditor lamented, while another described Delves as a “weird mix of tedious and ‘this is bs.'”

I don’t remember the last time Blizzard released an expansion with so few features. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing—WoW is a lot better now it doesn’t have so many systems that forcibly extend your playtime, like the mobile-game-esque features of BFA and Shadowlands. With so few new features, Blizzard needs to make sure the features that do make it to live WoW are polished, engaging, and most of all, fun.

But with the community sentiment the way it is, we can’t say we’re confident. “They feel like the shallow world content of DF. Good for afk gaming, not much else,” another Redditor added.

To hear more about The War Within, check out Blizzard’s latest patch roadmap or bookmark our release countdown to the WoW expansion’s exact launch time.