WoW The War Within: Hero talents explained

World of Warcraft’s next expansion, The War Within, expands the talent system introduced in Dragonflight by adding Hero talents on top. They work similarly to talents, but aim to give you deeper customization and let you live out your true class fantasy.

Hero talents are a core system in WoW: The War Within. They’re still in development and could change when the expansion finally launches on Aug 26. Here’s how Hero talents work in The War Within. 

What are Hero talents in WoW The War Within?

Hero talents are a new gameplay system featured in the upcoming The War Within expansion that lets you unlock new abilities and spells. This system is meant to give your class additional depth and further specialization.

Hero Talents are a feature Blizzard intends to keep around, with the devs already calling it evergreen. In simple terms, Blizzard wants to expand and improve this feature with every next expansion, even after The War Within.

Hero Talents and Talent Trees in The War Within explained

Each WoW class gets three Hero Talent trees in The War Within, but each specialization can only choose between two. The Hero trees are lore-inspired and are strongly linked to the themes of the specializations that can choose them.

For example, for Priests, the Voidweaver tree is only available to those with Shadow and Discipline specializations, the Oracle tree is only available to Holy and DIscipline, and the Archon tree is only available to Holy and Shadow.

• Each Hero tree starts with a keystone talent that gives you a powerful ability. It underlines the core purpose and gameplay systems intended for that tree.
• Each talent tree ends with a capstone talent that’s very impactful and rounds out the new playstyle.
• You can freely swap between Hero trees, but you can have only one active.
• Hero trees are separate from talent trees, and essentially build upon the already-existing system. 
• The system automatically unlocks when you hit level 71 in the new expansion.
• You earn one talent point per level from level 71 to 80, which means you get every talent in the tree by level 80.
• Respeccing should be easy, and will work similarly to the current talent tree system.
• There will also be starter builds available to players, and you can also save your builds.
• Abilities from Hero talents will have new visual effects.
• You can still use the same gear.

List of all Hero talent trees in WoW The War Within

When are Hero Talents coming to WoW?

Hero talents are the core gameplay feature that will launch with The War Within, set to release on 26 Aug 2024. You can also play a few days early, from Aug 22, if you purchase early access to WoW: TWW. We’ll update this article if there are any major system changes to Hero Talents upon release.