Overview of Delves in The War Within

Delves are the new addition to endgame content for The War Within, and will sit alongside raids, mythic+ and PvP.

What are Delves?

Delves feel like a combination of Follower Dungeons, Scenarios and Torghast from Shadowlands. You will move through a type of dungeon with mobs in it, with NPCs helping you out or giving you objectives of what to do. Usually there is an end boss to defeat, and once he’s dead there is a room full of treasures to loot.

This content will have tiers, making them more difficult the higher you go, and the weekly vault will now have slots for Raids, Dungeons and World Content - which delves count as - instead of Raids, Dungeons and PvP. This means delves are something many of us will be doing on a weekly basis throughout the expansion, either on our own with just the NPCs; or in groups, as you can be up to four players.

The delves are seamless with the rest of the world, meaning you enter them by just clicking a doorway, and you don’t get a loading screen or join a queue. There are 12 different delves and you can enter as any role. During season 1 of The War Within, Brann Bronzebeard will be our delve companion, and you can choose which role you want him to play as, and also level him up over time so he becomes a better companion.

Completing Delves

Each of the twelve delves have a unique layout, although the mobs overlap between them. A few delves are Nerubian with the same Nerubian mobs, a few delves are Kobold with the same Kobold mobs, etc. However each delve has a unique mechanic and unique objectives to successfully finish the delve. One delve can have you kill a boss at the end, and another delve will just have an “event” to play through.

The mechanics in the delves are things like: don’t step on webs or you spawn adds, don’t make a buff run out or the room goes dark, or beware of artillery fire or you die. This mechanic will always be in the delve, no matter what version of the delve you are in (see below).

There are several versions of each delve, which rotate with the weekly reset. This means that each delve has three to four different sets of objectives, and it will not be the same every week. One week you might be saving Earthens and the next week the same delve will have you stomp on corpses to find tools. If it seems like a lot of work to remember several versions of twelve different delves, just check out our delve guides, where there is a quick recap for each version and what to look out for.

All delves have 11 difficulties (reminiscent of Torghast in Shadowlands) called tiers. Tiers 1 through 3 can be done while leveling, and are fairly easy with only minor increases to difficulty. Tiers 4 and higher will unlock in The War Within season 1 (which starts September 10th for US servers and September 11th for EU servers, two weeks after launch) and requires level 80. As the tiers go up the mobs have more HP and do more damage, but there will also be an increased amount of hazards, meaning more rares and traps are present within the instance.

Higher tiers will also introduce Zek’vir’s Influence; which will empower a group of mobs within the delve, making them much more difficult. In return you get additional rewards at the end of the delve if you do manage to defeat them.

Where are delves located?

The four zones of Khaz Algar will have between two and four delves each. They will show up on your minimap as a door icon.

Brann Bronzebeard

Brann Bronzebeard is The War Within season one delve guide. He has 2 specializations, damage and healer, and whichever specialization you pick does not affect the scaling of the delve itself.

Brann Bronzebeard can be leveled up throughout the season, starting at level 1 with a max of level 50. For Brann to gain experience you have to kill mobs in delves. The more delves you do the more experience and levels Brann gets. As Brann levels up he will unlock specific abilities, for example Trusty Whip, at level 2, which allows Brann to interrupt. Up to level 10 Brann will learn abilities. From level 11 and onwards he will gain a stacking increase to his damage.

Rewards

Delves count as endgame content and will reward gear for the current season, which can be used in the The Matrix Catalyst, which is the War Within version of the Creation Catalyst from Dragonflight. Delves also count towards the new “World Section” in the Great Vault. Depending on what tier delve you have completed you will be awarded with up to hero track gear.

Delves will also reward Resonant Crystals, which is a new currency you can use to purchase gear and cosmetics from the vendors across Khaz Algar.

Bountiful Delves

Bountiful delves are a special version of each delve that are only available once you hit level 80, where the only difference is that there is an extra coffer of treasure at the end of the delve. You can see if a delve is bountiful as the door icon on the map will be glowing. You can always enter a bountiful delve, however the Bountiful Coffer at the end will only be unlockable with a Restored Coffer Key. These keys come from doing tasks around Khaz Algar, and you can see how many you currently have in your currency tab. You need to have at least one as you enter the bountiful delve to be able to open the Bountiful Coffer in the end. The Bountiful Coffers award higher quality loot than the normal delve chests.

Delver’s Dirigible

Though doing delves you will be able to earn the Delver’s Dirigible, a customizable airship mount. Just like how you could customize your dragon mount in Dragonflight, you can customize this airship by changing the decal, the wings, the thrusters, the top and the nose.