The new Warfronts mode is a 20-man battle inspired from the classic Blizzard title, Warcraft 3. Each faction takes turns controlling their Warfront, collecting resources such as Lumber and Iron to construct buildings and supply troops to defend and pursue the enemies base to obtain bigger and better gear upgrades. This sounds great in theory, but one of the many issues the WoW community has with Warfronts is the absurd time-gates Blizzard has set between both factions.

Each faction is locked into a specific weekly Scenario or Contribution phase where each must either obtain quests to gather resources for the following week in Contribution phase, or take part in the battle, constructing buildings and storming the opposing factions base in Scenario. World of Warcraft players are no stranger to weekly lockout timers; However, Alliance members are forced to wait an additional two weeks to start the Warfront content that the Horde will have already had access to in the previous weeks and this will be the recurring rotation:

Warfronts off to a slow start in the new World of Warcraft expansion Battle for Azeroth

So, while Horde players are gearing up and slaughtering Alliance bosses, Allies will have to sit back and wait for the next couple of weeks to pass.

While the Scenario phase of the warfront is engaging and clearly the most entertaining portion of the game mode, I can’t help but feel disappointed with the lack of PvP and heavy emphasis on PvE that Warfronts has to offer. The main story of Battle for Azeroth relies heavily on conflict between the Alliance and the Horde and to this point, we have yet to see playable content allowing that battle to unravel. During the Scenario phase, there is no interaction with players from the opposing faction and this is a huge let down to everyone that provided feedback on Warfronts during Beta testing. Battle for Azeroth is supposed to feel like an epic battle between the two factions and I can’t help but notice the complete lack of content surrounding this crucial aspect of the expansion. A PvP addition to the Warfront mode is a hot topic surrounding the WoW community and would be a welcoming addition.

• One week of Contribution; Stomping through quests to build the required amount of resources (Heavy speculation as to whether this phase affect progress meter)
• One week of Scenario; Building bases and forming troops to fight through the opposing faction’s defenses

Even though Blizzard has struggled to find a reasonable lock out time for the new Warfronts mode, it is still a fantastic method of obtaining Mythic Dungeon and raid level gear for Uldir. Each battle, you are gifted a 340-level piece of armor as well as 1 piece of 370 gear the first time you complete a Warfront each week. This may seem like a slap in the face to traditional methods of obtaining gear like Heroic dungeons or World Quests, but it is still a nice catch-up system for those of you late to jumping on the new World of Warcraft expansion.