WoW Dragonflight's Final Update, Dark Heart, Arrives In May

World of Warcraft's Dragonflight expansion is coming to a close on May 7 with the arrival of the game's Dark Heart update, Blizzard has announced: a patch that will set the stage for the game's next expansion, The War Within.

Patch 10.2.7 will tee up characters like The War Within's main villain Xal'atath, as well as reintroduce players to characters like Alleria Windrunner, who Blizzard has already said will have a large role to play in the story to come. Aside from new narrative quests, Dark Heart will additionally add new customization options for Kul Tiran characters, new Heritage Armor quests for Trolls and Draenei characters, and will unlock previously Renown-gated story content for all players, regardless of their Renown progress.

According to Blizzard's WoW 2024 content roadmap, Dark Heart will be Dragonflight's final content update prior to The War Within pre-patch, patch 11.0.1. That update will formally add one of The War Within's key features, Warbands, as well as new world events prior to the arrival of the expansion proper.

While it's still unclear how long of a wait it will be between Dark Heart and The War Within's pre-patch, players will still have other content to enjoy in the meantime. The recently revealed WoW Remix: Mists of Pandaria event will now officially kick off on May 16, just over a week after Dark Heart's release, Blizzard has announced. The event will see players create new characters and level up through 2012's Mists of Pandaria expansion, albeit at a faster pace and with a slew of powerful new items and abilities. There will also be plenty of collectibles to earn, including some difficult to unlock mounts and transmog items from when Mists of Pandaria originally launched, along with some new color variants of old favorites. Characters created for the event, as well as cosmetics earned, will roll into the main game, ready to jump into The War Within once the event concludes.

Based on our hands-on preview of The War Within recently launched public alpha, WoW's next expansion should feel familiar to those who played Dragonflight, even as it introduces new features like account-wide progression and new solo content in the form of Delves. While fans don't yet know how Dark Heart's story quests will lead into The War Within, spoilers from the alpha already point towards a major character death and the destruction of a beloved city. The War Within will officially introduce a new playable Allied Race, the Earthen, but alpha dataminers think they've uncovered what might be a secret, unannounced playable race as well.

The War Within does not yet have an official release date but is scheduled to launch this summer. Its arrival will usher in the first chapter of a three-expansion storyline Blizzard has dubbed The Worldsoul Saga--a trilogy of expansions Blizzard is hoping to release at a quicker cadence than the MMO's usual two-year release schedule.