Bringing Back the War in Warcraft – My suggestions
Dear Blizzard team and fellow adventurers,
I’ve been thinking about ways to add more depth, strategy, and chaos into World of Warcraft, and I’d love to share a few ideas that could reignite the true War in Warcraft.
- Expanding the Bounty Hunter System
Right now, world PvP feels a little too safe and predictable, boring and repetitive, nothing exciting. Imagine a player-driven bounty system where anyone could place a bounty on another player for a set amount of gold (with upper and lower limits to avoid abuse).
The bounty would be shared between all hunters who accept and successfully complete the contract.
This system would create a dynamic “cat-and-mouse” feel across the world, adding suspense, danger, and new incentives for PvP.
Guilds could even collaborate to defend their members or coordinate manhunts.
- Faction Freedom – Mercenaries & Pirates
The faction war is iconic, but what if players had more agency?
Mercenaries: Players could choose to “go rogue” from their faction and secretly align with the opposite side for limited-time contracts. For example, an Undead who’s fed up with the Horde could secretly fight alongside the Alliance for gold and resources.
Pirates/Outlaws: Players could renounce both factions entirely and live as free agents. Outlaws would be hostile to everyone, with a unique hub/city as their base.
Pros: Higher world quest rewards, ability to loot a % of items from fallen enemies (not gold in bank).
Cons Both factions would see you as hostile — you’d always be on the run, but always chasing high risk/high reward gameplay.
Contracted bodyguards: Hiring players with gold for a period of time to follow you and defend you as you quest or do whatever you have to do
- Strategic Guild Warfare (Warcraft Origins)
WoW has incredible lore roots in Warcraft 1–3, but the strategy element has been missing. Instead of something like Garrisons, let’s go bigger:
Mega Guilds: Guilds could establish fortresses and outposts in contested zones.
Resource Gathering: NPC workers could mine, cut lumber, or train troops under guild direction. Using them to construct buildings, war machines and arming players and troops.
Conquest Battles: Guilds would invade and conquer areas, building barracks, defenses, and outposts. The more resources invested, the stronger the NPC armies and the more sophisticated their tactics.
Bodyguards: Guild leaders or warlords could assign up to 8 NPC bodyguards that follow them into the world (with a max of 4 allowed in dungeons/raids). Depending on your rank in the guild you start out with 2 bodyguards, and work your way up to 8 total
Player Bosses: Major battles would culminate in players themselves acting as final bosses, with their armies defending them.
This would reintroduce a strategic and large-scale “war” element that WoW hasn’t seen in a long time. It would give guilds meaningful goals beyond raiding and Mythic+.
- Extra Spice – Other Fun Ideas
Dynamic World Events: Randomly occurring invasions or natural disasters (scourge outbreaks, demonic rifts, elemental storms) that guilds/players must band together to overcome.
Seasonal Campaigns: Each season could include a new “Warfront” between factions or rogue pirate guilds. Winners earn lasting buffs/rewards until the next reset.
Player Economy Wars: Resource-based systems could tie into professions — imagine miners gathering ore for war machines, alchemists brewing potions for armies, and engineers building siege weapons.
Final Thoughts
At its heart, Warcraft has always been about conflict, strategy, and dominance. These ideas aim to bring back the danger of the open world, the thrill of betrayal, and the strategy of large-scale battles — while giving players more agency in how they live their Warcraft story.
Thanks for reading, and I’d love to hear what the community and Blizzard think about evolving WoW in these directions!
Bring back the War in Warcraft!