World of Warcraft: The War Within officially launched today, which means you – yes, you – can fire up the game now and enjoy an espresso of this wonderful new expansion. It’s the best time to play an MMO, you know, before everything settles down and you’re forced to do weekly raids.

The expansion sees you and other players venturing into the underworld of Azeroth in search of loot, Xal’atath, and around a billion giant spiders who, ironically, don’t particularly like you hanging around. It was already playable for those who had purchased a special (and more expensive) version of the expansion, but now the gates have been opened to the entire player base.

What’s currently available is the full leveling experience, as well as the Grottos and a whole host of dungeons on Normal and Heroic difficulties. Fast forward to September 10th and the Normal, Heroic, and Raid Finder tiers of the raid release (Raid Finder is initially limited to the first wing), giving players the first truly difficult content of the expansion.

But ask some of the most dedicated WoW players, and September 17th is the date to remember, because that’s when you’ll get Mythic Plus dungeons and Mythic difficulty raids. That’s what all the good players will be banging their heads over for the foreseeable future. Everyone else will be farming mounts, fighting pet battles, chasing transmogs, and begging for nerfs to Mythic content. That’s how the world (of Warcraft) works.

Early reactions seem to be positive too! The last few expansions have been pretty good on release since Shadowlands was basically wrapped up, and as I wrote above, this really is one of the best times to jump into a WoW expansion. Don’t be put off by all the spiders either, the game has a really solid Arachnophobia mode.

Will you be joining in? Let us know below and also tell us what you’re looking forward to.