The Earthen are a new Allied Race, available once you complete certain objectives in World of Warcraft's new expansion, The War Within. They resemble Alliance dwarves but, unlike any other Allied Race, you can choose whether to side with the Alliance or the Horde when you create your Earthen character.
Like any other Allied Race introduced in the Legion or Battle for Azeroth expansions, Earthen aren't immediately available. Instead, you'll need to level through The War Within and complete some additional achievements to gain access to them. This guide will break down everything you need to do to unlock WoW Earthen, including racial abilities and class availability.
How to unlock Earthen in The War Within
According to the in-game achievement, the unlock requirements for the Earthen Allied Race is the completion of the following storylines:
- The War Within campaign
- Mourning Rise
- Broken Tools
- Merrix and Steelvein
There isn't any mention of reputation requirements for the unlock though the campaign will obviously take some time to complete, regardless of how fast you manage to race to level 80. As with other Allied Races, you'll get access to their Heritage Armor once you get your character to level 50 through leveling.
At the time of writing, it's unknown if you'll need to complete an additional questline to gain access to the Earthen, but I'll update the details here as soon as that detail has been confirmed either way.
Which Earthen classes you can choose
Most races are restricted by what class they can choose to play as, though some more than others. Here are the nine options you can pick as an Earthen:
- Hunter
- Mage
- Monk
- Paladin
- Priest
- Rogue
- Shaman
- Warlock
- Warrior
Earthen racial abilities
Racial abilities are specific to individual races and can give a very slight advantage in certain areas. Over the years, racials have become less impactful overall, but it's still worth checking what each one offers to see if it synergises with the class you have in mind. Earthen racial abilities are:
Azerite Surge: Draw upon your inner strength. Release to invoke the power of Azerite on a cone in front of you, dealing Fire damage. This is an empowered spell that gains additional effects as you empower it.
Hyper Productive: Increases Finesse by 2%. Finesse increases the chance of gathering additional materials.
Ingest Minerals: You are always Well Fed, but cannot consume food. Consuming a Khaz Algar gem changes the benefit granted to you by Well Fed:
- Amber: Stamina
- Emerald: Haste
- Onyx: Mastery
- Ruby: Critical Strike
- Sapphire: Versatility
Titan-Wrought Frame: Base armor from equipped items is increased by 10%.
Wide-Eyed Wonder: When you gain experience for exploring a location, gain 200% additional exploration experience.
After having to buff event rewards 4 times in a year, WoW director Ion Hazzikostas admits there's 'a pattern' and that 'we may tend to err on the conservative side'
World of Warcraft might not have invented the wheel, but it certainly made it popular—and 20 years on, the MMO titan has fundamentally changed gaming's DNA
