World of Warcraft's 9.1 update is finally available on beta servers

World of Warcraft's 9.1 Chains of Domination update, the first big one since Shadowlands released back in November, is still likely months away. But if you're exceptionally curious about what it'll add, there's now an early beta version available on WoW's public test servers.

As Blizzard previously announced, the 9.1 beta rolled out early this morning so players can help test a ton of new changes. Probably the most interesting will be balance fixes to all of WoW's classes, with dozens of alterations to different skills and abilities. Affliction Warlocks, who have long dominated as WoW's best damage dealers, have been nerfed extremely heavily. But they also have a new PVP talent that you can use to trick enemy players into falling to their deaths, so I'd call it an even trade.

Update 9.1 isn't just about class balance, though. It'll also add a ton of new activities, story quests, and areas to explore. Only some of those are currently available on the beta, however. Korthia, a new subzone in the Maw, and its associated questlines are all there, but there's no way to play the new megadungeon called Tazavesh. Like all new raids, the Sanctum of Domination will only be tested intermittently throughout the beta cycle on specific days, with the first test happening on April 16 for just two of its ten bosses.

When it comes to Covenants, though, there's a lot of new stuff to explore. New story chapters have been added for each Covenant alongside 40 new Renown levels with new rewards and cosmetic gear to earn. There's also new tiers in your Soulbind talent trees to fill in too.

Still, this early in it's hard to get a sense of just how big 9.1 will be and whether it will be worth the unusually long wait for its release. But if you're itching to spoil some of the upcoming story right away, you can hop onto the beta servers now.

With over 7 years of experience with in-depth feature reporting, Steven's mission is to chronicle the fascinating ways that games intersect our lives. Whether it's colossal in-game wars in an MMO, or long-haul truckers who turn to games to protect them from the loneliness of the open road, Steven tries to unearth PC gaming's greatest untold stories. His love of PC gaming started extremely early. Without money to spend, he spent an entire day watching the progress bar on a 25mb download of the Heroes of Might and Magic 2 demo that he then played for at least a hundred hours. It was a good demo.