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After months of anticipation, rumors, and leaks, Blizzard finally revealed World of Warcraft’s ninth expansion, Dragonflight. Expectations were high, and while there are no doubt some fans disappointed by Blizzard’s reveal, the majority seem more than pleased.
Dragonflight will see players return to Azeroth to help rebuild the dragonflights, and will introduce a new playable dragon race, the Dracthyr, that can only play as the new Evoker class. The new expansion will let players fly around the new Dragon Isles region from the start using a new Dragonriding mechanic, and the expansion is putting an emphasis on improving universal game systems like talents, professions, and even the user interface over implementing one-off systems as has been the case for the past several expansions.
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Now Playing: World of Warcraft – Dragonflight Expansion Cinematic Announcement Trailer
Many of those bullet points are things players have been asking about for years. There will be no “borrowed power” systems like in Shadowlands. There’s no traveling to another dimension or into space. It’s a high-fantasy-focused expansion about Azeroth, which is what fans have been clamoring for. The expansion sees the return of a number of fan-favorite NPC races, like Gnolls, Tuskarr, and Centaurs. Players even have a new fan-favorite character: Koranos, the stone-man featured in the expansion cinematic who activates the beacon that reawakens the Dragon Isles.
Dragonriding, too, seems to have been well-received, with many players hoping that the Dragon Isles-only feature will eventually come to the rest of Azeroth, as it makes flying exciting and dynamic as opposed to the type of passive movement players currently use to navigate the world.
Fans have observed that Dragonriding seems very similar to how flying mounts work in Guild Wars 2, and rather than being upset, the community seems happy that Blizzard is possibly looking to other MMOs for inspiration.
But while the majority of players seem overall happy about the direction Dragonflight appears to be taking WoW, the community does have a few notes, particularly when it comes to the Dracthyr. More than a few players have commented that something seems off in regards to their appearance, and many fans have taken it upon themselves to craft mock-ups on how to improve their design. It seems one common complaint is that they are too slender and don’t look powerful enough.
The fact that Dracthyr can only be the new Dracthyr-exclusive Evoker class also is a point of contention, with some fans wishing they could be a Dracthyr Warrior or something aside from a magic-using ranged class. Whether Blizzard takes this feedback into account is another question, but it would be cool to see.
It does not seem Dragonflight will be arriving any time soon, with Blizzard taking a “when it’s ready” approach to the expansion. That’s a lesson learned from the release of Shadowlands, which had many players comment on the fact that the expansion didn’t seem to be ready for primetime and needed more playtesting on the game’s public test realm before launch.
In addition to Dragonflight, Blizzard also announced it will be re-releasing the game’s Wrath of the Lich King expansion. Wrath of the Lich King Classic will be released later this year, but with some surprising changes to keep the game true to what Blizzard has described as Classic’s “core values.”
