World of Warcraft (WoW) revealed its 9th expansion; Dragonflight on April 19 2022. WoW Dragonflight introduces new (leveling) zones, a new race, a new class and a ton of other features.
Introduction & Cross Faction play
In the announcement, three developers; Ion Hazzikostas (Game Director), John Hight (Franchise Manager) and Holy Londale (Lead Producer WoW Classic), introduce us to the new Dragonflight expansion.
At the start Ion adresses issues that occurred in the story and progression in the last Shadowlands expansion. The WoW community wasn’t pleased with the story’s direction, some design decisions and the countless grinding systems and progressions. Ion and the WoW team are working on ‘fixing’ these issues and want to provide a better player experience the future.
Cross Faction Play
Ion also mentions Cross Faction play which is something that has been on the table for a while. With Cross Faction Play, players are able to play together no matter what faction they’ve chosen at the start. This means that Alliance and Horde players are able to team up and beat a raid boss together!
WoW: Dragonflight Cinematic Trailer
During the expansion announcement a brand new WoW: Dragonflight trailer was shown to the viewer. In the trailer we seen a number of dragons along with a familiar dragon; Alexstrasza.
New Race & New Class in WoW: Dragonflight
The Dragonflight expansion introduces the player to a new race; The Dracthyr. The Dracthyr are bipedal dragons which have their own customization options. The Dracthyr have a Humanoid form and a Draconic form. This is similar to the Worgen who have a human and wolf form.
The Dracthyr also come with a new class; the Evoker. The Evoker is able to wield the magic of all five Dragonflights. These Dragonflights all have their own colour attached to them. Red Dragon Magic is very fast and explosive while Blue Dragon Magic is more focused and overwhelming.
The Evoker is the only class a The Dracthyr can select. The Evoker is a Hero Class which means that they’ll start at level 58 and can jump straight into the new story! Like the Pandaren, the Dracthyr can either join the Horde or the Alliance.
As mentioned in the Dragonflight preview, the Evoker currently has two specializations; Ranged DPS and Healing/support.
Want to know more about the Dracthyr and Evoker? Watch the full preview here!
New zones, riding a dragon & exploration
Dragonflight also introduces the player to five new zones which you can explore with your own dragon. Yes, you read that right! The new WoW expansion let’s the player tame their own dragon early on the expansion.
There were also mentions of a big update to the User Interface which remained mostly the same for the last 15+ years. And also, the talent & profession system is getting an update.
Returning to Azeroth is just the beginning.#Dragonflight pic.twitter.com/XK5Kgl8NOg
— World of Warcraft (@Warcraft) April 19, 2022
What is the Release Date for WoW: Dragonflight?
The release date for WoW: Dragonflight is currently unknown. My best bet is either Q3 of 2022 or Q1 of 2023. Blizzard usually releases their expansions in Q3 of a given year. Let’s hope that’s the case with WoW: Dragonflight as well!
