The Alpha for World of Warcraft’s newest expansion, Dragonflight is live! With it comes a host of new information on Dragonflight’s release date, new features, zones, and more for the upcoming WoW expansion.
Blizzard has released a lot of details this week, so we’ve compiled everything you need to know so you’re ready to get questing.
World of Warcraft Dragonflight – Just What Exactly Is It?
Dragonflight is the latest WoW expansion, making it the ninth expansion for World of Warcraft overall.
What Is the Dragonflight Release Date?
At this time, there is no official Dragonfight release date, but Blizzard is aiming for the end of this year, 2022. Pat Dawson, Production Director for WoW Dragonflight, spoke with PCGamesN recently.
Dawson reinforced that they are still on track to meet a 2022 Dragonflight release date. “We’ve been working on this for years,” Dawson said. “Before we shipped Shadowlands.”
What Are the New Features for World of Warcraft Dragonflight?
Dragonflight is being pitched as a “back to basics” expansion. Past WoW expansions focused on upping the ante in terms of in-game systems, story, and villains. With Dragonflight, Blizzard seeks a return to the roots of World of Warcraft.
In line with this, there are no major systems for player power in place. Instead, Blizzard has decided to revamp professions, class talent trees, and the overall in-game experience. Some view Dragonflight as a soft “relaunch” of World of Warcraft as sort of an unofficial “WoW 2.0.” A return to the basics that made the game so enjoyable in the past.
Wait, No New Systems? Does That Mean There Are Zero New Features Here?
Not quite. While past expansions have offered new shiny features like Artifact Power, Legendary Weapons, or the Covenant system, the revamped talent tree is just as big of a feature.
Modern WoW recently pruned a lot of the old-school talent trees. This got rid of some of the bloat from the game and trivial abilities/upgrades players got. In time, this became a bit problematic and most people lost the ability to truly customize characters to specific roles and niches.
Returning the classic talent trees restores choices and a host of new abilities to the player. It may not be a shiny new toy, but it’s a welcome ounce of player agency we missed playing around with.
What About Those Profession Revamps You Mentioned?
That’s right! Dragonflight is changing the way World of Warcraft handles professions. Crafting in particular has gone through a big overhaul, evoking the days of Star Wars: Galaxies’ crafting scene.
Being able to create items and gear on par with items picked up in instanced content is receiving more emphasis from Blizzard. Players can also specialize in becoming well-known crafters to create powerful items. These players will become the person for making select gear. Prospective customers will also be able to place orders that high-level crafters can fulfill.
What other profession updates do are confirmed?
Alchemy is seeing a rework in WoW Dragonflight. New potions are being added that contain risks and rewards. For example, check this out!
These give the player a chance to reap rewards in combat while coming at great risk. While we’ll be waiting to see how these work in practice, they sound really cool on paper.
These tweaks may not be new back of the box features for WoW Dragonflight, they’re cool updates to the existing World of Warcraft framework.
So Is Everything Just an Update to Old Systems?
There is something new in Dragonflight: an all-new class AND race combo! The Dracthyr Evokers are a new caster race-class combo. The Dracthyr is a draconic-like humanoid race and the only way to play the all-new Evoker class.
Evokers can either be caster DPSers or healers; they have a more modern feel to them, similar to Demon Hunters. They’re a mobile, welcome addition to World of Warcraft.
Was That All That’s New?
Speaking of dragons, now you can ride them!
Due to the large size of the Dragon Isles, you’re going to need an efficient way to travel them. Enter Dragonriding, one of the hottest feature for World of Warcraft. It allows players to quickly and skillfully traverse the new zones. You can customize your dragon and even take part in time trials.
It should be noted that you’ll only be able to achieve high speeds by flying skillfully and with momentum. If you lose that momentum, you’ll no longer be able to fly.
Once we get some hands-on time with Dragonriding, we’ll be sure to let you know our impressions.
What About the Endgame Content for World of Warcraft Dragonflight?
Like any WoW expansion, Dragonflight will include a raid and dungeons at launch.
The new raid is Vault of the Incarnates, containing eight bosses. Blizzard says that they’re aiming to make it a little easier than the infamously brutal Sepulcher of the First Ones from the Shadowlands expansion. It sounds like Vault will be more reasonable.
Eight new dungeons will be available as well:
- Uldaman: Legacy of Tyr
- Taz’algeth Academy
- Ruby Life Pools
- Halls of Infusion
- The Azure Vault
- Neltharus
- The Nokhud Offensive
- Brackenhide Hollow
In addition, season one of WoW Dragonflight will feature two legacy dungeons for Mythic Plus:
- Jade Serpent Temple from Mists of Pandaria
- Court of Stars from Legion
In future seasons, Blizzard has said they will tap into more legacy dungeons for Mythic Plus. As well, the seasonal rotation for Mythic Plus will feature a mix of these legacy dungeons with new ones, keeping things fresh for players.
Do We Know the Final Boss of This Wow Expansion?
While we don’t know officially who the final boss of Dragonflight, we have an idea. Based on some data mined information for the expansion’s story, all signs are pointing to Galakrond being the game’s end boss.
Galakrond is not just a gigantic proto-dragon, but also the “progenitor of dragonkind.” He’s also kinda… dead. His remains are found in the Dragonblight. However, this is Blizzard – I’m sure that there’s a way they can magic him back into existence for an epic fight.
What Else Can We Expect in World of Warcraft Dragonflight?
A lot! If we went over every specific detail, we might be here forever. Thankfully, we managed to cover the highlights as to what’s coming for the next WoW expansion.
Be sure to stay tuned here at Boss Level Gamer for more coverage of Dragonflight.
