Following a period of calamity for the world of Azeroth, long-forgotten forces are stirring in the mythical Dragon Isles, the ancestral home of dragonkind. Today, Blizzard Entertainment announced World of Warcraft®: Dragonflight, the upcoming expansion for the company’s critically acclaimed massively multiplayer online role-playing game, which welcomes players into a new era of high-fantasy adventure.
The dragons of Azeroth have played a central role in the world’s affairs, guiding the mortal races and influencing events with their considerable power—occasionally for their own ends. As their sacred broodlands reawaken, the dragons will call on the heroes of the Alliance and Horde to help reckon with the threats and mysteries that are beginning to surface. Reemerging after eons of dormancy and ready to join the fight are the powerful dracthyr Evokers, World of Warcraft’s first ever combination race and class.
Depending on the class specialization they choose, dracthyr Evokers can assail enemies from range as a damage dealer using breath, fang, and claw, or aid and bolster their allies as a healer by means of the more mystical gifts of dragonkind. Players who create dracthyr Evokers will be able to design both the draconic avatars that they embody in battle, and the humanoid Visage forms they use to interact with the denizens of Azeroth. Dracthyr Evokers begin the game at level 58, with a unique starting questline, and they can choose to align with either the Alliance or Horde.
In addition to their cunning and power, Azeroth’s dragons are known for their aerial agility—fittingly, all players will be able to learn the art of Dragonriding, unlocking a new dynamic form of flight along with a drake companion that can be customized in appearance and trained to soar through the sky more effectively as players progress through the expansion. Dragonflight will also bring the most extensive updates to World of Warcraft’s talent and profession systems since the game first launched, providing players with new levels of freedom and depth in how they define their characters.
“Players have been eager to revisit World of Warcraft’s high-fantasy roots, and they’re going to find just that in Dragonflight, with a deeper exploration of Warcraft®’s iconic dragons and a thrilling adventure into their legendary homeland,” said Mike Ybarra, President of Blizzard Entertainment. “We’re also completely overhauling many of the game’s underlying systems to ensure that WoW® continues to offer the type of experience that players expect not just with this expansion but for many years to come.”
World of Warcraft: Dragonflight Features
- Discover the Dragon Isles: In their journey to the new level cap of 70, players will explore the primordial wonder and ancient secrets of the Dragon Isles across four new zones—the Waking Shores, roiling with elemental power; the vast expanse of the Ohn’ahran Plains; the frosty peaks of the Azure Span; and the majestic spires and temples of Thaldraszus.
- New Playable Race/Class Combo: Players will menace their foes (or empower their allies) as a dracthyr Evoker, WoW’s first ever race/class combo. They’ll design both humanoid and draconic forms, pick between the Alliance and Horde, and venture forth as a healer or ranged damage-dealer that harnesses the collective might of all dragonkind.
- Soar Through the Skies: Dragonflight introduces Dragonriding, an all-new skill-based method of aerial movement that allows players to take to the skies on the back of their personal Dragon Isles Drake. Players will customize their drake as they progress through the expansion, collecting more appearance options and enabling them to fly farther and faster.
- Talent System Revamp: The new talent system empowers players to make creative and flavorful talent choices without compromising their effectiveness—and most importantly, it gives them meaningful options at every level.
- Improved Professions: Crafters rejoice! In Dragonflight, players who aspire to become renowned for their crafts will find a host of new features and tools to fuel their ambitions, including player-driven work orders, new profession equipment, and an all-new specialization system.
- Updated UI: Dragonflight will refresh the World of Warcraft user interface, with improvements to the look and feel of the minimap and other elements, and new options for players to customize different aspects of the UI to their tastes.
For more information on World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, visit www.worldofwarcraft.com. Further details, including public-testing and release plans, will be announced there as development progresses.
The Dragon Aspects Return Home to Reestablish their Kingdom—
- The Dragon Isles, the origin place of dragonkind, have come to life in a surge of elemental energy after the great sundering 10,000 years ago. The sky above the isles has illuminated with the colors of the dragon aspects once more, who’ve come to reclaim their rightful home.
- Standing in their way are old threats and fierce proto dragons, including the isle’s elemental half-giant inhabitants known as the Djaradin—enemies and hunters of Dragons who wield the power of magma. Among the rich histories and legacies to explore, even the once destructive black dragonflight has made its way to the Dragon Isles. Wrathion, who had long sought the location of the Dragon Isles, will need to help his fellow black dragons come to terms with their volatile past in the wake of his father Deathwing’s cataclysmic actions, which will be no easy task.
Iconic New Locations—
- Here, the Reliquary and Explorers League representing the scientists and settlers of the Horde and Alliance respectively, are working together to research and unearth the ancestral history of the Dragon Isles across four new zones.
- The first players will experience, the Waking Shores, is a wild and untamed land bustling with activity. Here the red Dragonflight are clashing with the Djaradin in a territorial tug-of-war.
- The Ohn’ahran Plains are next, a wide-open plain occupied by centaur and fiery proto dragons. The local centaur clan have long feuded with the green dragonflight, who’ve since nestled in the nearby groves.
- The snow-covered Azure Span follows, a massive zone with lots of verticality where the fan favorite Tuskar are fighting alongside Kalecgos and the blue dragonflight.
- Finally, there’s Thaldraszus, the seat of power for all five dragonflights, where players will find the new capital city of Valdrakken (complete with its own auction house!), as well as the technical marvel of Tyrhold—an ancient facility maintained by the titans in the kindgom’s dormancy.
Dragonriding & the Dracthyr Evoker: A New Playable Allied Race Class Combo—
- Neltharion, later known as Deathwing, created the ideal solider in the Dracthyr—a race with both a humanoid and draconic form that brandish the power of all five dragonflights.
- The mail wearing Dracthyr race, who can pledge themselves to the Horde or Alliance, are solely dedicated as an Evoker class, with specializations that mix magics of the dragonflights. Their ranged damage dealer specialization, Devastation, draws on explosive red and focused blue magic, while their healer specialization, Perseveration, utilizes rejuvenating green and time-twisting bronze magic.
- A new spell type exclusive for the Dracthyr, Empower, enables them to charge other spells for a greater effect. Empower can be paired with a strafing Deep Breath flight attack, which spews fire in a direct line beneath the Dracthyr. They can also knock foes back a short distance with a leafy Wing Buffet spell.
- Dragonriding, an all-new method of aerial movement, allows players to take to the skies of the Dragon Isles atop a Dragon Isles Drake, which they will befriend in each of the four new zones during the leveling experience. Customization options for the drakes open up as players progress, collecting more appearance options and unlocking new abilities that will enable them to fly farther, longer and faster.
HUD UI, Talent, and Profession Improvements—
- A fresh approach has been taken to modernize the default Heads-Up Display (HUD) User Interface (UI), adding new functionality, removing clutter, refreshing art, and improving accessibility. The results are a larger gameplay area, map, and health bars along with a more compact spell bar and bottom menu. The new HUD UI is also modular, allowing for elements to be moved and placed where preferred.
- HUD layouts can now be saved, and will remember what specialization players use, updating accordingly.
- Talents have been revamped as well, with a return to a tree system, featuring one tree for class talents and another for specialization talents. The new talent trees allow for a deeper customization and combinations not previously available, and loadouts can be saved and swapped for any occasion.
- Professions have seen big updates as well, with the addition of the crafting orders system, which allows players to have specific items crafted for them despite not being the right profession or level to do it themselves. Crafting orders can be filled by other players in the same realm or guild, or by an NPC. This allows for players to get their hands on Soulbound items from a different profession they may not specialize in.
- A quality rating has been introduced to crafting, where higher quality crafted items will have more beneficial stats or effects. Crafting specializations also make their return in a new way to allow for more paths within a profession, where, for instance, a Blacksmith might specialize in Armorsmithing specifically.
- Lastly, what are professional crafters or gatherers without their tools of the trade. Dragonflight will allow players to place their profession tools into a special UI removing the need to keep such items in their bags along with new gear that players can earn to enhance their yields within their profession.
