Disclaimer:
Please be warned that there will be spoilers within this post. Please stop reading now if you don’t want any further spoilers.
If you missed the world premiere of the new World of Warcraft expansion reveal, I’ve added it below!
World of Warcraft: Dragonflight Cinematic:
World of Warcraft: Dragonflight
Today (19th April 2022), we finally found out (after many leaks) that the new expansion is (Drum roll) World of Warcraft: Dragonflight.
So as Ion Hazzikostas hinted and joked, “no one saw it coming!” obviously, remarking on the accurate leaks released by Wowhead proving that their digging has again been very fruitful.
Although no release date has been confirmed, I’d imagine it could be early to middle 2023 release – maybe Wowhead may find some leaks for that in due course!
Many new features and improvements are coming to 10.0, including.
- Dragon Isles – The new continent
- Two new Dungeons
- Dracthyr – New Hero race
- Dracthyr Starting zone
- Dragonriding
- Talent System revamp (Talent tree)
- Profession revamp
- UI Improvements
Sadly, no mention of player housing, Raids, or when Alpha testing will be available.
Dragon Isles – The new Continent
Upon the release of the new expansion, players will travel from their major city, Stormwind or Orgrimmar, by boat to the new continent, the Dragon Isles. Within the Dragon Isles are five zones (according to wowpedia).
There are Four zones for all players and one starting zone for new Dracthyr players.
- The Waking Shores
- Ohn’ahran Plains
- The Azure Span
- Thaldraszus
- Forbidden Reach (New Starting Zone?)
The capital city is called Valdrakon. As mentioned in the reveal, it will have its own Auction House, profession tables, etc.
New Dungeons:
According to Wowpedia, there will be two new dungeons. Neltharus and The Life Pools.
Dracthyr (Evoker):
There will be a new hero race called, Dracthyr, which belongs to the new Evoker class. This class is a hybrid, where you can opt for ranged DPS (Devastation) or a Healer (Preservation). The Evoker class is ONLY available to Dracthyr!
This hero class will start at level 58, like hero classes before it (i.e. Death Knights and Demon Hunters).
The Dracthyr are mail wearers, so expect more competition when acquiring gear within Dungeons and Raids.
Their abilities are based upon Dragons, so expect a lot of dragon-themed spells. Their Humanoid Draconic form is fully customizable too!
For more details and news on Dracthyr Visage customizations, go to 54:44 in the reveal video.
Dracthyr Starting Zone:
There’s not much confirmation online at this early stage, but with the process of elimination, I think it’s fair to suggest the new starting zone for Dracthyr players will be Forbidden Reach!
This zone will give new players to the Dracthyr class the opportunity to hone their abilities and skills before being released into the rest of the continent/World.
Dracthyr starts at level 58, so expect this new zone to last two levels (up to 60).
Dragonriding:
Dragonriding is a new unique form of flying in Dragonflight; the developers were keen to express that this isn’t like normal flying that players already experience in World of Warcraft.
Players will hone their skills and experience new features while Dragonriding, including a new movement system emphasizing the feel of momentum and gravity as you soar through the skies.
The more practice you put in, the better you become!
For more details regarding Dragonriding, skip to 58:05 in the reveal video.
Talent System Revamp:
No doubt good news to a lot of the old guard of World of Warcraft players, the announcement of the return of Talent Trees. I remember talent trees when I started playing World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King.
The new system will give us the freedom to pick our paths, especially when min-maxing our character. This news will also be good for Simulation websites and theorists who like to get the most out of their class/specs.
The best thing about the new Talent Tree system is the loadout, which you can see on the bottom left-hand side of the image above. Here you can save different loadouts for specific content. This is great for players that play a lot of different content within the game!
For more information regarding the new Talent Tree system, skip to 1:03:19 in the reveal video for more information.
Profession Revamp:
Crafting Orders is a new system coming to Professions.
Players without a specific recipe, skill, or profession can create a Crafting Order to have someone craft something for you that you cannot do yourself.
According to the reveal, we’ll be able to offer all or part of the materials needed to craft the item we require, and the crafter will make up the difference.
The UI is similar to the standard Auction House UI, and crafters can pick and choose these and complete the crafting order. There is commission, so there’s value to the crafter. But, more importantly, this can also help you level your profession!
The most important part is the quality of the crafts; this is based on your Crafting Specialization. Joanna and Eric used Blacksmithing as an example, stating that someone that had more points in the Armoursmith Specialization would craft better armor, and so on.
This addition will give value to friends and guildmates, especially if you have players covering all specializations in all professions!
For further details regarding the Profession revamp, skip to 1:06:09 in the reveal video!
UI Revamp:
Given how far World of Warcraft and players’ computer equipment have evolved over the years, the developers felt it was the best time to improve the game’s HUD and UI.
A lot of the clutter from the screen has been removed, taking away any distractions that may occur. After all, screen space in gaming is a valuable commodity. Any changes the player makes to their UI can be saved and changed depending on Spec, etc.
I wonder how many of these UI/HUD changes were ideas from the likes of TUKUI/ELVUI?!
For more details regarding HUD/UI improvements, skip to 1:00:23 in the reveal video.
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (Classic) Cinematic:
That’s right, folks! We also got confirmation of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (Classic). If you didn’t see the cinematic trailer for it, I’ve added it below.
Let the hype begin return!
My Thoughts:
It’s too soon to get carried away. There are a lot of new additions to the game, but I’m despondent (as a lot of the viewers that watched the reveal live) that there wasn’t player housing coming.
In the run-up to Dragonflight, the community detailed the need for player housing, and I honestly believed they may have gone for it. However, if their decision was based on the issues revolving around Warlords of Draenor and the Garrisons, then I’m not surprised they were put off.
But with so many other multiplayer games having player housing, I’m surprised it didn’t come.
The new Hero race/class looks good, and I like the new Crafting Order system coming to Professions. I’ve always been skeptical about parting with gold and materials when needing someone to craft something; this new system will prevent the possibility of any fraudulent activities.
I’ll save my critique for when Alpha or BETA becomes available to play.
What do you think of the reveal and the new expansion World of Warcraft: Dragonflight? Leave your comments below.
Further Information:
If you’d like further news not covered here or within the reveal video, I recommend checking out Wowhead. They will have a lot of information from data mining World of Warcrafts data files.
They will also release important updates on Alpha access and any potential release dates for the new expansion and the new World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (Classic).
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Thanks for reading!
