Dragonflight: 7 Must-Fix Issues Before The War Within
With Dragonflight coming to an end, here are the 7 must-fix issues that Blizzard should take care of before entering The War Within.
Table of Contents
Key Takeaways
- The War Within is scheduled for late Summer 2024.
- Dragonflight has revamped WoW with many new features and updated systems. For example, the Dragonriding feature, Talent and Profession, Reputation, in-game UI, and more. However, the expansion is not without its issues.
- The 7 must-fix issues in Dragonflight are: Mythic+, the Old World is not newbie-friendly, questing, solo playing, lore, cinematics, and archeology.
Dragonflight has lived up to its promise, marking the beginning of a new era with substantial enhancements to key gameplay systems. The developers have successfully overhauled the Talent and Profession systems, revamped the in-game UI, and introduced the Renown system for building faction reputation. Players have particularly embraced the new Dragonriding feature, expressing feedback so positive that Blizzard has decided to make this a worldwide feature. Looking ahead, anticipation is high for the forthcoming Worldsoul saga, especially The War Within. After all, it will bring along further improvements to Dynamic Flying and possibly introduce Dynamic Ground Mounts in the near future.
However, it doesn’t mean that Dragonflight is absolutely perfect. It still has its faults and errors, especially in terms of Lore, Questing, the Mythic+ system, and various other issues. So, below are 7 must-fix issues that Blizzard should deal with before the launch of the next expansion.
The War Within Release Date
According to the WoW 2024 Road Map, The War Within will be released at the end of Summer or the beginning of Autumn. Prior to its official launch, players can expect the Alpha Test to go live in the final weeks of Winter or the early days of Spring. Subsequently, the Beta Test phase is scheduled to unfold during the transition from late Spring to early Summer. For more information about The War Within, be sure to check out our article here:
7 Must-Fix Issues in Dragonflight before The War Within Arrives
Mythic+
Mythic+ Dungeon farm is a major component of WoW Retail endgame. However, players often encounter challenges when trying to enjoy this element in Dragonflight. Many feedbacks claim that each Season’s instances are overloaded with mechanics. Regardless of the Key Level difficulty, these mechanics don’t make the dungeons more challenging, just simply annoying. Trash encounters are particularly arduous in this regard.
Healers suffer the most. Since the expansion’s release, Healer players have been reporting an abundance of effective cooldowns. It’s connected with the overhealing issue that the developers tried to fix from time to time. Many Healers find themselves having to use their cooldowns way too frequently. This has become an extra challenge for them on top of their already extensive list of tasks, such as timely dispelling DoTs or helping allies in CCing enemies.
The Old World and Newcomers
According to many polls created by players, the majority of the WoW Dragonflight servers’ population consists of gamers with 10+ years of experience. Meanwhile, there’s only 7% of new players who have been playing for less than 3 years.
After all, WoW is not a newbie-friendly game. This verdict is controversial, but not baseless. The game’s vast and somewhat disorganized world can leave newcomers feeling lost, especially when trying to navigate their way to level 60. And even upon reaching that level, WoW often introduces new and complex mechanics that can be overwhelming. Even those who opt for the level 70 boost don’t find themselves in a much better position. The learning curve for new players in WoW can be steep and somewhat unforgiving.
The developers often claim they strive to bring life back to the old world. But the efforts made so far seem insufficient. Even the promised return to Quel’Thalas and Northrend in the next parts of the Worldsoul Saga won’t fully address the issues for newcomers.
Questing
Another WoW Dragonflight issue is the overabundance of quests in the Dragon Isles, especially in Valdrakken. Even veteran players can get confused as sometimes it’s complicated to know which quests are important for further gameplay. A few seemingly side quests can actually provide a handful of useful reagents or clarify the specifics of your profession. But there’s nothing hints that players should pay extra attention to these quests. And so, they often have to resort to addons or guides to navigate the quests. While the quest overload may recreate the atmosphere of past expansions’ capitals, not everyone today appreciates this nostalgic touch.
Solo Playing
Is Dragonflight good in terms of solo playing? At the moment, it’s actually hard to say. On one hand, tackling numerous elite mobs solo proves challenging, and crafting good equipment is hindered by the need for reagents that often require a team effort. On the other hand, Patch 10.2.5 introduces the Follower Dungeons feature, enabling solo instances. And the upcoming Delves feature announced for The War Within is anticipated to enhance and diversify the solo gaming experience. We will have to wait and see how things will pan out.
Lore
The Dragonflight storyline was received better than Shadowlands. It also managed to resolve issues from previous World of Warcraft expansion. The plot is more grounded, concentrating on the Dragons’ lore in Azeroth instead of dumping all the events of the previous expansions on a brand-new main villain like Blizzard did in Shadowlands.
The dragons had an immense role since Warcraft 2 and especially since the beginning of WoW. However, after the Cataclysm expansion, their involvement in the story dwindled. Dragonflight brings us back to the roots, exploring each Dragonflight, introducing new Dragon Aspects, and delving into captivating plotlines involving characters like Sabellian, Wrathion, Ebyssian, and the deceased Sindragossa and Neltharion. The expansion also enriches Titan lore, setting the stage for the Titans’ anticipated return in the final part of the Worldsoul Saga.
But the WoW Dragonflight plot has noticeable issues. Initially, there were many hints that one of the main villains would be the Infinite version of Nozdormu, Murozond. But other than a separate storyline, we only partially saw him in the Dawn of the Infinites, and… that’s it. We saved the Bronze Aspect from his evil self, but everything felt so scattered and abrupt that it didn’t leave much impact at all.
The Primal Incarnates remained the main villains after the death of their sister Raszageth. One of the Incarnates, Vyranoth, became our ally and even a new Aspect. Iridikron was made too similar to Deathwing and became just a dungeon boss. He’s also responsible for giving Xal’atath a valuable artifact she holds in The War Within trailer. But still, his story role seems too controversial and fragmented for now. And the final boss of the last expansion raid is just… Fyrakk. Some of his questlines are impressive, yet, too hastily introduced. The character seems to be invented solely for the epic storyline of the new World Tree siege and evoking a hint of Cataclysm Firelands vibe.
It appears that the developers aimed to address too many topics at once by blending old plotlines with the introduction of entirely new characters. And unfortunately, this approach contributes to the unfocused nature of Dragonflight’s main conflict.
Cinematics
Dragonflight is not boring in terms of in-game cinematics and cutscenes. Their overall quality has improved greatly. However, some parts of several cutscenes still look too old-school and could have been played without a cutscene. Just for comparison: WotLK’s Battle for Light’s Hope Chapel in the old Deathknight questline doesn’t use cutscenes but may seem more epic than part of a fight between Chromie and Eternus. The overall quality should be improved further.
Archeology
While it might not be the loudest request from players, the question: “When will the Archaeology be updated?” remains. During The War Within Q&A session, Ion Hazzikostas said it wouldn’t return the way it was in BfA. And the revelation may disappoint some players, especially given the potential of the Worldsoul Saga.
Conclusion
While Dragonflight isn’t the worst World of Warcraft expansion, it does have some issues that should be fixed as soon as possible. Ideally, these concerns should be addressed in later patches or before the first chapter of the Worldsoul Saga.
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