July 29, 2022

Overview of New Dragonflight Systems

It’s hard to count how much new Dragonflight expansion is going to bring to WoW. Tons of content is expected: from the new race and class to the long-awaited UI changes. In 10.0 heroes of Azeroth come back to their homeland and find that its familiar map has suddenly changed again, bringing more lands to explore from oblivion — the Dragon Isles. What will they find there, and how will the new continent change the lives of the characters and gameplay of players? Read about it in this summary of the Dragonflight!

New Race of Dragonflight

While BfA gave us allied races and Shadowlands pleased players with plenty of new race customization options, Dragonflight finally comes up with a completely new race. Mighty Dracthyr wake up from a long slumber they have been in for a very long time. Dracthyr are the result of experiments of the grand black dragon, Earth Warder Neltharion, better known as a Mad Aspect Deathwing.

They’re the humanoid dragonkin, similar to drakonids, but even more humanoid. In the ancient past, they had one of the Dragon Isles as their training ground. But after the Legion invasion, all the Isles had to be abandoned by dragonflights and they have been closed from the outside world with magic to keep their secrets. The fact of successful experiments of Neltharion is one of such secrets.

Dracthyr can switch between two forms so that in daily life they can walk around cities of mortals as humanoids. Both forms will have the biggest sets of racial customization in WoW. Most of the active and passive racials of Dracthyr are available mainly in draconic form.

Active Racials:

Glide

Soar (a skill that lets you fly for a while even in battle and finish this flight with one of the three other abilities: Principles of Soaring, Surge Forward, and Skyward Ascent)

Tail Swipe

Wing Buffet

Visage

Passive Racials:

Awakened

Discerning Eye

Familiar Skies

Dragonflight New Class

The Evoker is a new class that comes with Dragonflight. It’s, in a way, just a part of a new race. Only Dracthyr can be Evokers, and the Evokers can only be Dracthyr. No exclusions, at least for the beginning of an expansion. That’s partly dictated by the specifics of the class which couldn’t have been easily implemented in any other race. For example, many skills of Evokers are the skills of various Dragonflights, and they’re available to Dracthyr because Dracthyr are draconic results of Neltharion’s experiments.

The Evokers have only ranged DPS and healing specializations: Devastation and Preservation. Both will use Empowered abilities — one more mechanic that makes the effects of some skills depend on how long they were powered up. Dracthyr fight only in draconic form, and the listed racial abilities are going to make this class even more mobile. They can wear mail, cloth, and leather. Being a representative of a new neutral race with a new hero class, Dracthyr-Evokers will be created on 58 level and choose a faction right at the beginning of the path.

Dragonflight Dragonriding system

Dragonflight’s newest combination of class and race shares one of the most important systems that comes with the release: Dragonriding. The locations of the Isles are very big and full of various vertical obstacles for overcoming which a flying mount is definitely needed. Besides, it would be strange not to pay attention to the flying system in an addon connected with dragons!

That’s why developers of the game offer an enhancement of that system by giving players the ability to tame different types of local dragons and improve riding skills sitting on their backs. That includes a difficult process of coping with fresh mechanics that will diversify the flying process depending on the way you fly and with various skills. For instance, if you dive from a height, your speed will greatly increase, and… yes: the Dracthyr are going to have a flying form that will make them able to do it on their own wings! (For now, the Alpha shows that Dracthyr can do it even outside their homeland.)

New Talents in Dragonflight

The new talents in the talent trees of the old specs in Dragonflight can be described shortly. But not because there are just a few of them — on the contrary, the whole talent system will be reworked! It’s going to return the players to good old times when the Talents window actually reminded of a tree, and when the passive skill buffs could have been upgraded twice.

Players will have two talent trees. One is connected with basic skills of a class, and another one — with skills of a chosen spec. The talent points will be received for two trees separately. On the 70 level — max level of Dragonflight — they’ll be able to spend 31 points for the class talents and 30 for the spec’s ones. The player’s choice of individual gaming strategy is about to become as vast as it can possibly be. Although that’s when it would be important to remember that with great power comes great responsibility.

Dragonflight New UI

That rework of Talents is, in a way, a part of the Dragonflight’s new UI. The aim to make the talent tree more accurate and attractive was not the last reason to change it. Its design is a good combination of old mechanics and modern visuals.

What about other UI changes in Dragonflight? Firstly, players are going to officially receive the ability to move most parts of the interface as they like, tune the action bars up to their preferences and save the result. The different designs may be saved for different specs! Then, many UI details will become more simple, neat, and modern — like the bag buttons, bookends of gryphs and wyverns, or the whole minimap and the health bar.

Many players have already gotten used to solving the problems caused by the old UI with the help of addons. But Blizzard decided that the ninth expansion is a good moment to step in by themselves. Although Dragonflight UI offers no specifically new features, the developer’s attempt to improve the functionality of the user interface will undoubtedly become competitive with addons. Especially if it’s going to reduce the load caused by modifications.

Dragonflight Dungeons

Many Dragonflight dungeons will be situated on Dragon Isles. One exception is an old instance called Uldaman: for uncovering its secrets players will return to the Eastern Kingdoms.

Brackenhide Hollow
Halls of Infusion
Neltharus
Ruby Life Pools
Taz’algeth Academy
The Azure Vault
The Nokhud Offensive
Uldaman: Legacy of Tyr

As it became usual for the last expansions, at the beginning the Dragonflight meets players with only one raid instance: Vault of the Incarnates. You may have already become sick of dragons being everywhere, but don’t worry: the threats hiding in the dungeons of the new expansion are not necessarily draconic. A lot of other local enemies will wait for you there.

One of the most popular of them are various elementals and even possible past allies of the Twilight Hammer sect like Kurog Grimtotem, whom you’ll find in the first raid. And a few representatives of the Infinite Dragonflight are going to suddenly appear in Uldaman… Yes, they’re dragons too, but such dragons that you haven’t met for a very long time.

Another threat is the Primalists, proto-dragons that chose to become hybrids with elementals in ancient times. They’re claimed to be one of the biggest enemies in the expansion for now — that’s why Dragonflight first class tier sets will be named after them. Enjoy the look of the Primalist sets datamined by WoWHead right now:

Druid

Death Knight

Demon Hunter

Evoker

Hunter

Mage

Monk

Paladin

Priest

Rogue

Shaman

Warlock

Warrior

Dragonflight PVP

The biggest announced change in the PVP system in Dragonflight is the gear system’s update. It’s often called a sort of return to the system that was in Warlords of Draenor: the conquest gear of players will scale up in the PVP instances to make this part of PVP more balanced. At the same time, the World PVP will still be affected by the farmed level of gear, so that farming it in bloody battles is not becoming useless.

Besides, the name of the new PVP season has recently been revealed — the season will be «Crimson». And the one who becomes Crimson Gladiator is going to get a Crimson dragon:

The exact day of the release of the new expansion is not known yet, but it must see the light before the year’s end. Multiple tips can be provided for the player on how to get prepared for the Dragonflight. The most valuable would be to read other WoW Shadowlands Guides: with them, you’ll know how to finish the Shadowlands like a true champion, who’ll be ready for all the upcoming challenges. And if something will still seem to be too challenging, you know where to order new WoW services when the time comes.