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World of Warcraft: Dragonflight is the next major expansion for Blizzard’s flagship MMORPG.
The release date for Dragonflight hasn’t been announced at the time of writing, but it was notably rumored to be coming in November 2022. All we know for sure is that Blizzard will be opening opt-in Dragonflight alpha sign-ups “in the future,” but we’re still awaiting specifics there as well.
Dragonflight continues a story which started 10,000 years ago in the Dragon Isles, which is split into five zones and four leveling zones, plus a special starting zone unique to the new Dracthyr race. Dracthyrs are explicitly tied to the new Evoker class, which is said to combine traditional magic with the unique abilities of dragons. Dracthyrs start at level 58 and take a slightly different route through the Dragon Isles, and Evoker is described as a hybrid ranged DPS and healer.
This being a dragon-focused expansion, there are plenty of wings and teeth to go around. Dragonflight will introduce a new aerial mount system called Dragonriding, letting players raise and customize their own dragon mount and improve its flight capabilities. Compared to normal mounts, Dragonriding is said to be more interactive with improved momentum and skill-testing maneuvers, and it’ll be available “right from the start” of the expansion.
Dragonflight will also see some foundational features and content overhauled, starting with WoW’s user interface. Blizzard says it’s prepared a full “revamp” to improve the default user experience without limiting the potential of custom add-ons. “We want to let players choose what to show and what to hide so that they can control it themselves,” says game director Ion Hazzikostas.
Classes and Professions are due for some big tuning as well. For starters, Professions are getting a work order system to help crafters find and organize commissions, and the end-game of crafting in Dragonflight is said to offer “more depth than ever before.” Classes, meanwhile, are getting a new talent system that follows a more classic skill tree with two branches.
Blizzard has been teasing a big WoW reveal since early March, and Dragonflight itself was recently leaked through a batch of source code spotted on the game’s official website. The leak revealed traces of the base, Heroic, and Epic versions of the expansion, but didn’t tell us much about its content or story.
Even more recently, a leaker claimed (opens in new tab) to have gotten their hands on the Dragonflight logo, cinematic screenshots, and more granular details, many of which have been confirmed with today’s reveal.
WoW Classic is getting some love too: the Wrath of the Lich King Classic release date is set for 2022.
