After months of speculations and numerous fake leaks, Blizzard announced “Dragonflight,” the newest expansion in the 18-year history of World of Warcraft (WoW). Announced in an hour-long presentation on Tuesday, April 19, “Dragonflight” brings players to the fabled Dragon Isles, the home of the Dragon Aspects that was hidden for over 10,000 years. Along with five new zones comes a new race, the Dracthyr, a neutral humanoid character with a Draconic form that, like the Pandarians, will join either the Alliance or Horde later in their journey. Alongside the Dracthyr comes the new Evoker hero class, specifically for the Dracthyr with a focus on long range DPS or Healing playstyles.
With its release, players will finally return to Azeroth after several years in the Shadowlands; a change that has Horde and Alliance players celebrating together. The quality of life changes don’t stop there though — Game Director Ion Hazzikostas announced the UI, which has been in place since the original World of Warcraft game released in 2004, is finally getting a much needed face lift as well. The biggest cheer from the WoW community came when Hazzikostas announced talent trees are coming back, ending the long cycle of grinding for expansion specific power that disappeared and became worthless day one of a new expansion.
With other MMORPGs like Lost Ark, Guild Wars 2, Final Fantasy XIV, and Star Wars: The Old Republic fighting for players’ time, Blizzard needed to blow the community out of the water and prove to gamers that WoW is here to stay and compete. “Dragonflight” overall received positive praise from the WoW community and for the first time since “Legion” the community seems to be energized. Will “Dragonflight” be the expansion to send the player count soaring again? Only time will tell.
Blizzard did not give a release date or pre-order information, but promised updates in the following months. Beta sign-ups for “Dragonflight” are now open on World of Warcraft‘s website.
Image taken from: blizzard.com
