With Season 1, the first raid in WoW Dragonflight started, the Vault of the Incarnations. MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus looked at the raid and played through it directly – well, almost at least. Because some parts are really tough.
Before the release of Dragonflight, I had predicted that WoW would get everything right again after 12 years of dying. Now the new expansion has been out for just over 2 weeks.
In my first review, I checked if Blizzard is back on the right track with Dragonflight. My conclusion was: yes, if they polish a few things. Now I am pretty sure that I am right.
Because now Season 1 of Dragonflight is here along with Mythic+ dungeons, new events, and finally the first raid, the Vault of the Incarnations. I, of course, checked it all out immediately and am thrilled, even though my guild and I had a hard time. Or rather: precisely because we had a hard time.
In our special, you will find all the information about Dragonflight. The trailer showcases the most important features at a glance:
The new raid is harder than any in years
As a progress guild, we have three raid nights per week: Wednesday, Thursday, and Monday. Right after the first night, I had the impression that the Vault is indeed a good bit harder than the raids of the last expansions.
Most of my guildmates had the same impression. We got just as far this time as in Shadowlands: all bosses except the final boss on the first night, most of them on the first attempt.
Nevertheless, the bosses offer a completely different challenge. We joked around less, were very focused, simply because we had to be. A prominent example: Sennarth, the frozen spider.
Not only does the boss constantly run away and we chase him around the arena, but there are also stairs (the final boss of every healer) and especially ice patches. These don’t just slow you down, but impose new physics on movements.
That means: acceleration is slow, but once you get going, it’s hard to brake. You have to deal with that, because:
- dodging abilities on the fly doesn’t work
- catching up with the group when you fall behind gets tricky
- at the same time, you can cast while moving with enough momentum, while automatically dodging other things
The mechanic is quite difficult but really cool when you master it. Something similar exists with most bosses. However, they weren’t the only reason we felt the raid was harder than usual.
Want to know what happens after Raszageth is defeated? Here’s the cinematic – with spoiler warning!
We die too often – ‘I’ll heal too’
Healers are currently struggling with healing, especially because the gear is lacking. Not helpful is that many DPS players – myself included – still trust that the healers will catch errors.
But they can’t.
Moreover, healers generally have a harder time in Dragonflight. This is intentional and planned, but until the raid, none of us really realized how crucial this is.
Everyone has an enormous amount of health points, but healing spells do not absorb as much anymore. So more healing is required. So much that we had to increase the number of healers, quite significantly.
With 30 people in the raid, we first tried the 2nd boss with five healers. After two attempts, I even respecced – after all, I’m playing the new Evokers, for the first time in 12 years as a caster. And I wanted to try healing anyway.
Even that wasn’t enough. Our raid leader, a shaman, also had to chip in. Then it finally worked out. It’s a running gag for us that the boss has to heal to make it work. Many first kills we only managed that way.
This time, however, the healing requirements were simply enormous. Whether it will stay that way, we will see. I would think it’s really cool if we had to mix more often in Dragonflight. By the way: in the kill try, I actually put out the most healing. The Evoker is just amazing!
In my guide, you will find builds for DPS and healing Evokers. Here’s gameplay:
With 8 bosses, the raid is relatively small, which further suggests that the Vault is a bit tougher than its predecessors. By the way, we haven’t been able to defeat Raszageth in 2 raid nights, but we have managed to defeat the first bosses on heroic.
By the way, I have to agree with Cortyn: Raszageth is already a better opponent than the Jailer was in 2 years.
I have to get used to Mythic+ all over again
As preparation for the kill, our new task is: farm M+. With Season 1 also came the Keystone dungeons, including 4 of the new dungeons and 4 from the expansions of the last years. You can get really good loot there again.
I should actually be used to this, after all, Mythic+ is an activity that you grind as an active PvE player until the end. However, Dragonflight has also significantly increased in difficulty here.
Currently, I’m still struggling with 10 keys, which also has to do with my bad luck in looting. And tanks apparently have considerable difficulties doing their job – which may be due to them being heavily nerfed.
Still, I am really convinced of Season 1 so far and have a renewed desire for WoW. The new dungeons are fun, even though I haven’t seen all of them yet, and I can already see opportunities for crazy tactics and skips that will arise soon.
Shadowlands had a good conclusion with Season 4. Even big critics like Bellular see it that way. And Dragonflight builds right on that. 2 weeks after the release, I have tons of things to do, can improve in all areas, and I don’t feel like I have to pursue boring activities. I can do what I want and will always get better in some way.
There are some exceptions. For example, I need to hunt for a pretty rare recipe as a jeweler that everyone in my guild needs. And it simply won’t drop… but that’s complaining on a high level. So far, I find: from a raider’s perspective, Dragonflight is a huge success.
Surprisingly, even Cortyn has a similar opinion, though we often disagree. Our lore demon, however, has a different approach:
I played every quest in WoW Dragonflight – This is how good the expansion really is
