MeinMMO has spoken with some of the leading developers of World of Warcraft We talk about talents, story, and flying in the new WoW expansion “Dragonflight”.
In the wake of the announcement of World of Warcraft Dragonflight, we had the opportunity to conduct an interview with some developers from Blizzard. We immediately bombarded Steve Danuser, the story chief behind WoW, and Brian Holinka, the lead combat designer of the game, with questions regarding Dragonflight.
In doing so, we covered many different topics. It’s about the new talent trees, the return of old abilities, the story of the Dracthyr, and whether flying will ever be possible on the Dragon Isles.
The Dragon Isles and what we want there
MeinMMO: What exactly are the Dragon Isles – and why are we going there?
Steve Danuser: The Dragon Isles are the ancient breeding grounds of the dragons. It’s a place where they lived a very long time ago, before the War of the Ancients and the Sundering tore the world apart. And when that happened, that is when the world was torn apart, the magic disappeared, and so the dragons left this place to allow it to heal. They [the dragons] waited for a time when the magic would hopefully return. And with all the things happening with Azeroth, [Azeroth] is entering a time of renewal and these life energies are flowing through the world again. This means that the Dragon Isles are being awakened again. At the same time, the dragons feel this call within them that beckons them home.
So now is the time for them to return to their old home. But other, old threats and enemies are also returning to the Dragon Isles. Moreover, so much time has passed that the dragons have to work hard to reclaim their homeland. This lays the groundwork for some of the conflicts we will see as we stand by their side. The dragons need our help as heroes of this world to take back the land and ensure that this kingdom can be restored.
MeinMMO: Can you talk a bit about the different areas? What is the basic story behind them and what problems do the dragons face there that players need to help with?
Steve Danuser: Sure. So the main part of the Dragon Isles is this landmass that consists of the 4 new areas.
After the players have heard the call of the dragons and want to assist them, they arrive at the “Coast of Awakening”. This is a land that is quite infused with elemental energy. When we arrive, we immediately encounter one of the larger threats, the elemental half-giants called the “Djaradin”. They can channel magma and mold it into weapons or armor. They hunted dragons long ago – that’s sort of their main task. They are eager to drive the dragons away and seize some of their power sites for themselves.
At the coast, we also see some of the main locations of the dragons. The Red Dragonflight has the “Lifepools”, where they preserve life and defend future generations of dragons. The Black Dragonflight has a place called the “Obsidian Citadel”. There, the Black Dragonflight, which was responsible for defending this land back then, had a fortress. We discover that the Djaradin have invaded there and taken control of the Obsidian Citadel.
This is one of the threats where we need to support the dragons.
But let’s move on to the other areas.
We travel to the Plains of Ohn’ahran, which are vast grasslands where centaur culture flourishes. Here we will get embroiled in some of their clan conflicts. And while we fight alongside them, we also encounter the green dragons in their Emerald Gardens. There we learn that this flight, which lost its aspect… do you remember when Ysera died during the events of Legion? We then experience the story [of the green flight] and find out what challenges they must overcome.
From there we head to the Azure Mountains, the home of the Blue Dragonflight. The land is divided into these large forests with giant trees and the more autumnal tundra, which then leads into the frosty parts of the land. There, the Blue Dragonflight has its archive full of knowledge and powerful artifacts. In doing so, we learn something about their past and find out that this flight is also struggling. Many of its members have been lost in the conflicts of recent years – and their aspect, Kalecgos, is still quite new in his job. He has a lot to manage to reunite his flight.
In the end, we find ourselves in Thaldraszus, the heart of the Dragon Kingdom. This area is the most intact in terms of the buildings left behind. We discover that – without the dragons there – some of the Dracthyr and Dragonkin have looked after the place, but they too have encountered many problems and now need help. After all, this long stretch of time has also had an effect here. It is truly the heart of the kingdom, here stands “Tyrhold”, this Titan building that represents the bond between dragons and titans.
[The areas] all have quite different, exciting stories to tell.
Is there a big villain in Dragonflight?
MeinMMO: Most recent expansions had a clear “big bad”. Will Dragonflight have one too?
Steve Danuser: We really want to start this expansion with a sense of discovery, exploration, and adventure. We wanted to return to that impression of discovering a very magical landscape and wanting to explore it, rather than having the whole world hanging by a thread. We want the story to unfold and gradually lead towards that.
Nevertheless: There will clearly be a few identifiable villains, especially at the start of the expansion.
We will find out that the dragons were not always united. Long, long ago there was a kind of conflict over the philosophy between the aspects who embraced the gifts of the titans and allowed those gifts to transform them – both physically, culturally, and philosophically. And then there were other dragons who wanted to be free of that influence and believed that dragons should evolve from within and find their own path in this world that is not tied to the titans.
These philosophical differences led to tensions. The tensions led to hostilities. And the hostilities led to fights. We learn from the history of this great war that took place between the dragons long ago. Although the leaders of this separatist movement were defeated and imprisoned – not everything that was imprisoned stays so, when some of those forces rise up that want to free them.
We will dive into this story and experience some very primal dragons that have a very different agenda than the aspects.
Endgame Features: Does Dragonflight lack in that department?
MeinMMO: At first glance, Dragonflight looks promising, however, it seems to lack a major endgame feature like Torghast, covenants, or warfronts. Are you focusing endgame more on traditional features, like dungeons and raids? Or what will players do at level 70?
Steve Danuser: The important thing to keep in mind: This is just day one, we are revealing only some of the main things of the expansion. Many more details of this content will be discussed in the coming time.
Still: What we are trying to achieve is that the max-level content feels truly connected to the world. There are many factions that you will find on the Dragon Isles – not just the dragons, but also other friendly factions with whom you want to work. This offers players many different paths they can take – in any order. There is no block preventing you from working with just one faction at a time. It is a huge array of choices and you can decide which ones to pursue and which rewards you want to earn. These paths will also unlock additional story content.
In Shadowlands we had these 4 large covenant campaigns that were quite linear. The max-level gameplay in Dragonflight is very open and allows you to interact with it as you wish. You can really tailor your experience to what your character enjoys doing, what you want to see in the world, or who you want to work with and increase reputation for. All of these options will be available.
MeinMMO: To jump in there briefly: Will world quests scale with item level again?
Brian Holinka: We are making some adjustments so that people scale as their item level rises, so they have a good gameplay and quest experience. However, we always ensure that players feel stronger when they receive better gear. At the same time, we want to ensure that they have a good experience when playing the game and that combat feels fun and exciting.
Whenever people would receive heroic or mythic raid gear, it would otherwise be a problem in the open world – [the scaling] we will continue to do.
Origins of the Dracthyr and their Story
MeinMMO: Why have we never heard of the Dracthyr before?
Steve Danuser: The details of what happened to the Dracthyr and why they were previously isolated is something that will be explained in the starter experience.
But to give you an overarching, somewhat spoiler-free version of it:
The origins of the Dracthyr go back to a time when the dragons were at the height of their power. They had this land, the Dragon Isles, and were truly at the top of the food chain – the most powerful beings in this world, as the kingdoms of mortals were still very young.
But Neltharion, before he became Deathwing, was tasked with protecting the dragons and their culture. He believed that some of the dragons who had a philosophy different from the aspects were slowly building up troops. Neltharion decided that as a protective force he wanted to create the perfect soldier. He took the powers of the dragons and their essence – the things that made them noble, strong, and magically gifted and looked at these mortal races that were still young but full of potential in terms of their adaptability and cleverness.
He took all of that, combined it, and thus created the Dracthyr as ideal soldiers.
But as we will find out, the mere existence of these soldiers caught the attention of the separatists. That was then the incident that triggered a great war.
We will later reveal more about what happened and why Neltharion lost command over the Dracthyr, as they had to be locked away afterward.
Because afterward, Neltharion embarked on a rather dark path, the Dracthyr remained somewhat forgotten while Neltharion’s attention turned to other, more insidious experiments.
It is right now, as the Dragon Isles awaken again and some of the threats emerge, that the need for the Dracthyr to arise exists so that they can help against these threats.
However, [the Dracthyr] enter a world that they also do not know. For they have been in stasis for so long. Part of their story is to find out what they should do now, where their creator, the aspect that guided them, no longer exists. What path should they take? It is a story about finding a legacy that they can carry into the future.
Dracthyr only have 2 specializations – on purpose
MeinMMO: Why did you decide to give the Dracthyr a DPS and a healer specialization, when there’s already a tank shortage? Aren’t you afraid that there will be even fewer tanks if people play Dracthyr?
Brian Holinka: There are 2 reasons for that. Firstly: Every time we have implemented a new hero class – monks, death knights, demon hunters – we have added a tank specialization, but never a ranged DPS specialization. Therefore, we thought it was time to do something different and offer something new.
Additionally… when we design a tank, we want something that stands out clearly and then balance it. The more tanks we add, the harder that will be. We feel that we have a good set of tanks and that players enjoy playing them.
The Dracthyr have a healing specialization and that is also a role that is often sought after. This gives people a new way to play a healer.
And of course, we always need to have a DPS specialization to cater to everyone, especially for players who want to venture into the world and quest. They simply need to have an option to deal damage.
In short, we believe that players who play tanks will continue to do so. And we can try to increase the number of tanks by addressing the issue differently – and not with a new class.
We are bringing a dragon and we want to make the dragon experience as cool and fun as possible. We want to address the tank shortage differently, like through easier accessibility or by making tank gameplay more enjoyable and easier to shoulder all the responsibilities that tanks carry.
MeinMMO: Having only 2 specializations has already troubled players back in Legion. Why did you decide to handle it the same way for the Dracthyr?
Brian Holinka: On the one hand, this gives us the opportunity to think about what else we could do with specializations for this class in the future. We didn’t want to laser-focus on 3 specializations right away. We wanted a ranged DPS and a healer. Do we really need 2 ranged DPS specializations? We didn’t feel that was necessary. Since [the Dracthyr] are closely tied to the magics of the dragon flights, we also wanted to focus exactly on that.
It really was just about getting these two specializations just right and making them as cool as possible.
MeinMMO: Since the dragon riding feature is coming to the Dragon Isles, does that mean traditional flying mounts will not be accessible at all on the Dragon Isles?
Brian Holinka: I wouldn’t say “not at all”. Our focus at launch is on mobility with dragon riding and making it a cool, fun experience. We want to bring a new way of movement into World of Warcraft. A new experience with which you can travel around while questing. That’s why we focus on dragon riding.
The initial experience may be similar to the gliding of demon hunters or the goblin glider, where you move very quickly but descend slowly. Over time, however, you can teach your dragon to rise into the air or do a barrel roll, climb, and do all these other things. This helps you journey through the world and unlock new areas of the map.
We believe that by first focusing on dragon riding, we make the player experience during questing significantly more interesting.
Talents bring back old, popular abilities: Legendary effects, azerite, covenant skills, and more
MeinMMO: How do you ensure that you do not recreate the problems of the past in the rework of the talent system, where you could allocate a talent point with each level, but the selection was almost meaningless?
Brian Holinka: Yes, that’s kind of funny. You know, we looked at many of the thoughts of the developers back then when we created these talent trees. We read articles about the “Mists of Pandaria” talent tree and watched some of the videos from the developers back then, which problems they were trying to solve.
One of those was: There is just a limited number of meaningful decisions in the talent trees, so we want to offer you only those and focus on really significant decisions.
Back then, we referred to the talent system of “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare”, which we found really cool.
Now that we have played with this system for several years, one of the things we can return to… I wouldn’t necessarily call them “meaningless decisions”. I would rather call them “simple decisions”. We underestimated the value it has to get a point with each level-up and then set: This is how my character will be. So instead of these things just being given.
We believe that having this selection, being able to make these micro-decisions, has a little value that we lost.
With all that in mind: What talent trees allow is to say: I might choose this talent here and that’s not such a super significant decision, but it leads me in a direction with which I can reach a talent I want. I can slowly work towards it.
We believe that there is value in making those decisions over a certain period of time.
MeinMMO: Can we expect some completely new talents? Because with the removal of the covenants, some abilities will be missing.
Brian Holinka: Yes, two things about that. Firstly, I wouldn’t say there are “extremely many” new abilities, but there will be some.
We are always looking at the various abilities and systems from recent years and what we had, like artifacts, azerite traits, or covenant abilities and soulbinds. There’s some good material that has fallen away. This is now an opportunity for us to reintegrate some of those cool things. Legendaries are another example.
This will be integrated into the talent trees, so that players can choose what they want to have back.
As you might have seen in the preview for druids, with Convoke the Spirits. This is a popular covenant ability among druids that appears in the talent tree.
Many abilities that players have gotten used to or that are particularly iconic for the classes – we are bringing back in the talent trees.
Professions should create social connections and community cohesion
MeinMMO: Can you talk a bit more about the professions system? How does profession gear or work orders work? And what is that supposed to achieve?
Brian Holinka: Several things. On the one hand, we want professions to have their own progression system. We want that if it’s important for players to be a really good blacksmith or one who is known for their blacksmithing work, then that should be possible. We want to give players the opportunity to do just that.
We don’t want a world where you just build really good gear and throw it in the auction house. We prefer that you can be someone others go to when they want something specific.
So we have work orders. These allow players to ask other players to create items for them. For example, items that are bound when picked up and not just the BoEs [“Bind on Equip”] as we have today.
If you are currently a craftsman, then you can make good items – but really only for yourself, unless it’s BoE. We [as developers] often have to use “BoE” and “BoP” to maintain the balance of power so that people cannot just get the best stuff directly from the auction house.
This allows someone to say: I have a rare reagent here, which I got from the raid. I’m going to Steve now and say, “Hey, can you craft me the Sword of Incredibility that you are so good at making?” And then Steve can do that for me, even though I can’t do it myself. In doing so, Steve can progress in his profession…
That was sort of the goal behind the system, to allow players to do that.
Steve Danuser: Yes, we really want to get back to that community feeling, where players benefit from other players in the world who have different professions and have made different choices. So that everyone somehow works together. Or, if you just want to enjoy the benefits of knowing many people, you can simply have them craft things for you.
It should really bring people together more and lead to crafting something together – and you get some really cool outfits in the process. That’s a plus as well.
MeinMMO: Can we get a hint on the release date?
Steve Danuser: No, we’re not talking about the release date yet.
More about the new expansion Dragonflight can be found in our comprehensive overview article.
