The next expansion of World of Warcraft is packed with new content. We have gathered everything you need to know for the release of WoW: Dragonflight. After all, there are many new features in Dragonflight: The new class Evoker, new talent trees, dragon riding, and of course a big beta to test everything.
The beta of World of Warcraft Dragonflight has now started. Not only through numerous live streams but also through interviews, the developers have released a lot of information. It’s difficult to keep an overview of everything that has already been announced and discovered in the alpha. We are trying to compile and present all the known information in this article.
Note: This article was last updated on November 18, 2022.
Key Information at a Glance:
- The release date for Dragonflight is November 29, 2022
- The pre-patch 10.0 is already live and the pre-event is underway
- Dragonflight increases the level cap to level 70
- The Evokers are a new class and also a new race, able to become healers or ranged DPS
- The expansion takes place on the Dragon Isles, which brings 4 new, large areas
- Dragon riding is a new feature that will replace flying on the Dragon Isles
- The beta test is already underway, many players have been invited
All Information on Release, Pre-order, and Price of Dragonflight
When is the release of Dragonflight?
The release of World of Warcraft Dragonflight is on November 29, 2022. The pre-patch 10.0 was already released on October 26.
What is the price of WoW: Dragonflight?
Dragonflight will be released in 3 different versions. These range in price from 50 € to 90 € and offer different benefits. They vary from basic game access to special transmogs and cool mounts. We have listed all the content of the various editions and their prices in the overview of the editions.
Are there bonuses for pre-order and collector’s edition buyers?
Yes, there will be again, as confirmed by Blizzard. For pre-order customers, there is a small Dracthyr pet “Drakks”. The Collector’s Edition, on the other hand, comes with some physical bonuses, such as an art book. All the contents of the Collector’s Edition have been shown here.
Can you participate in the beta?
Yes, that is possible. However, you need to log in with your Battle.net account on the official WoW website and agree to the “opt-in” for the beta. Then you have a chance to receive beta access in the coming days and weeks. However, there is no guarantee for that. The beta has already started.
We explain how the beta registration works here.
However, beware of “key sellers” who claim to sell you a beta key or unlock your account. There are no beta keys; Blizzard unlocks WoW accounts themselves for the beta test. So don’t fall for fraudulent schemes.
The Story: What is Dragonflight about?
So far, little is known about the overarching story of Dragonflight.
However, the cinematic revealed that the dragons left their home, the Dragon Isles, 10,000 years ago to participate in the War of the Ancients. Now, after Azeroth has awakened from the events of recent years, the veil around the Dragon Isles has been lifted, and the dragons have been summoned back to their homeland.
As we now know from Blizzard, three years have passed between the end of Shadowlands and the start of Dragonflight. This marks the first proper “time skip” in the history of World of Warcraft.
After that, the Alliance and Horde each send a team of explorers to also explore the Dragon Isles – this is explicitly not a war mission, but rather an adventure for explorers.
On the islands, the heroes will then be confronted with different problems faced by the dragons. While the green dragons still have to come to terms with the death of their aspect Ysera, Chromatus is trying to unite the black dragons and eliminate rebels to seize his swarm’s citadel.
There are also many local issues – as the dragons have been absent for the last 10,000 years, other species have spread across the island.
We conducted an interview with the developers about the story and learned many details about the Dracthyr.
A supposed leak from a dialogue in the alpha even suggests that there will be a time jump of several years. This has been confirmed.
More story details were provided in an initial in-game cinematic:
If you want general information about the story of the dragons, we have summarized the whole story of the dragons in WoW.
The Backstory of the Dracthyr
As usual, Blizzard has already started releasing a series of story videos to tell the backstory of Dragonflight. The focus is on the Dracthyr and the aspects. Nozdormu tells a young Dracthyr commander what has happened in the past millennia. This is narrated in the videos titled “Legacies”:
- Legacies 1: The Creation of the Aspects
- Legacies 2: The Betrayal of Neltharion
- Legacies 3: Deathwing and the Old Gods
The Fate of the Night Elves
Without a doubt, the Night Elves are one of the races that have particularly suffered in recent expansions. The loss of Teldrassil and the resulting genocide of the Night Elves has drastically diminished the population of the Kaldorei. Although Tyrande’s search for Sylvanas in the Shadowlands was successful, the problem of the Elves is still not resolved.
In Dragonflight, however, there will be a fateful decision between Tyrande, Malfurion, and Ysera – but beware, this is quite spoiler-filled and has even led to fans demanding Blizzard not to be so mean to the Night Elves again.
Developments in the Horde
While the Alliance is looking for a new home for the Night Elves, it seems that brighter times have arrived for the Horde. Because Thalyssra and Lor’themar, the leaders of the Nightborne and Blood Elves, will apparently get married during the time between Shadowlands and Dragonflight. This will unite two ancient Elf races and significantly strengthen their political ties.
The Betrayal of the Titans
Interestingly, with Dragonflight, Blizzard is bringing the Titans into a new light. Recently, a new in-game book was discovered that holds some exciting revelations about Odyn, the Titans, and the Black Empire. However, note that the article on the great betrayal contains many spoilers.
Is there a pre-event?
Yes, there will be. Starting mid-November, various elemental attacks will begin worldwide. Here you can earn “catch-up” rewards and grab a toy while beating powerful elemental bosses back to their origins. At the same time, the Evokers will already be playable, allowing you to get your first impression of the new class before heading to the Dragon Isles a few days later.
Features of Dragonflight: New Class, New Continent, and Dragon Riding
As is usual for a World of Warcraft expansion, there is a whole range of new features. While they may seem a bit less in Dragonflight, the mentioned innovations should represent real highlights.
New Class: Evoker
The Evokers have been playable since Phase 2 of the pre-patch. If you are looking for a suitable name for the Evokers, we have a guide to dragon names in WoW here.
After a long time, World of Warcraft is finally getting a new class, the Evokers. Not only are they a new class, but they are also a new race originating from the Dragon Isles. They can join the Horde or Alliance, but have restrictions: all Evokers can only become Evokers and only Evokers can choose Evoker as a class. However, Evokers have absurdly many options for character customization. There are more combinations than grains of sand in the universe.
In other words: If you want to play an Evoker, you have to be an Evoker. We have already tested the Evoker and drawn a conclusion after 7 hours.
The Evokers use mail armor, sharing loot with shamans and hunters. They have only two specializations:
- Devastation: A ranged DPS specialization. Evokers fight at medium range with various claw strikes and ranged attacks, like powerful breath attacks.
- Preservation: As healers, Evokers use spells from the green and bronze dragonflights to keep their allies alive.
Another feature of the Evokers is the concept of “empowered abilities.” Unlike all other classes in WoW, Evokers can modify their attacks by holding down the ability key instead of just tapping it. This fills a charge bar for some abilities. If you release the ability key at the right moment, the attacks unleash an additional, stronger effect.
Especially cool: Evokers receive a total of 8 mounts during their starting quest – which can also be used by your other characters!
The class is even complex enough that Blizzard warns to not play it as your first class.
Also exciting is that the Evokers have received covenant abilities and legendary items. It is therefore likely they can already be played in Shadowlands.
We have presented all the details of the new race-class combo here.
New Continent: The Dragon Isles
The Dragonflight expansion mainly takes place on the Dragon Isles. While there are 5 areas, one is the starting area for the Evokers and is not available as an endgame zone. The other 4 areas are available during the leveling phase and in the endgame. These are:
- The Coast of Awakening: This is the starting point of the journey to the Dragon Isles. Alexstrasza welcomes the heroes there, and later you will have to help Chromatus reclaim the citadel of the black dragonflight.
- The Plains of Ohn’ahra: The plains are home to powerful centaur tribes who made a pact with the green dragons years ago. However, the dragons were absent for a long time and the centaurs have claimed much. How will the green dragonflight continue after Ysera’s death?
- The Azure Mountains: As the name suggests, this tundra with a lot of snow revolves around the blue dragons. But encounters with gnomes, furbolgs, and tuskarr are also on the agenda.
- Thaldraszus: Thaldraszus is the heart of the Dragon Isles and the power seat of the aspects. Here you will find the new capital, but also a lot of story about the bronze dragons, who oversee the timelines from here to ensure that the past, present, and future of Azeroth don’t fall out of balance.
New Feature: Dragon Riding
One of the new core features is dragon riding. In Dragonflight, all heroes will receive their own dragon early on, which can be customized at will. Color, shape, and various forms of decorations can be selected.
Riding the dragon works like a more complex mini-game. Unlike traditional mounts, players have to consider a lot of factors while dragon riding. Your dragon is affected by gravity and initially only offers a kind of “enhanced gliding,” where you jump from a high place and then cover distance.
There are a few impressions of dragon riding here:
Gradually, you unlock more and more abilities of the dragon, allowing you to execute more maneuvers. This includes various barrel rolls, different speed boosts, or the use of special updrafts that give you additional lift or higher speeds.
By the way, dragon riding replaces traditional flying on the Dragon Isles. As of now, flying mounts cannot be used for flying there and you need to rely on dragon riding if you want to move in the air.
Especially cool is that you can “fly along” with other players during dragon riding if you don’t want to steer yourself.
Further Features: New Talents, Better Professions, New UI
In addition to the major core features, there are also a number of somewhat smaller features.
Revamping the Talent System
The talent system is receiving its biggest overhaul ever. The days of few talent points that began with Mists of Pandaria are over.
Each class will receive 2 talent trees. One is for the class itself (such as “Druid,” “Mage,” “Paladin”), while the second is for the respective specialization (“Frost,” “Fire,” “Arcane”).
With each level-up, you gain talent points that can then be distributed. This is aimed at providing a significantly greater variety of builds, and essentially, you should be able to assemble a class with much more freedom than was previously possible. It’s also particularly cool that you can change your talents almost anywhere and not just in resting zones.
How well this all works in practice will probably only be known when the beta allows for more insight into the exact talent trees.
If you want to try out the talent trees already, you can do that here.
Overhauling Professions
Another focal point for developers is professions. They are set to regain importance with Dragonflight, and the developers have come up with several things to achieve this. The most important innovations are:
Specializations: All crafting professions can choose specialization paths. For example, an armor smith can specialize in swords or helmets, while a tailor might craft the best robes or shoes.
Quality levels: Many items will have quality levels, meaning that items with the same name can still differ. The highest quality mana potion could have a greater benefit than one of lower quality. The same applies to weapons or equipment of any kind.
Profession equipment and tools: All professions will receive special equipment in new slots. This equipment provides passive bonuses that make you better at practicing your profession. For instance, miners can receive a cool mining helmet, while jewelers get special glasses. There will be something for all professions.
Work orders: At a new NPC, players can create work orders. For example, if you know you want a specific sword from a blacksmith, but there isn’t one in the auction house, you can place such an order. If you want, you can even contribute some of the crafting materials to negotiate a better price.
Moreover, equipment from professions should feel relevant and worthwhile throughout the entire expansion. We have shown how strong and complex crafting will become here.
Interestingly, Blizzard has revolutionized fishing with a new option – you no longer have to click.
New “Mythic+” System
Another innovation pertains to the “Mythic+” system in Dragonflight. Unlike before, there will be a rotation consisting of a mix of old and new dungeons straight out of the gate in Dragonflight. This means that in the first season of Dragonflight, there will be 4 new dungeons from Dragonflight in the dungeon pool along with 4 “old” dungeons from previous expansions. This way, old content will always feel relevant, and there will be new things to learn each season.
Particularly cool is that all classes will be able to resurrect in battle. The days of lacking battle rez abilities in the group are over.
There will also be significant changes to the affixes. Two of the most annoying affixes will be removed from the pool: Inspiring and Necrotic will no longer be present in Dragonflight.
Lastly, Blizzard will demand more from you. For the best rewards, you will now have to complete dungeons on “Mythic+20”.
Raids Launch Simultaneously
Also a novelty in the history of World of Warcraft: The different difficulty levels of the first raid “The Abyss of Incarnations” will open simultaneously. This means that at the start of Season 1 in Dragonflight, the raid will be available in “Normal,” “Heroic,” and “Mythic” modes.
The starting gun for the raid is on December 14, just under 2 weeks after the launch of Dragonflight.
An exception here, as usual, is the LFR mode. That will start with a delay, as is already known.
Overhauling the Interface
Almost 17 years after the release of World of Warcraft, the standard interface is finally being modernized. The look will be adjusted, and the various interface elements will receive new graphic updates. At the same time, the standard interface is intended to offer more customization options. Almost all elements should be movable by default.
Don’t worry: Addons will still work. The developers simply aim to beautify the standard version, so the onboarding experience improves, and you can also play well with the standard UI.
This also results in some addons no longer being necessary, as they will simply become standard. You can completely do without three famous addons.
However, if you liked the old look of the interface, there’s no need to despair. Most functions can be restored “as they used to be.”
Loot in Raids Works Differently
Another innovation affects anyone who enjoys raiding. Blizzard is removing the various item level limits of the bosses. This means that the loot within a raid difficulty will increasingly improve the further you get into the raid. Thus, the first bosses might have an item level of 398, while the middle bosses have 405 and the last bosses 408.
This particularly lowers the barriers between the individual difficulties. The last boss on “normal” will drop only slightly worse loot than the first boss on “heroic.”
Cool Innovations for Roleplayers
Apparently, Blizzard also wants to give role players in World of Warcraft more options and freedom, given that there won’t be housing. A range of toys and new effects will offer more variety and options to create better scenarios and more interesting environments in group roleplaying.
Characters can influence the weather and ambiance (the skybox) through a new device and maintain that effect for several hours. This should enhance the atmosphere during long RP sessions.
Another innovation includes spell scrolls from scribes. With these, you can shoot spell effects from allies and attack them with arcane shots or shadow bolts – purely cosmetically, without doing actual damage.
Also new is a very special tavern, or inn. This seems specifically designed for role players. Here, characters can buy special tickets to access a special version of the tavern, where there are no NPCs – perfect for a role-playing tavern!
Overhauling Character Customization
The character creation will be slightly adjusted and enhanced with new changes and details. For instance, the symbols for “male” and “female” will disappear during character creation and will be replaced with “Body 1” and “Body 2.”
Later, the option to freely choose the voice of the character will also be introduced – regardless of the chosen body form.
“Group Loot” Returns
The days of personal loot are over again – at least in some areas. In raids, WoW is bringing back “group loot.” From now on, you will roll on items “greed” and “need” once again. However, there are new restrictions and systems that ensure that the loot is still distributed fairly. For instance, anyone who already owns an item with exactly the same stats cannot roll again. All details of the new rules can be found in our article on the new group looting system.
Minor Features and Changes
Apart from all the major changes, there are also a number of minor adjustments worth mentioning. Here’s a quick rundown of some interesting information:
- All players will receive more bag slots for a larger inventory
- The Evokers have so many options for character customization
- WoW is changing how potions and flasks work after 18 years
- The auction house is changing – what that means for gold collectors
- A new achievement for 500 mounts gives you a cool otter as a mount
- Larger inventory with special bag slots brings joy
- Absurd potions: Some only work if you are already dead!
- Dragonflight brings the supervillain Rafaam from Hearthstone
- A 50-minute boat ride is boring but turns out great
- In Dragonflight, you will see a world where the Murlocs have won
- The barber costs no gold anymore in Dragonflight, it’s completely free
- Warlocks can summon giant demons, even hefty Fel Lords
- Your favorite hero has sex with a dragon lady in Dragonflight
- The hottest Pandaren, Nomi, is back in Dragonflight
- Night Fae players can retain their soul shape in Dragonflight
- Horde and Alliance will soon share mobs
- The character limit per account has been increased from 50 to 60 with the pre-patch
- The Europe reset will be postponed; you will receive loot earlier
Opinions on Dragonflight
In the course of the reporting, our authors have also published articles about World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, sharing their assessments of specific features. Please note that these are clear opinions:
Missing Features: What’s Not Coming
Although Blizzard has mainly talked about the highlights so far, some missing features of Dragonflight are also worth mentioning – as some may be quite well received.
No major “borrowed power” feature: In recent expansions, there have always been significant features that granted the character special power for the duration of the addon (artifact weapons, Heart of Azeroth, covenants). Therefore, it always feels bad to lose this power by the end of an expansion. With Dragonflight, there will be no such feature.
However, completely foregoing “borrowed power” will not occur in Dragonflight either. After all, tier sets and their bonuses are strictly speaking only temporary before they are replaced in the next patch.
Housing is completely missing: Disappointment for many might be that housing will not be implemented in Dragonflight. Many leaks had spoken of this beforehand, but the game director has already confirmed that the new addon will not bring housing. The dream is still alive, but no one should expect a home in Azeroth anytime soon.
What do you think of Dragonflight so far? What content are you particularly looking forward to?
