Not yet released and already nerfed. The flying ability of the Dracthyr in World of Warcraft has to take a significant hit and is heavily restricted.
The alpha of World of Warcraft Dragonflight is in full swing. But a decision by the developers has caused quite a stir, as the new race of the Dracthyr is being heavily nerfed even before the release. This concerns the “Soar” ability, which allows Dracthyr to mimic dragon flying. This ability will be a staggering 30% weaker than before – much to the dismay of the fans.
What is the Soar ability? The “Soar” ability (in German “Aufsteigen”) is a racial ability of the Dracthyr, which is only available to the Evokers, as all Dracthyr are Evokers. Until recently, the ability allowed them to mimic dragon riding on the Dragon Isles – and it could be done anywhere in the game world. Dragon riding is a new form of movement that feels completely different and plays with gravity and momentum while flying.
Dragon flying eventually means that you have to land again, although skilled players can stay in the air for a long time.
The catch is: While characters on an epic flying mount can reach a maximum movement speed of 410% (plus minor buffs, such as from auras).
However, Dracthyr could achieve speeds of up to 930% with their Soar ability – thus more than double.
The nerf is significant: Blizzard is making short work of the ability and significantly reduces the maximum movement speed of the Dracthyr. The top speed drops from around 930% to 640% – thus a reduction of nearly 30%.
Blizzard explains:
‘Soar’ is important for the identity of the Dracthyr. From the very beginning of the design process, we knew that Dracthyr had to be able to fly in some way, even if we would work out the details later. However, Soar is also a racial ability and was never intended to grant such a massive advantage in efficiency and performance over the other races. These two goals are somewhat in conflict with each other: making Soar fun so that it serves the fantasy of a flying creature, but at the same time we don’t want to give one race such a massive advantage in large areas of the game.
The goal is to maintain the fun and feel of the mechanic. Moreover, Soar in skilled hands is still significantly faster than epic mounts – the advantage is just not as huge anymore.
Community reacts disappointed but understanding: As soon as these changes became known, there were already some critics who commented “Fun detected!” This is an old meme surrounding Blizzard that basically says: as soon as a mechanic is discovered that means too much fun, Blizzard comes along and removes it right away.
In reality, however, most are understanding and recognize that Dracthyr with the old values would have had a significant advantage over all other classes. Especially in the old game world, gliding would have been so powerful that playing any other class to tackle old content would be seen as “a waste of time”.
The Soar ability remains powerful – but not so powerful that all other classes feel like they have to crawl behind.
What do you think about it? Is it good that this is being done during the alpha? Or would you have liked to play the “Turbo Dracthyr”?
There are also buffs and nerfs happening in the live version of Shadowlands: Shadow Priests and Warriors are pleased.
