World of Warcraft: Dragonflight Hands-On Preview

DISCLAIMER – Early access was provided by Blizzard Entertainment for the purpose of this content piece.World of Warcraft: Dragonflight

 is the ninth upcoming expansion for the biggest MMORPG in the world. Thanks to Blizzard Entertainment, we had our hands on it since early August for the closed alpha stage. Now it’s in beta and nearing its testing completion. Over the last two months or so we had the opportunity to try almost everything the new expansion has to offer, including the eight brand new dungeons, the Dragon Isle continent, and, of course, the new two spec hero class – The Evoker. The expansion also has massive UI changes, a completely revamped talent system for each of the classes and specs, and much more. So what do we think of it so far, and are there more positive things to say than negative? Welcome to our official preview of World of Warcraft: Dragonflight.

First and foremost, let’s talk about the elephant in the room, which is, of course, the expansion’s biggest new addition – the Evoker class, only playable by the new races, the Dracthyr. Any time Blizzard introduces a new toy to play with, it always changes the entire meta both in PvE and PvP. While I cannot give you a clear answer whether the meta will change for the better or worse, what I can say, in full confidence, is that the Evoker is a ton of fun to play. Never did I think that World of Warcraft would get a humanoid dragon hybrid race that lets you soar around in Azeroth and breathe fire upon your enemies in battlegrounds or dungeons.

The Evoker has two playable specs, which are known as Preservation and Devastation. As you have probably already guessed, the Preservation spec is a fantasy about playing an extremely mobile healer who excels at quick traversal and mid-range healing. Meanwhile, the Devastation spec is all about doing as much damage as possible while also trying to avoid dangerous boss mechanics and standing at the right place at the right time.

Evokers work very differently from other classes. They are more reliant on constant movement unlike someone like Mages or Warlocks, who prefer to stay in one spot for as long as possible, dishing out tremendous damage. It’s also worth noting that the Evoker is the first ever brand new Ranged class since the launch of World of Warcraft, which is rather interesting. Previously, every new class has been melee, which includes the Death Knights, Demon Hunters, and Monks.

Now as much as I would love to go into the details of all their abilities and how they work, it would simply take too long and is something I’d rather discuss in our final review of World of Warcraft: Dragonflight once that time comes. But in a nutshell, they are quite fun to play, and if your main character is a healer, I think the Evoker’s Preservation spec will make you appreciate the challenge. Playing a healer that requires constant movement and awareness of your surroundings and the position of your teammates and opponents is going to play a huge role in whether you play that spec at a high level or not. Just as an example, Evokers can place down a large blooming green flower that heals players when they are standing in its area of effect. You can even reverse time to heal your allies thanks to the power of the Bronze Dragonflight that the Evokers also possess.

If you prefer dealing damage, then be ready to pay attention to where the enemies are and pop your combos of attacks back to back. With the Devastation spec, you will constantly try to position yourself to damage mobs as much as possible. The majority of the abilities usually play well with each other. One of my favorite combos is to cast Landslide and stun all the mobs within your range. Then, pop Deep Breath and fly over the mobs while breathing fire over them for massive damage. If you are also talented in Recall, then your Evoker will teleport back to where he or she was before flying over the mobs, which instantly puts you back into the position to cause more damage. Right after all of that is done, you can then hold down your button and cast Fire Breath for maximum damage to the mobs in front of you. All of this happens very fast, and it’s extremely satisfying because this class plays very differently than what the majority of the fanbase is used to.

Speaking of holding down buttons, this is the first time in World of Warcraft’s history that holding down a button charges your abilities. The longer you hold, the more effective your ability will be. But here is the catch, if a boss mechanic is happening, then you might want to let go earlier to avoid getting hit by something that can potentially kill you, especially if you are a healer. This is where the new meta and skill play comes, nothing like this ever has existed, and that alone is exciting.

The short version is that the Evokers are a solid addition, and I have a good feeling that the majority of both WoW veterans and new players will be quite happy to dive into the draconic fantasy. With that out of the way, let’s talk about the Dragon Isles themselves and what you can expect out of the new zones. World of Warcraft Dragonflight features five new zones, including The Waking Shores, Azure Span, Thaldraszus, Ohn’ahran Plains, and the Forbidden Reach, which is exclusive to the Dracthyr race. If you are tired of the dark and grim Shadowlands aesthetic, then I welcome you back to Azeroth. These new zones are much bigger, and the developer has gone on the record to say these are the largest zones they’ve ever crafted. The sense of scale is much more epic and grand, thanks to the new draw distance upgrades that Blizzard has implemented on the game engine itself.

As far as the looks go, each zone is quite beautiful and unique in its way. The Waking Shores is filled with black proto-dragons and a ton of volcanic-type scenery with a wide variety of fire elementals. It is your classic World of Warcraft fire zone, and it’s also where the Black Dragonflight is fighting for control. Meanwhile, Ohn’ahran Plains is much greener and is similar to zones such as Stormsong Valley from Battle of Azeroth and Negrand from Outlands and Warlords of Draenor. If you are into green rolling hills, giant wildlife creatures, centaurs, and the Green Dragonflight, this will most likely be your favorite zone.

Azure Span is most likely going to be the most fan favorite location and that is simply because the zone itself is highly inspired by one of the most popular zones in the entirety of World of Warcraft – Grizzly Hills from World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. This is also the place where you will meet an old fan favorite WoW race the Tuskarr, Khadgar and Kalecgos the main dude when it comes to the Blue Dragonflight. That’s right, your favorite fantasy Walrus friends are returning in World of Warcraft: Dragonflight.

Last but not least, we have Thaldraszus, which is where the storyline of the Bronze Dragonflight will take place and is also the location of the brand new raid Vault of the Incarnates that is going to be available at launch. Thaldraszus is also the zone where the main hub city Valdrakken will take place, basically the Oribos from Shadowlands. For the first time in World of Warcraft’s history, the hub city will have an auction house. That’s right, you no longer will have to port back to Stormwind or Orgrimmar if you want to continue with your daily digital trading auction duties. Valdrakken is a vertical city overlooking the entire zone. There are also plenty of platforms you can use to take off on your trusty drakes that will be taking advantage of the new flying mount feature, Dragonriding.

For many years there has been a heated debate between two different sides of the World of Warcraft community regarding flying. One part of the community was ok with not having flying available right off the bat because they believe it would ruin the experience of exploring new zones and all the hard work of the artists would go unnoticed and underappreciated. I am myself, also in this camp, actually as a fan. The other side, however, doesn’t want to wait till later in the expansion to gain access to flight and consume the content. While both sides have their valid points, Blizzard has decided to create something where it makes sense for both parties, and they came up with a system called Dragonriding.

At first, I was quite skeptical, because I wasn’t sure how it would feel to fly around new zones for the first time in an expansion. Thankfully, I am happy to say that Blizzard has done an excellent job. Dragonriding is not only well designed, but it also fits the current narrative and the lore of the game. World of Warcraft: Dragonflight is about aiding the five different dragon aspects, including Black, Green, Red, Bronze, and Blue. So it only makes sense that we would be granted the new types of drake mounts that can soar in the Dragon Isles.

The Dragonriding system has to be unlocked first, but thankfully it doesn’t take very long to gain access to it and is one of the first things you get in the first zone, The Waking Shores. Once unlocked, you are given a special drake tied to the Dragonriding system. Once you take off on your drake, you have to learn how to take advantage of the zone’s environment and gain momentum to keep up the speed. You are also given Vigor, which is a stamina system that lets your drake fly higher up or zoom forward faster. However, you have to learn how to control and manage your vigor and if you lose the momentum, you will be put on the ground and have to wait until you regain vigor to take flight again.

While this sounds like an annoyance, it isn’t. It just takes a bit of practice and learning to do, but once you understand it, you’ll realize that it’s quite an intuitive system and is a lot more interactive than regular flying. There are also racing challenges for you to pursue as well as achievements and cosmetic rewards for your drakes. Dragonriding even has its talent system that can improve your vigor and give you additional advantages as you progress throughout the expansion and collect special hidden glyphs scattered across each of the zones. Overall, it’s a great system and I hope that moving forward, Blizzard will find a way to keep it in future expansions as it solves many issues for both sides of the World of Warcraft community.

You might be asking me how is the end-game content so far, such as reputational grinds, world quests, and dungeons. Those are all great questions, but unfortunately, a lot of the end-game systems haven’t been fully implemented, and those will be best left for our final review.

However, I did manage to do all of the brand new eight dungeons that World of Warcraft: Dragonflight has to offer, which include The Nokhud Offensive, Azure Vault, Ruby Life Pools, Uldaman: Legacy of Tyr, Brakenhide Hollow, Algeth’ar Academy, Neltharus and Halls of Infusion.

Although, do note that I’ve only run the normal and heroic versions of these dungeons because the Mythic and Mythic+ Keystones are not ready for testing yet.

As far as the dungeons themselves go, they are quite a lot of fun. My personal favorites so far are The Nokhud Offensive, Ruby Life Pools, and Brackenhide Hollow. Nokhud Offensive is a unique dungeon, and it’s completely open. It takes place in an instanced version of the Ohn’ahran Plains zone itself, and the cool thing is that you can use Dragonriding to traverse the dungeon from the beginning. Yes, that is right, you can essentially fly from boss to boss until the very end, and there are four bosses to kill in the dungeon. It’s nice to see Blizzard trying out something new and different. For many people, this is one of the best dungeons in Dragonflight.

Ruby Life Pools is also awesome. It’s quite linear, short, and has three bosses to slay. The boss fights are fun, quick, and engaging, and, best of all, there are not a lot of trash mobs here to kill. Then there is Neltharus and Halls of Infusion, which I was not a huge fan of. Both dungeons felt overly big, with too much trash, and some annoying mechanics here and there as far as the mobs go. The bosses themselves are fine, but the overall pace of the dungeons felt tedious and a bit boring.

Brackenhide Hollow is probably my favorite – it features Tuskarr and Gnolls and has a non-linear pathway except for the first boss. At the start of the dungeon, you are tasked with saving nine Tuskarr out of the cages. Once all nine are saved, you get to fight the first boss, and after you defeat him, the dungeon opens, and you are free to fight the other two bosses in no specific order. The dungeon is beautiful, and the best part is that you get to kill a lot of Gnolls, which is considered one of the most iconic and beloved classic Warcraft races.

The Algeth’ar Academy was also pretty cool. It’s a dungeon where you take a tour as a student and have to help the tour guides and teachers as you progress through. The first boss you encounter is an arcane elemental that interrupts a history lesson, and later on, you have to fight a giant bird, then an overgrown ancient, and last but not least, a dragon who left an echo of herself in the academy. Then dungeon is rather laid back, fun to go through, and is a lot less serious in terms of lore, compared to the other ones.

Uldaman: Legacy of Tyr is a throwback to the original classic World of Warcraft dungeon located in Badlands. It’s a well-done remake with some familiar faces with new bosses mixed in. It’s a little bit on the longer side, but I have a soft spot for it, so I was pretty happy with how Blizzard brought this one back. The bosses are also well done and probably more challenging than some of the bosses in other dungeons. Mythic and Mythic+ will be quite interesting to see on this one in particular.

In conclusion – the dungeons for the most part are fun. The only concern I have is the balance of these dungeons on the Mythic and Mythic+ difficulties. Sadly, since none of those difficulties were available for testing, it is hard to say as of now, but overall I’ve enjoyed what I’ve played.

There are still many other systems and stuff we haven’t gotten a chance to cover, such as the end-game raids that are currently not available for testing and the new reputational grinds via the revamped renowned system that originated in Shadowlands. But perhaps that is best left for our final review. Overall, our impressions are quite positive. The UI changes are awesome, the new talent system adds a lot of new and interesting choices for several classes, and there are a ton of quality of life changes here that the community will appreciate. Stay tuned to our final review of World of Warcraft: Dragonflight in the coming months.

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