For a massive game and community like that of World of Warcraft, a new expansion is a massive event. With the most recent one, Shadowlands, seeing a mixed to poor reception, fans are hopeful for a new beginning for their beloved game. The Blizzard team announced in a livestream on the 19th that Dragonflight would be the title of their ninth expansion.
Though many fans are skeptical, others have praised the new feature announcements that were explained on stream after the always expertly done cinematic. On the WoW subreddit, a thread started by Stalloss began for players to discuss the news and announcements. Skimming through all of the meme replies, fans also posted about some of their most anticipated features.
Exploration Based Story
One of the important notes by the developers was that the new expansion wouldn't be following an army of soldiers, but organizations of explorers, scientists and settlers. This will allow for some interesting new dynamics for players, as previous expansions have revolved around more apocalyptic like storylines.
Exploration is one of the key features in the Warcraft games, as it prides itself on being massively open world. Mr_Harsh_Acid explains his excitement for it, saying "the expansion is focused on history and exploration, rather than world ending threats" and quoting the developer who addressed this. This new line of gameplay could allow for a more immersive experience.
Dracthyr Evoker
Aside from the allied races in Battle for Azeroth, there hasn't been a new race since Mists of Pandaria in 2012. There's a particular twist to the Dracthyr though, in that they can only be one class, the Evoker, which is unique to the race. This mechanic is totally unique, and the race seems to offer some sweet cosmetic customization options.
One Reddit , describes their excitement, saying "I actually love the idea. Gives them the ability to be super creative and pack it full of dragon abilities that they wouldn't be able to do on other races." The class looks highly mobile, similar to the winged Demon Hunter, while also possessing a range of magic damage and healing.
High Fantasy Setting
The cinematic trailer definitely gives off an almost fairy tale like fantasy look, with vibrant green land and a rainbow of dragons. Many have compared it to the popular Mists of Pandaria expansion, which gave players a beautiful land of varying threats to explore, without a particular villain yet in mind. Video game fans love exploring great fantasy worlds.
Redditor OkKnowledge2064 makes the comparison after describing their view of the world. "I like the colorful, high fantasy setting." They then add "This feels very MoP like. good sign in my opinion." In a game with a wealth of nostalgia in its community, comparisons to beloved expansions are a good sign for the game's quality.
Profession System
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The system will allow for players who are interested in being skilled workers to truly excel in their craft. And it will also allow a new option for commission work, as well as cosmetic looks for each profession. dorasucks sums it up, saying "So the profession revamp is insane. I love the way they're doing it."
Dragon Riding
World of Warcraft mounts are incredibly addicting and fun to collect, but the difference between the rarest mount in the game and the most common horses are simply the design model. Other games like Guild Wars 2 have more unique mounts, with different movement physics that allow for some fun gameplay.
In Dragonflight, Warcraft will be attempting something similar. Rather than having character based upgrade systems, players will instead be able to upgrade their Dragon mounts. Redditor shootsome loves the feature, saying "Sounds like GW2 style mounts which is an amazing experience. Spent so much time just messing around with them."
UI Rework
Like with professions, the UI of World of Warcraft hasn't changed much since it's original design. The current UI isn't necessarily bad, but it's clunky and dated. The new look will offer a much cleaner and more customizable space, which will allow for players to see more of the game itself. Players have had to use addons for cleaner UI experiences, so this will surely be a great change for the game.
One Redditor, ConcealingFate, said "No convoluted system, UI rework. I'm happy so far tbh." The news is satisfying to hear, as it seems Blizzard has heard the complaints of their fans about certain quality of life changes. Hopefully this is just the beginning of modernizing changes for Blizzard to make.
Talent System
The new talent trees are definitely a touch of nostalgia for older fans, as they're reminiscent of the Cataclysm talent trees. The replacement had far less options for customization, and while it did introduce some great abilities, it never had the range of options as the older version.
Simplyx69 listed many of their thoughts on the released info, including their opinion on the talent system, saying " I love the idea of being able to hybridize, because it can lead to some really interesting builds." The unique builds will definitely be exciting to see.
Ducks
Sometimes it's the little things. In the stream, the Blizzard developers shared some details on the inhabitants of the Dragon Isles, aside from the dragons. Players were excited to hear of the return of Gnolls, as well as a brief description of the antagonist Giants that players will encounter. But most importantly, the ducks were revealed.
There have never really been ducks in Warcraft, so as bizarre as it may seem, this is new ground to cover. The ducks are very amusing looking, and were likely added to the game for meme potential. On a separate Reddit thread titled "Dragonflight has ducks. Already best expansion," Redditors discussed their love for the new creatures.
