In a recent beta build for World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, a new NPC has been added to tell players how long until a boat to the Dragon Isles appears. This quality-of-life feature will help World of Warcraft players avoid missing boats and zeppelins to get where they need to go more efficiently.
Since World of Warcraft first came out, players have navigated Azeroth via boats and zeppelins that provide quick transportation to specific ports across the world. Though many of these travel points have been phased out in favor of portals, those that still exist operate on a schedule which can only be reliably tracked using third-party World of Warcraft add-ons.
The NPC on the Alliance docks for the Dragon Isles can give players access to a timer when spoken to. This timer specifies how long it will be until the ship arrives, down to the precise second. While players will be able to unlock a portal between the Dragon Isles hub of Valdrakken and the faction capitals late in the Dragonflight story, these ships will allow players to travel to and from the new zones before that.
As of right now, only Chrovo, the new dracthyr NPC in the Alliance hub of Stormwind, has access to this timer. However, according to game designer Josh Augustine, the feature will be added to all Dragon Isles ships and the Durotar Zeppelin in later Dragonflight builds. Hopefully, this change becomes a blanket convenience added to all boats and zeppelins still in the Retail World of Warcraft.
This is a huge quality-of-life improvement many World of Warcraft players didn’t even know they needed. Few things are as frustrating to many as going AFK or tabbing out for a minute, only to realize they missed a boat and must wait another five minutes for the next one. Though some will still miss their rides even with the timer, it should help players navigate the world better than before.
That said, some players are not a fan of this new feature coming in Dragonflight. Half of these players think World of Warcraft should just get rid of the archaic boats and zeppelin systems in favor for instant travel or teleportation like in Final Fantasy 14, while others think adding the timer is an unnecessary convenience which detracts from the game’s charm. Luckily, these timers are not coming to World of Warcraft Classic, meaning the latter camp will at least be able to miss boats and zeppelins at their leisure on their trips to Northrend once Wrath of the Lich King Classic launches on September 26.
World of Warcraft is available now on PC, with Dragonflight launching later this year.