World of Warcraft: Dragonflight has launched to the chaos that befits a World of Warcraft expansion, and if there is one feature that players seem to be passionately obsessed about, it's Dragonriding. Ever since The Burning Crusade introduced flying mounts to the game, they have irreversibly altered the way outdoor content was designed in World of Warcraft. For example, Wrath of the Lich King had zones accessible solely by the virtue of having Cold Weather Flying, and Warlords of Draenor tried to lock its flying behind the expansion's patch and content progression.
Dragonflight, on the other hand – in keeping with the name – not only embraces flying mounts, but it transforms them through Dragonriding into a much more engaging and dynamic experience. It is no hyperbole to say that many players consider it to be the best feature World of Warcraft implemented in over a decade. It is earnest and pure in its design, and there's no grand scheme to its existence. It's just fun. Coming from the bloated "systems expansion" that was Shadowlands, Dragonflight is refreshingly simple by comparison.
World of Warcraft players are posting their impressions across all social media, and a thought pattern that accompanies their excitement is loudly emerging: Dragonriding makes legacy flying in World of Warcraft obsolete. After coming back from the Dragon Isles and finding themselves in the old Azeroth zones, players find the experience so lackluster by comparison.
I posted this seven months ago when Dragonflight was first announced. This is proving to be 100% accurate; going back to Orgrimmar and having to use legacy flying sucks the life out of the game after being spoiled with Dragonflying. We need Dragonflying everywhere, asap. from wow
A video prophetically posted by Rigman on the official World of Warcraft subreddit is no less true today than it was seven months ago, and with players hoping that Dragonriding mechanics make their way into the rest of the game, the path forward seems clear. Blizzard Entertainment will have to find some way to implement Dragonriding across the board. Just as The Burning Crusade opened Pandora's Box when it introduced flying mounts, so too did Dragonflight irrevocably change the game with its Dragonriding. There is no going back – any World of Warcraft expansion that comes after will have to build its zones with Dragonriding in mind.
To get the most out of Dragonriding on the Dragon Isles, World of Warcraft players will need to collect all forty-eight glyphs scattered throughout the zones – with each zone having twelve glyphs for players to find. Luckily for them, the community is rife with guides on how to accomplish this, and for the truly elite, defeating Raszageth in Vault of the Incarnates on Mythic difficulty will award them with a Dragonriding skin in her likeness.
World of Warcraft: Dragonflight is available now on PC.