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World of Warcraft: Dragonflight
- Franchise:
- Warcraft
- Platform:
- PC
- Developer:
- Blizzard, Activision
- Publisher:
- Blizzard, Activision
- Genre:
- MMORPG
- Released:
- 2022-11-28
The eagerly anticipated Dragonflight pre-patch is finally here, and it brings with it a number of very exciting changes to World of Warcraft. Unlike previous pre-patches, this one was split into two phases in order to give players time to familiarize themselves with all the new additions.
This first portion of the Dragonflight pre-patch introduces the long-awaited new talent system along with a customizable UI, new race/class combinations, and more. Meanwhile, in phase 2 of the Dragonflight pre-patch players will have the opportunity to check out the new Dracthyr Evoker race/class combo along with a new zone, a new dungeon, and a new limited-time event, among other things.
Dragonflight Pre-Patch Phase 1
Phase 1 of the pre-patch launches on October 25th and gives players a first taste of what to expect from the new World of Warcraft expansion. The changes revolve mainly around features and systems rather than content.
New Talent Trees
The new talent trees are here and they’re just as glorious as you imagined. Inspired by the old talent trees found in World of Warcraft: Classic, these new and improved ones change the playstyle of most classes in a pretty big way. Even more importantly, the new trees give players some much-needed variety by enabling multiple viable builds for every class, which hasn’t been the case for quite a while.
Dragonflight gives players access to not just one but two brand new talent trees. One of these trees is designed to allow you to customize your class and is roughly the same across all specs. Meanwhile, the other tree is unique for each spec and contains a lot of your core spells. For instance, your Fire Mage and Frost Mage trees will be very different but your Mage class tree will be nearly identical for both.
This time around, most of your core and secondary spells will be locked behind talents, so it’s more important than ever to take your time and think carefully when creating your builds. To that end, the new talent trees UI comes with a built-in search bar that makes it much easier to find specific spells and passives.
Having said that, if you don’t want to spend too much on the new talent system you can simply select the “Starter Build” option. Doing so will automatically generate good all-purpose builds for your class and spec to help you get started on the right foot. Starter builds are particularly useful for new players or those who haven’t played World of Warcraft in a while.
New Race/Class Combinations
New race/class combos are a staple of every World of Warcraft expansion and Dragonflight is no different. There are no less than eight of them this time around, including a couple that are bound to raise some eyebrows. Check them out down below.
- Tauren: Rogue, Mage
- Highmountain Tauren: Rogue, Mage, Priest
- Draenei: Rogue
- Lightforged Draenei: Rogue
- Orc: Priest
Tauren Rogues have been a meme for years, but now they’re finally a reality thanks to the Dragonflight pre-patch. The other race/class combos are also pretty strange but by this point, we already have most combinations so Blizzard is essentially scrapping the bottom of the barrel here. Starting with this pre-patch, Mage, Priest, and Rogue classes are available to every race in the game.
Customizable User Interface
World of Warcraft’s UI has been in dire need of an overhaul for a very long time. In addition to redesigning certain elements, Blizzard also made the new UI completely customizable. Starting with the first phase of the Dragonflight pre-patch you can move around most UI elements and even resize some of them.
If you’re familiar with popular World of Warcraft add-ons like Bartender4, you’ll pretty much know what to expect here. Dragonflight’s customizable UI isn’t quite as advanced, but it is more user-friendly and quicker to set up. There’s a snap grid that helps you keep everything nice and symmetrical along with the option to save, import, and export your layouts.
More Bag Space
Speaking of features that were already in the game via add-ons, the Dragonflight pre-patch introduces the option to combine all your bags into a single big backpack. This is basically just like the Bagnon add-on. Furthermore, the next time you log into World of Warcraft you’ll also notice that there is now an extra bag slot.
Resurrection Sickness Changes
Resurrection Sickness received a couple of major changes in the pre-patch. First off, it now only lasts 1 minute as opposed to 10, however, you'll suffer no less than 50% durability loss if your character is level 10 or above. If your character is below level 10, you will only suffer 10% durability loss. The durability loss used to be a flat 25% for all characters regardless of level.
Free Barbershop Services
This one’s pretty self-explanatory and should have been in the game since the beginning. At long last, you no longer have to spend anything to customize your character at the barbershop. And yes, this includes changing to a different gender.
New Accessibility Options
The Dragonflight pre-patch also brings to the table some very nice quality-of-life features that make World of Warcraft feel a bit more modern. Let’s go over some of the most important ones.
- Press and Hold Casting: This is pretty much exactly what it says on the tin. Instead of pressing the same key over and over whenever you want to repeatedly cast a spell, now you just have to press and hold the key. However, this option only works with the keyboard and doesn’t support macros and items. If you’re using your mouse instead of keyboard shortcuts, you’ll still have to click every time just like before.
- Action Targeting: This is a new feature that automatically targets the closest enemy as you approach it. You’ll still need to use Tab to lock onto a target but with this option, you can dynamically switch between enemies based on where you’re looking.
- Interact Key: Dragonflight finally introduces an interact key, which is “F” by default. Pressing the key allows you to interact with NPCs and objects without having to use your mouse.
- Additional Gamepad Support: There probably aren’t a ton of people playing World of Warcraft with a controller, but additional gamepad support is still nice to have.
- Dynamic Minimap Icons: Minimap icons will now dynamically appear and disappear based on your proximity to points of interest.
What’s Going Away In The Pre-Patch?
Now that we covered the most important new additions, let’s take a look at a few things that are going away with the introduction of the pre-patch. These include the following:
- Tier set bonuses
- The Shrouded Hero title
- Eternal Gladiator and other Season 4 titles
- Shrouded Hero: Shadowlands Season 4 achievement
- Eternal Gladiator’s Soul Eater mount
- Season 4 Elite PvP Armor sets
- Eternal Flux weapon illusion
If you want to learn even more about the first phase of the pre-patch make sure to check out the complete patch notes over on the official World of Warcraft website.
Dragonflight Pre-Patch Phase 2
Phase 2 of the pre-patch launched on November 15th and allows players to experiment with some of the new content added by Dragonflight. Unlike phase 1, the second half of the pre-patch focuses more on content rather than features and systems.
Dracthyr Evoker
The Dracthyr are a new playable race of humanoid dragonkin that also doubles as the expansion’s hero class. The race/class combo is available to both Horde and Alliance players. This is the first time in World of Warcraft’s long history when Blizzard introduced a race/class combination like this. The only class available to Dracthyr players is Evoker, which has two specs to choose from: Devastation (DPS) and Preservation (Healing). In turn, you can only play the Evoker class as a Dracthyr character, and you can only have one of them per realm.
Similar to other hero classes, Dracthyr characters start at a very high level (58) and get a special introductory section designed to ease players into their unique playstyle, which is a bit more complicated than most. The race also has a more fleshed-out customization system with tons of options to choose from. Much like Worgen, Dracthyr are shape shifters that can take human form. In this case, it’s known as the Visage. Players can customize both the Dracthyr form and the Visage of their characters.
Dracthyr players get some interesting racial abilities that let them take full advantage of their draconic nature. Most of these abilities revolve around mobility but a couple of them will come in handy during combat as well. Speaking of combat, Dracthyr characters also get access to a selection of Empowered spells, which become increasingly stronger they longer they are being charged. Empowered spells are exclusive to Evokers for now, but they might become available to other classes as well in the future.
The Forbidden Reach
The Forbidden Reach is a new starting zone available exclusively to Dracthyr players. The zone is located in the Dragon Isles and features a pretty interesting selection of creatures and landscapes. Unlike the past few expansions, the story of Dragonflight doesn’t revolve around some impending life-ending calamity (for now, at least) so expect some relaxing adventures across The Forbidden Reach, and the Dragon Isles in general.
Uldaman: Legacy Of Tyr
Uldaman: Legacy of Tyr is Dragonflight’s introductory dungeon and will be available to play with the release of phase 2 of the pre-patch. If you’ve been playing World of Warcraft Classic for a while you’re probably familiar with Uldaman, a dungeon that was first introduced way back during vanilla WoW. Legacy of Tyr is a revamped version of the classic dungeon that brings to the table new bosses and loot. There will also be some interesting pieces of lore revolving around the titular Tyr.
Unlike the original version of Uldaman, Legacy of Tyr only contains five boss encounters and will be available on Normal, Heroic, and Mythic. At some point down the road, there will undoubtedly be a Mythic+ version as well. In addition to Uldaman: Legacy of Tyr, Blizzard announced seven more dungeons for Dragonflight, some of which are still in development. These won’t be available in the pre-patch, but you can take a quick look at what they’re all about over on the official website if you’re interested.
Primal Storms
Every pre-patch comes with a limited-time event and this one is no exception. This time around we have Primal Storms, an event that sees Azeroth being invaded by elementals. If you’ve played WoW during previous pre-patch events you’ll know exactly what to expect here. At regular intervals, one or more zones get invaded by elements and it’s up to players to put a stop to them. The event itself isn’t anything to write home about, but you can get some pretty good rewards by participating.
Defeating all four of the elemental lords during the Dragonflight pre-patch event will earn you a Feat of Strength called Against the Elements. You’ll also get a new type of currency called Primeval Essence while fighting off the elements, which you can then turn in for various pieces of catch-up gear. The gear isn’t amazing but it’s still nice to have if you haven’t played WoW in a while and want to get a head start. In addition, you can also add a nice leveling trinket and a toy during the event.
Twitch Drops
By now you’re probably well aware of the controversy surrounding Blizzard’s decision to give away a free mount via Twitch drops. Normally, this wouldn’t be a big deal, however, the mount in question happens to be the Feldrake. Just in case you’re not familiar with it, the Feldrake is an extremely rare mount from the long-discontinued WoW TCG game that used to be almost impossible to get unless you were willing to spend some big money. The TCG Fedrake card, which contains the code that could be redeemed for the in-game mount, used to go for anywhere between $3K and $3.5K on eBay and other similar marketplaces. Well, soon you’ll be able to get it for free.
Technically, this isn’t part of the pre-patch as the promotion kicks off on launch day, but we wanted to mention it anyway to help you prepare for it beforehand. All you have to do to get your hands on the Feldrake is watch eligible Dragonflight streams for a total of four hours between November 28 and December 1st. Naturally, you’ll need to first link your Battle.net account to your Twitch account to get the mount.