World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight - Profession System Revamp
Huge changes are coming to professions in World of Warcraft: Dragonflight!


General

• Professions have had a lot of incremental updates over their life, but in Dragonflight the team is rethinking professions
• The team wants professions to be part of your identity as a player and be fun and relevant across all levels of gameplay

Crafting Orders

• The Crafting Order system is the first major update.
• If you want to have something crafted and don't have the right profession to do it yourself, you can use a Crafting Order.
• You can browse any of the recipes that can be crafted, pick the one you want, and include some or all of the reagents needed for the recipe, including ones that only you can get your hands on.
• You can use this crafting order in person with another player, or go to an NPC and send the order out via an Auction House like interface.
• You can send the order to the general public, just your guild, or even just to a specific player.
• The item you have crafted can be soulbound, unlike the past where you had to make it yourself.
• This will expand the number of powerful items that professions can have, as anyone can now have the items crafted.

Quality

• Crafted items and Reagents will now have a Quality.
• If you craft something that is a higher quality, it's just going to be better.
• Higher quality items may have a higher item level and potions may be more powerful.
• Lots of work has been done to the UI to make professions feel special and unique.
• Both Crafting and Gathering professions will now have stats.
• Crafting specializations will be the biggest input of your ability to craft higher quality items.
• You can go out and earn Specialization points in many different ways: Finding an old book, running across an NPC that can teach you a little bit about your profession, and more.
• A Blacksmith may want to become an Armorsmith. The more points you spend in Armorsmithing, the better you will be at crafting all armor.
• If you specialize into one path, your guild members could specialize into different paths, so your guild can have multiple Blacksmiths that all provide something unique and valuable to the guild.

Crafting

• Crafting tables will be added in Valdrakken for all of the different crafting professions.
• You'll walk into the city and see players crafting things at their tables.
• Crafters will also be getting gear for every profession.
• You'll automatically swap into your crafting gear when doing some crafting activities, like mining a node.
• You won't have to carry around the crafting gear with you, there are special slots that won't take up Backpack space.
• Your crafting gear will have special stats, so as you get your hands on better gear, you'll get better at your profession.

World of Warcraft Dragonflight Dragon Riding, Dracthyr Race, and Evoker Class


New Race - Dracthyr

• Dracthyr are a humanoid dragon race created by Neltharion.
• The only class available to this race is the new Evoker class.
• You can choose to be on Alliance of Horde.
• You have a lot of customization for both your Draconic form and humanoid form.
• Customizations include scales, colors, and even multi-colored hair.
• Dracthyr will be able to use Dragonriding, as they have wings and will fly.
• The Dracthyr starting experience will introduce you to the Dragonriding mechanics.

New Class - Evoker

• Evoker is the new class available to only the Dracthyr race
• Ability to wield the magic of all five dragon flights
• Prismatic effect visuals show all dragonflight's magics until condensing into one.
• Wears mail armor.
• Devastation is the ranged magical DPS spec. It focuses on Red and Blue magic.
• Red magic is fast and explosive. (AOE)
• Blue is more focused and overwhelming. (Single Target)
• Preservation is the healing spec and focuses on Green and Bronze magic.
• Green magic is typical heals.
• Bronze magic speeds or winds up heals.
• Empowered spells are a main part of the class, letting you hold down the button to channel before unleashing it to power up the ability.
• The longer you channel, the more powerful the spell will be.
• Certain abilities will let you fly around the battlefield while you cast.

New Way of Flying - Dragonriding

• Dragonriding is a new flight system being added in Dragonflight.
• This will be very unique compared to regular flying mounts.
• You will level up this skill over time to get new animations and abilities.
• The aim here is to shake up movement in WoW with things such as barrel rolls and speed bursts.
• The system utilizes momentum, physics, and gravity.
• Screen effects will indicate reaching certain speeds.
• Players will unlock different cosmetic customizations for their dragon mount including different snouts, tails, wings, armor, spikes, and horns.
• There are millions of combinations of drakes to choose from.
• Continue to improve your Dragonriding skill at max level by hunting down ancient glyphs and advancing your new Dragonriding skill tree.
• The denizens of the Dragon Isles will knock out inexperienced Dragonriders right out of the sky.
• Players will use the space bar to take off and then use your height and speed to get as far as possible before landing.
• Movement speed is much faster than existing flying mount speeds.
• New zones were built larger to accommodate this new feature, as recent zones have been a little more cramped.
• Players will be able to go through cloud layers, going faster and faster until they are creating contrails.
• Dragonriding is limited to the Dragon Isles, as these are the zones that are built for it.

World of Warcraft Dragonflight Cinematic Trailer



World of Warcraft Dragonflight Press Kit

World of Warcraft Dragonflight Key Art
Dragonflight Key Art Alexstrasza (12960x8000) can be downloaded from the Blizzard Gamepress Website.



World of Warcraft Dragonflight Reveal Screenshots
4K Dragonflight Reveal Screenshots can be downloaded from the Blizzard Gamepress Website.



World of Warcraft Dragonflight Cinematic Stills



World of Warcraft Dragonflight Concept Art



World of Warcraft Dragonflight Concept Art - Dracthyr

World of Warcraft Dragonflight - New Zones and Features Panel


The Waking Shores

• The Waking Shores is wild and untamed land. It is literally waking up around you after thousands of years.
• The elements in The Waking Shores are going crazy.
• The Waking Shores will feature lava mountains coming in from the beach and proto dragons swooping down to gobble up members of your expedition.
• Players will take a boat to the Dragon Isles from their capital city. these boats will float through the Dragon spires and be right next to each other to the point that you can jump between them.
• Arriving at the Dragon Isle will be a great opportunity for War Mode, but there is an Innkeeper on the beach if you want to opt out.
• The Horde and Alliance Explorer's League/Reliquary are sending a joint expedition to the isles. These are scientists and settlers, not warriors.
• The Red Dragonflight will be there to welcome and guide the expedition on the Waking Shores.
• The Waking Shores also houses the ancestral home of the Black Dragonflight, which has fallen on tough times since Deathwing's descent into madness. There are a few loyalist draconoids, but this part of the story will delve into the future of the flight if it is just Wrathion.
• The Jorudin are half giant-half elementals that are also returning to the Dragon Isles. They are the ancient enemies of the dragons and were slumbering until the Warden called the dragons back.
• The Jorudin ride magma mammoths and control lava.
• The Red Dragonflight protect life and don't want to destroy the Jorudin, but they also want to make sure they can't affect the expedition.
• Ducks are finally being introduced in The Waking Shores.

Ohn'ahran Plains

• These are wide open, where the player will be constricted at first until they open up to a cinematic shot.
• There is a giant proto dragon in the center and the first thing you do is go help take it down.
• Ohn'ahra is the wild god of the wind. She is a spirit eagle that guided the centaur to the Dragon Isles.
• We will dive into the history of the Centaurs and their battles with the Green Dragonflight. We make peace between them.
• The Centaur control the wide open plains, but the Green dragons control the groves.
• The view distance is increased in this zone because you can see so far into the Horizon.

The Azure Span

• The Azure Span is the third zone and one of the biggest ever made for WoW.
• The zone is heavily inspired by the Grizzly Hills.
• There is a heavy coastal fog here too.
• The zone breaks open into a wide-open Tundra once you get through the forest.
• The Tundra increases in elevation and has a lot of snow and ice.
• Knolls will be a big part of this area. There are also snow Knolls.
• The Tuskarr will also be heavily involved in this area. There are also female Tuskarr and children.
• The Blue dragons will also be involved in this area. We will help Kalecgos explore Sindragosa's archives.

Thaldraszus

• Thaldraszus is the fourth zone and the most intact of the group.
• A lot of the ruins you see on the Isles will culminate here.
• This is the seat of power for all 5 flights.
• There are a lot of vertical mountains and caves.
• The bronze dragon has a unique area here involving time that will feature unique story hooks and gameplay options.
• The main hub of Valdraken will also be featured here. This is a culmination of the dragons' efforts to create a city.
• The Blue flight houses a library while the red and green have their own gardens.
• This hub will have an auction house.
• The city will have a lot of aqueducts and feature the Tyrhold structure.
• This is the location where Tyr built a facility after helping the dragons fight Galakrond.
• Tyr is gone, but the history will be explored as the dragons return.

The Forbidden Reach

• Located off the coast of the Dragon Isles, the Forbidden Reach was fashioned by Neltharion the Earth-Warder to serve as a training ground for his ultimate soldiers, the Dracthyr.
• In the aftermath of a terrible battle, the island has lain dormant and abandoned for ages--until the return of an ancient enemy causes the Dracthyr to stir.