Dev Watercooler - Flying in Draenor

Update (1:15 PM EDT): The preview of Timewalking in The Arcatraz included this for a few minutes before it was removed: "your first crack at The Arcatraz, is June 26-30".
Update (1:15 PM EDT): The guess from Projection List that said the Warcraft trailer was showing today was confirmed to be incorrect.
Update (9:30 PM EDT): Blizzard posted a Shipyard overview.

Dev Watercooler – Flying in Draenor
It looks like flight is finally coming to Draenor in Patch 6.2.x. You will earn flying by exploring the world from the ground first and completing:


Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
We appreciate the spirited discussion on the topic of flying. The subject has brought out passionate viewpoints and sparked insightful conversations on our official forums and blogs, on community sites, and in chat channels. Your feedback has been a valuable part of the ongoing conversations within Blizzard as well, and today, we’d like to share some updated plans for how we’ll handle flight going forward.

The Thrill of Discovery
At the heart of the initial plan to restrict flight in Draenor (even after players reach level 100) lies the design goal of providing the best moment-to-moment gameplay possible in the outdoor world. From navigating the lava flows of the Molten Front in Patch 4.2, to breaching the Thunder King’s stronghold in Patch 5.2, to reaching the heights of the Ordon Sanctuary on Timeless Isle in Patch 5.4, to uncovering secrets deep within Gorgrond’s jungles on Draenor, World of Warcraft is full of memorable moments that are only possible when players explore the world by ground. And as we’ve continued to develop content over the years, we’ve focused more and more on providing players with these kinds of experiences.

However, while we firmly believe that keeping your feet on the ground is a key part of discovery in WoW, we also recognize that breaking free from those restrictions can be fun and rewarding as well, especially for those who’ve already fully experienced the game’s world content. With that in mind, we’re planning some changes in the near future that will allow players to enjoy their hard-earned flying mounts in Draenor—in a way that doesn’t compromise the excitement of ground-based exploration.

Mastering the Outdoor World
In an upcoming Public Test Realm build, we will be introducing a new meta-achievement called Draenor Pathfinder. You’ll earn this achievement in Patch 6.2 by mastering the outdoor environment of Draenor—exploring Draenor’s zones, collecting 100 treasures in Draenor, completing the Draenor Loremaster and Securing Draenor achievements, and raising the three new Tanaan Jungle reputations to Revered. Initially, this achievement will award a rylak mount: the Soaring Skyterror, one of the native beasts that roam Draenor’s skies. Players will remain ground-bound on Draenor until a small follow-up patch (6.2.x), when all players who have earned Draenor Pathfinder on at least one character will unlock the ability to fly in Draenor on all their level 90+ characters.

We believe this strikes the right balance between ensuring ground-based content lives up to its full potential, while providing players who’ve already fully experienced Draenor’s outdoor world extra freedom to “break the rules.” This also provides a general blueprint going forward for content to come. Players will explore new and undiscovered lands from the ground, and then once they’ve fully mastered those environments—a notion that continues to evolve with each new expansion—they can take to the skies and experience the world from a new vantage point.

Thank you for your heartfelt feedback. We’ll see you in (and soon, above) Tanaan Jungle.

Armory Stats - Flying Achievements
While not all of the flying related achievements are in, we can take a look at how people are doing on each achievement before everyone knew they would be required to fly. The used sample is 1.8 million players that have logged in since May 1.

Don't see a chart? Enable javascript!
This article was originally published in forum thread: Dev Watercooler – Flying Returns to Draenor started by chaud View original post
Published on 2015-06-10 05:06 PM
713 Comments
Comments 710 Comments
  1. Milerks's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Fientje View Post
    Your first point isn't relevant. I for example don't mind if flying comes at the end of a long epic quest chain. But it doesn't
    Your second isn't relevant either, as that is a complaint of many people, not just the ones who love flying.

    Your third point is semi-relevant. It can be fun to do a lot of stuff to get flying. If the stuff we have to do is actually fun.
    Another rep grind is not fun.
    Running all over Draenor to find any quests I missed is not fun either. Exploring on a groundmount is not fun for me either.
    I stopped the treasure hunts as soon as I found out I needed a certain level of archeology for some (too many) of the treasures. My main is a 'new main' this xpack. I have archeology max level on some other toons, but not this main.
    I would love flying to do all this stuff.

    I guess I'm not the only one who doesn't like running around to do those things.
    So I would have to go out and complete those. And when the new xpack hits I have to go grind mobs/rep. And when all that is done I get an achievement that will unlock flying in a future patch. Yea no.
    'If the stuff we have to do is actually fun' - no one forces you to play the game, its equal to everyone, everyone has at some point GRIND for it, if you switch your main, its your problem, so you either adapt or you die, may cancel sub, go play little ponies where everything is accessible, painless, butthurtless and easy
  1. mmocfd328e0b6e's Avatar
    Blizzard is the hero again, they remove a feature and put it back as a new thing.

    That was a bigger fail than the real ID. I don't know who made these decisions but I have a weedy garden soooo a helping hand will be useful here.

    A 20-30 pieces of epic quest chain would be the best solution to get flying, like the druid thing was in BC.
  1. Tisane's Avatar
    Great to see that Blizzard didn't become ultra stubborn after I read all the recent blue posts filled with stubbornness and how the 'upper tier' of Blizzard took total control without there being any room for discussion. I'm fine with flying being gone temporarily, but forever? No thanks. Now please keep this up, Blizzard!

    Today we celebrate! (At least I and the folks who were also hoping for flying to come back)
  1. mmocf89c8b0f36's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Dhru View Post
    A 20-30 pieces of epic quest chain would be the best solution to get flying, like the druid thing was in BC.
    I don't like that flying is going back but I must say that I enjoyed flight form quest chain. It's a shame Blizzard removed class quests (and looking at today's news, I'm not the only one thinking that).
  1. Nohara's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Nindoriel View Post
    Grinding those reps will not be a tiny bit of work. And ironically, once we're done with that, there's probably nothing to do out on Draenor anyway, so the flying mount will make no difference, other than for alts. It's just a way for Blizzard to give people more of an incentive to do the content, in an expansion where the content has been piss poor and most people spend most of their time in the garrison because of that.
    You will probably have reached revered with these factions when the 6.2.x patch hits, by going trough 6.2's content...

    This website should be renamed nag-champion.com
  1. Blur4stuff's Avatar
    one thing is clear. people fucking hate apexis dailies.
  1. Leih's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Blur4stuff View Post
    one thing is clear. people fucking hate apexis dailies.
    I still don't really understand why... Maybe it's purely because Apexis crystals aren't an exciting reward and if they had still awarded Valor Points it would have been different? Failing that, I can only assume it's just because there is no hand-holding. People tend to struggle with content that's less linear and lets you work things out for yourself.
  1. Minotard's Avatar
    Does anyone know if all the achievements have to be done on the same character, or does it count over multiple characters?
  1. mmocdb507654a2's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Kae View Post
    I still don't really understand why... Maybe it's purely because Apexis crystals aren't an exciting reward and if they had still awarded Valor Points it would have been different? Failing that, I can only assume it's just because there is no hand-holding. People tend to struggle with content that's less linear and lets you work things out for yourself.
    Nah its just plain boring after doing it XYZ times (remember at the beginning dailys were repeating and you couldnt buy one that you need like you can now) on main and than on alts also for that legendary ring quest... Rares there drop shit loot and i'm ignoring that daily since i git capped on one char and waiting for next patch to farm all 120k for mount. And i didnt even do all of them im still missing one or two due to early randomnes and im not keen to complete until patch is very near.
    Same for exploration got 3 or 4 complete and missing only one area on others that im not arsed to discover yet until next patch is close.

    Treasures were fun and rewarding so got 200 achiev of them, the only bone i have to pick with pathfinder are those reputations.
  1. Abigail1509's Avatar
    Blizzard you are the best!
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