Article: More World of Warcraft Dragonflight Interviews

[Stoy]

More World of Warcraft Interviews
Several fan sites interviewed the developers about World of Warcraft Dragonflight over the week.

Warcraft Radio Interview with Steve Danuser

• The stone watcher seen in the Dragonflight cinematic is named Watcher Korinos.
• Watcher Korinos will be present on the Dragon Isles. We will see him while questing and get to know him better.
• One of the biggest themes we will see in Dragonflight is "legacy."
• Dragons outside of the main 5 flights will definitely be part of the expansion.
• There will be a lot of localized threats like the gnolls, but also bigger ones like the Djaradin.
• There is a lot of gaps in the Chronicle narrative about the dragonflights and throughout the story we will discover that many proto-dragons did not feel being infused by the Titans was a good idea.
• There are four dragon leaders in the primalist movement that are on par with the aspects, each embodying the elemental forces that they embraced. This movement was of those that rejected the Titan's gifts and wanted to remain unfettered. These philosophical differences led to war.
• The Dragon Aspects defeated and imprisoned these Primal Incarnates long ago, but they are in danger of being released now that the land is waking up.
• The dragons will have to reflect on what it means to be tethered to these cosmic forces and the Titan's order magic. Should they renew these bonds or find a different way forward?
• The fact that Nozdormu knows that he will transform into Murozond at some point weighs heavily on high mind and he's having trouble clearly seeing the time ways right now.
• The blue dragonflight is scattered, and Kalecgos's story will revolve around returning to the Isles to find not many of them there. How will he rebuild his flight?
• The green dragonflight story will follow Merithra as she tries to take up the mantle of Ysera.
• The black dragonflight story will revolve around Wrathion and how his questionable choices/birth will affect his future with the flight.
• We will also see the relationship between Wrathion and Ebonhorn grow as they learn from each other.
• The Dragonscale Expedition is the name of the combined forces of the Explorer's League and the Reliquary.
• Patch 9.2.5 will start to show some changes that have been going on on Azeroth while we were away. Some of it has been available on the PTR, but some hasn't happened yet.
• The pre-patch events will help tell the story of what's going on back on Azeroth and how they two factions have been faring with new leadership/
• Uldaman is getting a modern revamp that has the right amount of nostalgia while setting some new light on it.
• There will be new sections of Uldaman to explore as Alexstraza sends us to find discs that contain the knowledge of Keeper Tyr.

Buffed Interview with Ion Hazzikostas

• There was a great war between the dragon factions around the time of Galakrond's fall.
• The Aspects we know were the victors of the war, but with the loss of their power during Cataclysm and the reawakening of these primalist foes, they are less positioned to fight them off this time. This is why they need our help.
• There will be major villains in Dragonflight, but it will feel like Mists of Pandaria where it is unclear who they are at first.
• Khadgar will be joining us in the Dragon Isles.
• Anduin's future in the story will have some questions answered during Patch 9.2.5. He has been changed forever by his experience with Domination and will likely be stepping down as King of Stormind for the time being.
• The factions will retain an uneasy armistice moving forward, with groups that want peace and others who won't so forget the past. They will still retain separate control of their lands and you won't see orcs running around Stormwind anytime soon.
• There is going to be significant endgame areas across all 4 zones.
• The zones are much larger than the zones of Shadowlands.
• The zones have a lot more depth and open space.
• Normal mounts will be useable on the ground, but not for flying at the start.
• Sargeras's sword in Silithus is just a big splinter at this point. The story will be focusing on the Dragon Isles, but the old zones won't have any significant new stuff in Dragonflight.
• The Evoker brings a new style to ranged DPS in the same way the Demon Hunter brought it to melee.
• The team is playing with ways to make the Dracthyr's visage form usable in combat as well outside of using dragon abilities.
• You will get 1 talent point per level, alternating between a class point and a spec point.
• Many of the covenant abilities will be reintroduced in the talent trees.
• Shadowlands will be added to the 10-60 Chromie Time leveling after the expansion ends.
• The old UI texture options will not be available to toggle with the new UI.
• Crafting tables will be required for making important items.
• The team would like to allow cross-server trading, but there is a lot more work required to make sure it has no exploits or problems.
• No news on whether or not BlizzCon will return.

Blizzplanet Interview with Jackie Wiley and Tina Wang

• There are no Dragonflight Covenants in the expansion, meaning there are no quests locked behind different Covenant systems or anything like that.
• The team is still talking about what to do with alts for leveling, but they want players to choose how to level them instead of having something as specific as Threads of Fate. This includes dungeons and side quests throughout the zones outside of the main campaign.
• Dragonflight does not take place that long after Shadowlands. There is no crazy time jump or "wake up" moment.
• Dracythr don't have progression to their personal form of flying in their dragonoid form, but they will be able to jump off and dive.
• As of now, Dracthyr are always in dragon form when in combat.
• There is a lot more customization to the Dracthyr form than what was shown in the video.
  
  • Players can expect the ability to make the torso more slender or slightly bulkier as well.
  • The armor can be customized in the Barbershop.
  • Dracthyr forms will show your shoulders, tabards, and belts.
  • The visage form will show all armor.
  • You can customize face shape, snout, etc.
• Drackthyr Evokers will be playable in the pre-patch.
• There are 4 different dragon companion body types available.
  
  • Proto-drake
  • Veloci-drake (pterrodax body type)
  • Wyvern-drake
  • Drake-drake
• The Veloci-drake form has some wildly different snout customizations, including rhino beaks or pterodactyl looking.
• Drake customizations will drop from many different sources. There is an overwhelming amount of different unlockable options.
• Drake customizations are completely cosmetic and don't affect Dragon Riding in any way.
• Work orders will let players who don't have the profession include BOP crafting items for the crafter to use.
• Specializations will have trees to work through overtime.
• Tree points include options to increase crafting speed, inspiration (chance of making additional dupes of the same item), crit crafting (better quality), etc.
• New players will still start in Exile's Reach, then use Battle for Azeroth zones as their 10-60 experience before going directly to the Dragon Isles.
• The team is still discussing how to address Soul Shape for the future.
• Dragon Riding is currently only available in the Dragon Isles.
• Valdrakken will have an iconic area much like the top of Wyrmrest Temple where the dragon leaders will all be in their dragon forms.
• Valdrakken is the highest point of the Dragon Isles. It will be really fun to jump off or it and soar to different areas on your dragon.
• There will be new docks in each faction capitol city for the expedition.
• They haven't forgotten about Heritage Armor and now that we are returning to Azeroth there is room to tell those stories.
• The team views Archeology as a content offering now over a profession.
• The team is discussing new race/class combos.
• No confirmation on duck mount as of now.

MMORPG Interview with Tina Wang and Jackie Wiley

• They hope to lift the Dracthyr race/class restrictions in the future, but it is just a hope at this point.
• Every person's drake will likely never look the same because the customizations are so vast.
• The Ui for dragon customization is "essentially a dragon barbershop."
• The team doesn't want to repeat the same issues that arose from Threads of Fate. They want players to choose what they want to do to level.

JudgeHype Interview with Ion Hazzikostas

• The pre-patch events will likely last two weeks.
• The Uldaman revamp will be available during the pre-patch at level 60.
• The Dragon Isles are located in northeastern Azeroth.
• The Dragon Isles are one of the biggest continents Blizzard has ever made.
• Tyrande will also play a role in the story.
• We will learn more about Galakrond.
• A few small changes will take place in Kalmindor and the Eastern Kingdoms. These involve the presence of certain NPCS and the evolution of the Forsaken.
• The ideal length for the Race to World First is around 10-11 days, but balancing for the top guilds is a real challenge.
• There are no Azerite or Artifact power systems in Dragonflight, but a progressions system will obviously be a part of it.
• There will not be dragon forms for druids.
• Blizzard will continue to control the time-frame of certain unlocks. They like to have some things unlocked to all players at the same time.

PCGamesN Interview with Ion Hazzikostas

• The story of Dragonflight will be more traditional and less high concept like Shadowlands.
• The team is trying to return to a more grounded adventures with core high fantasy concepts.
• There will still be cosmic adventures in the future with great threats.
• Dragonflight's story will not require you to have played Shadowlands to understand it.

[druchii5]

"They haven't forgotten about Heritage Armor and now that we are returning to Azeroth there is room to tell those stories."

Fingers crossed for this. Would love to finally have Darkspear heritage armor.

[Caprias]

Great interview except for buffed.

Buffed should go die in a carfire for the clickbait ad-infested trash site that it is.
Sadly there are still enough german WoW boomers to support that garbage site...

[Xilurm]

There will be new docks in each faction capitol city for the expedition.

Small things like this can make a big difference. Having the world feel more alive by having it actually connected by immersive means is way better than just throwing a portal somewhere and calling it a day.

The team doesn't want to repeat the same issues that arose from Threads of Fate. They want players to choose what they want to do to level.

Can someone explain this? I didn't really lvl any alts in Shadowlands so I don't know what the problems were.

[Aydinx2]

There is a lot more customization to the Dracthyr form than what was shown in the video.
Players can expect the ability to make the torso more slender or slightly bulkier as well.
The armor can be customized in the Barbershop.
Dracthyr forms will show your shoulders, tabards, and belts.
The visage form will show all armor.
You can customize face shape, snout, etc.

Wait. People overreacted? No, that can't be...

[Ielenia]

"They haven't forgotten about Heritage Armor and now that we are returning to Azeroth there is room to tell those stories."

Fingers crossed for this. Would love to finally have Darkspear heritage armor.

I would love a night elf heritage armor that is reminiscent to the armor they wore in WC3 and the Darkshore Assault (I think) where it's a more savage-looking outfit.

[Aydinx2]

Small things like this can make a big difference. Having the world feel more alive by having it actually connected by immersive means is way better than just throwing a portal somewhere and calling it a day.



Can someone explain this? I didn't really lvl any alts in Shadowlands so I don't know what the problems were.

I don't know of any big/popular complains, but it was kinda tedious because you just ended up doing all of the worldquests and a few generic quests in every zone. It wasn't really different from normal leveling and often you ended up just spamming dungeons anyways.

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I would love a night elf heritage armor that is reminiscent to the armor they wore in WC3 and the Darkshore Assault (I think) where it's a more savage-looking outfit.

They should just do something similar to the Blood Elf armor.
Give a close-to-nude option for the traditionalists and a more wooden/bark chestpiece or robe for others.

[klaps_05]

Really hope talents work out better than having to give up utility and spells we have had for years just to get other stuff.

[Kralljin]

The Uldaman revamp will be available during the pre-patch at level 60.

Did i miss anything, was there anything said about Uldaman in the presentation about Dragonflight?

[Auburst]

Fuckers won't even make Dracthyr wear armors.

[LordVargK]

Can someone explain this? I didn't really lvl any alts in Shadowlands so I don't know what the problems were.

Two complaints were made:
1. Threads of fate was much, much slower at the start and the quests were mindnumbingly boring (think like kill 50 mobs to clear an objective).
2. Once you open threads of fate, you could not got back to the main quest. So doing a mixture of leveling via main quest and doing bonus objectives or World Quests was impossible.

OT:
I dearly hope that the WL doesn't get any covenant ability in their talent tree. All of them are thematically unfitting and all of them are incredibly boring. I rather have new (or pruned) stuff back.

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Did i miss anything, was there anything said about Uldaman in the presentation about Dragonflight?

Nope, but Danuser stated it in the first interview here. Maybe it's one of the 8 dungeons we will get, kinda like in Cata, where some max level dungeons were revamps as well.

[Rhelyo]

Did i miss anything, was there anything said about Uldaman in the presentation about Dragonflight?

Doesn't need to. Considering the cinematic shows the watcher waking up and activating the device which cloaked the Dragon Isles this is an expansion focused on Watchers and Dragons. Uldaman is a watcher facility dungeon. The guy on the throne in the cinematic is Tyr i think. So it all fits.

[Aernath]

Small typo there dear admins:
Stony Tony's real name is Watcher Koranos (not Korinos)

https://twitter.com/SteveDanuser/sta...84162475094022

[Ringthane]

Wait. People overreacted? No, that can't be...

Especially here on MMO-Champion. That never happens.

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Small typo there dear admins:
Stony Tony's real name is Watcher Koranos (not Korinos)

https://twitter.com/SteveDanuser/sta...84162475094022

Well, now I'm forever going to refer to him as Stony Tony.

[Kralljin]

Doesn't need to. Considering the cinematic shows the watcher waking up and activating the device which cloaked the Dragon Isles this is an expansion focused on Watchers and Dragons. Uldaman is a watcher facility dungeon. The guy on the throne in the cinematic is Tyr i think. So it all fits.

I'm not questioning that.

The point is that he's saying that the Uldaman revamp will be available at launch.
So the obvious question is: There's an Uldaman revamp?

[Celement]

Not a fan of the layout of the story as these inspections tend to take a lot of deep lore and make them trivial good and bad via retcons but whining about lore at this point is beating not a dead horse but the skeleton of one.

[mkultra55]

.........The guy on the throne in the cinematic is Tyr i think. So it all fits.

Tyr died in Tirisfal and his Tomb is there. We went to it in Legion.

Plus he wasn't made of Stone. He was made of Silver.

[naeblis495]

"The story of Dragonflight will be more traditional and less high concept like Shadowlands."

Shadowlands was high concept ? Jesus christ.

[crusadernero]

"The zones are much larger than the zones of Shadowlands.
The zones have a lot more depth and open space"

This alone is GREAT! Besides that, lots of cool info here. Looking forward to it!

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"The story of Dragonflight will be more traditional and less high concept like Shadowlands."

Shadowlands was high concept ? Jesus christ.

Wasnt it? Jailer with 5d chess, cosmic forces like life/death, literally travelling to the world were dead ppl go, travelling to the place were "everything" were created++

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I'm not questioning that.

The point is that he's saying that the Uldaman revamp will be available at launch.
So the obvious question is: There's an Uldaman revamp?

Either total revamp of the dungeon we know or a new part of it is added.

[Wyattbw09]

Talking about pre-patch events already, when this game won’t see the light of day before late 2023. Until stuff starts actually appearing in alpha/beta patches it’s all hype train wish casting. Path of Titans, Dance Studio, Destroyable buildings kind of stuff.