Dragonflying should become evergreen, Legacy flying should be slowly replaced.

[Gamingsince1981]

Yes. That’s literally the point. This is what I wrote: “You in a dangerous area? Just type in /noclip and you can hover out of harm's way.” You can not make a threatening zone if you can fly up and out at any moment. This is why no flying in the Maw for Shadowlands was so effective. The only outlier that comes to mind is Icecrown, which was primarily due to the zone being explicitly designed for flying. We’ll circle back to that point later.

I suppose you misinterpreted my mentioning the 20-second timer being removed as focusing solely on /noclip AFK, but that wasn’t the intention. But I do believe that would resolve that issue you had. No one wants to wait 20 seconds to log out, not even me.



I’ll be honest; I don't know what this is. I suppose it’s about my 20-second timer statement? It’s not about “if things were different”; I’m simply saying I’d prefer to log out. Pressing one button to instantly disengage makes more sense. Granted, that’s a personal preference.



Actually, yes, you’re exactly correct. This is why the level design in WOTLK was so effective. It was the first expansion designed specifically around flying, but we haven’t had level design like it since. Dragonflight is a return to form. Legacy flying would likely work well there, but Dragonflying better connects the player to the world in a far more immersive and engaging way. Furthermore, legacy flying and its mechanics also undermine a crucial component of what Dragonflying wants to bring to the table; the two are at odds with one another.

And just as I’ve said earlier, I did change my stance from a previous post where I feel that legacy flying does have a place in the game, just not with any active expansion moving forward. It should be a legacy feature and something that should be allowed once an expansion ‘goes the distance.’ This is to give room to features similar to Dragonflying and expand the traversal systems in the game in new and fun directions.




Again, absolutely, yes. It’s significantly better than the alternative that we have now, which was, in the past, spending copious amounts of gold just to be granted access. Or, the newer laundry lists of tasks you have to check off to be given later into an expansion as evidence that you’ve played the content.

Now, with Dragonflight, I’m granted a basic form of flying with its own progression path. It’s going to feel fantastic to feel it get stronger. And while some players can sit and knock it out in an hour and a half. Others will explore and find tokens as they progress through the campaign and the various zones. Either way, we’re given agency on how to proceed, which is “fantastic design.”

To go on a side tangent. What excites me about the progression system is it’s built in a similar way to the talent trees, so I don’t see any reason why this could be expanded in the future with new abilities granted to your mount. My pessimistic side knows that’s unlikely, but the potential is there.



The critical difference is legacy flying does not have that progression system to facilitate a mechanically improved flying mount. And, it can’t facilitate one, simply put, it’s just too strong in its core design. I suppose you could argue why flying would even need that, but at the same time, why wouldn’t you want more game in your video game?

I know we have mount equipment too, and it was an amusing concept, but ultimately I think it failed to leave a long-lasting impression and isn’t something I engage with all that much. Maybe others do, but I haven’t seen Blizzard push any new updates on that front, and players seem to pick one and forget based on the behavior I’ve discussed with guildmates.



This one is somewhat on me as you weren’t here earlier in the thread where the druid/skygolem discussion was brought up; that’s where that bullet point specifically came from. I was always referring to both as any competent gatherer is more than likely using the skygolem if they aren’t already a druid. But the point still stands: those specific setups allow the user to gather unchallenged, breaking any aggro on NPCs by simply flying up.



Thinking about it further, you're correct; between sharding, phases, and the like, there are no actual bottlenecks. This isn’t a game like EVE, where logistics come into play.



It does, but it’s far too effective at doing it that it largely disconnects you from the game world. Simply put, it’s way too powerful at what it attempts to do. It’s an unbalanced mechanic. What players have access to in WoW is nothing short of typing /noclip into the box. Coupled with auto-run, it provides too powerful of a mode of transportation that undermines other aspects of the game, which is not healthy.

Dragonflying resolves that those players are given agency to navigate the play space by turning flying into an active, engaging mechanic. Do I quickly dart over to the nearest flight point so I can grab a drink while I travel across the world? Or do I engage in flying and get to where I need to in half the time?

That is significantly more interesting than mounting, flying up for a few seconds, aiming in the direction I want, then pressing auto-run while I disengage with the game and do something else. This is the bulk of what I’m arguing, honestly. I personally don’t understand how anyone could disagree with that point with something other than “it’s more convenient,” which, in my opinion, isn’t a strong enough argument to justify its implementation. But if you disagree, then you disagree; nothing more is to be said.


I'm not sure why you’re coming at me with so much hostility; we’re discussing differing viewpoints. I agree with some things you said, and that’s fine. I’m also going to be honest; we can’t keep doing a back-and-forth at this scale; I can’t type novels every time, and I’m sure you don’t either.

EDIT: Looking at this after posting, what the fuck am I doing with my time.

And that giant wall of text is pointless considering it's all just opinion and no facts.

[Kilrox]

It's never going to happen. Dragonriding is not going to replace the original flight feature.

Never say never. Imagine if we get a gnome/goblin-themed expansion featuring Tinkers and manufactured planes and helicopters you can customize that bring a whole new set of traversal mechanics and progression to explore a world specifically designed for them. Or an underwater expansion that brings its style of aquatic traversal systems. If Blizzard were to move in a direction like that, especially if Dragonflying is an overall success, legacy flying would slowly become just that, and any new 'flying/aquatic' mounts added to the game would be added through the various new traversal systems.

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And that giant wall of text is pointless considering it's all just opinion and no facts.

Did I upset you or something? What gives?

[rrayy]

How you don’t understand the correlation is beyond me. It’s not my fault these points are clearly going over your head.

Why you keep refusing to answer my question is beyond me. Why you continue to keep presenting your opinion as fact s beyond me too.

[Mafic]

BlizZard is trying to get rid of normal flying but dragonriding is going to end up polarizing the player base. Eventually the playebase will wisen up and realize that they have been had when dragonriding isn't expanded upon beyond Dragonflight and normal flying is continued to be restricted. That is how petty the current dev team is towards normal flying.

[Djuntas]

But...I will never use it. 99% of the time I just do auto fly/auto run, and tab out or whatever. Have 0 idea why Blizzard cares about doing this.

[AtomR]

I love dragon riding, but it needed to be fixed before it could replace conventional flying. Let's ignore having to change animations coz that to me is a non issue. You don't need new animations in the old models. Right now, you glide without wings in your visage form as a Dracthyr, so I don't really think it is that game breaking to use the same animations when using skward ascent or surge.

What bothers me the most is how these winged creatures just don't even try to flap their wings to fly. So much so that sometimes you even fall vertically with no momentum. And you're just there screaming at your dragon that allows itself to fall. Make the points refresh very slowly but do refresh while gliding and make us never fall vertically. That would make dragon riding more like conventional flying and would not make me hate my dragons.

[Schizoide]

But...I will never use it. 99% of the time I just do auto fly/auto run, and tab out or whatever. Have 0 idea why Blizzard cares about doing this.

Dragonflight is MUCH faster than standard flight, so it will have its uses even when both are freely available. Tradeoff is you need to pay attention to travel. That's as it should be.

[tomten]

What bothers me the most is how these winged creatures just don't even try to flap their wings to fly. So much so that sometimes you even fall vertically with no momentum. And you're just there screaming at your dragon that allows itself to fall. Make the points refresh very slowly but do refresh while gliding and make us never fall vertically. That would make dragon riding more like conventional flying and would not make me hate my dragons.

As with 99% of posters. Level. Up. The. System...
And none of what you say is an issue.

[Koollan]

It gets me to the fun part of the game faster.

Woah! Then let me introduce you to Dragonriding - it goes over double the speed of the point-in-one-direction-and-AFK flying. I think you'll like it.

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Please explain to me how I'm going to farm herbs with a goddamn flight path.

Did you know that you can farm herbs while dragonriding once you get the specialization point for it? Don't even need druid flight form anymore to be a gatherer.

[Schizoide]

Have you tried it? Seems like even with maxed-out dragonriding skill you'll still need to wait on stamina if you land every 20s to pick an herb. I expect that'll probably be a concern-- but I myself have not tried it, so that was a real question to anyone who extensively played beta.

[Djuntas]

Dragonflight is MUCH faster than standard flight, so it will have its uses even when both are freely available. Tradeoff is you need to pay attention to travel. That's as it should be.

Whole point of flying is to be up in the sky, so I dont haft to pay attention. Im never gonna use it.

[Hibiki]

I wonder how much delay we will got until we can fly old-style in Dragonlands?

[Schizoide]

Nobody knows, but they did promise it would be allowed later in the expansion. Probably 10.2.

[Kilrox]

Nobody knows, but they did promise it would be allowed later in the expansion. Probably 10.2.

I think pre-patch for the next expansion would be ideal personally.

[AtomR]

As with 99% of posters. Level. Up. The. System...
And none of what you say is an issue.

I unlocked everything and yes this problem becomes less prevalent but it can still happen. Also those damn dragon should just Flap. Their. Wings.

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I wonder how much delay we will got until we can fly old-style in Dragonlands?

Because of dragon riding the new zones (especially the higher level ones) are massive. Not so much horizontally but vertically. They are very high. You will not want to use 310% speed flying instead of the new (and admittedly incredibly fun) 900% speed mounts.

[Koollan]

I unlocked everything and yes this problem becomes less prevalent but it can still happen. Also those damn dragon should just Flap. Their. Wings.

In order to get infinite flight with the new system, you just... go forward. And angle very slightly down. Voila, you have infinite 800+ speed flight. Vigor recharges instantly and you go at blazing speeds. Just don't hit a tree and you won't wipeout - just like real life? And even if you do, just press the 'flap wings' button, then boom - back to infinite flight.

[Rozz]

I'd argue the option should also be opened up for demon hunters.

[Schizoide]

I think pre-patch for the next expansion would be ideal personally.

If it doesn't come until 11.0 I would certainly count that as a broken promise. YMMV obviously.

[AtomR]

In order to get infinite flight with the new system, you just... go forward. And angle very slightly down. Voila, you have infinite 800+ speed flight. Vigor recharges instantly and you go at blazing speeds. Just don't hit a tree and you won't wipeout - just like real life? And even if you do, just press the 'flap wings' button, then boom - back to infinite flight.

Infinite flight? If you aim (slightly down) you will eventually hit the ground. And that's called gliding and while gliding vigor recharge is frozen.
Flying includes going forward and upward. And when you're out of vigor AND gliding you no longer get vigor. You only get vigor at higher speeds.

[Ateo]

100% hope they go this route. Would make the game exponentially better and more engaging.