What we know about World of Warcraft: Dragonflight. Guide, release date, features, system requirements

The famous MMORPG of the gaming industry will enter a new phase soon. The new big expansion called Dragonflight is about to be released in World of Warcraft.

The add-on Dragonflight was announced on April 19 2022 and it will open its servers for the heroes of Azeroth. The update launches a new branch of the development of Blizzard's creature, adding many new items to the game, about which we will tell you below.

We offer you to dive into the depth of World of Warcraft and find out everything about World of Warcraft: Dragonflight in our comprehensive article.

The release date of World of Warcraft: Dragonflight

The 9th expansion (without the original World of Warcraft) will be out on November 28, 2022. Blizzard has prepared for this date.

According to a good tradition, the launch of Dragonflight will happen in a few steps: pre-patches with limited portions of the fresh content, the launch of the main Dragonflight servers, and the addition of raids.

WoW fans have been able to try the changed user interface and rebalanced game mechanics on the test servers, including the experience of acquiring WoW gold and items, since October 26 2022 and test the new race since November, about which we will talk a bit later.

The story and features of World of Warcraft: Dragonflight

Having become the 9th update, Dragonflight starts a new cycle in World of Warcraft, making a pause in the world. According to the story, the elemental magic is awakened in Azeroth once again: dragons who had left their islands were summoned by the guardians of these places.

The heroes of Azeroth will go to Dragon Isles (the new continent in Dragonflight) to help the returned creatures rebuild their homes. By doing noble duties, players will study the behavior of different dragons, including the cursed Black Dragons, dive into the origins of the Azeroth world, study elemental magic, and upgrade up to the 70th level. Dragonflight returns to the level limit of Burning Crusade.

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight gives players an opportunity to have a little rest from the epochal events. The battle between the Alliance and Horde is put outside the brackets in the new add-on and the universal evil like Jailer from Shadowlands or the deeper antagonists have been left behind in World of Warcraft: Dragonflight.

Besides the Dragon Isles, the events of Dragonflight will take place in Kalimdor and the Eastern kingdoms. During the add-on, we will find out about the future of the forsaken and a few central World of Warcraft characters.

A new continent – the Dragon Isles

The main events of World of Warcraft: Dragonflight will take place on the new continent – the Dragon Isles.

The locations had previously appeared in the WOW lore but Blizzard has decided to make it public for everyone with the release of the big expansion. The Dragon Isles is a home for all dragons, which is, in turn, divided into regions where various dragons live.

• The Waking Shores. This is the starting location in Dragonflight where players begin traveling across the new add-on World of Warcraft: Dragonflight. The members of the Alliance will be accompanied by the Explorer's League, which will brief you about the situation on the Dragon Isles. The Horde heroes will be supported by Reliquary. The Walking Shores is a home for red and black dragons. Walking through the location, players will meet Wrathion and release the Citadel of the Black dragons.
• The Ohn'ahran Plains. This is a hilly terrain full of fields, a house for the Greed dragons and centaurs who live together after a long-term rivalry. The heroes of Azeroth will have to deal with the consequences of the death of the Green dragons, which are on the brink of extinction now.
• The Azure Span. It is a home of blue dragons, gnolls, and tuskarrs. According to the developers, this region will be the biggest one not only in Dragonflight but the entire World of Warcraft. The biomes will include tundra and snowed fields.
• Thaldraszus. The capital of the Dragon Isle is located here, the old Valdrakken. There is also a fortress of the titans Tyrhold, where the ritual of summoning dragons took place.
• The Forbidden Reach. The Dracthyr warriors study there. The island was created by Neltharion and the players who choose the dracthyr race will start here.

The new playable race of World of Warcraft: Dragonflight – Dracthyr

The new race of the expansion dedicated to the Dragon Isles will become the dragons, namely, the Dracthyrs. During the creation of the new gaming race for WoW, Blizzard was inspired by their concepts, namely, worgens, demon-hunters, and death knights.

Drakthyrs, like worgens, have two forms. The true one is a form of the humanoid-like dragon and the additional one is a human form. Both can be adjusted in the character editor.

Drakthyrs, just like Demon-Hunters and Death Knights, stay outside of the factions. They do not belong to either the Horde or the Alliance. Drakthyr heroes start the game on the 58th level at their location with a standalone series of quests, as it was made for the Death Knights.

With the release of the new race, a new class has also been added to the game.

The new class of World of Warcraft: Dragonflight – Evoker

The new race brings a new class, which will be exclusive to Drakthyrs. The humanoid-like dragons might be evokers. The specialization of evokers is healing.

Evokers have the Guardian upgrade branch, which allows them both to restore health for themselves and their allies. Besides healing, Evokers can deal damage and buff – all of this is due to using the elemental magic of different dragons from World of Warcraft.

You will not be able to use all specters of inclusivity, however, there will be 4 types of dragons after the launch:

• Green. Healing
• Red. AOE damage
• Blue. Single-target damage
• Bronze. Buffs for defense and damage

Besides, the winners will have an analog of the combo mechanics. Some skills can be reinforced by pressing buttons of these skills in timing (when the combo is available, the spell button is highlighted).

The new mechanic – Dragonriding

The new mechanic is added into WoW with the release of Dragonflight – dragon flying. In fact, this is an analog of flying transport with a few changes.

Yes, flying on a dragon is faster than on any other flying transport, however, it can be done only on the Dragon Isles. You will need to tame a dragon in order to fly on it.

Characters can tame a dragon of any pack and upgrade it after that. The flying pets will have a small scale of talents to do so. Players will have a way bigger scale, which will have big changes, compared to the previous add-on Shadowlands.

The new talent system, the expansion of professions, and the interface.

In World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, the focus was made on other gaming mechanics. Significant changes were made to talents, professions, and interface.

Talents

According to Blizzard, the talent system has received its biggest update since Mists of Pandaria. Players will be able to develop two branches of skills at the same time: the first one is a class branch and the second one is a specialization branch. This approach will add flexibility and the function of the talent changing and their saving will reinforce it.

Professions

Another system, which was significantly changed is the system of professions.

Now, materials for professions will get their quality, which will impact the quality of the items made at the end of their cycle of creation. Together with it, the orders mechanic will emerge in World of Warcraft: Dragonflight: players will be able to complete orders from other players, earning in-game money for it. The function of observing all recipes available in the game will be implemented.

Also, players will be able to level up their specialization skills, which, just like the quality of materials, will impact the items produced with the help of craft.

Interface

Together with gaming aspects, the user aspect was also changed. The interface was refreshed, and it was modernized both visually and functionally.

In World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, players will get an opportunity to move parts of the interface across the screen easily and each of its elements will have its adjusted configuration.

The system requirements of World of Warcraft: Dragonflight

Dragonflight will not make a revolution in terms of graphics and other technical parameters. The game will be played comfortably on pretty out-of-date systems in 2022.

Minimum requirements

• CPU: 4 cores, 3,0 GHz (Intel Core Haswell 4th gen/AMD Ryzen Zen)
• RAM: 8 GB
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 900/AMD GCN/Intel Iris Xe
• Disk space: 128 GB.

Recommended requirements

• CPU: 6 cores, 3.5 GHz (Intel Core Coffe Lake/AMD Ryzen Zen 2).
• RAM: 16 GB.
• GPU: 8 GB (NVIDIA GeForce RTX/AMD RDNA 2/Intel Arc 7).
• Disk space: 128 GB.