New Expansion Announced

On Tuesday 19th April 2022, at 5pm UK time, Blizzard announced the next expansion for World of Warcraft.  

Welcome to World of Warcraft: Dragonflight

In this expansion we return to Azeroth and level to 70 in the Dragon Isles.  There will be 5 new zones, four levelling zones and a new starter zone.  There will also be a new race, the Dracthyr and a new Dracthyr only class, Evoker with both a healer and a mid ranged dps spec.  Dracthyr have both a humanoid and draconic form and will have many customisation options.  They can also be either Horde or Alliance.  

Players will also be able to learn a new skill, Dragonriding and will be able to customise their own dragon mount.  This special mount will be used to travel and glide around the Dragon Isles.  Players will be able to add skills and customisations but we do not know yet how players will earn the upgrades.  Initial pictures and footage if these mounts look really nice.

Blizzard have also updated some other things in the expansion:

Talents - We are going back to having a talent tree, but you can have multiple saves of you trees and switch between them easily.  Each player will have two talent trees, one for their class and one for their spec. At max level you can expect to have picked two thirds of the talents.  This will hopefully lead to a few different viable play styles and you can pick what you prefer or what's best for what you like to do in the game.

Professions - Professions are having a complete overhaul.  When you have levelled your profession you will be able to specialise in a particular craft, e.g. a blacksmith could specialise in helmets.  You can then pick up work orders and do work for gold. If you don't have a profession you will be able to post a work order with commission and also some mats, if you have them, including soul bound or individual mats, and a player trained in that profession will be able to complete the order and make the item for you.  This sounds really good to me  but I have friends who are concerned it could be abused like at times the auction house has been.  However, I think it looks promising and that it could be good for both people who like doing professions and people who don't, provided the gear is relevant which is aways the biggest problem with profession gear.  In the past I have found that by the time you level you profession enough to make the highest level gear you no longer require it. 

Updated User Interface - Blizzard will be updating the User Interface on World of Warcraft.  Over the years equipment people use to play has changed.  Monitors are bigger and often widescreen and the UI has not kept up with these changes.  Many players use add-ons in order to move their UI and make it more how they like to play.  The new Blizzard UI will be much more flexible with many more customisation options for moving toolbars etc around.  It will also have an updated mini map and graphics.  This will be easier for new players and will hopefully lead to less need for so many add-ons.

Mythic+ - Mythic+ is a very popular activity in World of Warcraft and there are plans for a shake up in Dragonflight which has been met with a mixed reaction.  Dragonflight will have 8 new dungeons and mythic+ season 1 will include 4 of these new dungeons as well as 4 dungeons from old expansions, some of which may have not previously been mythic dungeons.  Then season 2 will include the other 4 new dungeons along with a different 4 dungeons from old expansions.  Some people have welcomed this saying it will keep it fresh as well as making it easier for new players to get into mythic+ without feeling behind, but others are worried it will be to much or they could get stuck having to run a dungeon they do not like. 

If you want to find out more about the new expansion check out posts on Wowhead and Battlenet as well as interviews which the devs did with well know YouTubers like Hazel Nutty Games for more info. 

Flying on dragons is gonna be awesome!