With World of Warcraft: Dragonflight winding down and getting ready to start prepping us for The War Within, it feels like a good time to look back at the highs and lows before we plunge headfirst into new things. Dragonflight did what it needed to do for me, which reminded me why I love World of Warcraft so much. It hasn’t all been perfect, but it’s worth taking stock of what was done well and what might need more iteration.
Flying
The obvious standout of this expansion is dragonriding, a feature I thought I would hate when I first heard about it but ended up loving. Even in the earliest moments of Dragonflight, before I had any of the talent tree filled out, I had a blast and could see the potential for even more enjoyment as I gathered the glyphs and learned all the abilities. There’s nothing quite so satisfying as successfully navigating through dense foliage or going through a small tunnel without hitting anything. The races, although at times incredibly frustrating, are also a great source of fun. I haven’t gotten gold in all the various races yet, but I am enjoying working on those for the most part. Some of the races in The Emerald Dream test my ability to pay attention because they are just so damn long, but they are still fun.
One area where dragonriding suffered a bit was that with every new area, there seemed to be an implied need for more glyphs and abilities to spend them on. Some of these were great additions; for example, I love getting the skill to regain vigor when I want to. Meanwhile, other talents like ground skimming seemed pointless. The idea of skimming along the ground to restore vigor sounds incredible, especially in a cavern. However, in practice, it never felt like the regen rate from skimming was worth it. I hope that as we move into the next expansion, Blizzard resists the temptation to add new abilities just to have new abilities. If they have some cool ideas for new ones that will augment how we are flying, then definitely go for it. Don’t force it, though.
Related to dragonriding is the old static flight, which I thought I wouldn’t use at all since I love dragonriding so much, but I have been using it a ton since 10.2 hit. Dragonriding is perfect when trying to cover a lot of ground quickly, but I also missed a lot that way. I find that I prefer to use my travel form to get around most of the time, especially in the Emerald Dream. It allows me to go much slower and see what’s around me much more clearly. There are many little areas hidden away that I wouldn’t find if I were zipping around all the time. Even in the four launch zones, I’m seeing many little things tucked away, and I wouldn’t have found them if I hadn’t slowed down a bit. Giving players the ability to use static or dynamic flight from the beginning of The War Within would be an easy win for Blizzard.
Story Experience
Reflecting on Dragonflight's storyline, I recall many big story moments that stand out to me. The whole blue dragonflight storyline in Azure Span and the continuation with Senegos were huge highlights. The entire storyline between Emberthal and Ebonhorn was also perfect. There’s so much there that is worth a much larger discussion. Even with these considerations, the smaller “less important” moments have stayed with me the most.
I stalled out entirely in the Ohn’ahran Plains when I leveled my druid at the beginning of Dragonflight. When I first played through this zone during alpha/beta, I was impatient to get to see the green dragons and help them. However, I had no significant pressure to level as fast as possible when the expansion went live, so I allowed myself to take time while leveling. This quote from my Review In Progress last year sums things up nicely:
“Soon after the caravan, I found myself ignoring the main campaign and happily roaming around looking for the various side quests. I helped two centaurs propose to each other, chased some chickens, helped an initiate help her friend out, and so much more. As good as the main story is, the side quests are where the world-building of Dragonflight truly shines.”
Aside from the quests I mentioned, two other questlines have stuck with me. One was with a green dragon who was having difficulty finding joy in returning to the Dragon Isles without Ysera, and the dryads were trying to cheer him up. The other is the entire storyline with Taivan. It’s interesting that both of these deal with grief; maybe that’s what I needed at this time of year last year.
The War Within feels like it may be a more urgent expansion than Dragonflight. Fighting and dealing with the Incarnates was important, but we still had time to rest and do other things. I hope we don’t lose the space for these smaller but just as essential storylines in the next expansion. It can be hard to remember that even when huge earth-shattering things happen in the world, there are still the small moments, the small escapes, the little doses of normalcy, which make shouldering the larger burdens a bit lighter.
Related:
BlizzCon 2023 Interview: The War Within's Encounters And Visuals Team Work Hand In Hand
Alt Friendliness
I’ve said this more than a few times, but I’ve never really been one to play an alt, much less multiple alts. Wrath was the one exception where I actively raided with two characters every week. Dragonflight has been a complete turnaround for me. I currently have four characters at max level and have them all pretty well equipped. Sadly, since 10.2 hit, my priest and warrior have fallen behind, but my evoker is doing well. I also have a paladin close to hitting max level as well.
Not having to collect all the glyphs on my alts was a huge factor in my choice to play some alts in this expansion. I wish that carried over to rep grinds as well, though. It always feels a bit wasted earning rep with the various factions on alts, especially the ones I don’t have maxed out on my main. However, being able to send the tokens that can be turned in for rep to my alts was a huge boon. Getting the rep boosts is also very welcome, though I would prefer to have to do rep grinds once. Thankfully, that change is included with the Warbands system in The War Within.
The improvements for gearing up characters have also been a real boon for playing alts. Between items that are obtainable out in the world and doing queueable content, it’s relatively easy to gear up from zero. I also love the ease of gearing because it gets me right into the content I enjoy doing much more quickly. With the new dungeons every season, M+ has kept feeling fresh all expansion long, and since I can take a break from tanking on my alts, it is a new take on everything for me.
Along with being able to gear to get to the content I enjoy quickly, I appreciate the flexibility to play through storylines multiple times or not. This got wonky with the Forgotten Reach and Zeralek Caverns, but I enjoy mostly being able to jump right into the newest content. Though I wish there were a way to set whole questlines as complete. My evoker has a ton of “main quest” icons all over her maps because I didn’t feel like doing them again. I wish I could set them all to complete so I didn’t have to look at the icons on the map anymore. Some of these are questlines I was in the middle of while leveling, and I abandoned them as soon as I reached level 70. I know being able to set questlines to complete while you are in the middle of them can cause many issues, but I need something like that.
Moving Forward
I’m excited about what we know about The War Within so far, and I am comforted that Blizzard chose to lead with the Anduin cinematic at BlizzCon rather than starting with the features roll. I hope this means they are really playing on pushing the story forward more, and not just for all the big, flashy things. The gravity of things that players tend to get hyped about can be hard to escape, but it’s possible and worth doing. I also hope they learn the right lessons from Dragonflight because they did so well here.
I’m honestly more happily engaged with World of Warcraft than I have been in years. There were other times in the past when I played more than I do right now, but it often felt forced to do the things I wanted to do in game. As a result, the overall experience wasn’t as enjoyable. I understand why people who mostly only play WoW miss some of the old power grind, but that’s something I’d hate to see return. Dragonflight has been a fantastic experience and a great palette cleanser after Shadowlands. Queue me up for more, please!
