World of Warcraft: Dragonflight has been announced as the next expansion to World of Warcraft. Following on the heels of Shadowlands, the story finally moves on, bringing dragons back as a major threat. World of Warcraft: Dragonflight brings a mountain of new content and refinements to the aging MMO. Despite its age, WoW remains a competitive entry into the genre. But over the years, its lack of certain QoL features and community aspects has seen it lose a ton of players to the likes of Final Fantasy 14. Activision Blizzard want to fix that in this expansion. So, the big focus in this update will be on revitalizing areas of the game that players feel need attention.
The developer has been listening hard to fan feedback around two major areas: build variety, and professions. The grind to get the perfect build is a core part of an MMO, but that’s not to say it should be annoying to do, or choke off build viability. You can play this game how you enjoy playing it, and changes added in Dragonflight are about encouraging that.
Talents and Professions Explained
With World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, Activision Blizzard wants to offer players something new, a way to customize their builds and playstyle in entirely new ways. The skill system in an MMO is vital to being an enjoyable and customizable game. And now Blizzard has brought a new iteration to the MMO flagship with Talent trees. You will be able to focus your levels on specific roles, and the stats relevant to those roles. No more wasting gear and levels on useless stats.
There are two Talent Trees per class. One will unlock certain abilities and buffs for that general archetype. So a Druid Talent tree would have buffs to form shifts that apply to all abilities. But depending on the sub-class archetype, you will have another tree as well. A Restoration Druid would have support abilities and healing buffs in their second tree. Each level awards talent points that can be used to unlock skills in either of these trees. You can reset your points whenever you want, allowing for a lot of build customization.
That’s not all though, crafting is getting overhauled as well. Professions are taking an entirely new path in the expansion. Professions and Crafting systems are a huge part of any MMO, and WoW’s has been in dire need of some help.
New Crafting Orders
Crafting Orders are a brand new way to put items on the auction block. Instead of having to search for the item, you use a companion UI to the auction house to actually order custom items in-game. You do this by browsing a list of the craftable items, then fronting the materials needed to make it. The order is listed on an exchange, and an aspiring crafter can pull down an order, and collect a fee for completing it. This helps a lot with encouraging more communal engagement with the crafting system, and even opens up new economic opportunities for players.
These improvements aren’t the end of the crafting rework. Players will also have a much more refined UI in many areas around the economy. It will be much easier to get new gear, or to craft it up yourself.
One of the major overhauls in this regard is Crafting Quality. This new system adds the aforementioned Talent Trees to crafting disciplines as well. As you complete more work in your chosen field, you gain points to spend on a specialized tree. Adding points to your crafting specialization will unlock new recipes and boost existing ones. You can also further specialize in certain item classes. The goal here is to allow guilds to build up a network of focused crafters who are better than unupgraded characters at making certain items. So a crafter specializing in mage gear could put points into the relevant stat.
At the time of writing, Activision Blizzard has not confirmed a release date for World of Warcraft: Dragonflight. But if you’re hyped, try checking out the trailer below for more of that draconic action.
