The future of World of Warcraft has been finally revealed by Blizzard during its expansion reveal livestream. After the controversial World of Warcraft: Shadowlands and World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth, all eyes were on this expansion reveal event, as it was the true test on whether Blizzard was listening to fans. It was only a 30-minute livestream, with a deep dive afterwards, but it was chock-full of new reveals for fans to talk about.
Rumors had been circulating the internet for weeks around what this reveal event would contain. Many people theorized player housing, dark rangers, more allied races, an Azeroth revamp, and a new borrowed power system. The majority of that proved to be false, but that did not mean that the event was short on content. Both a brand-new expansion under the name Dragonflight, and the release of Wrath of the Lich King Classic were announced, and they will surely make some fans excited.
World of Warcraft: Dragonflight
World of Warcraft: Dragonflight will be the ninth expansion for the 18-year-old MMO. It will bring players back to Azeroth after spending a couple of years in the heavily criticized Shadowlands. Specifically, players will be venturing to the Dragon Isles to help the Dragon aspects retake their homeland.
Not much is known about the specific story beats, but players will be allying with the aspects once more to help them stop the rise of their ancient enemy. As far as the specific content is concerned, Dragonflight will be introducing five brand-new zones in the form of the Dragon Isles. Four of these zones will work as normal leveling zones, and the fifth will serve as a starting zone for the brand-new class, the Dracthyr. Each zone is unique and players will be traversing these new zones as they level up to the new level cap of 70.
Many rumors believed that the new class for the expansion would be Dark Rangers, but instead, Blizzard revealed a new class and race hybrid called Dracthyr. These Dracthyr are very similar to Worgen, except instead of turning into wolves, the Dracthyr turn into humanoid dragons. They come with the brand-new class, the Evoker. The Evoker is the only class that Dracthyr can play as, and Dracthyr are the only ones that can play as Evokers.
Evokers are a Mail-wearing class and come with two different specializations: Devastation, and Preservation. Devastation Dracthyrs are a ranged DPS class that will rain down destruction on their foes, while Preservation Dracthyr are focused on keeping themselves and their party alive through healing spells. The Dracthyr will also join the Pandaren as the only neutral race in the game, and allow players to select if they want to join the Horde or the Alliance.
On top of the introduction of the Dracthyr, Dragonflight promises to bring back talent trees and overhaul the profession system. Talent trees were once a big part of World of Warcraft before being removed in World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria and replaced with the current system. Now, Dragonflight is planning on bringing those talent trees back into World of Warcraft and allowing players far more customizability over their class. These talent trees look to be pretty in-depth and customizable, but players will not know the specifics of these trees until they are able to test therm out in the Dragonflight beta.
The professions in World of Warcraft will also see a huge overhaul when Dragonflight releases. Players will be able to create work orders and hire other players to make items for them, instead of just spamming chat. Professions will also get new profession equipment so that players can live their profession fantasies. They will also be able to specialize in certain things and the UI for professions will be changed. Players who spend their time gathering resources and leveling up professions will surely be happy about this change.
Along with Dracthyr, the Dragon Isles, a professions overhaul, and talent trees, Blizzard is finally updating the basic UI of World of Warcraft. For years, players have relied on downloadable add-ons to improve the 18-year-old UI, but Blizzard is finally upgrading it to a more modern feel. Players will still be able to utilize various add-ons, but the base UI will be customizable and be revamped to make it more in line with gaming today. Exactly how that will work and what it will look like are unknown, but it is an exciting step for those who hate the current UI.
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Classic
While World of Warcraft: Dragonflight was the main focus of the event, Blizzard did take some time to announce the next phase of the Classic experience. Fresh off the heels of The Burning Crusade Classic, Blizzard has officially announced that Wrath of the Lich King Classic will be launching later this year. Players will be returning to the frozen continent of Northrend to battle the forces of the Lich King, and save Azeroth from the Scourge. They will be able to traverse iconic zones like Borean Tundra, the streets of Dalaran, and climb Icecrown Citadel to confront the Lich king.
Players will be able to check out the Death Knights for the first time in Classic, and will level up to the brand new level cap of 80. Just like they used to, the Death Knights will start at level 55. Unlike when Wrath of the Lich King originally launched, there will be no prerequisite for unlocking the Death Knights, and players can just jump right in. For those who do not want to play through the previous Classic content, they can purchase a level 70 boost and play through Northrend. It will also see the introduction of achievements to World of Warcraft Classic, but the dungeon finder will seemingly be absent to maintain the social factor of Classic.
Wrath of the Lich King Classic will be launching later this year and be included in the World of Warcraft subscription alongside retail, World of Warcraft Classic, and World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Classic. No release date was revealed for Dragonflight and no pre-orders were announced, but players can opt into the beta now and be ready for when Blizzard announces more details. Both the ninth expansion and the next iteration of classic seem like a lot of content for World of Warcraft fans to enjoy, and in May Blizzard will be revealing the first Warcraft mobile game in an attempt to expand the Warcraft franchise even more.
World of Warcraft is available now on PC.