World of Warcraft: Dragonflightis hitting the servers of the veteran MMO before year’s end. As such, the second half of the year promises to be an exciting time forWorld of Warcraftfans.Dragonflightjust kicked off its closed alpha testing program, promising focused testing which will flow into the beta, prepatch, and finally the full launch. With new areas, game mechanics, and a UI overhaul–not to mention a slew of datamining–World of Warcraftplayers have a lot to look forward to. But perhaps the most exciting new feature coming inDragonflightis the new Dracthyr Evoker race-class combo.
Game Rant participated in a group interview with Ion Hazzikostas,game director forWorld of Warcraft. During the interview, Hazzikostas spoke on the new race and its massive options for character customizations. However, he also talked about the importance of gamers playingWorld of Warcraftthe way they want to play it while fulfilling their perfect character fantasy.
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Making the Perfect Character in Dragonflight and Beyond
Shortly before theDragonflightalpha kickoff,World of Warcraftshowed off just how robust the character customizationsfor the Dracthyr race is. It claimed to have eight octillion different customization combinations available across the race; a number that is virtually impossible to comprehend.
With theDragonflightalpha now live, players can now experience the Dracthyr character customization for themselves. True to form, the variety of customizations available to Dracthyr is staggering. Both the Dracthyr and Visage forms individually havemore customization options than most otherWorld of Warcraftraces. Beyond simple quantity, the quality of the hairstyles, scale patterns, and accessories the Dracthyr have is impressive, and the scope of control players have over minute details of their character–from blind eyes to underwear style and color–is unprecedented inWorld of Warcraft.
While exciting for Dracthyr players, many others had concerns over whether this impressive scope of customizations would make its way to older player races. WhileWorld of Warcraftpreviously said it had no plans to do so, Hazzikostas said otherwise. “Every new class, new race, everything we do we want to set a new standard for fidelity,” he said. Though a monumental undertaking, he confirmedWorld of Warcraftwanted to bring that level of customizationto all of its player races eventually. “ I think that giving people more ability to express and customize their avatars in our world is fundamental to what an MMO is all about.”
“That should be the connection that everyone feels to their character, that truly feels like it’s theirs. Potentially, your character will literally not look like any other you’re going to meet no matter how much WoW you play.”
It seemsWorld of Warcraftis truly doubling down on the ability to play any character–theDragonflightalpha also changed the male and female icons to Body Type 1 and Body Type 2 on all races–a small, but important change that will mean little to many, but a lot to some. Additionally, Hazzikostas saidWorld of Warcrafthad plans to allow players to select their voice and pronounsin the future as well. Some day, players may be able to truly play theirWorld of Warcraftcharacters exactly the way they want to.
Choosing How to Play Dragonflight
TheEvoker is the new hero class coming toDragonflight.Specific to the new draconic Dracthyr, the class uses the powers of the five major dragonflights inWorld of Warcraftto fight. The highly-mobile class relies on the dragon-like abilities of the Dracthyr, acting in many ways like a class designed around racial abilities.
World of Warcraftdoes not add new classes to the game lightly–indeed, it has only done so three other times in the past 18 years ofWoWwith the Death Knight, Monk, and Demon Hunter. Not only do the developers have to update and maintain the class and its specializations from then on, but players have another class to understand and master aspects of the game like raiding or PvP.
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But, in spite of being the shiny new thing, Hazzikostas doesn’t think the Evoker will throw off class balance in the long term “We expect the same to be the case with the Evoker as with the Demon Hunter,” he explained. “Nearly everyone will make the new class, check out its starting experience, get a feel for it. Most people will go back to what their traditional main was. Many will play the new thing as a main or primary character. And that’s great.”
World of Warcraftis, at its core, a game about fighting monsters, andDragonflightseeks to verify players can do sowith any of its soon-to-be 38 specs across its classes. The revamped talent trees are one big wayWoWis making class fantasy a reality in the way players want. “We want to offer as many options as possible that can co-exist in this space. That’s a conscious part of our class design.” This will allow players to customize how they play individually, with meaningful choices on how they develop their character and interact with theWorld of Warcraft.
“[We hope] everyone can find the one that feels like the best fit for them, since your class and your spec are a relatable lens through which you view and experience everything else that’s going on in Azeroth. We want to make sure everyone has a home there.”
One major concern in many MMORPGs is being forced to grind to reach endgame content. Since 9.2,World of Warcrafthas tried to return to the sandbox experienceof the MMO. The endgame Zereth Mortis zone has plenty of places to explore and uncover between rare spawns and the Cypher system, but none of it is required for endgame raids or even flying. “We wanted to get away from the sense of a checklist of weekly or daily chores, of alright, I have to do this thing, or I’m going to fall behind or let my raid group down,” Hazzikostas said.Dragonflightseeks to continue the trend towards letting players decide how they play the game.
“If you want to hit max level and then spend most of your time pushing Mythic+ keys and not worry about getting your Renown levels up in the different zone factions, ok. You’ll miss out on some cool cosmetics and rewards and items, but you’ll have better or equal items from Mythic dungeons, and that’s fine. Choose your path.”
Between faction Renown, rare spawns, side quests, the professions overhaul, and more, players will have a lot of different ways they can interact withWorld of Warcraft. The new Dragonriding system alone is sure to give players hours of enjoyment as they master the intricacies of the dynamic system, customize their perfect drake companion, and beat their high scores in Dragon Racing challenges. It truly seems Hazzikostas and his dev team have listened to much of the criticism received over the past years and are working to create anauthentic-yet-modernWorld of Warcraftexperience withDragonflight.
World of Warcraftis available now on PC.Dragonflightplans to launch later this year.
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