Out of all of the games that have ever been made, World Of Warcraft is right there in the top 10. Of all games. Made in the entire history of gaming. This is no easy task, considering some of the other top 10 games of all time are genuinely ancient. Mario. Pac Man. Pokemon. That’s three slots already taken by games that came out decades ago. World Of Warcraft, although newer than those few games at the top, comes with “delicious” lore from before.
Everything started way before the actual MMORPG, with the release of Warcraft: Orcs And Humans back in 1994, but more about the game's history later. Right now, we need to establish a truth. And the truth is WoW as a game and a massive online multiplayer, with a rich history and a long going, is still interesting to millions around the globe. It might not have the notoriety of before but people still get excited about a new expansion.
World Of Warcraft, A Short Introduction
If you’re not very familiar with the title, World Of Warcraft is an MMORPG, a game millions play online at the same time, using different servers and realms. Growing your character is the first thing you have to do. Then, you will start to join guilds and go on group trails, raids or dungeons. Thanks to the group killing bosses, you will get incredible items that will allow you to grow your character even more.
Making the most out of the game is not just levelling up, as one might think. The fun begins right after you reach the cap level, the maximum your character can go. With every new expansion, there is a new level cap added, so that every single player in the realm can do a little bit more work to get to the absolute best base level of his character. Once you do that and go through the missions, you can start putting in the work to really grow.
How do you grow in such a game? You can take on a profession, such as alchemy or engineering, building stuff with the things you find on the map. This in turn not only makes you more powerful but also more financially potent. You can go on battlegrounds, kicking a few enemies from the other faction and earning some honour points. Which can later be exchanged for items. Or, of course, you can go on raids and dungeons and take down bosses.
The best thing about such a game is, that there is no correct way of playing it. You can literally do anything you want. Explore, fly, battle furious NPCs scattered across the lands, revisit older dungeons when you’ve levelled up and clear them by yourself. Go back to the starting point and level up characters of different races, skills, etc. Try the shaman, the mage, the priest and the paladin, there is no end in sight, no right or wrong way to do it.
Dragonflight, Ten Things We Know
Although almost 2 decades old, World Of Warcraft has been able to keep up with the times. It still has around 10 million players who actively game on the servers. Not counting the many other tens or even hundreds of millions who do it on private servers. The game is exciting for both the newcomers and the elite, veteran players. Why? Because it still gives them that element of wonder with every new patch or expansion that they get.
It started with the Burning Crusade and the introduction of the Black Temple, the home of Illidan Stormrage. It continued with Wrath of the Lich King with Arthas and his story at the Icecrown Citadel. Through Cataclysm, Mists of Pandaria, Warlords of Draenor, Legion, Battle for Azeroth, Shadowlands and now the upcoming Dragonflight, WoW has stayed fresh and interesting. Speaking of new expansions, here are ten things we know about the upcoming ninth World Of Warcraft expansion.
Release date - It's the most essential piece of information about any new title. The release date for Dragonblight hasn't been officially established yet. But we do know the month of release, which is December 2022. Yes, for those of you looking for some more adventure in the World Of Warcraft realms of magic and might, you will surely enjoy your Christmas holiday this year. December is a new month for releases in terms of WoW fans, as the last few expansions all came out in late November. We can only hope December is going to be early so that fans can enjoy their holiday gaming in a new world.
The Dracthyr race - Well of course you will be able to play a humanised dragon character with the new expansion! It has the creature in the name, so you can't just do that and not go all the way, a fact Blizzard is surely aware of. Dragons are so special that they will also get their own class, the Evoker, something that rarely happens with new races in WoW. You can still choose if you want to be Alliance or Horde but you cannot play a shaman or rogue Dracthyr. The race starts at level 58 and from their own starting zone. And yes, you will have a dragon breath attack.
The Dragon Isles - Every new expansion in WoW comes with at least a bit of new land. In this case, we are expecting a new area called the Dragon Isles. The isles are divided into four new zones: Waking Shores, Ohn’ahran Plains, Azure Span, and the ancient Thaldraszus. The Dragon Isles are part of the lore of the game since its inception, a mysterious area not accessible to players until now when they will all be able to reveal its ancient secrets. The Dragon Isles are at the core of the dragon kingdom, as they were at the creation of the world. Besides the dragons, you will also find the Djaradin, the oldest enemies of the inhabitants of the isles, over the area. Other creatures that roam through the lands are the Tuskarr, walrus-like beings, as well as an old civilization of Centaurs making their living on the aisles.
Dragon riding - There could never be a Dragonflight expansion without, well, dragon flying. Or riding, as Blizzard named the ability. You don't just play a dragon, you can also ride a dragon, with your dragon. Or any other character you might have, as the ability unlocks account-wide. Dragon riding will have you taking to the skies of the Dragon Isles, once you unlock it after putting in the work required. The difference is that you can take on dragon riding at any time, so you will have an easier time moving around the vast new zone. The dragons you will be able to fly on, called drakes, will be fully customizable with the help of horns, snouts, tails and even abilities.
The new Professions - An important part of the World Of Warcraft gaming lore, Professions are getting a revamp in the new expansion. Long overdue, as veterans would say. Blizzard has talked about the new systems that will be operational with Dragonflight, so we will just go over the news briefly. For example, you will be able to Craft Orders, which work pretty much like you would go and place an order at a local craftsman of goods. the installation will look like an auction house, so it will come with a familiar and easy-to-use interface. You can therefore order and customize any item that you want, without having to put in the work to craft it yourself. Crafters will be paid for their labour, obviously. A revamp will happen to Specialisations as well. You will be able to solely focus on a particular area of your field. And finally, Profession stats will come with four new ways of making your craft more efficient, letting you equip gear in order to gain bonuses.
An extra bag slot - Although this is about the previous Professions topic we figured it deserved its own point. Dragonflight comes with a new bag slot for your character, specifically made for carrying items that help you with your profession. Yes, that only. The professions bag will be able to encapsulate a ton more items in it than a regular bag, including the larger ones in the game. It's not going to be endless but... close to it!
Talents are coming back - Remember Talent Trees? Well, they are coming back in Dragonflight! Exciting or not, this feature will look similar now to the one from back before Mists of Pandaria. At this moment, WoW allows for a total of 6 talents for your specialisation. With Dragonflight, a more complex Talent Tree will be introduced. You will get the main class tree instead of class-specific trees like in the present, to start with. Also, you will receive a specialisation tree, depending on the role you're now specced into. Choices will be much more at large with this change, for each and every character. You will be able to save profiles based on talent trees, so you can change the content easier and play what you want.
The UI is 18 and needs to move on - Over the past 18 years since its inception, World Of Warcraft has seen little work on the user interface in the game. Players are used to the current outgoing of their screens but that is about to change with Dragonflight. This will be the first major revamp of the UI in 18 years. The entire experience will turn into a much cleaner and less cluttered one. You will be able to customize the gameplay screen easier by just moving elements around. You will also be able to save different screens and UI profiles, just like with Talents. You can save a healer-specific screen, for example, and just switch to the DPS-specific one later. This is both exciting and terrifying for the community.
The return of the group loot - While personal loot has put an end to many problems that players were dealing with when distributing the good unfairly, the solution came with its own issues as well. Group Loot is making a comeback, as an option, in Dragonflight. At least for raids, it seems. You will roll on the items of a boss's corpse after the kill, as you'd do in Burning Crusade, for example. You can pass on items, trade, or just roll on them. The news came about raid Bosses in Dragonflight as of now, so we don't know if it will be a game-wide option yet.
Pick a race, any race - Classes are locked traditionally behind the race that you pick. Some classes are stricter than others, while some are more permissive in terms of choices. Like druids, yes, we're all talking about you. While that will still remain the case for most classes in Dragonflight, there are some changes with choices for classes with the new expansion. You will be able to pick any race if you play a rogue, a mage, or a priest. This means you have eight new race-class combos, such as Tauren mage, Orc priest, Draenei rogue and so on.
The Future Of Wow
What could possibly happen after nine expansions and two decades in the making for a multiplayer game? What could the producers come up with that would retain the gamers on the platform and then turn some new ones in? World Of Warcraft might be old but it keeps reinventing itself. This is what keeps the people coming, and the veterans going. The truth is, we’re expecting great things from World Of Warcraft, especially with the tenth expansion coming. We don’t know what could beat dragons in any game but we are really excited to find out. We are sure that, after so many years, Blizzard still has a few aces up its sleeves. We can’t wait for them to deal the cards out and for the servers to go wild on launch day.