On April 19, 2022, the time had finally come and Blizzard let the cat out of the bag with the official announcement of WoW Dragonflight. Apart from the probably most important news, that soon there will finally be ducks in WoW, the developers talked for an hour about the new area of the Dragon Isles, the new class of the Caller and the new locomotion method of dragon riding.
The various deep dives then went into more detail about topics like the crafting overhaul, the new interface, and what makes the new Dracthyr race special. The story was also covered. And this one revolves, how could it be otherwise with the name Dragonflight, around the five dragon aspects that want to reclaim their homeland.
But no matter how long and how much the developers tell us about Draqgonflight, in the end we're still left with a bunch of questions in our heads. So it's fitting that we had an in-depth interview with game director Ion Hazzikostas himself that same evening. Not only did we ask about the background to the announcements, but we also got to hear about some things that weren't mentioned at all - for example, the move away from the grind or what will happen to important protagonists from Shadowlands.
07:15World of Warcraft | Dragonflight - the new expansion
Developer Interview with Game Director Ion Hazzikostas
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1. WoW Dragonflight: Talent trees, grind, caller & release - Ion Hazzikostas in interviewNext pagePage2. WoW Dragonflight: Ion Hazzikostas in interview - German versionPage3. WoW Dragonflight: Ion Hazzikostas in interview - original versionPage4. Picture gallery to "WoW: Dragonflight: Talent trees, grind, caller & release - Ion Hazzikostas interview"We have highlighted the most important statements of our interview for you and presented them clearly. If that's not enough for you, you can find the whole interview either in the original version or translated into German on the other pages of the article.
Here are the most important statements from our interview with Game Director Ion Hazzikostas:
- The decision to make Dragonflight the next WoW expansion was made before Shadowlands was even released.
- The dragons are actively asking for our help - that's reason enough for our heroes to head to the Dragon Isles.
- On the Dragon Islands we will meet old acquaintances again. Apart from Furorion, Khadgar will also play an important role.
- Patch 9.2.5 will bring us a bit more story during Shadowlands. In particular, the future of Anduin Wrynn will be further illuminated.
- The four zones in Dragonflight will be significantly larger than the ones in Shadowlands. The size of the continent is about the size of Northrend.
- Also in Dragonflight there will be a system like the Threads of Fate, thanks to which twinks can freely decide how to level up.
- The old expansions will be rescaled. It will still be enough to play one expansion after the starting area to be able to start directly into the current expansion (Dragonflight) afterwards.
- Which expansion is played is completely up to you. Newcomers will not have to play BfA or Shadowlands.
- The story will take place almost exclusively on the Dragon Islands. The old areas will only play a marginal role and will not be changed or reworked in any relevant way.
- The new class of the Caller will probably be able to cast some abilities outside of dragon form in combat - unlike the Worgen.
- The pet sets will probably still be available outside of raids. The developers like how this feels in patch 9.2.
- The new talent trees are meant to increase class customization while replacing the Borrowed Power systems in the long run.
- Class points will be more responsible for utility, while spec points are more likely to boost your DpS and HpS.
- Many of the pact abilities will be adopted as talents with Dragonflight. What those are in detail has yet to be determined. The developers are waiting for feedback from the upcoming alpha and beta.
- Patch 9.2 is considered internally by the developers to be a good template for how to approach content building in the future.
- Dragonflight will not get a grind system like artifact power or azerite.
- Trading across server boundaries is on the developers' list. However, the implementation is a big technical challenge and means a lot of work to avoid exploits or dupes.
- There is no internal schedule for the release of Dragonflight or the start of the test servers yet. However, we will have more information about it soon.
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Soon we will find out what changes Blizzard is planning for the final raid of WoW: Season of Mastery.With more and more information about WoW (buy now ) Dragonflight coming to light during the announcement and in subsequent interviews - how do you like what you've seen and heard? Does Dragonflight have the potential to be an absolute hit expansion, or will it be unable to stop the downward trend in WoW?
On page 2 you can find the entire interview translated into German.
