A second round of interviews for Dragonflight has taken place. Here’s a summary of the new bits of information in one list. The links to the full interviews are listed down at the bottom of this page.
- They are still figuring things out but they want to make nearly everything account wide except for gear. The example was given for dragon riding that after you earn a speed increase you shouldn’t have to earn it again on your alt. (Taliesin & Evitel)
- The Dracthyr starting experience has a story of discovery. You awaken after an unknown amount of time in stasis and you figure out what has been going on together with other Dracthyr. (Taliesin & Evitel)
- The Dracthyr starting area will be reused for non-starting experience gameplay as well. (Taliesin & Evitel)
- Not all reputations will have the renown type system (Reputation 2.0), only “major factions” will have it. (Taliesin & Evitel)
- Professions might be a good home to carry over the Creation Catalyst type functionality where you can craft catch up tier gear. (Taliesin & Evitel)
- There are no current plans for a mission table. (Taliesin & Evitel)
- Battle for Azeroth dungeons are also not on the table for M+ in the first seasons. They are looking at some Mists of Pandaria dungeons. (Taliesin & Evitel)
- It’s unlikely that they’ll go all the way back to classic dungeons for M+. They’re not suitable for modern gameplay. Instead they have drawn the line at Mists of Pandaria for now. (Taliesin & Evitel)
- Evokers will use int items. In terms of weapons, mainly things that shamans can use. Weapons like daggers, fist weapons, staves, axes, swords (but not shields). (Taliesin & Evitel)
- In the short term Evokers will not be able to do the Mage Tower, but in the long term they’re looking at exploring that option. (Taliesin & Evitel)
- An Evoker tanking spec in the long term is unlikely. At its core the Evoker is a spellcaster class. (Taliesin & Evitel)
- They are confirming that BfA will remain the default new player experience. (Taliesin & Evitel)
- Calia Menethil will be involved in Patch 9.2.5 content (Taliesin & Evitel)
- In the longterm you will still be able to use regular flying on the Dragon Isles. But at launch you can only fly with Dragon Riding. (Taliesin & Evitel)
- Zereth Mortis is a pretty close look at how endgame play will philosophically look. 9.2 didn’t carry forward renown or soulbind progression. There will just be more different things to do in the new expansion. (Taliesin & Evitel)
- They’re still looking at what kind of group/raid Utility the Evoker will provide. One of the things they’re experimenting with is a raid cooldown called Blessing of the Bronze which reduces movement speed abilities cooldown. (MrGM)
- Evokers use a new resource called Essence. It regenerates on its own. (MrGM)
- In terms of racial abilities the Dracthyr have Wing Buffet (knock enemy back), Tail Swipe (knock enemy up), Chosen Identity (barbershop changes are free) and other things they are still working on. (MrGM)
- There won’t be a big animation when switching between dragon and visage form. (MrGM)
- Evokers triage clumps of players. They use big breathes. Their big healing cooldown has the feeling of Alexstrasza flying over soldiers and healing those at the Wrath Gate. (MrGM)
- The charging ability cannot be overcharged. After you reach the max charging time it will wait 3 more seconds before it casts automatically. (MrGM)
- They’re working on new target textures/art on the floor to indicate where cones and abilities will be cast. (MrGM)
- New Evoker spell – Soar. You flap your wings, burst forward and hover in place. You’ll be able to cast while moving with it. (MrGM)
- They want to move towards a world where the race of a character doesn’t limit which class you can be. Rogue, Mages and Priests will be available to all races in 10.0.(MrGM)
- In addition to lore, things like racial chargers, racial totems limit how quickly they can open each class up to other races. (MrGM)
- They don’t know if they will be able to make it possible to share talent trees as an export to be shared outside of the game (such as for written guides) in 10.0. (MrGM)
- As you spend points in the talent system you reach gates, much like the old system, there are limits to spend more points in the talent tree before you can move further down the tree. (MrGM)
- Between levels 10 and 60, the spells granted by the spellbook are very sparse. Most of your spells you will earn via talent points. (MrGM)
- It’s possible that you might have access to more than 1 covenant ability with the new talent trees. (MrGM)
- In terms of new talents they’re likely to be new passives that adjust your rotation. (MrGM)
- They’re looking at new PvP brawls. They’re looking at the old Highmaul Coliseum and Legion PvP World Quest free for all zones for inspiration. (MrGM)
- Entry level PvP gear could be crafted via Professions. (MrGM)
- The Gladiator mount will be a custom Dragon Riding drake you can unlock. (MrGM)
- The Dracthyr Evoker can only be 1 per realm. Additionally after the first you create you can only create one once you have a level 50 character. (MrGM)
- The Dracthyr are their own racial mount. (MrGM)
- Gladiator Stance will not return. (MrGM)
- Dragon Riding will not have combat to begin with, but might be added later on. (Asmongold)
- Things like the Protoform Synthesis system is what they want to do more of. (Asmongold)
- They want to look at the battlegrounds system as a whole before adding new ones, such as having seasonal rotations. (Asmongold)
- They do want to bring back Master Looter but it’s technically hard to achieve quickly due to the Personal Loot system having been built up the last 6 years. (Asmongold)
- They do see Addons becoming too computational, telling you what to do, as a problem but they do not have a solution yet. (Asmongold)
Full interviews:
Taliesin & Evitel
MrGM
Asmongold
Interviews Part 1
Interviews Part 2
Interviews Part 3
Interviews Part 4