Dragonriding in WoW’s new expansion is not only fast, it’s actually fun

polygon.com:

Running through one of World of Warcraft: Dragonflight’s new zones, the Azure Span, it was hard not to reminisce about the Azeroth of old. The massively multiplayer online game’s original locations had a rustic feel to them, an aesthetic shared by the new Dragonflight zone we were able to check out in a preview of the expansion’s upcoming alpha test.

And while going back to one’s visual roots isn’t always the most exciting box feature, it works so well with Dragonflight because moving around the zone functions differently thanks to a brand-new feature: Dragonriding.

I wasn’t overwhelmingly excited for Dragonriding in World of Warcraft’s ninth expansion, but I felt its impact immediately upon logging in for the first time. Unlike previous expansions, where flying on the new landmass was typically reserved for about a year post-release, Dragonflight offers it before you even reach max level. But this is not flight as World of Warcraft players have known it since theBurning Crusade days, where one simply points their mount in the direction they want to go and flies in a straight line. This is falling with style.

When I mounted my dragon in the Dragon Isles, my usual abilities were replaced with unique Dragonriding skills, and I was presented with a new UI that denoted my dragon’s energy levels. I hit the spacebar twice to make my dragon take off. But while we started with a great deal of momentum, our speed slowed over time as my dragon fell into a glide. By flapping its wings again, we regained our speed and picked up some height — although it cost a chunk of my dragon’s limited energy, which only refills when flying at mach speeds or resting on the ground.

I started clumsy, but over time, I learned to dive and pull up