‘World of Warcraft’ expansion Dragonflight predictably lets you ride dragons

engadget.com:

Nearly two decades into the life of World of Warcraft, Blizzard has just announced the MMO’s ninth expansion. Dragonflight will allow players to explore the Dragon Isles, the ancestral home of Azeroth’s dragonflights. It’s been a while since WoW’s shapeshifting dragons have been the star of its narrative. A cinematic trailer the studio released today recounts the history of the continent.

Consisting of five new zones, the Dragon Isles will introduce the Dracthyr, a new playable race of dragons that can take on a humanoid form. Dracthyr characters can join either the Alliance or Horde, and they’re the only race that can access the expansion’s new Evoker class. As an Evoker, you can either specialize in healing your allies or fighting as a mid-range damage dealer.

Dragonflight will also introduce Dragonriding. While World of Warcraft has had flying mounts since 2007’s Burning Crusade, the new expansion looks to add more dynamism to the activity with special maneuvers drakes can execute while in the air. For instance, you can pull off a swooping divebomb to quickly descend down the edge of a cliff.

In addition to those features, Blizzard said the expansion will ship with quality of life improvements, including a redesigned user interface players can personalize to their liking. There’s also a new talent system for class customization and tweaks to the game’s crafting mechanics.

World of Warcraft Dragonflight does not have a release date yet but expect Blizzard to share more information about the expansion in the coming weeks and months. The studio announced today it also plans to rerelease 2008’s Wrath of the Lich King for World of Warcraft Classic.