Dragons have always played an important role in World of Warcraft, and after largely being pushed to the sidelines in more recent expansions, Dragonflight is set to bring back some of the MMORPG’s most iconic draconic characters in a big way. And although it does feel like a nostalgic throwback in some ways, Dragonflight, more so than any other WoW expansion in recent history, feels distinctly modern.
There is a good reason for that: Many of Dragonflight’s core features have never been done before in WoW, and required the development team to push Blizzard’s nearly 20-year-old flagship title in new ways. From dragon-riding to the new Empowered abilities that are a core part of the new playable dragon race/class combo, the Dracthyr Evoker, Dragonflight is filled with new ideas that look to be ushering in a new era of WoW.
Empowered abilities are a great example. In a recent interview with GameSpot, senior game designer Graham Berger elaborated on how the team wanted to incorporate an iconic moment from every piece of dragon-related media into the Evoker’s gameplay–the deep breath of a dragon moments before pushing out a pillar of flame.