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World of Warcraft: Dragonflight devs discuss Dracthyr design

One of the long-running MMORPGs is getting an exciting new playable race and we endeavor to learn more about it.

Ozzie Mejia

April 20, 2022 12:30 PM

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World of Warcraft players had a lot to be excited about following Tuesday's reveal of the game's next expansion. Dragonflight will introduce a new storyline, as well as some new ways to play. One of the biggest additions is an all-new race: the Dracthyr. There have been some lingering questions surrounding their design, but fortunately, Video Editor Greg Burke was able to sit in on a roundtable interview and ask about the new race's design.

"It's definitely a challenge and that was one of the things with the Dracthyr that we were excited about," Associate Art Director Tina Wang. "With their Visage form, some people asked 'Why can't I be a Gnome Dracthyr?' for instance, but truly, this makes it so that we can put so many options within this single class."

Whether playing in their Visage or their human form, the Dracthyr promise to add a lot to the Dragonflight experience. The same will also be true of the game's Evoker class, which is a class that is only accessible to the Dracthyr.

"When it comes to the class itself, the Evoker, so much of the fantasy of what that is, when you come to the Dragon Isles, the magic of the Dragonflights relates to being a dragon," Wang added. "So we thought we needed to create something like that to fulfill that fantasy. Being able to cast and channel a Disintegration Beam while you're soaring as a Dracthyr and swooping across the battlefield is the core of the fantasy we wanted to achieve."

Beyond the fantasy of taking to the skies, look for Blizzard to feed into the idea of being one of the Dracthyr even further with some exciting new animations. Specifically, the team is putting effort into creating new transformation animations, which players can trigger at will.

"You will transform between the two forms and you can do that at will," Wang said. "Out of combat, you can be a Dracthyr. You don't have to remain in Visage form and the transformation will be awesome."

The next big World of Warcraft expansion will explore the dragons of Azeroth, as they recruit the forces of the Alliance and the Horde to help with a mysterious threat that looms in the background. Players can not only take on the role of a Dracthyr, but they can also ride dragons themselves by jumping aboard their personal Dragon Isles Drake. World of Warcraft: Dragonflight is coming later this year. Look for more on the expansion in the days ahead.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?