The eagerly anticipated Dragonflight pre-patch is finally here, and it brings with it a number of very exciting changes to World of Warcraft. Unlike previous pre-patches, this one was split into two phases in order to give players time to familiarize themselves with all the new additions.
This first portion of the Dragonflight pre-patch introduces the long-awaited new talent system along with a customizable UI, new race/class combinations, and more. If you want to learn more about what to expect the next time you log into World of Warcraft, keep reading because we’ve already prepared a quick breakdown of all the new features for your convenience.
1. New Talent Trees
The new talent trees are here and they’re just as glorious as you imagined. Inspired by the old talent trees found in World of Warcraft: Classic, these new and improved ones change the playstyle of most classes in a pretty big way. Even more importantly, the new trees give players some much-needed variety by enabling multiple viable builds for every class, which hasn’t been the case for quite a while.
Dragonflight gives players access to not just one but two brand new talent trees. One of these trees is designed to allow you to customize your class and is roughly the same across all specs. Meanwhile, the other tree is unique for each spec and contains a lot of your core spells. For instance, your Fire Mage and Frost Mage trees will be very different but your Mage class tree will be nearly identical for both.
This time around, most of your core and secondary spells will be locked behind talents, so it’s more important than ever to take your time and think carefully when creating your builds. To that end, the new talent trees UI comes with a built-in search bar that makes it much easier to find specific spells and passives.
Having said that, if you don’t want to spend too much on the new talent system you can simply select the “Starter Build” option. Doing so will automatically generate good all-purpose builds for your class and spec to help you get started on the right foot. Starter builds are particularly useful for new players or those who haven’t played World of Warcraft in a while.
2. New Race/Class Combinations
New race/class combos are a staple of every World of Warcraft expansion and Dragonflight is no different. There are no less than eight of them this time around, including a couple that are bound to raise some eyebrows. Check them out down below.
- Tauren: Rogue, Mage
- Highmountain Tauren: Rogue, Mage, Priest
- Draenei: Rogue
- Lightforged Draenei: Rogue
- Orc: Priest
Tauren Rogues have been a meme for years, but now they’re finally a reality thanks to the Dragonflight pre-patch. The other race/class combos are also pretty strange but by this point, we already have most combinations so Blizzard is essentially scrapping the bottom of the barrel here. Starting with this pre-patch, Mage, Priest, and Rogue classes are available to every race in the game.
3. Customizable User Interface
World of Warcraft’s UI has been in dire need of an overhaul for a very long time. In addition to redesigning certain elements, Blizzard also made the new UI completely customizable. Starting with the first phase of the Dragonflight pre-patch you can move around most UI elements and even resize some of them.
If you’re familiar with popular World of Warcraft add-ons like Bartender4, you’ll pretty much know what to expect here. Dragonflight’s customizable UI isn’t quite as advanced, but it is more user-friendly and quicker to set up. There’s a snap grid that helps you keep everything nice and symmetrical along with the option to save, import, and export your layouts.
4. More Bag Space
Speaking of features that were already in the game via add-ons, the Dragonflight pre-patch introduces the option to combine all your bags into a single big backpack. This is basically just like the Bagnon add-on. Furthermore, the next time you log into World of Warcraft you’ll also notice that there is now an extra bag slot.
5. Resurrection Sickness Changes
Resurrection Sickness received a couple of major changes in the pre-patch. First off, it now only lasts 1 minute as opposed to 10, however, you’ll suffer no less than 50% durability loss if your character is level 10 or above. If your character is below level 10, you will only suffer 10% durability loss. The durability loss used to be a flat 25% for all characters regardless of level.
6. Free Barbershop Services
This one’s pretty self-explanatory and should have been in the game since the beginning. At long last, you no longer have to spend anything to customize your character at the barbershop. And yes, this includes changing to a different gender.
7. New Accessibility Options
The Dragonflight pre-patch also brings to the table some very nice quality-of-life features that make World of Warcraft feel a bit more modern. Let’s go over some of the most important ones.
- Press and Hold Casting: This is pretty much exactly what it says on the tin. Instead of pressing the same key over and over whenever you want to repeatedly cast a spell, now you just have to press and hold the key. However, this option only works with the keyboard and doesn’t support macros and items. If you’re using your mouse instead of keyboard shortcuts, you’ll still have to click every time just like before.
- Action Targeting: This is a new feature that automatically targets the closest enemy as you approach it. You’ll still need to use Tab to lock onto a target but with this option, you can dynamically switch between enemies based on where you’re looking.
- Interact Key: Dragonflight finally introduces an interact key, which is “F” by default. Pressing the key allows you to interact with NPCs and objects without having to use your mouse.
- Additional Gamepad Support: There probably aren’t a ton of people playing World of Warcraft with a controller, but additional gamepad support is still nice to have.
- Dynamic Minimap Icons: Minimap icons will now dynamically appear and disappear based on your proximity to points of interest.
8. What’s Going Away In The Pre-Patch?
Now that we covered the most important new additions, let’s take a look at a few things that are going away with the introduction of the pre-patch. These include the following:
- Tier set bonuses
- The Shrouded Hero title
- Eternal Gladiator and other Season 4 titles
- Shrouded Hero: Shadowlands Season 4 achievement
- Eternal Gladiator’s Soul Eater mount
- Season 4 Elite PvP Armor sets
- Eternal Flux weapon illusion
If you want to learn even more about the first phase of the pre-patch make sure to check out the complete patch notes over on the official World of Warcraft website.
9. Dragonflight Pre-Patch Phase 2 Release Date
The second phase of the Dragonflight pre-patch launches on November 15th in North America and November 16th in Europe. Phase 2 introduces the new Dracthyr race and Evoker class along with the Dracthyr starting zone, a revamped version of Uldaman, the pre-patch event Primal Storms, and more.
News Summary:
- WoW Dragonflight: Pre-Patch Survival Guide
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