When I had originally planned out this post, I was going to title it “First Impressions of WoW: Dragonflight’s Beta” and give details on Dragonflight’s beginning questing experience. After logging into the beta I quickly realized that I was more interested on how the new expansion would look, and that there would be plenty of time for quests and story interpretation later on during the live game. I decided that I can wait to experience the new quests and new features, such as Dragon Riding, until Dragonflight fully releases on November 28th – a little less than one month away. In the meantime, I went on an adventure across three of the four new zones of the Dragon Isles (Thaldraszus can only be reached by flying mount.)
The Waking Shores
Waking Shores is the first zone, and, in my opinion, the least excited of the three I visited. While I’m sure it would have been more exciting given context if I were to do quests, it was just kind of boring to me. It was very green, and I couldn’t find much by way of exciting views to capture. However, I did make friends with a dragon frog (frog dragon?) shortly after arriving.
Ohn’ahran Plains
My favorite of the three, the Plains are home to lots of birds! I love birds, and while riding through the zone several birds scattered as I got close. I also appreciated the variety of realistic bird calls, which is a really nice touch. When Dragonflight goes live, I can imagine that I’ll enjoy spending lots of time here.
Aside from the birds, this zone was also green but much less in your face about it. It has wide open fields, where as Waking Shore was very dense. The skybox in this place was also nice, and made for significantly better views than my previous location.
The Azure Span
Azure Span seems to be a combination of two different climates. While I was touring this area, at the time mostly tall trees and forests, I came across a patch of snow and ice. I’m intrigued by this zone, and hope that I will learn about its climates while questing.
The best surprise was running into Khadgar while checking out the snowy area, who seems to have returned from Karazhan to help or warn us about something (Khadgar’s cinematic is hidden in the beta.) He doesn’t seem to be a member of the Kirin Tor anymore, and is instead acting independently. Nonetheless, it was nice to see him and I can only hope that he’ll crack at least one new dad joke in this expansion.
