The long-rumored Dragon-themed World of Warcraft expansion pack is finally here. Blizzard announced on April 20 that the longevity MMORPG Warcraft is about to usher in its ninth expansion pack, "Age of Dragons", and that the new story will take place on the mysterious "Dragon Islands".
Unlike previous expansion packs, Age of the Dragons opens with a more optimistic tone, with explorers and adventurers heading to the homes of the Dragons' generations. And the dragon finally woke up after centuries of dormancy. Dragon characters who previously played important roles in the backstory of World of Warcraft, such as the Red Dragon Queen Alexitasa, the Blue Dragon Caregos, the Black Dragon Black Horn and the Black Dragon Prince Rashio, will return in the main line. As in the past, new expansion packs and new regions will bring new missions, quests, and missions, all of which will be revealed one by one in the future.
Age of dragons will increase the level cap to 70 and introduce 4 new leveling areas for players to explore in turn: the lush and lava-filled Awakening Coast, the vast Ornhalla Plain, the snow-capped Blue Forest Sea, and the new main city of Wadiken, the source of the dragon's power, Sodrasussus.
There is also a fifth region in the Dragon Islands, the novice area of the new hero class Dragon Hill. Dragon Hill is a dragon creature that can switch between dragon and human forms, and players are free to choose whether to join an alliance or a tribe when creating a character. Dragon Hill only has the class of "Summoner", but the player can specialize in healing or remote output.
The Dragon Archipelago not only allows players to play as dragons, but also gives each player the opportunity to fly with a dragon. The Age of dragons will introduce a new mount system, Dragon Taming. Compared with the "flight" of the past, dragon taming has richer functions.
Players will partner with a customizable baby dragon to gain new flying skills as they advance the expansion pack, eventually taking off, dive, slalom, and sprint over the archipelago. Because the player can use this flight from the beginning, the entire Dragon Islands were designed with it in mind, making the area more extensive than previous expansion packs.
In addition to the new content, there are also some World of Warcraft systems that will also be overhauled. The UI will be redone, and the customization options for the new UI will be much more than it was before, allowing you to modify the layout of the interface freely even without installing plugins. Specialties will also add features such as the "Manufacturing Orders" system, unique equipment and attributes for specialties, and the return of specializations. Most notably, the talent system will also be overhauled, starting from 10.0, each upgrade will earn talent points, and they can be consumed in the independent "Class Talent Tree" and "Specialization Talent Tree".
Dragon Age's A and B tests will soon be available for registration on the World of Warcraft website. Blizzard has yet to officially announce the launch date of "Age of dragons", but the development team told us in an interview that 10.0 will not be launched at the same time as the nostalgic "Wrath of the Lich King" (the latter is expected to be launched within 2022).
We also delved into the new hero pro Dragon Hill Summoner with Game Director Ion Hazzikostas and Lead Narrative Designer Steve Danuser.
Since the new expansion pack is a dragon theme, it is natural to add the function of playing a dragon. With a new hero class Dragon Hill Summoner, we can finally transform into dragons. Although this dragon is not the same as what we have seen in Azeroth before, it is not bad - Long Hill's skills are not small.
Before 10.0 was officially announced, we interviewed game director Ion Hazzikostas and chief narrative designer Steve Danuser, and our first question was: Why do we bind the hero class to the race, why can Dragon Hill only be a magician, why must the magician be Dragon Hill?
Hazzikostas said the development team first came up with the concept of the Dragon Hill race, and then naturally designed the sorcerer based on the backstory.
"We wanted to make a complete race that could be customized, and use it to satisfy our fantasy of becoming a dragon and becoming a descendant of the Azeroth Dragon Clan." With this exciting idea, the next question is naturally: What profession can they be? Or what profession can they do?
"We quickly discovered that none of our existing careers were suitable. We need to satisfy the illusion of becoming a dragon— a power that can be summoned differently from a mage, a warrior, or any known class. And they must have unique physical talents, such as wings, dragon claws, spitting, etc... An elf can never really fly, can't soar and spit deep into the enemy. Only Long Hill can do it."
Danuser gave us a further analysis of Dragon Hill and introduced the magical abilities associated with the Five Dragon Legions. As we all know, the five legions include: blue dragon, red dragon, green dragon, bronze dragon and black dragon. And as shown in the "Deep Analysis" session of the 10.0 conference, Long Hill's professional specialization allows them to focus on the magic of the Green Dragon and Bronze Dragon, thus becoming healers, or focusing on the power of the Red Dragon and Blue Dragon, which in turn becomes a remote output.
Dragon Hill can unleash magic while flying on the battlefield and has a skill called Charge, which, as the name suggests, allows players to hold down a key to charge up for the next spell, increase strength, or increase the number of targets. This is also the first time World of Warcraft has introduced such a skill.
However, the most striking aspect of Dragon Hill is not their magic or their skills, but their customization options. Dragon Hill's model is different from Azeroth's dragon, but it's a reasonable choice, after all, players have to control them in battle, and if a huge flying beast travels through the battlefield, it will inevitably bring serious balance problems.
But Dragon Hill is still a dragon, and there are two customizable forms, humanoid and dragon shapes, as well as different colors, different scale styles, and other details that can remind people of different dragon legions. They can even have hair in multiple colors.
Don't worry, Dragon Hill's appearance will not be bound to the available magic, although the Green Dragon can only use Green Dragon magic in the plot, but regardless of your appearance, Dragon Hill can use five types of magic.
As a hero class, Dragon Hill will have a higher starting level than other classes, starting with the unique Novice area on the Dragon Islands. They will start their story with a unique beginner quest line before exploring the rest of the Dragon Islands with other players during Age of Dragons.
This article is compiled from IGN US related content, the original author Rebekah Valentine, unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.