World of Warcraft: Dragonflight is set to bring Azeroth's heroes back to their homeworld and take on the ancient mysterious land of the Dragon Isles.
Within them lie several races and creatures, but one, in particular, takes the cake—the Dracthyr. New to World of Warcraft, the Dracthyr will be the franchise's next playable race.
Here's everything we know about them so far.
What are Dracthyr?
The Dracthyr are an ancient race of humanoid dragonkin that were created by the former black Dragon Aspect, Neltharion, also known as Deathwing, in an attempt to make the ideal soldier.
Dractyhr are a first of their kind in WoW when it comes to playable races, despite similarities with Worgen shifting between two forms, and starting at level 58 in their own zone similar to Death Knights and Demon Hunters.
This flair comes in the form of their starting zone, only having one playable class, the ability to glide and fly over the top of battles, and a plethora of customization options.
Dracthyr Starting Zone: Forbidden Reach
The Dracthyr hail from the Forbidden Reach, a zone off the coast of the Dragon Isles that is exclusive to Dracthyr. This is a zone created by Neltharion to serve as the Dracthyr soldiers' training grounds.
Thanks to the black Dragon Aspect falling to the madness of the Old Gods and the Legion invasion, the Dragon Isles and as a result the Dracthyr, went away.
But now the Dragon Isles have awoken once more, and so too have the Dracthyr race. Like Death Knights and Demon Hunters going through their own zones prior to pledging their allegiance to a faction, Dracthyr first must go through the Forbidden Reach and its story.
Dracthyr Class: The Evoker
Thanks to the Dracthyr being created by an aspect, they have the ability to wield the magic of all dragonflights. These can be seen in the classes' two specializations, Devastation and Preservation.
Devastation is the classes' damage dealing spec. Taking power from the red and blue dragonflights, it uses red and blue magic, leaning towards more dangerous powers; red is fast and explosive while blue is more focused and overwhelming.
Serving as the classes' healing spec, Preservation takes the magic from the green and bronze dragonflights; green looks to channel growth and nurture spells while bronze focuses on healing wounds faster.
Additionally, the Dracthyr and Evoker combination brings forth a new gameplay mechanic, Empower. With it, players can alter how certain spells are cast depending on how long they press and hold the keybind. If a player were to hold down a button on their keyboard it charges up a spell, the longer the player charges up the spell it might cause more damage or hit more targets depending on the spell.
Lastly, thanks to their wings, the Dracthyr Evoker can cast spells while flying—think of Onyxia breathing fire across a battlefield.
Dracthyr Customization Options
Dragons in WoW often take on humanoid appearances to relate and interact more easily with Azeroth's inhabitants, and in the case of Onyxia and several other nefarious dragons, sometimes hide amongst them.
The Dracthyr, much like the known WoW dragons, will have a humanoid and a draconic form. Similar to Worgen, both of these forms will be heavily customizable. These include the ability to customize horns, scales, and hair, and offer plenty of color options between them for both human and draconic forms.
When running around out of combat, Dracthyr can appear in human form, but when in combat, the draconic form will take over, so both forms will be relevant.
READ MORE: WoW Dragonflight Beta: Release Date, How to Sign Up, Gameplay Details