WoW: Dragonflight: We’ve already played the alpha – our first impression!

After Blizzard announced Dragonflight as the next WoW expansion on April 19, 2022, most of the players were very happy. Finally no more cosmic villains, no more borrowed power and no more other annoying grind systems. Instead, back to the roots of WoW. With modernized dual talent trees and more focus on the actual game and not the trappings. When the Blizzard developers recently revealed that Dragonflight will be released later this year, the opinion of the community was divided a bit. Because that would be very early and nobody really wants an unfinished expansion.

In addition, there was still nothing to be seen from alpha or even beta servers far and wide. At the time of the information, this already meant that Dragonflight will have one of the shortest beta phases ever. Since then, all players have only been waiting for the starting signal and the opportunity to finally be allowed to take their first steps on the Dragon Islands. And that’s exactly what we were allowed to do in the past two days! Blizzard invited us to take part in a hands-on where we not only watched Dragonflight, but also played it ourselves. Of course, we don’t want to withhold from you just how awesome the upcoming expansion is going to be – spoiler: it looks better than expected.

What were we allowed to play?

Of course, the first alpha phase did not yet include the complete content. Not all classes were already equipped with the appropriate talent trees, nor were all professions already adapted. Not all areas were even playable. But that is more than understandable and normal at the moment.

However, we’ve already been able to explore the new Caller class, check out many of the talent trees, get a taste of the atmosphere on the Dragon Isles, and take to the skies by riding dragons. A first impression of the revised professions could already be seen and the first iteration of the interface conversion could be tested.

By the way, this is fully intentional. As the developers emphasized in the interview, they are right on schedule and always want to make certain areas available during the Dragonflight test phase and then collect targeted feedback.

The Dragon Isles are a place full of mysteries for our heroes to explore. But we are not alone in this. On our journey to the old homeland of the dragons, we will be accompanied by them. Five very different areas await us. As expected, not all areas were playable during the first alpha phase. But at least we got to visit the Azure Mountains – and it looks fantastic.

The Azure Mountains on the Dragon Isles look amazing.

Source: buffed





Our journey begins at the point where you later enter the Azure Mountains as the third of the areas. As usual, we are led through a bottleneck into the new area, which then gradually opens up before our eyes. And that is meant literally. We pass through a narrow pass in the mountains and in front of us the area stretches as far as the eye can see. The Blizzard developers didn’t promise too much when they said the areas are the largest they’ve ever developed. The increased visibility also contributes to this.

The Dragon Isles form the largest continent ever brought into play by an expansion.

Source: buffed




Even in the distance we see the snow-capped peaks and towering spiers of ancient civilizations. But as expected, we spend the first hours in the forests at the foot of the mountains. We fight our way piece by piece through the detailed areas and not only help Kalecgos and Kadghar, but also the local Tuskarr and the various researchers who have already been sent out by the Horde and Alliance.

The areas in WoW Dragonflight are not only large, but also lovingly designed.

Source: buffed





The quests that await us along the way are mostly familiar fare. Get this, kill that, and protect some. We follow a stringent quest line that leads us through the entire and huge area. Apart from that, there are always funny side quests that not only let us delve deeper into the world, but also distract us from the quite serious story from time to time. We don’t want to reveal too much about the latter so as not to spoil you. Only this much: We help the blue dragonflight with its problems and there is one or the other twist in the story. The big story points are still secret anyway and haven’t been revealed to us – which the placeholder story texts often pointed out to us.

To make kite riding a lot of fun, there are numerous cliffs everywhere.

Source: buffed





Although the area is not as bursting with graphic animations as, for example, the Ardenwald, the developers have once again managed to get the maximum out of the graphics engine. Thanks to wandering wafts of fog and a fantastic soundscape, there is a lot of atmosphere. And perhaps most importantly, the Azure Mountains actually look finished. Unlike previous expansions, you don’t get the feeling that the developers still have a lot of work to do. If it were like that on the live server, hardly anyone would complain.