World of Warcraft: Dragonflight adds new Evoker class, Dracthyr race

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight will finally take players to the long-awaited Dragon Isles. Here, they’ll meet up with a recently-awakened species called the Dracthyr — dragon people who can transform into humans at will. The Dracthyr will be a new cross-faction player and transformable race. They are currently second to the Alliance’s Worgen, Pandaren and Pandaren. The Dracthyr, however, are more distinctive than either the Pandas or the Worgen. They’re also intrinsically connected to the Evoker class.

In Dragonflight, Dracthyr can only play as Evokers, and Evokers can only play as Dracthyr.

In a pre-brief interview session, I spoke to lead narrative designer Steve Danuser and lead combat designer Brian Holinka about the new race/class combo, and what they bring to World of Warcraft: Dragonflight.

The Evoker class is the first ranged class Blizzard has ever added to World of Warcraft. The melee-focused classes of all the post-release classes, Death Knights and Monks as well as Demon Hunters are also available. The new class will be able to wear mail armor (another underrepresented group in WoW) and offer both a spellcaster specialization (Devastation) and a healing specialization (Preservation).

It’s a race/class combo not entirely dissimilar to the Demon Hunters from the Legion expansion, which can only be Blood Elves with the Horde or Night Elves with the Alliance. But while the Evokers and Dracthyr are singular, there are loads of customization options to make your character different than any other — far more than the wings and horns of the Demon Hunters.

Image: Blizzard Entertainment

As a single class and race combo, the Evoker sacrifices the pure customization that WoW has always had for something else entirely: synergy. “The synergy between the story of the race that’s behind it and how the class functions and plays is tighter than anything we’ve done before,” said Danuser.

“[Evokers are] able to use their wings to buffet people away, they’re able to breathe fire out of their mouths, they’re able to knock people back with their tail,” said Holinka. “Those are things we couldn’t necessarily have a Gnome do. And so it feels like, in order to really deliver that fantasy of being a dragon in the world of Warcraft, [allowing for only one race to play the class] was a necessary step.”

The duo explained to me that each aspect of class and race interacts together to make the class unique and this plays heavily in a range of class’ real abilities.

“We have an ability called Soar that allows [Evokers] to kind of get up in the air and cast a few abilities while they’re mobile,” said Holinka. “And so that feels very powerful. We have a deep breath ability, where you actually take flight, Onyxia-style, and do a bombing run.”

Blizzard has a different type of spell than others.

“You have a combination of casting spells and high mobility. This is very unique for Evoker at the moment,” stated Holinka. “That’s an ability that you press down the key, you hold it down, the longer you hold it down, something different happens. Depending on your commitment to this particular spell , you can hit any number of targets .

Image: Blizzard Entertainment

As far as the Preservation healing spec, Holinka said the goal is to always find a niche while still allowing them to be competitive in raids and dungeons. For Evoker, that niche seems to be group burst healing. Holinka did not mention specific capabilities like Devastation.

With both the Evoker and Evoker specs, mobility is the new standard. Although it won’t likely be as mobile than the Demon Hunter, the Evoker is expected to have high mobility for casting classes (typically well-known for their static natures). This will be especially true in Mythic Plus dungeons.

Ultimately, much of how the Evoker will work in World of Warcraft is unclear. Blizzard wasn’t coy about this class, Danuser and Holinka are open to discussing a number of its abilities and identity. But WoW has never seen such a class before. Between the spellcasting mobility, transformation, and empowered spells, Evoker is shaping up to be very unique class in the world of Azeroth. And that makes it perhaps the most exciting back-of-box feature in several expansions.