Blizzard Reveals Dragonflight Expansion During Live Stream, New Draconic Race/Class Coming

World of Warcraft fans, prepare yourselves. That new content you've been wanting...it's on its way. Today, Blizzard revealed the game's next big content update in a special live stream. If you wonder where you're going next and what challenges you’ll have to face – or perhaps who you'll run into, both old and new – today’s stream had all those answers.

Of course, before they announced the expansion, the WoW team decided to take a look at how things have changed regarding their approach to development, mostly discussing their focus on the community's wants and needs. And you can hear all about that in the livestream video, along with information on the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion for World of Warcraft Classic. That's not why we're here though. You want to know about the all-new World of Warcraft expansion.

As everyone suspected, the new expansion is bringing back the dragons, and they're bringing it back in a big way. Titled Dragonflight, the expansion will take players back to Azeroth and take on a high fantasy feel. After 10,000 years, the dragons have returned to help heal Azeroth.

The update features a new level cap of 70 and it will take players to the Dragon Isles, the ancient home of the dragons. Forced to leave their isle when the land was sundered, the dragons left titan watchers behind to summon them back when the time was right. Now is that time. The dragons have returned, but so have old threats as well.

The return of the dragons also heralds the arrival of a new playable race, the Dracthyr. This draconic race is one created by the blending of dragons and the mortal races. With their dragon heritage, this new race has a very specific set of skills. This means that only one new class will be added with this expansion, the Evoker class. Evokers are a hybrid class of ranged DPS and healer and can use the magic of varying aspects.

As with other new hero classes, the Evoker class, and therefore the Dracthyr race, will begin at level 58. They will have their own unique starting zone, which means they'll have a different tale about their journey to the Dragon Isles. This zone is one of the five new zones coming in the new expansion. They're all covered in the deep dive following the announcement, for those who want to know more. (I hear there are ducks.)

Interestingly, rather than adding some expansion-specific feature this time, Blizzard has elected to focus on improving the game's core systems. Everything from the talent system to the UI and even crafting is getting a lot of love. The upside of this, in their opinion, is that what they're bringing in won't just be obsolete by the next expansion.

That said, there is one new feature players will probably be very excited about. With the drop of Dragonflight, a new kind of dragon-riding mount mechanic will be available. This means that players aren't just going to get a generic mount that everyone eventually has in their stable. Instead, they'll be getting a new system that allows players to customize their own dragon mount, upgrade its flight skills, and even execute aerial maneuvers. Now I'm left wondering how many poor mounts will be left behind in the wake of this.

With the announcement and everything out of the way, Blizzard has already launched sites allowing players to sign up for the open beta. North American players will need to hit up the US site while European players have their own. If you’re interested in checking the expansion out before it launches, you’ll want to get on that. If, however, you’d rather not burn yourself out, just go look at the pretty pictures and be done with it.

Note: Activision Blizzard is still under investigation by the state of California for serious harassment charges. CEO Bobby Kotick is alleged to have known about such actions within his company – and performed some himself – and shielded the perpetrators from consequences.