Summary

  • Movement speed boost while using Glide has been reduced for non-Evokers in World of Warcraft.
  • Tail Swipe is now an Evoker-only ability.
  • Wing Buffet now has a three-minute cooldown that can be reduced by Evoker talents.

In a recent update on the World of Warcraft Public Test Realm, the movement speed boost for using Glide while playing non-Evoker Dracthyr has been reduced. This nerf was made ahead of the class expansion for Dracthyr coming in World of Warcraft Patch 11.0.5.

World of Warcraft recently confirmed Dracthyr would finally be gaining access to several other classes in Patch 11.0.5. After nearly two years of being stuck with only the Evoker class, Dracthyr in WoW will soon be able to play Priests, Hunters, Mages, Rogues, Warlocks, or Warriors.

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A new toy available in World of Warcraft: The War Within takes the new Arachnophobia Mode accessibility feature and runs in the opposite direction.

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However, several of their racial abilities have been adjusted to compensate for this change – and the most recent nerf has been one of its most significant. The winged Dracthyr have the ability to Glide by pressing the jump button twice, letting them slow their fall while also increasing their movement speed by a small amount. According to the patch notes for a recent build of the Patch 11.0.5 PTR, this movement speed boost is being reduced for non-Evoker Dracthyr, nerfing the mobility skill for its other available classes.

Dracthyr Racial Nerfs in WoW: The War Within

  • Movement speed boost while using Glide is reduced for non-Evokers.
  • Tail Swipe is now an Evoker-only ability.
  • Wing Buffet now has a three-minute cooldown that can be reduced by Evoker talents.

This wasn’t the first nerf Dracthyr racial abilities received for non-Evokers. When World of Warcraft first announced the class expansion, it increased the cooldowns for Tail Swipe and Wing Buffet – two powerful crowd control abilities – to three minutes, with Evoker talents available to reduce them back to their current levels. However, a subsequent build of the PTR removed Tail Swipe from their racial abilities entirely, instead making it an Evoker-only skill.

From a perspective of balance, this nerf makes sense. Giving Priests, Warlocks, and other classes an in-combat speed boost with no cooldown is extremely powerful, and would threaten to make Dracthyr the must-pick race for all the World of Warcraft classes they could play. Glide is already indispensable in both PvP and PvE, so letting non-Evokers benefit from its speed increase would shift the meta significantly.

On the other hand, Glide is one of the most fun parts of the Dracthyr race, and fans are upset that World of Warcraft is making it less so by throttling the speed boost. Hopefully, the ensemble of Dracthyr racial abilities won’t receive any more nerfs before the patch releases, presumably on October 22 alongside the calendar start date of WoW’s 20th anniversary event on the PTR.

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World of Warcraft The War Within

World of Warcraft: The War Within
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Released
August 26, 2024
Base Game
World of Warcraft
Developer(s)
Blizzard
Publisher(s)
Blizzard
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WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL
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In this opening chapter of The Worldsoul Saga, you’ll journey through never-before-seen subterranean worlds filled with hidden wonders and lurking perils, down to the dark depths of the Nerubian empire, where the inscrutable Harbinger of the Void has gathered her arachnid forces to bring Azeroth to its knees.

Franchise
Warcraft
Platform(s)
PC