The release of World of Warcraft Dragonflight has granted us access to the first new race and class in several expansions, both tied up neatly in one scaly package: the Drakthyr Evoker.
Now we’ve had a couple of weeks to play around with the Evoker class, we’re starting to see how it’ll fit into the PvP and PvE metas, how it interacts with the other classes and specs currently in the game, and how it fits into the lore of Dragonflight and the Dragon Isles. But there’s one fundamental issue with the class that I can’t shake no matter how much time I spend with it – it feels rubbish to actually play.
It seems as though Blizzard was at odds about what it wanted the fantasy of playing a humanoid dragon to be, and what it felt the game needed in its current state. Ranged and melee classes have always felt exceptionally different in World of Warcraft, especially in modern Warcraft, as combat has become increasingly frenetic. Melee classes can dodge and weave as they cast their abilities, while casters manage cast bars while working out whether to stay an extra half a second to get their spell off or run for cover away from a hazard. Making a fierce, clawed, and winged dragon-themed class into a spellcaster, then, seems a bizarre move.
There’s an issue of identity here. Yes, Evokers have a cooldown that allows them to cast while moving, but it doesn’t last long, and their biggest and flashiest spells require them to stay static while they charge up. There’s an apparent focus on mobility with the class, with abilities that allow you to fly overhead and save teammates from danger, heal on the move, or rain fire from above, but these are longer cooldowns with low up-time. It adds up to a class that feels like a mix-match. Blizzard wanted to make a mobile caster but didn’t want to commit to giving them full freedom of movement akin to a Beast Mastery Hunter.
It’s not all about looks… or is it?
The character creator options for Drakthyr are lightyears ahead of any other race in the game, and while I wish there was a larger range of dragon body styles and visage forms available, it was certainly satisfying spending an hour tweaking various minor options, with so many scale color combinations, horn shapes and body spikes to choose from – it finally feels like WoW has an actual RPG creator, catching up to its competitors. But after all that time making the perfect dragon, it’s incredibly disappointing to see them in-world.
But after all that time making the perfect dragon, it’s incredibly disappointing to see them in-world.
I have long had issues with the way WoW characters look when exploring Azeroth – most armor is styled to human males and often looks oversized or stretched on other races, and the walk cycles of many races just look bizarre as they lumber around the world. My plate-covered paladin looks like he’s wearing moon shoes due to the bounciness of his run. But Drakthyr take this to a new level. Their run cycle can be better described as a prancing cycle, with their arms flinging up to a full 90 degrees with each step, while they jump from foot to taloned foot.
Evoker cast animations can look pretty cool and smooth, but when abilities actually land, they often fizzle in a disappointing poof, rather than the firework explosion the class fantasy would suggest. A spellcaster with access to dragon magic from the red, blue, green, bronze, and black dragonflights should surely be creating a chromatic spectacle across the battlefield, but the resulting spells look frustratingly muted, with minor particle effects that underwhelm.
Then there’s the Drakthyr racial ability: Soar. It looks and feels phenomenal to zip around the skyline as a dragon, with animations that look far slicker than the dragonriding mechanic, but with a three-minute cooldown (admittedly lowered to a minute in the Dragon Isles) and a hard cap on stamina compared to mounting up on drake-back, Soar only really feels like it’s at its full potential when you’re exploring old continents in the rest of Azeroth, not the home of the dragons.
Blizzard assumedly didn’t want Drakthyr players to miss out on the full dragonriding experience, or perhaps it didn’t want to design itself into a corner in later content, but granting them a dragonriding-light ability feels like reverse design that doesn't reward player use. Like how Spotify sticks in adverts between songs on their free player to get you to upgrade to premium, Blizzard’s made a fantastic experience and then capped it to limit use.
Lost potential
Numbers-wise, Preservation Evokers are leading the pack in the healing figures right now, helping them stay relevant in the Mythic+ meta, but the DPS spec, Devastation, is very middle of the pack, with nothing to really set them apart.
Out in the world, I’ve been shocked to see so few Drakthyr exploring the isles. They’re certainly dotted around, but compare that to Legion, where you couldn’t move for Demon Hunters, and it goes to show that despite the flashy new design, so far Drakthyr Evokers have nowhere near hit their potential.
