There does at least seem to be some sort of succession crisis brewing within the Black Dragonflight that has the promise of delivering interesting stories down the line. The new bad guys, the primal dragons and their humanoid minions, the Primalists, haven't yet made an impression as especially complex or interesting villains. There is some tension between the major good guys, but it rings kind of hollow. If you didn't follow all of the out-of-game lore leading up to Dragonflight, you might be a bit confused about why you're even here in the first place.

The main story, so far, hasn't exactly wowed me as much as the side quests. Especially compared to WoW's last hero class, the delightfully straightforward Demon Hunter, Evokers are just a bit overdesigned. However, both the damage-dealing Devastation and healing-focused Preservation specs suffer from having too many niche-use combat abilities and can feel very chaotic and disorienting to play. Having a racial soar ability and signature, dragon-themed attacks like Deep Breath let you come screaming out of the skies and bathe your enemies in fire before they even know what hit them. And I have to admit, they're pretty freaking cool. Where Dragonflight really does try to spread its wings, figuratively and literally, is in the design of the new Dracthyr Evoker class. But as a living MMO, WoW consistently struggles to maintain that level of engagement for me in the weeks and months to come, and Dragonflight is not really any exception. And if that's all it needed to be, Dragonflight would hit it out of the park.

WoW has generally done a very good job in most expansions making the journey to max level memorable and exciting. Unfortunately, these handcrafted experiences will dry up after a week or two and you'll be repeating the same, rote daily quests over and over waiting for the next patch to drop, so it's hard to give them too much credit. They seem to be here to lovingly bonk you over the head and remind you to take your time, simply exist in this beautiful world for a moment. These kinds of heartfelt, memorable moments really are World of Warcraft at its absolute best. Another one I loved involves traveling slowly, on foot, with a centaur clan to their sacred meeting grounds, complete with a pit stop for a hunting competition.

New world of warcraft movie