Blizzard announces Dragonflight trial for World of Warcraft subscribers

Wow Dragonflight concept art — (Image credit: Activision Blizzard)

World of Warcraft's new Dragonflight expansion launched at the end of November, introducing a new race, a new class, a new continent, and the ability to own customisable Drakes and master the art of Dragonriding. Now Blizzard is giving existing players who haven't made the leap into Dragonflight the chance to try out the expansion, through a new limited-time trial.

In a Blizzard "blue post" the WoW developer stated that "For a limited time, players who do not own Dragonflight but have a subscription or active Game Time can play the new expansion as the dracythr Evoker beginning today". The dracthyr are WoW's new playable race of humanoid dragons, and the Evoker is a ranged caster that can specialise either in dealing damage or healing allies.

The trial allows players to explore the Dracthyr evoker's starting zone, the Forbidden Reach, taking their character to level 63 through the first chapter of Dragonflight's campaign. "You'll be able to experience all the quests, unlock and learn Dragonriding, take your professions to the next level, and even experience two new dungeons during the trial period – Ruby Lifepools and The Nokhud Offensive."

If you have a subscription, it sounds like Dragonflight is worth giving a try. "Dragonflight positions itself as something of a new foundation for a very old videogame," wrote Luke Winkie in his review. "Blizzard has focussed much of its attention on reworking outmoded, atrophying systems, while sprucing up some of the gameplay trapping that had been left to rot back in 2004." It's not quite the best thing Blizzard have done with WoW, but all told it is a great way back in for wayward players.

TOPICS

Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.