World of Warcraft: Dragonflight launches on November 28

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, the next expansion to Blizzard's long-running MMO, will be out on November 28. The expansion will take players to the Dragon Isles, the ancestral home of the dragons, and introduce a new playable race, class, zones, and the majesty of dragon flight.

The announcement date launch trailer is filled with stunning vistas brimming with life, but carries an ominous message: "Events are unfolding that imperil us all. The threat is greater than you know, young ones. We must join forces and strike now."

Blizzard has previously explained that the Dragon Isles were once the center of the dragon kingdom, but the dragons fled when its powerful magic was made dormant by the sundering of Azeroth into a realm of distinct continents. Now they're back, and it's fair to say that they're not happy with the state of things.

Along with the playable Dracthyr race, the expansion will also feature the ancient enemies of the dragons know as the Djaradin, the walrus-like Tuskarr, and an old civilization of centaurs. But the big thrill in Dragonflight has to be dragon riding. It's a different system than World of Warcraft's existing flying mounts, but works very well: We said in a July preview that it has "the potential to be one of the smartest additions to WoW in a long time."

"Dragonriding feels like WoW's version of [Elden Ring's] Torrent, its version of the kind of satisfying mount that you'd usually find in a singleplayer game; it feels malleable in a way that MMO systems usually have to iterate away," our WoW pro Tyler Colp wrote. "Dragonriding is a system that's sticky enough that you have to obey the rules of flight and use your Vigor wisely, while also loose enough that it won't be tedious over time."

Dragonflight will also make major updates to World of Warcraft's classes, which will include the return of Talent Trees that Blizzard said "empowers players to make creative and meaningful talent choices without compromising their effectiveness." A new profession system is also on the way, along with a customizable user interface. We may also finally be getting official controller support.

Blizzard also revealed details about the first season of Dragonflight, which will begin the week of December 12. It will feature a new raid, Vault of the Incarnates, along with an updated Mythic+ dungeon rotation and a new PvP season. The rollout schedule will run through December and January:

Week of December 12: Normal, Heroic, and Mythic Vault of the Incarnates will open with the weekly maintenance for each region
Week of December 19: Vault of the Incarnates Raid Finder Wing 1 opens
Week of January 2: Vault of the Incarnates Raid Finder Wing 2 opens
Week of January 16: Vault of the Incarnates Raid Finder Wing 3 opens

Ahead of the launch of Dragonflight, Blizzard will give all players from levels 10-59 a "Winds of Wisdom" experience buff that will boost all experience gains by 50%. The Winds of Wisdom will go live the week of October 4 at each region's local weekly reset, and remain active until the rollout of the Dragonflight pre-expansion patch, when the new Dracthyr Evoker class goes live.

For a closer look at what's coming in World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, be sure to check out our pre-release dive into the expansion to find out why "Dragonflight's verdant new zones are the perfect return to Azeroth."

PRODUCTS

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.