Dragonflight

Dragonflight is now up on Beta. They've announced that it will go live on November 28th, 2022.

See the Development Notes. And check out an overview.

Here is a map of the new area, Dragon Isles.

And the new zones: The Waking Shores, Ohn'ahran Plains, The Azure Span, Thaldraszus, and Forbidden Reach.

You can create level 60 template characters on the Beta which are given a full set of item level 180 gear. Based on that, anyone who's level 60 with a current item level of 180 or higher shouldn't have any trouble questing and leveling in the Dragon Isles. Note that you can travel to the Dragon Isles starting at level 58 and pick up the Dragon Isles professions, but the quests won't be available to you until you reach level 60.

As you might expect from previous expansions, if you are already well-geared from Shadowlands, the gear that's awarded from quests as you start leveling won't be of much use. For example, at level 60, the earliest gear drops are only 226. That will change as you get closer to the maximum level which is now 70. When my rogue reached 70 his item level was 323 and that's without running dungeons or raids.

When Dragonflight goes live, you will get a starting quest to travel to Stormwind, "The Call of the Isles", followed by "To the Dragon Isles!" where you will board the boat to the Dragon Isles.

Once you arrive in the first zone, The Waking Shores, you will likely want to set your Hearthstone to the Dragon Isles. While leveling, you also will want to park your character(s) at an inn each night to gain the rested bonus. There are a lot of Inns. The first Innkeeper is at Waking Shores (81.3, 31.9).

Professions

Alchemy. Trainers are at Waking Shores (76.2, 35.8), Waking Shores (60.3, 72.2) and Azure Span (47.0, 40.2).

Blacksmithing. Trainers are at Waking Shores (25.9, 54.4), Waking Shores (76.5, 34.4), and Azure Span (46.1, 41.0).

Cooking. Trainers are at Waking Shores (47.1, 82.7), Waking Shores (76.4, 35.8), Ohn'ahran Plains (41.3, 57.2) and Azure Span (13.5, 48.7).

Enchanting. Trainers are at Waking Shores (75.8, 33.3), Waking Shores (43.0, 66.5), Ohn'ahran Plains (56.8, 75.5), Thaldraszus (51.0, 40.7) and Azure Span (65.8, 25.3).

Engineering. Trainers are at Waking Shores (43.0, 66.5), Waking Shores (75.9, 33.2) and Azure Span (65.9, 25.3).

Fishing. Trainers are at Waking Shores (81.1, 29.1), Waking Shores (81.3, 31.4), Ohn'ahran Plains (41.2, 56.2), Ohn'ahran Plains (81.6, 78.4) and Azure Span (13.9, 49.2).

Herbalism. Trainer is at Waking Shores (76.9, 34.0) and Azure Span (13.8, 49.5).

Inscription. Trainers are at Waking Shores (76.2, 35.6) and Azure Span (46.0, 38.3).

Jewelcrafting. Trainers are at Waking Shores (76.1, 33.6), Ohn'ahran Plains (65.3, 35.3) and Azure Span (46.2, 40.7).

Leatherworking. Trainers are at Waking Shores (76.6, 34.9), Ohn'ahran Plains (80.9, 59.5) and Azure Span (14.0. 49.3).

Mining. Trainer is at Waking Shores (76.4, 34.7).

Skinning. Trainers are at Waking Shores (76.7, 34.8) and Ohn'ahran Plains (81, 59.5). Actually, Skinning doesn't seem to need a trainer - just start skinning.

Tailoring. Trainers are at Waking Shores (75.9, 33.3), Waking Shores (61.4, 70.2), Azure Span (47.0, 40.5) and Azure Span (14, 49.4).

If you are thinking of changing professions, the start of Dragonflight would be a good time to do so as everyone starts out at level 1.

You can find all of the professional trainers in the Capital City of Valdrakken. For directions, visit a Scalesworn Guardian at (47.6, 53.3), for example. Valdrakken is also the location of the only bank I've found at (61.0, 55.1). There's also an Auction House at (42.6, 59.9).

One nice change for the crafting professions is professional equipment. This is in addition to crafted gear. For example, Blacksmiths can make things like a Draconium Skinning Knife that grants a +6 skinning skill but it doesn't replace your weapon. Similarly, Leatherworkers can make a Smithing Apron which grants things like +28 Inspiration and +25 Multicraft for a Blacksmith yet it doesn't replace your Chest piece.

You can also equip things like The Brokers Angle'r for a +15 fishing skill and it doesn't replace your weapon(s). So, if you're planning to learn fishing, you might want to buy this from the fishing vendor in Oribos. There are similar tools for mining, blacksmithing, herbalism and skinning which you can equip now and remove them from your bags.

If you are looking to fill the new Reagent Bag slot, you can earn a 26-slot Gatherer's Reagent Pouch by completing the quest "A Gift for Miguel" at the Ruby Lifeshrine (60.3, 72.1) in the Waking Shores. Tailors will also be able to make a 36-slot Chronocloth Reagent Bag.

Dungeons

Dungeon	Zone	Level for Normal
Ruby Life Pools	The Waking Shores (60, 76.1)	61-70
The Nokhud Offensive	Ohn'ahran Plains (60.6, 39.9)	63-70
Brackenhide Hollow	The Azure Span (11.57, 48.78)	66-70
Halls of Infusion	Thaldraxzus (59.24, 60.64)	69-70
Algeth'ar Academy	Thaldraxzus (58.1, 42.4)	70
Neltharus	The Waking Shores (25.7, 56.4)	70
The Azure Vault	The Azure Span (39.1, 64.7)	70
Uldaman: Legacy of Tyr	Badlands	70

Currently, the dungeon loot is shown to be Normal-346, Heroic-359, and Mythic-372. To run heroic dungeons, you will need to be level 70 with an item level of at least 342. Most of the dungeons have a quest giver nearby who offers a dungeon quest that awards a choice of 356 gear.
Here's a preview of the dungeons. And a dungeon guide.

There is a vendor in Valdrakken at (38.1, 37.8) that sells 359 tier gear for Elemental Overflow (currency). In the same room, another vendor offers to upgrade that gear to 385 for Storm Sigils (another currency). The tier gear has bonuses for equipping 2, 4 and 6 set pieces so it may be useful to pursue these in addition to dungeon and raid gear.

Raids

There is currently only one raid shown on the Beta: Vault of the Incarnates located in Thaldraszus. The gear drops range from RF 376-385, Normal 389-398, Heroic 402-411 and Mythic 415-424. All of the gear requires level 70 to equip. You will need an item level of 359 or greater to queue for RF. The raid will become available on December 12th at the start of season 1.

Getting ready

Clean out your bags. Once Dragonflight goes live and you set your hearthstone to the Dragon Isles, it will be difficult to travel back to Shadowlands and there's little reason to do so. So, get rid of any lower-level gear in your bags and your bank and any other stuff that you've picked up in Shadowlands. You might as well spend your Reservoir Anima. You should probably spend your Valor. Valor is likely to be reset at the start of Dragonflight Season 1 on December 12th.

Clean out your quest log. You probably have some dungeon and raid quests that you're never going to get back to and you may need the space for Dragonflight.

Stock up on healing potions and food. For food, I would stock up on your favorite stat food and maybe some Ethereal Pomegranate. As an alternative to the Pomegranates, if you are planning to pick up Dragon Isles cooking, you can make Twice-Baked Potato (it's the first recipe and the effects scale as you level) when you first arrive in the Dragon Isles. Visit the vendor at Waking Shores (76.6, 34.9) for the materials you will need for cooking as well as for other crafting mats.

For healing potions, stock up on Cosmic Healing Potions. The first recipe that Alchemists get to make is Refreshing Healing Potions which restore 94,400 health (vs 16,000 health for the Cosmic Healing Potions), but it requires some herbs to make.

Shadowlands flasks like Spectral Flask of Power are pretty good if you can afford to stock up on them (but you likely won't need them for leveling).

If you have a stash of Veiled Augment Runes, you might as well use them up while leveling. Their effectiveness decreases as you level and gear up. For example, my rogue had 2,005 Agility at 60 but, at 70, his Agility was 4,378. Note that the Eternal Augment Rune is only usable up to level 69 while the Veiled Augment Runes can still be used at level 70. Since it's unlikely that you will be going back to Shadowlands to use your Command Table, you will eventually run out of these. And, from what I've heard, there won't be Command or Mission Tables in Dragonflight.

If you are low on Darkmoon Prize Tickets, you might want to visit the Darkmoon Faire during the week starting the first Sunday of each month and do some quests there to build up your supply. It takes ten Darkmoon Prize Tickets to purchase one Darkmoon Top Hat. But don't buy the top hats until you are ready to use them as they only last until the end of the Darkmoon Faire week.

So once Dragonflight goes live and you have picked up level 1 of your Dragon Isles professions, plan to visit the next Darkmoon Faire to buy your top hats and use them for the 10% renown and experience buff for 1 hour. And, also, do the profession quests there to gain 3 levels in each of your Dragon Isles professions.

If you want, you can turn on War Mode for a 10% XP bonus for completing quests and killing monsters while in the Dragon Isles. Beware, though, there likely will be a lot of horde in areas like the Wingrest Embassy.

Your gathering profession(s) may also help you level up. For example, mining grants you 2,500-2,600 XP per deposit and Herbalism 2,300 XP per find. Nothing for fishing or skinning, however.

If you are going to be farming an area for a while (skinning, for example), consider dropping a Battle Standard of Coordination for a 15% XP boost while killing monsters.

Note that you will encounter two different types of quests while leveling in the Dragon Isles. The first is Campaign Quests that lead you through each zone and ultimately let you know when it's time to move on to the next zone, so it's important to finish these. Then there are other random quests that you will come across. It's important to work on these as well as they award renown (reputation) with the various factions. As an experiment, I stuck mainly to the campaign quests on my rogue and I was just shy of level 66 when I finished the Azure Span. The next campaign quest would have me travel to Thaldraszus but I would have to reach level 68 before I could pick it up.

Once you've completed the campaign quests in each of the four zones, you can then start on a 9-chapter Dragonflight campaign. The first step in the campaign is to raise your renown with the four factions.

I started leveling my Hunter and the only campaign quest I found was the first of the 9-chapter campaign. I completed the first campaign quest (gaining renown), but it said that I need to reach level 70 to continue the campaign. So, apparently, they have simplified things for alts. This can make it more difficult to navigate around the Isles while you level up, but the good news is that you can skip the quests that taught you dragon riding. Note that your main will have left you a dragon mount or two at the top of your mount collection so you can start using that right at the beginning.

So, if you are planning to level multiple characters, you probably should concentrate on your main character and get him to 70 as soon as you can. You will still probably want to park him in a rest area to gain the rested bonus and then switch to an alt. When running your alts, you can pick and choose the quests you want to run.

You may also want to finish exploring each zone before moving on to the next. You may gain XP from the exploration (and you may find additional quests). And, of course, if you level up in the process, it will make the next zone that much easier. Furthermore, since the item level of the gear that is awarded from quests is based on your character level, it may help you gear up. Continuing with that thought, as you get to level 68 or so, you may also want to delay turning in quests that award gear until you reach level 70. Do this only if you can afford to lose any XP from the quest and possible follow-on quests.

With the second phase of the Dragonflight Pre-patch on November 15th, you will be able to create a new type of character, The Dracthyr Evoker and play through The Forbidden Reach starting zone. The Dracthyr start at level 58.

The November 15th pre-patch will also include a pre-patch event: Primal Storms.

The week of November 15th is also the last time you can run Mythic+ dungeons and get loot from the Shadowlands Great Vault.

So, what's the Dragonflight endgame going to be like?

This is premature certainly, but, beyond raiding and dungeons, there are awards for gaining Renown.

You will likely get to renown level 3-6 with each of the four factions by the time you reach level 70. But the renown levels extend up to level 25 for the first two factions and level 30 for the last two. Note, too, that if you can reach renown levels 10 & 20 on your main, it will help the progression of your alts.

Here are the Dragonflight factions and quartermaster locations:

Zone	Faction	Quartermaster	Location
Waking Shores	Dragonscale Expedition	Cataloger Jakes	Dragonscale Basecamp (47.1, 82.6)
Ohn'ahran Plains	Maruuk Centaur	Quartermaster Huseng	Maruukai (60.4, 37.7)
The Azure Span	Iskaara Tuskarr	Murik	Iskaara (13.1, 49.2)
The Azure Span	Cobalt Assembly	Steiz	Cobalt Assembly (49.4, 22.6)
Valdrakken	Valdrakken Accord	Unatos	The Seat of the Aspects (58.2, 35.3)

You also will likely spend a lot of time leveling your crafting professions. Here is a good guide. And this might help. Also, there's Quartermaster Rabul for the Arisan's Consortium in Valdrakken at 35.4, 59.1.

If you want to work on farming Dragon Glyphs, here is a good guide. When you are ready to spend your glyphs to upgrade your dragonriding skill, visit Lithrogosa at the Skytop Observatory in the Waking Shores at (74.5, 57.0). Note that you will only have to farm the Dragon Glyphs on one character, however, each of your characters will have to visit Lithrogosa to spend the glyphs.

Dragonflight Season 1, starting December 13th, 2022

Mythic+ dungeons are again an excellent source of gear both from the chest at the last boss and the weekly Great Vault award. See the awards by dungeon level. As for upgrading gear using valor, see. His location is /way 45.43, 38.54. And the entrance is /way 40.57, 45.03

World bosses have a chance to drop 395 gear.

Here is a strategy guide for the Vault of the Incarnates.

Patch 10.0.5 introduces the Revival Catalyst. The catalyst location is at /way 59.73, 53.74.

Dragonflight Patch 10.0.7 is going live March 21st, 2023. Here are the patch notes.

Dragonflight Patch 10.1 Embers of Neltharion goes live on May 2nd, 2023.

See the Announcement.

On patch day you will be given a quest, The Land Beneath, which will eventually lead you on a path to explore the new zone, the Zaralek Cavern. In addition, you will probably want to pick up the weekly quest in Valdrakken: Aiding the Accord: Sniffenseeking. You will earn the 3000 rep pretty quickly your first time in the Zaralek Cavern.

Season 2 starts a week later on May 9th. There will be new currencies for upgrading Season 2 gear: Flightstones and Shadowflame Crests. See the article. Apparently, Valor is not being reset but it can only be applied to Season 1 gear and you won't be able to accumulate any more once Season 2 starts.

Here are the Season 2 Mythic Dungeons and the gear awards.

New to Season 2 is Explorer gear which drops from quests and even trash mobs in the Zaralek Cavern which can be upgraded using Flightstones (upgrade costs vary):

Item Level	Gear Level	Upgrade cost
376	1/8	13
379	2/8	13
382	3/8	13
385	4/8	13
389	5/8	20
392	6/8	20
395	7/8	40
398	8/8	-

Patch 10.1 introduces a new faction: Loamm Niffen. The quartermaster is Harlowe Marl at 56.5, 55.7. There is an Inn at the town of Loamm at 56.4, 55.8 and there are profession venders in that area. There is another Inn at 52.2, 26.3.

There's a new 9-boss raid: Aberrus, the Shadowed Crucible located at 48.5, 10.3. Currently the loot is shown to be RF: 402-411, Normal: 415-424, Heroic: 428-437 and Mythic: 441-450. Aberrus is expected to open May 9th on Normal, Heroic and Mythic difficulties. The first wing of Raid Finder should also be open that day with wing 2 available May 23rd, wing 3 available June 6th and the final wing on June 20th. Raid Finder will require a minimum item level of 386 to queue. See the Strategy Guide.

Note that RF will drop Veteran gear, Normal will drop Champion gear, and Heroic will drop Hero gear. These will require both Flightstones and a specific level of the Shadowflame Crest to upgrade. Mythic gear will not be upgradeable. There is a vendor, Vaskarn at 56.5, 56.1, that will exchange higher level Shadowflame Crests for lower level ones.

The Revival Catalyst will be usable again starting the week of June 13th and you will be able to upgrade one piece of gear each week thereafter through July 18th.

Dragonflight Patch 10.1.5, Fractures in Time, arrives July 11, 2023.

See the Patch Notes.

Patch 10.1.5 introduces the Dawn of the Infinite mega dungeon. Here are the loot drops. The entrance is in Thaldraszus at /way 61.1, 84.4

Here is a video dungeon guide

Dragonflight Patch 10.1.7, Fury Incarnate, arrives September 5, 2023. Here are the patch notes.

Patch 10.2 Guardians of the Dream, is scheduled to go live on November 7, 2023. There are a lot of class changes. See the development notes.

Season 3 will go live November 14 and introduces the 9-boss Amirdrassil Raid and has higher item level increases. See the article.

Here are the Season 3 Mythic Dungeons and the gear awards.

Guardians of the Dream. Patch 10.2

Before November 7th, it wouldn't hurt to clean out your bags, although from what I've seen on the PTR, most of the quests just drop Flightstones or gold. The few quests that I've seen that drop gear only award level 415 Explorer 1/8, but that can be upgraded to a max of 437 using just flightstones.

This currently can be accessed on the 10.2.0 PTR. When you first log on, you will be given the quest "Call of the Dream". This will direct you to the new zone, Emerald Dream, which is west of the Ohn'ahran Plains. You can also get there by taking a portal from Valdrakken @62.7, 57.3.

Beware that the current Shadowflame Crests and Fragments are marked as trash even though the crests can still be used to upgrade Season 2 gear. So don't use the new "Sell All Junk Items" button when talking to a vendor. Also, if you have 15 or more crest fragments, convert them to crests before the patch as you can't do so once the patch is live.

With Season 3, there are no more crest fragments and the new Dreaming Crests accumulate as a currency rather than in your bags. Similar to crest fragments, it takes 15 Dreaming Crests to upgrade a piece by one grade level. Here's an article describing the patch 10.2 upgrade mechanism.

Season 3 has 8 new dungeons:

Dawn of the Infinite: Galakrond's Fall - in Thaldraszus
Dawn of the Infinite: Murozond's Rise - in Thaldraszus
Waycrest Manor - take the Drustvar portal
Atal'Dazar - take the Zuldazar portal
Darkheart Thicket - take the Val'sharah portal
Black Rook Hold - take the Val'sharah portal
The Everbloom - take the Gorgrond portal
Throne of the Tides - take the Vashj'ir portal

The portals listed above can be reached from the portal in Valdrakken @53.6, 55.2

The Revival Catalyst can be used for Season 3 gear as you acquire Renascent Dream charges.

As you gear up in Season 3, there are a some achievements to look forward to:
Dreaming of Drakes - requires you to reach item level 450 in every gear slot. This will award you 100 Flightstones and Vaskarn in the Central Encampment will allow you to exchange 90 Whelpling's Dreaming Crests for 15 Drake's Dreaming Crests.

Similarly, Dreaming of Wyrms - requires you to reach item level 463 in every slot. This will award you 100 Flightstones and Vaskarn will allow you exchange 90 Drake's Dreaming Crests for 15 Wyrm's Dreaming Crests.

And, finally, Dreaming of the Aspects - requires you to reach item level 476 in every slot. This will award you 100 Flightstones and Vaskarn will allow you to exchange 90 Wyrm's Dreaming Crests for 15 Aspect's Dreaming Crests.

Seeds of Renewal. Patch 10.2.5

Patch 10.2.5 arrives January 16, 2024. Here are the patch notes.

Patch 10.2.6 with Season 4 is now up on the PTR. Season 4 is scheduled to go live on April 23, 2024.

Season 4 has 8 dungeons, all from Dragonflight:

Uldaman: Legacy of Tyr
The Nokhud Offensive
The Azure Vault
Ruby Life Pools
Neltharus
Halls of Infusion
Brackenhide Hollow
Algeth'ar Academy

Note that heroic and mythic dungeons are different in Season 4.

Currently, on the PTR, it looks like you will need an item level of 441 or higher to queue for heroic dungeons, but that may change. All 8 dungeons appear to drop the same level of Season 4 loot - Normal: 460 (Explorer 3/8), Heroic: 476 (Adventurer 4/8) and Mythic 0: 493 (Champion 1/8).
Here are the mythic+ awards.

As for raids, there are no new raids for Season 4, rather, once a week, one of the three existing Dragonflight raids will be marked as "Awakened" and will be more difficult and will offer higher gear awards:

Raid Finder: 480-489
Normal: 493-502
Heroic: 506-515
Mythic: 519-528

Season 4 crests are called Awakened Crests.

Your Flightstones are going to be reset to zero with the start of Season 4 so maybe upgrade some gear before patch day. Alternatively, you might want to make some Spark of Dreams by combining two Splintered Spark of Dreams with 250 Flightstones. The Spark of Dreams allow you to craft Dream Crafted gear in the range of 450 to 463. It appears, though, that you will be able to acquire Splintered Sparks of Awakening once Season 4 starts and two of these can be combined with 250 Flightstones to create a Spark of Awakening. These will allow you to craft Awakened Crafted gear in the range of 486 to 499.

You might want to save up your Faint Whispers of Dreaming as they can be some help in replenishing your Flightstones when the patch goes live.

The weekly quest offered by Therazal will apparently rotate each week between Dragon Isles, Zaralek Caverns and Amirdrassil and would appear to be somewhat harder than the current Season 3 weekly quests. For Zaralek Caverns, for example, you will need to complete three sub quests: Protect the Researchers Under Fire, Loot a Secured Shipment and Complete a Time Rift. There's no requirement to earn 3000 rep however, so rep grinding in Dragonflight may be at an end.

So what's a good plan for when the patch goes live? I would pick up the quest "Leave No Flightstone Unturned" from Vaskarn in Valdraken near the Auction House, then get a piece of Season 4 gear from a world quest or by completing "A Worthy Ally: Dreamwardens". Then get maybe 100 flightstones and upgrade your piece of Season 4 gear (upgrading a piece of Season 3 gear doesn't count). Then turn in the quest and get a follow-on quest from Vaskarn "Awakened Crests, Unlimited Possibilities".

At that point, I would then queue for the Awakened raid on LFR difficulty to perhaps earn some better (480+) season 4 gear as well Whelping Awakened Crests and more flightstones. Running the Awakened raid on LFR is also the best way to earn Antique Bronze Bullion. You can earn one of these per week. Once you have two of them, you can turn them into Iszinormi in Valdrakken (@73.8, 47.1) for a piece of 493 gear which can be upgraded to at least 528 using crests and flightstones.