Dracthyr Evoker is the new World of Warcraft: Dragonflight race/class combo. It has been a while since Blizzard graced us with a brand new race and class. Come Dragonflight, it treats us with both.
The Dracthyr Evoker is a unique entry in WoW’s gameplay. The Dracthyr race and the Evoker class are interdependent. Dracthyr cannot become another class. No other race can learn the ways of the Evoker.
Availability and Background
Players will be able to create Dracthyr Evoker characters in the Dragonflight pre-patch. Obviously, Dracthyrs can side with the Alliance or Horde.
Unlike the Pandaren who made this choice after leaving the starting area, players will choose their Dracthyr’s allegiance when creating the character. You can have only one Dracthyr Evoker per server.
As hero classes, they start at level 58. Evokers will unlock talents and abilities up to level 58 in the starting area.
Dracthyrs wake up on The Forbidden Reach, a location on the Dragon Isles. In addition to being the starting area for the new race, the Forbidden Reach will serve as a setting for other WoW adventures.
Neltharion, aka Deathwing, created this zone as a training base for his ultimate soldiers, the Dracthyr Evokers. The plan went haywire and the Dragon Isles became inoperative.
Now, a new threat wakes up the Dragon Isles and the Dracthyr warriors. The world is a marvel to them, just as they are a marvel to the world. The other dragons weren’t aware of their existence.
Functionality, Play Style, and Equipment
Due to lore considerations, only Dracthyrs can be Evokers. Class-specific abilities make use of their wings and ability to use Draconic energy.
Over time, Dracthyrs could learn to use magic in different ways, thus becoming other classes. They might receive a third specialization for healing or DPS in future expansions. Tanking is not a viable option for this spell-centric class.
Dracthyrs have two racial abilities: Wing Buffet and Tail Swipe. The first one is a cone knock-back attack. The second is an area-of-effect knock-up.
Evokers have two specializations. Preservation is the healer specialization. Devastation is the mid-ranged damage-dealing specialization.
They use a new type of resource, Essence, that regenerates over time. Being a super-soldier created by a powerful dragon aspect has its perks. Evokers intrinsically use the magic of all dragon flights. They can cast green, bronze, blue, red, and black spells.
Some animations feature a prismatic effect that incorporates all these types of magic. For example, the Pyre red magic damage spell shows a five-color twirl as the Evoker casts it. It becomes red when it reaches the target.
Each specialization focuses on two types of magic. Devastation, the DPS specialization, uses red and blue magic. Red spells deal explosive damage. Blue spells are more concentrated and single-target oriented. One of the blue spells resembles a magic beam.
Preservation, the healer specialization, employs green and bronze magic. Green magic is tied to the Emerald Dream. It includes area-of-effect HP-restoring spells. Bronze magic captures the essence of the Evoker’s healing/support playstyle. Bronze, time-altering magic, is about accelerating the healing process, rewinding time to negate harmful effects, or making the healing spells more potent.
Another unique aspect is that Evokers can cast while flying. It’s reminiscent of familiar dragon spells, such as Onyxia’s breath.
Evokers wear mail armor. Intellect is the main attribute. They can equip swords, maces, axes, staves, fist weapons, and caster off-hand weapons.
Evokers will not receive existing class-specific features, such as an artifact weapon, Legion class hall, or Mage tower challenge.
Unique Features
Teal is the class color. Evokers come with a new mechanic ability, Empower. These unique abilities allow the caster to enhance their spells. Empowering a spell or ability results in more damage, longer-lasting effects, longer range, or enhanced spell effects. You can think of it as buffing the spell.
As an example, the developers offered a spell with a variable cast time of one, two, or three seconds. The first variant could be a quick burst spell. The second and third versions would reach more targets and apply a DOT effect.
The idea behind this mechanic is to have flexible abilities that players choose to use depending on the situation. For example, they can opt for the one-second spell for a mob that has little HP left and go for the three-second spell when dealing with more enemies.
Fire Breath is part of the Evoker’s DPS starting kit. The more you charge it, the more ground it covers and deals more damage. Other classes may receive the Empower mechanic in the future.
Dragonflight introduces dragon-riding as a new way of moving around the Dragon Isles. Dracthyrs have the innate ability to use a simplified form of dragon-riding. While other races develop their ability to ride dragons on the Dragon Isles, Dracthyr flying doesn’t have a progression system.
Dracthyr will use the human form when mounting dragons. Outside the Dragon Isles, Dracthyrs can use their wings to glide, but they still need a flying mount for traditional flying.
Appearance and Customization
Just like the Worgen, the Dracthyr has two forms. Out of combat, this race has a humanoid visage. In combat, the Dracthyr appears in its native draconic form.
The male Dracthyr is based on the male Blood Elf model. The female Dracthyr is based on the female Human model.
Separate customization for the human and dragon visages is available when creating the character. Skin tone, nose, torso size, unique jewelry, and two-tone hair are just a few customization options. More than 30 hair colors will be available.
Players can match certain elements of their human and dragon forms, such as the color of the scales. The barbershop will have a new option to customize the armor in Dracthyr form. Shoulders, tabards, and belts remain visible in dragon form. As you can imagine, all armors will be visible in human form.
The visage-changing animation is instant. It resembles the animation we’ve seen on other WoW dragons. It’s not as dramatic as the Worgen transformation. You can freely change forms when you are not in combat.