I completely forgot that not all of the on-bar abilities are available right away and you have to unlock them during questing (that won’t be true for alts after you’ve done the unlocks on your main). I also can’t remember at what point you get Whirling Surge (the barrel roll that costs three vigor) or the bronze dragon go-back-where-you-were-a-second-ago thing.
What abilities are on your action bar when you’re dragonriding right now?
Also, yes – it’s very important to know that Skyward Ascent will get you more altitude the closer you are to facing upwards when you cast it. Aiming your dragon straight up and casting Skyward Ascent two or three times will take you very high. But make sure to level out right before the animation ends, or else you’ll start losing momentum.
Thanks, this answers the next question I had. Okay, so apparently dragonriding at least partially sucks because I can only do part of it for now. I will hold out hope that the fully unlocked feature is as cool as everyone says.
It may be a while, though. I’m currently busy with work, but once I have gaming time again… Well, I reached the leveling milestone I set for myself and I think I’m gonna go back to Shadderwands for a bit.
I never knew what to do with the bronze timelock thing and assumed it was only useful in PvP. Thank you for this; I’ll remember that next time I’m having trouble getting up something really tall.
I don’t know how much other people were having trouble with landing on small targets, but I had a bunch of trouble landing right at certain NPCs and resource nodes before, and that’s most of what I use Aerial Halt for now that it exists. I also use it because crashing into the ground made me feel bad for my dragon despite the fact it doesn’t do any actual damage.
You got it! Something I forgot to mention that is useful for PvP is: whirling surge lets you dismount other riders in warmode. And yes they do plummet to their death with no parachute (unless they have one or a glider or something.)
I’ll admit I tend to make my judgments on a vibes basis, and from that perspective, I’m digging Ardenweald less than I expected to. Usually “mystical forest” is exactly the kind of ambiance I like, but this honestly seems like Ashenvale except trying too hard. Val’sharah was a better iteration on this theme.
It is really hard for me to put my finger on what exactly it is but everything here is so boring compared to Dragonflight. Like, honestly, DF’s overarching narrative is much more low-stakes and the on-the-ground zone quests feel approximately as…on the ground. I really can’t pin down what it is about the SL storytelling that’s putting me off so hard.
I don’t know, I’m just bored. I’m questing in small increments because I can’t make myself focus any attention on this. Since I started Shadowlands I’ve taken breaks to level two brand-new alts including this one; the other I got all the way to 70 and finished the second zone of Dragonflight.
Coming back to Shadowlands… Meh. It’s just so dull. I honestly think I’m gonna drop this for now, finish up the DF content and come back here later to indulge my completionism. Maybe.
There’s no reason to care because we just learned everything we’ve ever done doesn’t matter, we’re literally fuel for the engine of creation, and all our sacrifice, hard work and ambitions are literally worthless because if Maldraxxus requires another foot-slogger, in you go, or if Ardenweald is running out of deer-folk, you’re going there.
They really didn’t think it through that maybe having an afterlife that is pure suffering for somebody else’s gain is going to go down well with Millennials and Gen Z folks. Also instead of allowing us to interact with cool characters from previous expansions and the World of Warcraft RTS games, we got Even-More-Tortured Jaina, Sad-Dad Thrall, Baine sitting in a corner processing his trauma again, and Tyrande on the worst divine power-fueled rager that gave her the ability to fart so hard she could fly.
Like, I have written novellas about why Shadowlands would have worked better as a Titan Facility dedicated to imprisoning rogue Titans and the former Pantheon of Order than being the actual Afterlife, and why things were so bad on Azeroth is that the Titans had co-opted the flow of souls to their proper afterlives to fuel their defences and facilities in this demi-plane, but it is what it is.
When we got slapped with this, it was the nail in the proverbial coffin of Shadowlands for me. I’ve been annoyed with the bulk of the writing in this game for a long time, except for the occasional one-off enjoyable little questline.
The entire story is a Russian nesting doll of stupidity.
Ardenweald is visually cooler if you pop one of those night time potions. But I agree- I wasn’t exactly taken with that zone either. I think Revendreth was the only one that I looked forward to questing in. Bastion was nice and Maldraxxus was kinda cool. Ardenweald had some cool moments, but overall it wasn’t memorable.
