Its not that I dislike anthro dragons. I dislike this version wow has presented to us to be playable. I would main the hell out of any class if i could play as a Drakonid.
The model, just my opinion, is too humanoid for my taste. For comparison look at standard lizardfolk in DnD, look at the lizard people from games like DOS2, look at other games like league of legends (Renekton, anthro crocodile). Dracthyr (again just my own opinion) look like some wierd middleway animorph that failed to finish.
As for the druid comparison, the key difference is that the druid forms offer a tangible gameplay and visual change. You go bear form, you play with rage like a warrior, you start mauling people, you do a bunch of roars. You are not casting wrath and starfire anymore, you are casting mangle and thrash.
As an Evoker, the majority of my spells do not require my dracthyr form to function. The only ones being Deep breath, the empower spells, and hover. I can clearly cast living flame out of combat just fine. Now that im in combat I cant?
Think of it like a demon hunter form. You should have the option to turn into a draogn when ever your dragon shifting abilities go off⊠Pyre, Breaths, eternity surge and so on.
After those abilities are cast you should shift back into visage form if you have chosen âchosen identityâ not after combat or soar.
Let me stay in visage form. I love my transmog and the weird interaction with dragon form showing only shoulders and belt is embarrassing.
I also love the class and popping into dragon form to breathe fire then popping back has as little effect on anyone elses gameplay as when demon hunters do it.
As for anyone telling others to not play a class they love and would love it more for a visual effect that already exists in game: no.
Mage. Warlock. Not playing Evoker because you donât like Dracthyr isnât locking you out of a sorcerer fantasy, and frankly those other options are in a much better state currently.
Oh, are we really gonna go over the differences between Wizards, the ones who study hard to learn their craft, sorcerers that are born with their powers due to lineage or blessing/curse upon their family and warlocks that make pacts or draw their power from external, often demonic sources?
Also, mage and warlock gameplay is not even close to being similar to Evoker.
There is nowhere in any of the other caster classes that specifically say your character personally gained their magic by studying a lot of books. Many mages may have, especially from the Kirin Tor, but itâs not a hard rule like it is in D&D.
It kinda is, itâs pretty much the description of the class: Mages are the iconic magic-users of Azeroth who learn their craft throughintense research and study.
People can roleplay otherwise but even the most gifted Highborne, High Elf and Nightborne had to study to learn their magic despite naturally having a connection to a potent source of arcane.
At most you can say âMedivh is a sorcerer because he inherited the powers of the guardian from his motherâ but heâs the exception, not the rule.
Evokers on the other hand, and I do mean Evokers, not Dracthyr, itâs natural to who they are, especially since they are more naturally gifted than the other Dracthyr, able to master both the healing and protective magics as well as the damaging arts of the flights.
âStudents gifted with a keen intellect and unwavering discipline may walk the path of the mage. The arcane magic available to magi is both great and dangerous, and thus is revealed only to the most devoted practitioners. To avoid interference with their spellcasting, magi wear only cloth armor, but arcane shields and enchantments give them additional protection. To keep enemies at bay, magi can summon bursts of fire to incinerate distant targets and cause entire areas to erupt, setting groups of foes ablaze.â
Nowhere in there does it mention book study. Hints at it sure, but does not say so. And itâs easy to see how mages from some races would come from a book discipline, while others would just have a gift of magic honed by teachings from a more experienced spellcaster.
Dracthyr however are all evokers, and all evokers are dracthyr. They were created, taught, and controlled to be such, and no-one knew about this unique combination of various flights magic until just released from their stasis a month ago. They have only just now have the free will to explore other paths, a thing we sometimes help with in our questing and I hope indicates they will be able to be at least the base classes later on.
You wanna know why it hints at it? Because Blizzard made it very obvious that they study to learn their craft. ALL moral races do, the Highborne had Narâthalas Academy to study magic as well as the royal academy in ZinâAszhari for the most gifted of the highborne elite. https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Nar%27thalas_Academy
Blood Elves have the magisters who hold all their arcane magic knowledge and in the past it was very common to send high elves to Dalaran which included Prince Kaelâthas himself.
Shalâdorei while not expanded is very likely that they had their own academies in Suramar and the oldest nightborne studied in the fore mentioned highborne academies, before the sundering.
Draenei had the Conservatory of the Arcane, the greatest school of magic in Argus. https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Conservatory_of_the_Arcane
These are the most gifted magic races in WoW, you see what they all had in common? Magic was a scholarly field of study for them. They had academies and schools.
So yes, arcane magic in WoW IS learned through intense study and practice, which makes them wizards in the DnD sense.
Not entirely correct either, the player Dracthyr is an Evoker, the Dracthyr elite, capable of manipulating all the Flights magic with ease, the Dracthyrs themselves are split into Weyrns:
Obsidian Warders are closer to warriors(The Dracthyr wielding weapons you see in the animated shorts) that use the flights magic to supplement their offensive and defensive capabilities, most likely black and blue magic.
Dark Talons are stealthier, striking from the skies and behind the enemiesâ back.
Ebon Scales are the âspellcastersâ of the weyrns, closer to devastation evoker.
Healing Wings are the healers of the weyrns, closer to preservation evoker.
And finally the Adamant Vigil, the scouts and spies.
The difference is, for the Evokers, magic to them is natural, you and me, we can run, jump and swim, but unless we practice we wonât ever win a triathlon. An Ebon Scales are great at using the destruction magic of the flights, but ask them to heal and they wonât be the best at it for instance, even if they know a bit of it.
The Evokerâs deal is that they are great at all the flightâs magic, shifting roles at will, we are the elite soldiers of the Dracthyr.
All dracthyr can use the same powers as they are all infused with the same magic. Evokers learn to master them all instead of becoming specialized - which is harder, but thereâs literally nothing that says they were born with any ability different from other dracthyr.
Yeah, and we are agreeing here, all the Dracthyr are naturally born with the flights magic, but they practice one or the other more to supplement their weyrn, evoker practices all.
Iâll take Blizzardâs own description on its own website over a fan site thanks. And what about all the other races? Worgen behind their wall? The dwarves in Blackrock? The Tauren? The Orcs? None have major schools. It would make sense for a society with a high number of those with mystic gifts to codify formal schooling and education for such. Doesnât mean itâs a requirement to learn to harness such forces, just as there are different ways to learn to harness the elemental forces as a shaman.
Until our awakening a month ago, all dracthyr were evokers and all evokers were dracthyr. Specializing in an aspect of a field does not mean you arenât of that field. A surgeon is a practitioner of medicine, as is a pharmacist, even though they know little about each others chosen area of medicine to study.
A member of the Dark Talons and a member of the Healing Wings are both still evokers, even if they focus on different aspects of their draconic power.
Gilneas wall was built between 2nd and 3rd war, which is guaranteed that there were enough Gilneans that studied in Dalaran, even fought in the first war then returned to their home after the second war being able to pass on their knowledge. Dark Iron Dwarves, similar to Darkspear Trolls that treated magic as a form of voodoo probably learned through their own way magic at one point or another, developing their own ways of studying and teaching others, including Ironforge Dwarves eventually.
For the Tauren arcane was a complete taboo until recently, the War of the Ancients was ingrained in their culture as a lesson of what no to do, even more so than the Night Elves after Cataclysm.
Orcs probably learned from the Blood Elves and Undead.
YES! Youâre right! Thatâs what our whole cute little debate here has been about, mages = learn and practice, sorcerers = born with it and practice. Thatâs it, thatâs the whole difference.
Also, if you donât want to read a fan site, replay the Dracthyr intro, thereâs a quest that one of the Dracthyr says something along the lines of âYouâre an Evoker right? I never manage to complete my training before we were put to sleepâ.
Dracthyrs can all use the same type of magic, yes, but Evoker, our class, is our title and position in the weyrn.
Look, you donât want to read WoWâs on lore, itâs on you, people choose to live in their echo chambers all in the time in the internet, especially during arguments, I gave you explanations, I gave you sources that even show you locations on the map with quests that even give background info on the locations, believe what you will at this point.
Ignoring the snide comments, but really? There could be a case for every single magic wielder on Azeroth being born gifted to it. The âsorcererâ of D&D is not exclusive to school, but by example encompasses every thalassian elf, the highborne, and many arguments could be made with humans, dwarves, and gnomes having once been constructs of the Titans (order aka arcane).
This isnât an exclusive event to evokers, and that fantasy lives in the race and class combinations we already have.
Imagine liking the evoker class and not liking how dracthyr looks. Youâve never driven a car, liked how it drove but not how it looked? Liked how an article of clothing felt but not itâs appearance? This isnât exactly uncommon or even a stretch of the imagination, you must be trolling
