Identifying and solving problems on returning to the game

Community General Discussion
1

Hello,

I have recently returned to this game after about ten years, been playing about a month although I could only briefly talk for about 1 week with 1 character before it had issues detecting any characters on my account. I could not talk in or see the newcomer chat on any character except this one, and yes I was in that chat channel. It was bugged, I presume, like my account. So I have a lot of questions and observations built up across my characters that still are unanswered.

The most immediate issue is that I decided to get Dragonflight. My character had some dungeon gear from before and I started questing. After going through a few quest hubs I decided to try some dungeons. One of them requires dragon riding which I don’t have. I don’t know how to get it either. I hovered my mouse over the button on the page to learn more, like my progress, what it IS, but it isn’t telling me anything. I also can’t do 50% of the dungeons without it. Yeah I can take flight points to get close to my group but I can’t get past the monsters, and often they are at or near the boss by the time I land.

Why am I being put in this dungeon when clearly you have to have this ability that I haven’t even been told what it is or how to get it? More still I was told by my group that by 63 I should have it and to do more quests. I’m doing quests and bonus objectives and picking up things, quite a bit at this point, that primarily what I am leveling up on?

Second, I am having a hell of a time trying to navigate this island. I have never, ever had the problems navigating around the game like I have with this expansion. I died north west of the scalekeep and wound up back at the starting place not sure how to get back. There are flight points listed on the map so I decided to stop and try to reach them and things would fall in place, but it wasn’t a flight point for me.

Third, despite the gear from my quests and the initial dungeon gear up to lvl 60, monsters seem to be incredibly difficult to deal with. Not just that the fights last a really, really long time, but the mechanics of being tossed into the air and thrown into some sort of special thing like a tornado or lava. Monsters respawn, and there are a ton.

The introduction to the game with a new character was good. The game itself seems to have improved a lot, but I am having a really hard time and I don’t know why or how to improve it. I’ve changed my spec, didn’t really make much of a difference. I am also not in the newcomer chat anymore despite still really needing it since the leveling process was too fast and obviously I still have a lot of questions.

Can I get an actual explanation of what dragon riding is, how do I track those quests specifically if there are specific quests? Am I playing a bad class for this expansion?

1 Like
2

It’s build into the main story quest line about 1/3-1/2 way thru the first zone. If your following the main quest line you can’t miss it.

4 Likes
3

There is NO clear main quest line. There are multiple sprawling branches, hubs, and objectives which compile a daisy chain across the area which I progressed through. I was actually on a thread completely south of the dragon riding thread. I had to actually go out of my way and look up videos on youtube to determine what was the main quest line and which strand it was and where I was on it.

More still I discovered that what everyone was referring to is actually bypassing all of that content to begin with, use my psychic powers to directly run to the specific NPC, at a random area in order to do dungeons. I’m a new player. How am I supposed to know that and why is it expected that I bypass all of the other content to get there?

1 Like
4

Main campaign quests have special highlights. If you check your quest log they will have their own categories and tell you have far you progressed.

I think they have special icons too a bit bigger, normal sidequests are plentiful.

4 Likes
5

Skill issue. You get dragon riding like an hour after landing on the Isles

3 Likes
6

The entire game is now designed with the assumption that every player is getting all of the information they need about the game from Wowhead. Down to every item they should strive to acquire, every single button they should press at a given time, and how to learn dragonriding. For this reason, things in game are often completely convoluted, most things are never telegraphed or hinted at properly whether they be fights, quest lines, or what have you. Basically, game design 101 has gone out the window.

You’re going to need to log out of the actual game for a while and study up on Wowhead to figure a lot of stuff out. Best of luck, Champion!

I will say though you are not alone with how annoying basic mobs are when you’re in that low geared leveling phase of Dragonflight. It’s weird how much you can get destroyed by basic quest mobs when you’re undergeared. The unfortunate solution to this is to get into dungeons asap so you don’t have to quest alone with crap gear. Then once you’re in dungeons you can hit max level relatively fast and begin gearing. Gearing up as a solo/new player is pretty simple, just trudge through the zaralek caverns quest line and you’ll get a full suit that will allow you to completely trivialize all other solo content in the game.

5 Likes
7

This isn’t true. I spent hours questing on the Isles. I went from hub to hub, objective to objective, and picking up camp items in strange places. All of the quests seemed to be just as important and relevant to the narrative or the ‘Main Campaign’ as the other.

Now that I’ve watched YouTube videos and learned that I was expected to do a gauntlet run to the home base by players, and apparently the Dungeon Finder, it is still very obvious that all of the content I just skipped is essential to fleshing out and building the map. All of those quest hubs, etc really are expected to be done before you get dragon riding and I have to back track to the threads I dropped.

It’s clearly supposed to organically take days to properly earn and discover on your own, although I can’t function in one of the dungeons that the game places me in at level 60 without dragon riding. Which I don’t like at all by the way.

Yeah I was trying to do that, running under the same assumption, but ran into the problem above. There are only two dungeons I can queue for and one requires dragon riding. That shouldn’t even be a possibility.

2 Likes
8

Skill issue. I’m a literal scrub at navigating retail. You literally just do the main quest for like an hour and you get it. I believe it’s directly after the Sindrax quest with the egg

2 Likes
9

You don’t even know. Like I said before, it isn’t clear what is and isn’t the ‘main quest’, that the ‘main quest’ is what leads to dragon riding, what else may be required, and what the significance of that even is until you are actually in that specific quest or the dungeon requiring it.

I had to watch YouTube videos to discover what it is, what it does, what leads to it, and where to go. Doing that also meant that I bypassed a lot of content still that obviously was intended for me to complete first and it isn’t apparently considered the ‘main quest’.

10

This article might help get you started on dragon riding. I tried to find one without adds but came up short.

3 Likes
11

Here is another source on how to get started on dragon riding, Again, please excuse all the advertisements:



Dragonriding Guide for World of Warcraft: Dragonflight (10.1)

    1. What is Dragonriding?
    1. How Long Does It Take to Unlock Dragonriding?
    1. Vigor (Dragonriding Resource)
    1. Dragonriding Abilities
    1. Dragonriding Talents
    1. Dragon Glyphs
    1. Dragonriding Racing
    1. Dragon Isles Drakes
2 Likes
12

Yep, it’s dismal. The best approach is to google how to speedrun dragon riding, and then begin the game. Don’t even queue for a dungeon before then because you’ll inevitably get spammed into nokhud offensive.

2 Likes
13

You should have unlocked the first dragon riding mount fairly early since you have to do the campaign on your first run through.

If you do the campaign it will also give you a tutorial.

1 Like
14

That is the ‘main quest’ that is being referred to above. At level 64, and only after finding the cheat sheet on youtube to get it, I would say that you don’t organically get it early. There are still gaps on the map, quest hubs, etc that I left behind just to jump ahead and get this “early” so that I can function. I was doing all of the quests, the objectives, picking up the camp things, and god forbid exploring and just generally filling out the map along the way but apparently that is the incorrect way and not what was really expected of me. I guess the plot is to burst to 70 and just go to raiding from there.

2 Likes
15

The main questline starts when you board the boat/airship. Follow the enhanced quest-markers and they’ll lead you to Dragon riding, your first dragon and your first dragon glyph.
I have to admit, with all the skips Blizzard have implemented in the game, it’s baffling how they haven’t included one for the Dragon riding tutorial, especially as its the one quest line you only need to do once.

4 Likes
16

I don’t remember having access to the Dragonriding dungeon at level 60, especially not the first time through. Did they break the reqs for dungeons with 10.1 or something?

1 Like
17

If the exclamation mark has a border that looks like a spiky shield, it’s a main campaign quest.

If it’s just a solo exclamation mark, it’s a side quest.

It’s also in a separate section of the quest pane on the default UI, with a header that says: “Campaign”, not the area with the header that says “Quest”.

3 Likes
18

Main quest have shield Icon that should appear on the right side screen and are labeled campaign.

1 Like
19

Its me, im the problem, I identify as the problem.
You have now identified the problem.

1 Like
20

After 10 years alot has changed so your gonna be pretty much a nub in the game , there wowhead.com to help you out

1 Like