Honestly, Dracthyr - which, I suppose I got early thanks to pre-patch, but it’s still what I consider my favorite feature of DF!
Some backstory: I have avoided trying WoW all these years primarily due to the art style. I just wasn’t a fan of the cartoony style at all, and my one attempt at trying the free trial back some years ago didn’t leave a strong impression on me, so I just never thought about it until I quit a prior MMO I had been playing for 10 years.
For a while, I went to ESO - but most of my friends were either still playing that other MMO, or went back to WoW, so I was mostly playing ESO on my own. I dearly love the game and TES lore, but a friend would always be talking to me about stuff they were getting up to in Classic, or the new things coming in DF, and generally giving me both positives and negatives of the experience. Perhaps out of boredom, or some curiosity, or who knows, I went and looked up Dracthyr character creation… and absolutely fell in love!
Dracthyr seemed to address a lot of issues I had with character design (primarily for elves, really), and they just looked good. Lots of customization, a way to shift forms, the works. And I found myself wanting to play one, despite my hesitation with WoW and remembering I wasn’t… well, wow’d ( ) when I did the free trial waaaay back.
So, I did it. I reinstalled and started the free trial as a Demonologist Warlock… and had fun? I had fun! The class felt really good to play, the world was huge, and I found a ton of extra things to do besides questing and reading (which, to be fair, I also like to do). I was honestly a little blown away by just… the sense of adventure I got. A sense of adventure that was what hooked me to ESO, and what I was severely lacking from my past 10yr MMO commitment. It was something I played games for; that sense of wonder at seeing new places, the excitement of discovering secrets and vistas and enemies, the simplistic monkey brain enjoyment of doing professions and fishing at random and getting that little jolt of “ooo, materials!” when seeing a gathering node out on your adventures.
I was still a bit eh about the art style - still am, really. But it’s grown on me, and the game underneath it is, at its core, a fun adventuring RPG experience. There’s so many little things that just make WoW for me, despite all of Blizzard’s… less than stellar choices, and all the systemscraft that bogs it down at times.
But yes, long-winded storytime aside, Dracthyr were what got me here, and now I get to play around with them at long last! While having fell in love with my other two mains in the process. So while I may have got my favorite feature early, I still look forward to the rest of DF, and all the future years I will hopefully spend here!
(Also thank you for doing this giveaway, it’s quite sweet and thoughtful!)