Dracthyr
Warcraft race
Scalecommander Emberthal, a prominent dracthyr character.
First appearance	World of Warcraft: Dragonflight 2022
Created by	Blizzard Entertainment
Genre	Fantasy
In-universe information
Created by	Neltharion
Base of operations	Dragon Isles
Type	Dragon

The dracthyr are a fictional race of anthropomorphic dragons in the Warcraft franchise. They were introduced as a playable race in the 2022 World of Warcraft expansion, Dragonflight, with the only class available being the Evoker, a type of shaman that draws power from nature to cast magic. Unlike the game's other races, they are capable of flight and aerial combat. Hybrids of human and dragon, they can switch back and forth between a humanoid "visage" form and a full dragon form, or remain permanently as a dragon. They were praised by critics for the drastic gameplay changes they added to the game, and were seen as significantly modernizing an otherwise dated title. However, they were criticized for a lack of customization while in dragon form, with most armors looking similar without turning back into a human.

Background[edit]

The dracthyr were created by Neltharion, an ancient dragon and the former Aspect of the black dragonflight, who later became a villain known as Deathwing. Neltharion combined humans and the power of all five dragonflights in order to form the ideal soldier.^[1] They were placed into stasis for almost 20 millennia after Neltharion lost control of the dracthyr following a battle against the Primalists, a faction who oppose the dragons. The return of the Primalists causes the dracthyr to reawaken, and they are compelled to join either the Alliance or Horde factions in the present day.

While the dracthyr are able to take on human appearances to better blend in with the other races of Azeroth, they also possess draconic forms that can resemble any of the five dragonflights. Dracthyr Evokers are able to specialize in two schools of magic, Devastation and Preservation, focused on damage-dealing and healing, respectively. Devastation uses the destructive abilities of the red and blue dragonflights, while Preservation draws from the green and bronze dragonflights with nature magic and time manipulation. Dracthyr can "empower" spells by charging them in order to intensify or change their effect.^[1]

Development[edit]

While the Evoker class is the only one currently available to dracthyr characters, Blizzard expressed an interest in adding more classes to the race over time. Associate game director Morgan Day stated that while the dracthyr were just waking up and discovering their abilities, in the future they might learn skills from the other denizens of Azeroth, enabling different combat styles.^[2]

Reception[edit]

The new abilities manifested by the dracthyr were generally praised and seen as modernizing the game. John Carson of Game Informer lauded the empowerment mechanic as adding elements of more modern MMOs like Lost Ark, further stating that "the fantasy of becoming a dragon race and having a class built around the skills and abilities inherent to the species is unique within World of Warcraft and is flavorfully magnificent".^[1] Ryan Gilliam of Polygon called the class "impressively modern", describing the dracthyr as "surprisingly mobile" and "flashy". He summed up the experience of playing the class as "exciting" and "uniquely Warcraft".^[3] Len Hafer of PC Gamer said that the dracthyr made World of Warcraft feel like a different game, calling their aerial maneuvers "completely bonkers" and saying that they made "Azeroth feel new again". He described the race as "almost the culmination of what the ideal Warcraft experience is meant to be: It's fun, it's flashy, it's excessive, and it's kinda silly". While noting that the lore behind the race was "muddled", he nevertheless stated that their new mechanical elements made up for it, and that their ability design made him feel like he was "playing a much snappier action game than WoW truly is under the hood".^[4]

One criticized aspect of the dracthyr was their lack of customization compared to other characters. Fraser Brown of PC Gamer recommended that players use the "Chosen Identity" skill to maintain human form outside battle, saying that it made existing armor sets work better and reminded players that they were a shapeshifter.^[5] Their human form having unique gameplay benefits was also controversial, with Lauren Bergin of PCGamesN stating that she was "a little deflated" that it offered an extra healing buff, as she preferred the dragon form. She noted that many fans continued to play permanently as a dragon regardless, calling it "part of the class fantasy to be a dragon".^[6]

Oli Welsh of Polygon, while still believing the race was fun to play as, nevertheless called the dracthyr an "afterthought", saying that they were "clearly invented to fill a hole", in contrast to other races, and noting that "their introductory story bends over backwards to explain why they have never been mentioned before". Also calling their appearance "conventional" and "somewhat anodyne", he described it as "cosplay-ready" and "with a hint of the furry about it", expressing his wish that it had been more "genre-bending" and "distinctive" like the draenei or worgen. Similarly, he described the class's skills as lacking the same uniqueness as other races in the game, saying that "you could easily imagine it popping up in any other fantasy game".^[7]

References[edit]