by World of Warcraft: Dragonflight does things a little differently when it comes to getting around new areas. The new dragon riding feature means you’ll be able to take flight right from the start instead of having to wait six months for flight to unlock in the new expansion areas.
Dragonriding isn’t like regular flying though. While it’s probably safe to assume the latter will come to the Dragon Islands later, you’ll want to master dragon riding to enjoy the aerial exploration this new feature offers. So if you’re ready to spread your wings, here’s how to unlock WoW dragonriding, as well as how to customize your mount and improve your riding skills.
How to Unlock Dragon Ride in World of Warcraft
You unlock the Dragonriding skill and get your first mount once you’ve progressed a bit through the main story quests in the first Dragon Isles area, The Waking Shores. Once you have been sent to meet Alexstrasza at Ruby Living Sanctuaryyou can get the aptly named “Dragon Horse” Quest who sends you to talk to Lord Andestrasz. Once he offers you your first dragonriding mount, you can take a few practice flights to get used to how dragonriding works.
There are four mounts riding dragons to collect in total and you will acquire the other three as you progress through the Dragon Islands. The four dragon-riding mounts are:
- Renewed Proto-Drake
- Velocidrake carried by the wind
- Cliffside Wylderdrake
- Highland Drake
Basics
The Basics of Dragon Ride
Dragonriding is very different from regular flying in World of Warcraft. When you first ride, you will notice that you have two dragon riding skills: ascent to heaven allows you to take off from the ground or increase your altitude if you are already airborne, while Go forward drives your mount forward, giving you a burst of speed.
However, you can’t just use your Dragon Rider skills endlessly. You’ll have to make sure you have enough Vigor to stay in the air. Don’t worry though, stamina is regenerated whenever you’re on the ground whether you’re mounted or not, as well as whenever you’re in the sky and flying at high speed.
There’s quite a bit of skill when it comes to riding a dragon. The thing to remember is that you can’t just gain altitude indefinitely – you’ll quickly run out of stamina if you try to. Instead, you should get used to flying slightly downward so you can fly faster and constantly regain vigor.
That’s not to say you can’t reach the heights, but it does take some practice to master your momentum and stay in the air when you’re first starting out. Luckily, you’ll also unlock Dragon Rider talents to make your job easier.
talent
How to Unlock the Dragonriding Talent Tree
Shortly after learning your dragon riding skills and riding the Ruby Lifeshrine and completing flying lessons, you are sent to the Skytop Observatory. After completing the quest introducing mount customization, you will take on a quest called “Dragon Glyphs and You”. Grab the nearby glyph and talk to the dragonrider Lithragosa to discover talent.
The Dragon Ride skill tree allows you to unlock various upgrades for your Dragon Ride, including new active abilities and additional stamina slots.
To unlock Dragon Rider talents, you will need to find and collect Dragon Glyphs which can be found scattered all around the Dragon Islands. You don’t have to wait to collect them either – you can fly after all – but be aware that some can be quite tricky and you may need to make frequent stops to let your Vigor refill.
Personalization
Customizing Your Dragon Ride Mount
The Skytop Observatory is where you will learn more about dragon mount customization. The Platform of transformation has a layout similar to the barber shop, but for your dragon! Here you can change many aspects of their appearance, such as scale type and color, horn style, tail decorations, and more.
You can unlock customization options through Drakewatcher Manuscripts which are obtained through different types of Dragonflight content. These include quest rewards, achievements, and exploration. So if you’re missing an option to change something on your mount, don’t worry, you might not have found that particular customization yet.
