With a pressure to both produce and perform well this year, World of Warcraft: Dragonflight is being watched closely as it pushes through the testing process. Blizzard announced this week that the expansion moved from its first to its second alpha phase, bringing with it new features and focii.
The phase, which began yesterday, adds the Forbidden Reach zone (the starting area for the Dracthyr), the dungeons of Neltharus and Legacy of Tyr, Shaman talent trees, and the upgraded crafting specializations and cooking.
Shaman players no doubt have their ears perked up at this news. Of the revamp, the developers said, “We wanted to hone in on some core concepts that are unique to the class. Totems have long been a special thing for Shaman, and we’re giving some new options to manipulate your totems position, radius, duration, cleanse poisons, or even potentially reset the cooldown. We’re bringing back Alpha Wolf for Enhancement Shaman, spreading some Stormkeeper functionality to Restoration Shaman, and trying out a new variation of Elemental Blast for Elemental Shaman, where it replaces Earth Shock as a more expensive Maelstrom spender.”
