Dracthyr Evokers in WoW Dragonflight: Racials, starting zones, and empowered abilities

Dracthyr Evokers are a new class-race combination coming to World of Warcraft with the upcoming dragon-themed expansion, Dragonflight. Although the expansion is going live worldwide on Nov. 28, Dracthyr Evokers are making their entrance to the game slightly earlier, on Nov. 15. 

As the first ranged class launched since WoW was released back in 2004, Dracthyr Evoker is getting a prestige treatment by getting a new mechanic of empowered abilities. On top of that, Dracthry Evokers are getting their own starting zone, two uniquely designed specializations, and, of course, new racial spells.

If you’re thinking of joining the Dracthyr forces and making your own Dracthyr Evoker, here are the ins and outs of the class, including lore in a nutshell, general info, starting zone, specializations, empowered abilities, and racial spells.

General information about Dracthyr Evokers

The first, and most important piece of information you need to know about Dracthyr is that this is the first class-race combination in WoW, meaning you need to play Dracthyr race if you want to play Evokers, and vice versa. Dracthyrs have two main appearances: Dracthyr visage and human visage. Although you can opt for a human visage while running your errands in a hub city, you’ll be automatically switched to a draconic form once you enter combat. 

Dracthyr Evokers normally wear mail and will get bonus stats if they wear mail only. You can, of course, wear cloth and leather too, but you won’t be getting that sweet bonus of five percent to your primary stat by wearing it. 

While speaking of stats, Evoker’s primary stat is Intellect. They can wield Intellect daggers, fist weapons, axes, maces, swords, and staves. Dracthyr Evokers can choose to join either the Alliance or the Horde, and they will start at level 58. If you decide to make your own Dracthyr Evoker, you can choose between two specializations: Devastation and Preservation. Devastation specialization is a DPS-oriented spec that wields the power of blue and red dragon aspects to deal damage. Preservation Evokers, on the other hand, use the power of bronze and green dragon aspect to heal and help allies in need. 

Dracthyr lore in a nutshell

Drathyr are an ancient race of humanoid dragonkin that can harness the magic of elemental dragonflights. Just like their ancestors and any true dragonkin, Dracthyr can easily switch between a humanoid visage and the draconic one. Their father is the black dragon aspect, Neltharion, better known as Deathwing in the general WoW community, thanks to his unrelenting madness that made him turn on the world he once protected and loved. To have a perfectly safe oasis for the young Dracthyr to train and evolve into true soldiers, Neltharion established the Forbidden Reach, a secluded zone on the Dragon Isles. After a mysterious battle that involved the infamous Neltharion and the Primalists, the island laid dormant for ages with no trace of life. 

Divided into two armies, Dracthyr will come to serve both Alliance and Horde. Each army is led by a Scalecommander. While Scalecommander Azurathel and the Obsidian Warders joined the Alliance’s forces, Scalecommander Cindrethresh and the Dark Talons joined the Horde. Other than these two Scalecommanders, there are also Scalecommander Viridia, Scalecommander Sarkareth, and Scalecommander Emberthal. Out of these three, Scalecommander Emberthal will play a huge role in the upcoming expansion, as hinted in the Legacies videos by Blizzard Entertainment. Scalecommander Emberthal used to be the right hand of Neltharion during the golden era of Dracthyr. Since she has had an immense impact on the development of Dracthyr, she will be of importance during Dragonflight, with her possibly being the deciding factor when it comes to defeating the final boss of the expansion.

Creating your Dracthyr Evoker

Dracthyr Evokers, unlike allied races, have no special requirements you need to meet or achievements you need to complete to create your own Evoker. The only thing you need to do before you can create your own Dracthyr Evoker as soon as they hit the live servers on Nov. 15 is to buy Dragonflight. No matter the edition you buy, you’ll be able to make a Dracthyr character.

Once you enter the character creation screen, you’re free to customize the race any way you want, with several body options on the plate, a diverse color palette, and the ability to customize horns, scales, snouts, and eyes. On top of that, you can customize both your draconic visage and human visage in the same manner you can customize humanoid races. So, don’t be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of customizations Dracthyr has, and instead, take your time to create the best version of the new-generation Dracthyr Evokers.

Dracthyr Evokers’ starting zone

Dracthyr Evokers start in the Forbidden Reach, a zone on the Dragon Isles. There, every Dracthyr Evoker will learn what it means to be one of the Dracthyr, learn more about their extensive history, and learn the essential spells that will help them defeat the Primalists and Raszageth the Storm-Eater. 

Dracthyr Evoker specializations

Currently, there are two main specializations Dracthyr Evokers can opt into: Devastation and Preservation. 

Devastation is a DPS-oriented specialization centered around using the power of the red and blue dragonflights to annihilate enemy lines. Designed as a mid-range caster, Devastation Evokers are really strong in AoE encounters, and fall slightly behind in single-target encounters. Although the spec received major changes over the course of alpha and beta, it’s still expected to be one of the top DPS classes in the upcoming expansion, especially in the new raid, Vault of the Incarnates.

Preservation Evokers, on the other hand, will potentially be one of the strongest healers in Mythic+ dungeons thanks to spells like Temporal Anomaly that absorb damage. Other than that, Stasis will allow Preservation healers to duplicate their next three spells and store them in a “time lock.” You’re free to use them again anytime you want in a time window of 30 seconds.

Empowered abilities

With the introduction of Dracthyr Evokers, we are witnessing a new mechanic coming to WoW. They will have special empowered abilities which can once be activated, change the strength of your spell. It will depend on how long you are holding a designated button on your keyboard or mouse. Naturally, the longer you hold a button, the more damage you’ll do. The best example of this is Fire Breath, an AOE spell that will do increasingly more damage the more you charge it.

Racial spells

Dracthyr Active Racials

• Chosen Identity: Activate to automatically assume your Visage when you leave combat or after Soaring.
• Glide: Reduces your falling speed. You can activate this ability with the jump key while falling.
• Soar: Muster your strength and launch into the air. Cooldown begins when you land. (five minutes cooldown)
  • Principles of Soaring: While Soaring through the air, pointing yourself toward any given direction sends you in that direction. Pointing yourself downward grants more momentum. Evening out can transfer that momentum forward. Pointing yourself upward slows you down. When at your slowest, you will start to fall slowly toward the ground, forward and down. You also gain access to the following abilities:
    Surge Forward: Flap forward a short distance, gaining speed. (five minutes cooldown) (two charges)
    Skyward Ascent: Flap upward, gaining height at the cost of some momentum. (five minutes cooldown)
• Tail Swipe: Lash out with your tail, knocking enemies within six yards into the air. (1.5 minutes cooldown)
• Wing Buffet: With a powerful flap of your wings, knock away enemies in front of you. (1.5 minutes cooldown)
• Visage: Switch between your Dracthyr and Visage forms. Your Visage puts your party at ease, significantly increasing out-of-combat health regeneration.
  • While in Visage form, your nearby allies heal two percent of their maximum health every two seconds.

Dracthyr Passive Racials

• Awakened: Increases your mastery by 2.5 percent for Devastation specialization / 1.8 percent for Preservation specialization.
• Discerning Eye: Increases your Perception by 50. Perception increases the radius of tracking Mining and Herbalism nodes, and the chance of finding additional rare materials when gathering.
• Familiar Skies: You fly 20 percent faster on continents that you have fully explored.

Dracthyr Evokers in Shadowlands

In Shadowlands, Dracthyr Evokers can, just like any other class, join a covenant of their choice. The class will have access to a signature covenant ability: Summon Steward, Fleshcraft, Soulshape, or Door of Shadows. Unlike other classes, Dracthyr Evokers will only have one class spell, Boon of the Covenants. Once activated, the spell calls upon the covenants of the Shadowlands to aid you, restoring health and increasing your Versatility by 10 percent for 12 seconds. There’s also a passive to this spell where damage and healing are increased by four percent.

Other than that, Evokers will have 11 available conduits, out of which four are reserved for Endurance and Potency, respectively, and three for Finesse. 

When speaking about Legendaries in Shadowlands, Evokers will only have access to the Unity belt that passively increases damage and healing done by five percent. 

Lastly, Evokers who want to get their hands on that legendary belt and plan on farming Soul Ash and Cillinders in Torghast will have a wide range of Anima Powers to choose from. Similar to other classes, they will have common, uncommon, rare, and epic Anima Powers.