Non-Evoker Dracthyr Get a huge Nerf before the class expansion

In a recent update to the World of Warcraft Public Test Realm, the movement speed increase for using Glide when playing a non-Evoker Dracthyr has been reduced. This nerf was made before the class expansion for Dracthyr came out World of Warcraft Patch 11.0.5.

World of Warcraft recently confirmed that Dracthyr will finally gain access to a few more classes in Patch 11.0.5. After nearly two years of being trapped in only the Evoker class, Dracthyr came along WoW soon they will be able to play as priests, hunters, mages, wanderers, wizards or warriors.

However, several of their racial abilities have been tweaked to compensate for this change – and the latest nerf was one of its most significant. Winged dragons have the ability to glide by double-pressing the jump button, which allows them to slow their fall while slightly increasing their movement speed. According to the patch notes for the recent Patch 11.0.5 PTR build, this movement speed boost is reduced for non-Evoker Dracthyr, which weakens the mobility skill for its other available classes.

Dracthyr Racial Nerfs in WoW: The War Within

• The movement speed gain when using Glide is reduced for non-evoking.
• Tail Swipe is now only an Evoker ability.
• Wing Buffet now has a three minute cooldown that can be reduced by Evoker talents.

This wasn't the first nerf Dractyr racial abilities gained for non-evokers. When World of Warcraft first announced the class expansion, increasing the cooldowns for Tail Swipe and Wing Buffet – two powerful crowd control abilities – to three minutes, with Evoker talents available to reduce them back to their current levels. However, subsequent builds of the PTR removed Tail Swipe from their racial abilities entirely, instead making it just an Evoker skill.

From a balance standpoint, this nerf makes sense. Giving Priests, Warlocks, and other classes a speed boost in combat without a cooldown is extremely powerful and would threaten to make the Dracthyr a must-pick race for everyone. World of Warcraft classes they could play. Glide is already indispensable in both PvP and PvE, so letting non-Evokers benefit from his speed boost would shift the meta significantly.

On the other hand, Glide is one of the funnest parts of the Dracthyr race, and fans are upset that World of Warcraft it reduces this by limiting the speed increase. Let's hope the Dracthyr racial skill set doesn't receive any more nerfs before the patch comes out, probably October 22nd along with the calendar start date WoW20th anniversary event on PTR.