World of Warcraft: Dragonflight is solving a very specific grind problem

Playing World of Warcraft gives a player lots of choices and quests, which in theory is fantastic. However, over the game’s many expansions, the formula occasionally fails to work out. Some people like to focus entirely on developing their main, keeping one character of choice up to date with all the current content. Other people prefer to keep a whole stable of characters they can play. Those players will likely be happy with the approach Blizzard is taking in the next expansion, Dragonflight. Almost all progress made on the Dragon Isles will be account-wide, according to game director Ion Hazzikostas.

Hazzikostas and lead narrative Steve Danuser answered fan questions about the upcoming expansion in a Twitter space this Wednesday. One of the earliest answers had to do with account-wide progress for systems like reputation, factions, and the upcoming dragonriding skill. Hazzikostas said “almost everything” would extend to any alts a player has on their account, with the exception of individual quest rewards and other things that represent a character’s personal journey. In addition, a few features will be jumping over from Shadowlands. For example, once a character has completed the Dragon Isles’ narrative story, alts will choose whether they’d like to play through the same linear campaign, or skip straight to endgame activities to gain experience.

This is intriguing news for those with lots of alts, because it means skipping a lot of the grinds that plagued the Shadowlands expansion early on. Players complained about having to grind their Renown, Conduits, and Covenant campaigns in order to get all of the new goodies. This system would allow players to give up on a character and try something new. Players can switch to try out the Dracthyr Evoker later in the expansion without penalty, or give a new class a spin on a whim.

Dragonflight currently does not have a release date.