Blizzard could be buffing one almost-obsolete WoW feature in The War Within

Is it too little, too late?

Isle of Dorn in WoW The War Within
Image via Blizzard Entertainment

The next World of Warcraft expansion, The War Within, entered its fourth week of testing on May 9. This week’s build introduced plenty of new content to test out, including buffs to one almost-obsolete feature.

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According to Wowhead, movement speed from flight paths in The War Within could be increased after you get the Khaz Algar Flight Master achievement. The movement speed will increase by 25 percent and apply to all Warband characters. This, unfortunately, will only work on the Khaz Algar continent. 

The achievement should be easy to grab, given you discover the listed flight points. Currently, the list consists of 22 locations. 

If Blizzard Entertainment introduced this in one of the previous expansions, this would be handy. But in The War Within, you can use Dynamic Flying (Dragonriding) from the start. I presume flight masters and their beasts won’t see much action, and most players will choose Dynamic Flying. Using flight masters’ taxi option is slow, and the only time I see myself using it is if I’m feeling lazy or traveling across two zones and I want to go AFK. 

WoW character Dragonriding in the Emerald Dream
Why use flight master when you can be the definition of speed? Image via Blizzard Entertainment

I don’t see this buff having much influence on how you play out the early stages of The War Within. I’d rather see this buff go up even more or a full-blown rework of the system, making it work as fast travel. This would allow you to instantly teleport to a spot without the need to fly or wait. The flight master system has been in the game since WoW’s release in 2004, and it’s a wonder it hasn’t been changed.

The War Within is still in the early stages of testing, and it’s scheduled to release between the summer and autumn of this year.

Author
Image of Izabela Tomakic
Izabela Tomakic
Staff Writer & World of Warcraft lead. Izabela has a long history with writing and games like World of Warcraft, League of Legends, Fortnite, and The Sims. Before finding her home at Dot Esports in 2021, Izabela was an English teacher and a freelancer at Hotspawn, GGRecon, and Gameranx. In her free time, you’ll find her writing novels, wandering Azeroth, or inting on Summoner’s Rift.