Blizzard released a deep dive into the new WoW expansion that brings along a new class, race and mount capabilities, the last of which seems a bit too similar to existing GW 2 systems.
Blizzard has just shown the upcoming features for World of Warcraft : Dragonflights expansion, which is evidently all about dragons. As such, the players are getting a new draconic race with a unique class while everyone will be able to get the four new dragon mounts, provided they invest the time and effort.
Those who obtain these new mounts will apparently get a new feeling for the physics of the actual flight, which Blizzard touts as a selling point in the video below. While these features are new to World of Warcraft, they have existed for years in Guild Wars 2. Since so many players switched the boat or temporarily gave GW2 a shot over the years, most of them instantly recognised the mechanics that look a bit too similar.
Two aerial manoeuvres were shown in the trailer. First, there is the spinning dash that can be seen at 3:48 in the video, which provides a burst of speed and is highly reminiscent of the Dash ability the Skyscale has in Guild Wars 2 .
While one similarity could be written off as an accident, two form a pattern. The other move you can have while dragonriding is a dive, seen at 4:02 in the video, that will provide additional momentum, which is exactly what Guild Wars 2's griffons have been doing for years .
Granted, Guild Wars 2 doesn't possess any exclusivity rights to mount abilities but seeing something so similar appearing in WoW certainly begs the question about the ratio of creativity versus copying existing mechanics without a lick of inovation in Dragonflights.
Being on an already slippery slope with the fiasco that was Shadowlands, Blizzard really needs to show they've still got it with Dragonflights and copying systems that have existed for almost five years in other games isn't going to cut it. Let's hope exciting creativity pops up elsewhere.
