Skyriding is the new Dragonriding in The War Within — here’s how it works

The War Within is expanding the concept of Dragonriding in World of Warcraft to work with most flying mounts in the game, and letting players toggle between flying styles at any moment. This new iteration of the improved, faster, vigor-based flying introduced in Dragonflight — now called “Skyriding” — will work on most zones in the game as soon as the expansion launches, and almost immediately on Khaz Algar, where the new expansion takes place

There’s no need to unlock Skyriding on Khaz Algar: as soon as you finish the introductory quests and meet the continent’s inhabitants, you’ll be able to take to the skies.

At the moment there are 464 mounts that work with Skyriding — though that number will only increase with time. The ability to toggle between flight styles will also be immediately available in older zones, but will require a bit more work before it becomes possible in Khaz Algar.

Read on to learn everything about how exactly Skyriding will work.

How does Skyriding work in The War Within?

From your mount journal pane, you’ll be able to toggle between Skyriding and old-style flying — now called Steady Flight Druids will also be able to use Skyriding for their Flight Form. All of these options are in your mount panel, along with all of your old Dragonriding talents. The toggle ability has a five-second casting time, and the choice be immediately available everywhere except Khaz Algar. (More on this in a minute.)

The new Skyriding talent tree keeps much of what was previously found on the Dragonriding talent tree. The basics of what you already earned for Dragonriding, such as the vigor increases and the main dynamic flight abilities, are still there, and you won’t need to re-earn anything. The glyphs from the Dragon Isles are no longer required to earn talent points for your Skyriding — those are now given to you by default as you level up your character. However, the glyphs still exist to be collected on the Dragon Isles, purely for Achievement purposes, and there will be new glyphs in Khaz Algar as well.

You can enable or disable “Riding Along,” which allows you to carry a friend on your mount, and you can toggle between the Whirling Surge and Lightning Rush abilities — Lightning Rush is the ability from the Algarian Stormrider, which gives you a speed boost that doesn’t consume vigor like Whirling Surge does, but requires you to ride close to walls in order to accumulate 10 stacks of a buff called Static Charge.

How to use Skyriding and Steady Flight in Khaz Algar

In older zones, Skyriding is available from level 15. Characters should immediately be able to toggle between the two flight styles in level 70-and-below zones.

On the continent of Khaz Algar, where the events of The War Within take place, Skyriding is available after only a small amount of questing. Simply complete the expansion’s introductory scenario and a couple of quests after you arrive in Khaz Algar, and you’ll be able to fly anywhere in the expansion.

As for old-style steady flight — and the ability to toggle between the two styles — it must be unlocked with a Pathfinder achievement. It’s a fairly simple one, only requiring you to complete the main expansion quest and explore all four zones in Khaz Algar. Here are the details on completing Khaz Algar Pathfinder to unlock Steady Flight.

Dragonriding was one of the best additions Dragonflight made to the game, so it’s fantastic to see it become an evergreen part of World of Warcraft — and the ability to easily toggle between styles anywhere is an excellent feature as well.

Originally published April 18, 2024; updated August 26, 2024