New Dracthyr classes are coming in patch 11.0.5 — six of them have just been confirmed!

Do you want to play as a Dragon Warrior in World of Warcraft? I know I sure as heck want to play as a Dragon Warrior, and that opportunity — Dracthyr getting new playable classes — is getting here sooner than we thought, just as all the signs were showing.

Update: with the WoW 20th Anniversary celebration content update, the developers have just confirmed that Dracthyr will be getting six new class possibilities in patch 11.0.5 (which should drop in late October to early November): Warrior, Hunter, Rogue, Priest, Mage, and Warlock. In addition, those six classes will gain a new Visage ability that acts as a toggle, allowing them to choose to fight in either their Dracthyr or their Visage forms. This option to fight in Visage form sadly won’t be available to Evokers for now.

Back when Warbands were first announced, keen-eyed players were quick to notice an official Blizzard picture showing a low level Dracthyr wearing leather armor — something that would have been impossible unless the race got access to a leather-wearing class and the ability to skip the Dracthyr Evoker introductory experience. At the time, Blizzard pointed out that this wasn’t meant to be taken as indication that Dracthyr were getting other classes. However, a similar thing happened months later, in an episode of Blizzard’s WoWCast: a Dracthyr Warrior can be spotted at 1:32 of the video — exactly at the moment when Associate Game Director Morgan Day is talking about “players having new ways to express themselves.” A clear hint, or just a coincidence?

But what really stoked this particular fire was the datamining by Wowhead of several new class animations added for Dracthyr. Behind the scenes, a lot of work has been put into making sure that the Dracthyr models are capable of performing class-specific animations for nearly every class in the game. The only exceptions seemed to be Monk and Demon Hunter — the latter is, in fact, an unlikely class for Dracthyr to get, while Monks have a lot of complex class-specific animations that might clash with the Dracthyr form, so it’s understandable that they weren’t ready yet.

Then, Game Director Ion Hazzikostas talked openly about this during a recent group interview with content creators at Gamescom. He all but confirmed that, at the very least, Warriors and Mages will become options for Dracthyr during The War Within. In the same interview, he also said that certain classes like Druids are unlikely to be offered to other races at the moment, for lore and fantasy reasons — but he also added a “never say never” statement to cover all his bases. And yes, when looking at the current state of Azeroth and how the Dracthyr fit into this world, it’s hard to expect them to become Druids, Demon Hunters, Death Knights, Paladins, or Shamans, at least immediately — but everything else seems fair game. And what might also delight some players is that in that same interview, Ion talked about Dracthyr being able to fight in their Visage form, saying that “it would be cool to have it.”

Finally, with the WoW 20th Anniversary update, the developers confirmed that the race will be able to roll six other classes: Dracthyr Warriors, Mages, Hunters, Rogues, Priests, and Warlocks will join the fray. Those classes were already widely available to every race and don’t require too many special art assets, complex animations, or convoluted lore justifications. So you’ll only need to wait until patch 11.0.5 — between late October and early November, most likely — to roll your new Dracthyr characters.

Originally posted September 2, 2024. Updated September 5, 2024.