The Skyriding changes coming to World of Warcraft before Midnight

We’ve seen many changes to the Skyriding system since it was first released in World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, under its original name of Dragonriding. The expansion of the feature to be usable in any zone (where you could fly, anyway) was a popular change, and condensing the talent tree as we moved into The War Within was definitely a wise move. The changes to Skyriding that we’ve glimpsed on the Public Test Realm for patch 11.2.7 — the last major update before the Midnight prepatch — are significant, and one of them might be a little controversial.

How Skyriding is changing for the better

Before we get into the bits I didn’t like, let me begin by saying that Skyriding will improve for most players in the upcoming patch. The Skyriding options pane (pictured above) has been simplified, and its two choice nodes–the Ride Along toggle and the Whirling Surge/Lightning Rush option button–are now slightly more prominent. The menu itself is still rather obscure, hidden within a dropdown at the top of the Mounts pane, but I suppose we can’t have everything.

The most notable improvements on the way:

• Surge Forward and Skyward Ascent now have a minimum recharge time of about 12 seconds. While you will still regain charges faster at higher speeds (as little as 6 seconds, it looks like), hovering in midair will no longer drop your recharge rates through the floor.
• Whirling Surge now has its own cooldown. You will no longer need to spend three Skyriding Charges for an ability which doesn’t make you faster (even though it looks like it does).
• The addition of a Dismount button, which you can find in the General tab of your spellbook under the Skyriding flyout menu. This quality-of-life improvement is long overdue — though personally, I will continue to use my macro that lets me dismount and Stealth while still airborne, so that I can Shadowstrike unsuspecting elites from above.

Vigor is gone

Not all change is good, and while the nomenclature change from Vigor to Skyriding Charges doesn’t bother me, the removal of the Vigor bar itself does. The bar, with its half-dozen large ovals, was a much easier way to see both how much Vigor I had, and how soon I would recharge my next one. Now, Vigor recharges at a fixed rate (improved by the speed you’re flying), and abilities that had a high Vigor cost now have a cooldown instead.

My eyes aren’t getting any younger, and when you’re cruising through the sky at speeds capable of crossing entire continents in minutes, every split-second matters — the Vigor bar made it much easier to see how much Vigor you had at any time. Now Skywriting Charges are just a tiny number in the corner of ability icons indicating the number of charges you have available for your abilities. My hope is that enough people will object to the removal of the Vigor bar on the 11.2.7 PTR and the upcoming Midnight beta test that Blizzard will decide to restore it, or at least provide a way for racing aficionados to toggle it on and off.

See the changes for yourself

While I was tempted to spend the entirety of last weekend messing around with player housing on the PTR, I took a break from building my cozy indoor climbing cave to see how the changes affected my racing times. Skip to the end for the final verdict.