Steady flight is now available from the start for Midnight and The War Within

In a blue post released earlier on Friday, steady flight is no longer being locked behind Pathfinder achievements, and instead is now available to all from the start in The War Within and Midnight zones. This is a welcome change. While dynamic flight may be a fun experience for some, for others with disabilities or motion sickness, this default flight mode is more hindrance than fun.

It is true that steady flight in the past has been used to bypass more challenging areas, and the same can now be said for dynamic flight. While dynamic flight does require more interactivity, it does not change the fact that its ability to get out of danger and bypass trash mobs is the same with steady flight. The true downside of the original restriction was that dynamic flight — even with motion blur reduced — can be unpleasant to people with visual sensitivities. The need to use the dynamic flight mode to play through all the zones to unlock steady flight mode, which should be readily available just from an accessibility standpoint, makes leveling and travel more difficult for those who have trouble using dynamic flight.

While the accessibility aspect of the need for steady flight was not mentioned in the blue post, it’s clear this change is a boon to those who dreaded having to use the form of flight introduced in Dragonflight. The benefits of dynamic flight — its blistering speed and increased interactivity — remain as motivation to use it for those who want to do so. You’ll also still need to use dynamic flight for the Cup races when they occur to get those Gold times.

Going forward, it doesn’t appear future expansions will be seeing the unnecessary restriction of locking steady flight from players. We’ll be able to fly free in the method we prefer. The hotfix adding this feature is already live so you can take advantage of steady flight now without the achievment, should you choose.