Alongside the Dragon Isle leveling zones

As was heavily rumored, Dragonflight will take players of Blizzard's flagship game to the legendary Dragon Isles, where they'll attain the new maximum of 70 and help rebuild the titular dragonflights to be able to act as the defenders of Azeroth once again. While players move through the Dragon Isles four new leveling zones, each of that is linked to any of the four dragonflights they'll be able to unlock custom Dragon Isle Drakes that can be used to fly through the new area (no Pathfinder achievement required) with the addition's new Dragonriding mechanic. Unlike the game's traditional flying mounts, Dragonriding on these new Drakes will allow players to dive and spin, dash, and more. Dragonriding for now, only work in the brand-new Dragon Isle zone. Of sure, there will be new dungeons, as well as a brand-new raid to explore at time of launch.

Alongside the Dragon Isle leveling zones--the Waking Shores, Ohn'ahran Plains, Azure Span, and Thaldraszus--Dragonflight will also include a new starter area for the game's latest faction-neutral hero class, a class that marks a first in WoW history. This class, called the Evoker is tied to the new Dracthyr races, human-esque bipedal dragons that, much like the Alliance's Worgens, also sport a separately customizable human form. The Evoker is a ranged mail-wearing class that channels the dragonflight's magic to either cause damage with the specialization Devastation or heal allies as they heal allies as the Preservation specialization.

What are the reasons for dragons? The answer is that, according to WoW Director of games Ion Hazzikostas in an interview with P2Pah, the Dragon Isles were one of the few remaining locations in Azeroth which have been mentioned in-game for a number of years and that players haven't yet visited. Once The Dragon Isles were selected the team began to look at ways to introduce a dragon-like race. It was quickly apparent that having players select to play the Dracthyr as a normal race that could be one of the many different classes, although with the added bonus of draconic racial abilities like breath attacks as well as the ability to fly, wasn't going to be a good idea.