Dragonflight Endgame Part One: The road to endgame

One of the biggest stumbling blocks in playing World of Warcraft is always hitting max level. it's often said that it's the journey and not the destination that's important, but I'm guessing that person never played an MMORPG before. Reaching that apex of levels is only the beginning and the Dragonflight endgame is no different.

But, that does bring about one major complication: World of Warcraft is terrible at telling players what they should and can be doing, let alone how to actually do it. The most information the game offers is an adventure guide pop-up at 70 with a short list of suggestions. If you've been around the block for eighteen or so years like some of us then you have a pretty good idea of where to start.

If you're a new player? Good luck figuring out the procedure of operations when it comes to playing the Dragonflight endgame.

Over the next two weeks esports.gg will help guide one and all through the endgame content currently available to max level World of Warcraft players. Whether you're a raider, looking to get into Mythic+ dungeons, a crafter, or a searcher of secrets.

However, first things first: Getting to max level. Whether you're a new player or someone attempting to get your toons up to snuff, here's the best advice on reaching 70 and hearing that iconic DING! once more.

Dragonflight is the rare WoW expansion that gives players the ability to almost immediately go anywhere upon touching down. This includes the new capital city of Valdrakken, found in the Thaldrazzus zone. The nice thing is that no matter where you're at on the Dragon Isles you can see Valdrakken in the distance.

Do yourself a favor, no matter if you're running a main or one of many toons: Relocate to Valdrakken. Hands down it is the best World of Warcraft capital ever, featuring all the amenities of Stormwind and Orgrimmar, but not laid out like a funhouse mirror.

The key is Dragonriding, the new flight mechanic that all players get across all their characters upon reaching the Isles. While it does take a bit of time to max out the full potential of Dragonriding via the Dragon Glyphs, it's worth the 20 minutes of work. Even collecting a handful of the glyphs will aid your ascent to the great city on the hill.

From here, you not only have easy access back to your OG capital, but all the perks of home at your reach. Vendors, profession trainers, an auction house, transmogrifiers, and more all sit comfortable in Valdrakken, preparing one and all for any Dragonflight endgame adventures.

More to the point, Valdrakken is the easiest access point to all of the zones. Seriously: Head to the top of the Tower of the Aspects and any location in the expansion is a minute or two away via dragonriding. Never before have players in WoW moved so fast.

I may be biased given that I host a lore-based WoW podcast, but consider banging through the story quests your first time out. Not only do they offer the most experience outside of dungeons, but there's the added bonus to the Dragonflight endgame. So much of the rewards at max level tie into your Renown level with the game's four factions and the story quests offer the most XP towards them.

If you aren't a fan of constantly grinding out world quests and praying for the Weekly quest to provide rep then make sure you clear the initial storyline. In honesty, it's one of the better expansion narratives in a long time and if the story beats are any indicator it looks like this tale of dragons is going some wild places.

Funny enough, doing just the storyline stuff will have you hit 70 before the questline itself wraps up. If you follow everything to the letter then you should be doing the Bronze Dragonflight quests right around the time you ding level 70.

But what if this isn't your first rodeo? Luckily, you have options.

We'll talk about the crafting options available in the Dragonflight endgame soon enough. However, I'd be remiss to not mention just how much XP players can earn from crafting in their profession of choice. While some of those gains got nerfed early on, it's still a fully viable option for supplementing your leveling experience. After all, crafting is how the first players managed to hit max level hours after the expansion launched.

To maximize these gains, consider the node-based gathering professions. Herbalism, Skinning, and Mining both give about 1/10th of a bar of XP for each node collected. The resident pacifist of Warcraft DoubleAgent uses this method to level their neutral faction toon to max level.

But even past that old trick, the new crafting overhaul means potential big gains. I was able to get my hunter almost a full level by just crafting all the base level Leatherworking items with about twenty minutes of work. This is made even easier now that materials prices on the Auction House are at their lowest level since launch. Items such as Adamant Scales go for around one gold for a three-star quality, depending on your server.

Consider dropping a few hundred gold and just burn through those early recipes. If you're a real hog then level up one profession, then change professions and do it again. In theory you could get halfway to 70 simply by doing this.

And if you plan on making fat stacks of gold in the auction house game once you hit 70 then you'll definitely want to get this out of the way sooner rather than later.

Real talk: if you're a true sicko that just wants to hit max level ASAP then there's only one way to go. Dungeon grinding is a time honored tradition and, end Dragonflight will help you reach the endgame faster than any other method. It helps that, subjectively, the Dragonflight dungeons don't lose their luster upon repeat, repeat, repeat viewings.

As an indicator of how effect this method is: I currently have six characters at Dragonflight level, whereas in the past I've only ever leveled maybe one toon to max level. It's that easy.

A single full completion of any dungeon can net up to half a full level, not even counting the XP from the actual kills. And, let's be honest: The Dragonflight dungeons at normal difficulty are as braindead as you can get, meaning that you should be in and out, twenty minutes tops.

Just consider it practice for if you're going to go the Mythic+ route of endgame content. Knowing the basics of these dungeons and getting reps in on how to speedrun them at base level is important information. That said, if you've been afraid of dungeon diving in the past, the ease of the Dragonflight dungeons is perfect for learning the ropes.

Doing the dungeon grind will also set you up for success when it comes to the nebulous ilvl requirement of endgame content. Access to Heroic, Mythic, and Looking For Raid all require different armor ilvls. Grabbing gear along the way means you'll spend less time upon hitting max level attempting to get your armor score up so that you can actually do stuff.

Even if all of this information was old news for you, the next two weeks should prove to be fruitful. In addition to talking about the best ways to get into Mythic+ and raiding, we're also going to talk about how to use the in-game systems to your advantage. After all, navigating the social systems at work in just trying to play World of Warcraft aren't always obvious.

We'll also have mini-pieces available for some of the toughest raiding and Mythic+ content. This will include how to tackle the seemingly un-PUGable final Vault of the Incarnates raid boss, Raszageth.

Join us again in a few days when we'll talk about the basics of raiding, getting your ilvl up, and how to be a good World of Warcraft neighbor to your raid party.

Keep tuned to esports.gg for more Dragonflight Endgame articles.