The Best Zones in Dragonflight, Ranked

Image: Blizzard via HGG/Sarah Arnold

Human Made

Penned by Sarah Arnold

Sarah loves RPGs, sandboxes, and sims. She's played every expansion of World of Warcraft and WoW Classic and spent hundreds of hours modding and playing Bethesda games.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Hsu

The Dragonflight expansion added the Dragon Isles to the world of Azeroth. This long-forgotten continent was the original home of the dragons, and it contains five new zones for players level 58 and up. Playing through the main story quests of Dragonflight will take you through each of the newest zones in WoW, but there are a lot of optional side quests and other things to discover in each zone. So which one is the best? Let’s take a look!

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Best Zones in Dragonflight, Ranked Good to Amazing

We’ll be basing our rankings off how enjoyable each zone is overall. This takes into account each zone’s design, quest lines, and overall theme. While this is a ranking, we’re pleased to say that each area in Dragonflight so far have been some of the best zones in the history of WoW.

5/5

The Forbidden Reach

Originally the starting zone for Dracthyr, The Forbidden Reach has been updated as a max-level zone as of the most recent patch. It’s an island, smaller than the other zones – more of a daily quest hub than a story zone. Even so, the Dragon Isles storyline does continue into the zone. You aid the Dracthyr in reclaiming their home and uncover the some long-forgotten vaults hidden beneath the island by Neltharion.

As a starting zone, The Forbidden Reach is one of the best – which should come as no surprise since it’s also the newest. Dracthyr can only be evokers and vice-versa, which gives the zone an exceptionally narrow focus, allowing the developers to cater the content to this specific race and class. The result is a zone with a clear and straightforward storyline that guides you through learning the abilities and lore of this new class and race.

4/5

Ohn’ahran Plains

Ohn’ahran Plains is the home of the green dragonflight, protectors of nature and guardians of the Emerald Dream. They are primarily sequestered in the Emerald Gardens, a verdant forested area along the coast. When you aid the green dragonflight, you will find yourself working with Merithra, the daughter of Ysera. Though Ysera remains the Aspect of Nature, she is now linked to the Shadowlands, leaving Merithra to guide the flight into the Dragon Isles.

The bulk of the zone is made up of grassy plains occupied by various tribes of centaurs. Most of your time in this zone is spent helping the centaurs, although not all of the tribes are friendly. The zone’s vibe is reminiscent of Nagrand in Outland, between the wide open spaces and the multitude of hunting quests.

Some of the most enjoyable quests in the zone involve bakar, the large dogs that the centaur keep for hunting and herding. Once you unlock world quests, you can also participate in hunting parties across the zone. Unfortunately there just isn’t as much variety here as there is in some of the other Dragonflight zones.

3/5

The Waking Shores

The Waking Shores is the first zone you visit, and is home to not one, but two dragonflights. The red dragonflight, represented by Queen Alexstrasza herself, is charged with protecting life. Her seat at the Ruby Life Pools is a hatchery where all five dragonflights nurture their eggs and teach their whelps. The area surrounding it is a lush, beautiful landscape of flowers and foliage, and there are many unique and adorable quests in the area where you must nurture young dragons and grow plants.

The black dragonflight also has its seat in The Waking Shores, at the Obsidian Citadel. As you quest through the zone, you find out a lot of the history of the dragonflights, including how the black dragonflight fell from grace under the rule of its previous aspect, Neltharion (AKA Deathwing).

The zone’s quests drop us into the middle of a family feud as Wrathion and his long-lost brother Sabellian vie for their father’s throne. There’s a cool volcanic vibe to their part of the zone, since the black dragonflight’s domain is earth.

The Waking Shores is also the zone where you first learn dragonriding. It also has one of the best quests of the expansion, Stay A While, which encourages you to stop running around for a few minutes while you sit and learn some of the lore.

2/5

Thaldraszus

Thaldraszus is home to the bronze dragonflight, the guardians of time. It’s also the zone where the city of Valdrakken is located. The city is the capital of the Dragon Isles and the main hub for the Dragonflight expansion. It makes up a large chunk of the zone, and most of the quests you’ll do in Thaldraszus will begin there. The city also houses numerous trainers and vendors, as well as portals to each faction’s capital city.

Most of Thaldraszus is composed of tall mountain peaks and towering titan structures, giving the zone a verticality that incentivizes you to improve your dragonriding skills. The bronze dragonflight has its seat at the Temporal Conflux, in the middle of the Shifting Sands dunes.

Their quests entail traveling through the timeways, giving you glimpses of key moments from the past as well as some interesting alternate universes. The conclusion of their story gives some hints about things to come.

The zone also houses the Vault of the Incarnates, the first raid of the expansion, which represents the culmination of the main story in the Dragon Isles.

1/5

The Azure Span

The Azure Span is the blue dragonflight’s domain. The developers have said the zone was inspired by the Grizzly Hills zone in Northrend, and it shows – the area is half frozen tundra and half redwood forest. The zone sees a return of the tuskarr as well, the friendly walrus people from Northrend who offer new and improved fishing quests.

The blue dragonflight are all about magic and the arcane, and many of the zone’s quests have an “eccentric wizard” vibe. Kalecgos, the current Aspect of Magic and leader of the blue dragonflight, appears to you as a mirror image of himself – or sometimes several mirror images, all running around doing their own thing.

You’ll chase down tools that have come to life and arcane tomes that have been misplaced, and you’ll use a number of magical devices like wands and an arcane cannon. Helping Kalecgos to reclaim his seat at the Azure Archives, you’ll encounter a simulacrum of Sindragosa, a reminder that she was one of the leaders of the blue dragonflight before she became an undead weapon of the Lich King.

But the real stars of the show are the tuskarr. Their village of Iskaara has a pleasant and welcoming atmosphere, and many of the quests are exceptionally endearing. You’ll witness an Iskaaran funeral. You’ll help the villagers cook a giant pot of soup, and defend it from enemy attack. There are also some very cute quests where you can assist tuskarr children with various tasks.

And of course, you’ll go fishing. You’ll fish with poles, nets, and boats. You’ll ride rapids, and drop fish from dragon back to restock pools. The fishing quests are some of the most clever and relaxing in the game, and it helps to break up all the fighting and collecting you’ll do otherwise.

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Thanks for reading! Do you agree with our ranking of the zones in Dragonflight? Let us know your thoughts as you continue to explore the ancestral homeland of the dragonflights!

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Happy gaming!