The evolving World of Warcraft brings a new feature to The War Within — the Skyriding system. It looks like one of the most outstanding casual features among all the latest expansions, derived from Dragonriding. In this The War Within Skyriding guide we cover everything you need about Skyriding: its abilities, talents, customization, and more. Another new feature in The War Within is new talent trees, read about them in our detailed Hero Talents Guide to be prepared for the new expansion.
4.9Skyriding Overview
The highly anticipated tenth expansion of World of Warcraft, The War Within, has brought a game-changing feature called Skyriding. The Skyriding WoW system, which springs from Dragonriding is a reworked flying mounts mechanic, presented in The War Within. This mechanic has revolutionized the gameplay experience, introducing a brand new momentum and gravity-based type of flight that requires time and practice to master.
As you progress, you will unlock new Skyriding talents that enhance your mount’s abilities. Some of these talents improve speed, while others allow you to perform special maneuvers. Being a new Khaz Algar Skyrider, you’ll have the chance to discover, train, and befriend special drakes of the Dragon Isles, or saddle up your favorite mount and enjoy its new flight style.
Here are some key things you need to know about Skyriding:
- Mounts are now more versatile than ever before. You can switch between skyriding and steady flight, and of course, use any mount on the ground.
- Fortunately, you finally can use other mounts for Skyriding. After long days and months of waiting, you can finally place your favorite mount on the action bar once again!
- Skyriding is not limited to Khaz Algar and Dragon Isles. You can use dynamic flight in older expansions too.
If you want to become proficient at Skyriding as fast as possible and enjoy this feature from the start, use our Skyriding Mastering service. Make sure your Skyriding adventure goes smoothly.
Skyriding Classes
For the Dracthyr, Skyriding still works, but it’s not exactly the same as riding a mount. This is currently one of two classes, that has dynamic flight as their baseline ability, though it differs from riding a mount. This is more of a logical feature, that allows characters with wings to use their full potential.
- The Dracthyr can use Skyriding mechanics, their flight is also momentum and gravity-based;
- The Dracthyr can begin their flight from anywhere, using their Soar racial ability;
- Soar also unlocks two abilities: Surge Forward and Skyward Ascent. Surge Forward allows you to flop forward a short distance, gaining speed. Skyward Ascent allows you to flop upward, gaining speed at the cost of some momentum;
- Soar cools down when you land;
- Soar works without the Vigor system or Skyriding skills, which means that you are most likely not able to successfully travel longer distances.
The second class, who also now has the inbuilt ability to Skyride is Druid. Their shapeshifted Flight Form allows them to use benefits from dynamic flight, just like Evokers do.
Skyriding Mount Types
If you have played Dragonflight, you should remember, that Skyriding was initially a feature to ride drakes only. Now, with this restriction gone, we have a wider variability of the available WoW Skyriding Mounts, which can still be divided into two categories: Drakes and Other mounts.
Why does this categorization matter? Because Dragonflight Drakes have customizable options and can be transformed in the Rostrum of Transformation. And mounts, they are just… mounts, nice and beautiful as they are.
Skyriding Drakes
As mentioned above, Dragonflight Drakes can be placed into a separate category of flying mounts. They are:
- Highland Drake;
- Renewed Proto-Drake;
- Windborne Velocidrake;
- Cliffside Wylderdrake;
- Winding Slitherdrake;
- Flourishing Whimsydrake;
- Grotto Netherwing Drake.
The drakes are all highly customizable. Among the things you can customize are:
- Horns: Forms, Color, and Style;
- Scales: Type, Color;
- Skin Patterns;
- Body parts: Legs, Tail, Back, Throat;
- Head: Nose, Chin, Mouth, Brow, Ears, Eyes;
- Armor: Body and Head Armor, its color, etc.
Changing Drake’s appearance in the Rostrum of Transformation requires certain conditions:
- Firstly, to have a Drake. These unique mounts are obtained by completing special questlines in Dragonflight:
| Drake | Quest | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Highland Drake | Calling the Blue | Part of The Azure Span Main Questline |
| Renewed Proto-Drake | Dragonriding | Part of The Waking Shores Main Questline |
| Windborne Velocidrake | Shady Sanctuary | Part of Ohn’ahran Plains Main Questline |
| Cliffside Wylderdrake | Back to the Future | Part of Thaldraszus Main Questline |
| Worst of the Worst | Part of Ebyssian Questline | |
| Flourishing Whimsydrake | Emerald Welcome | Part of Emerald Dream Main Questline |
| Grotto Netherwing Drake | Dragon Keeping | Part of Vyranoth Questline |
- Secondly, to unlock the ability to customize your drake’s appearance. You need to complete certain quests, exploration, and achievements, or collect Drakewatcher Manuscripts for particular customizable options. Once you unlock a feature, it becomes account-wide and you can use it for your alts’ Drakes.
Skyriding Mounts
At the very beginning of the Skyriding discussion, it was said that only WoW Drake mounts would be allowed to use dynamic flight. But now, the list of flying mounts is far wider than it was expected. From flying horses to magic flying clouds, you can travel through the new lands on your favorite mount.
To make it easier for you to figure out which mounts get the Dynamic Flight ability, we gathered a list below. In The War Within the amount of Skyriding mounts is even bigger. For instance, you can get Vermillion Imperial Lynx and Shackled Shadow for reaching level 17 and level 23 of the Hallowfall Arathi Renown, and our pro players are ready to do this for you.
And here you can see WoW All Skyriding Mounts, 464 in total, gathered in alphabetical order.
Skyriding Mounts
A | B | C | D — E |
|---|---|---|---|
F | G | H | I – J |
| L | M | N — O | P — Q |
R | S (1) | S (2) | S (3) |
T | U — V | W | X — Y — Z |
Skyriding Abilities
Just like your character’s talent trees, Skyriding has its own one. Skyriding leveling involves learning new abilities to enhance the Skyriding skill.
Previously, the Dragonriding talent tree included over 20 talents, each requiring Dragon Glyph Embers to unlock. Now, WoW The War Within Skyriding Talents tree is far more humble, and some of the abilities, that previously required earning tons of Glyphs, are now available by default, which is far more convenient.
But, we have WoW Skyriding Glyphs instead. They are no longer needed to learn new skills, yet for gathering glyphs you can get an achievement to your collection — Khaz Algar Glyph Hunter, and a reward — Swarmite Skyhunter. This achievement and mount, as well as many other great rewards, are obtained from The War Within Campaign.
Below, we have listed the Skyriding Abilities that you learn once you reach level 10 by unlocking Skyriding itself. These abilities use Vigor and allow you to stay in the air for longer periods of time, making them essential for mastering the Skyriding mechanic.
| Ability | Description |
|---|---|
| Skyriding Basics | Basic ability, which allows to automatically turn the flying mode on. To put it simply, if you jump off a cliff, your mount will extend its wings. Depending on the dynamic/steady flight option, you will either slowly soar, eventually landing, or stay in a flying position. |
| Vigor | Passive ability, which regenerates Vigor. Spending time on the ground, whether mounted or dismounted, regenerates 1 Vigor every 30 sec. |
| Lift Off | Simple as it is — an ability to take off the ground. |
| Thrill of the Skies | This ability allows you to gain 1 Vigor every 15 sec while flying fast or moving slightly leaning forward and accelerating. |
| Aerial Halt | A flap back, which allows you to reduce your speed or make a smooth landing. |
| Winds of the Isles | Passive ability, allowing you to detect the gale winds, which can propel you, boosting the speed. |
| Whirling Surge | Ability to spiral forward a great distance, increasing speed. |
| Bronze Timelock | A fun, but sometimes useful ability to mark a waypoint on your positional timeline. Use Bronze Rewind to rewind to this location. |
Skyriding Proficiency
Previously, you had to collect Dragon Glyphs (48 of them in total) throughout the zones of the Dragon Isles. Now, you only need Skyriding Proficiency, which is gained as you level up and allows you to spend your proficiency on new talents gradually. э
If you are already proficient enough, you can dedicate your time to obtaining one more prestigious The War Within Skyriding Mount — Alunira. It’s a hard challenge and requires many hours of farming. Our team can help with this task and get this gryphon for you.
Skyriding Talents
In The War Within Skyriding talents allow you to customize your flying experience to suit your playstyle and preferences. Surely, there are not too many options, but it’s usually up to you which talents to pick first in each row. Let’s have a look at the list of new talents:
Talent | Tier | Description |
|---|---|---|
1 | Your Vigor is increased to 4. | |
2 | Your Vigor regeneration rate is accelerated to 1 Vigor every 25 sec while grounded. | |
2 | Reach within for untapped reserves and instantly generate 1 Vigor. | |
2 | Thrill of the Skies generates 1 Vigor every 10 sec. | |
3 | Your Vigor regeneration rate is accelerated to 1 Vigor every 20 sec while grounded. | |
4 | Flap back, reducing forward movement. After activating Aerial Halt, experience a brief moment of weightlessness as the effects of gravity are reduced for 4 sec. | |
4 | When skyriding near the ground, you regenerate 1 Vigor every 15 sec. | |
5 | Your Vigor is increased to 5. | |
6 | Your Vigor is increased to 6. | |
6 | Your Vigor regeneration rate is accelerated to 1 Vigor every 15 sec while grounded. | |
6 | Thrill of the Skies generates 1 Vigor every 5 sec. | |
Ride Along Choice | Disallow Ride Along on specific mounts. This option has no cost. / | |
Choice Node | Choose Whirling Surge instead of Lightning Rush. This option has no cost. / |
Skyriding Mechanics
As mentioned earlier, dynamic flight, which is an initial part of Skyriding, has its peculiarities and quirks. If you’ve never come across Skyriding before, it might take time to get used to. Here, we outlined some of the points to consider:
- You can ride your Skyriding mounts normally on the ground. If you want to fly, double press the spacebar or jump off a cliff;
- Flying here is momentum-based. It will feel more like gliding or floating – at least, at first. The more you upgrade your drake, the closer to a normal flight it will get;
- You gain momentum when you fly down at an angle. To create and maintain it, you can try flying down quickly and then flying up with momentum to propel you onward. Using an additional Vigor point will also help you fly upward;
- If you run out of momentum completely, you will descend and land. Luckily, you don’t get any fall damage from landing this way;
- If you land, you need to wait until at least one point of your Vigor is restored. Vigor is regenerated while you’re on the ground.
Skyriding Races
If you want some challenge, there is a perfect way to test your skills and compete against other players — Skyriding races. To join a race, simply seek out an NPC — Bronze Timekeeper — who will guide you through the process.
During a race, you’ll need to showcase your Skyriding abilities by maintaining high speeds, navigating through twists and turns, and taking advantage of gale winds to gain an edge over your competitors. To succeed in the race, you’ll also need to keep track of the allotted time and clear checkpoints to extend it.
Also, exploring the current and previous expansion content during leveling can be fun and profitable with Races: Skyracing Local Quests grants generous rewards.
Soon, we will add Skyriding Race locations to help you navigate. Keep in touch with us. But for now, do you want to get the best Gold Meta-achievement Dragon Racing Completionist? Our team is always there to help you to achieve the best results.
World Changing
The previous expansion brought life-changing upgrades to the Azeroth zones. The vast spaces were designed with the new mechanic of riding drakes in mind. After all, what’s the point of building up Vigor on your fancy new mount if you have nowhere to spread your wings, right?
Brian Holinka, the game designer, said this: “We’ve tried to make spaces that are bigger, that really take advantage of that and make it a lot more fun”.
Thanks to the popularity of Dragonriding, this feature not only set roots in the WoW world but also evolved into today’s Skyriding. The newly created Khaz Algar zone was designed with the same idea, allowing for free and boundless dynamic flight capabilities. In general, lots of new zones became larger and wider, allowing you to spread the wings and fly high.
4.9So, what are you waiting for? Hop on your mount and start your The War Within Skyriding adventure today! Exploring the Khaz Algar zone or wandering around Azeroth, we wish you the best of luck on your exciting new journey. Keep in mind, that we always provide more and more handy guides on our platform, so stay tuned.
