World of Warcraft: Dragonflight is coming to a close, and with its successor fast approaching, it’s important to maintain the game’s current success. One of the reasons Dragonflight was so popular had to do with its steady flow of new content, and this was owed in large part to its willingness to reinvigorate the old with the new.

With nearly twenty years of quests, zones, and instances laid down since World of Warcraft’s beginning, few players can say they’ve experienced it all. Blizzard has slowly begun to realize over the past few years that such a behemoth of an MMO can be its own support system. Especially when considering new players in the mix, using old content is a no-brainer.

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Dragonflight Has Redefined Old Content in WoW

Setting itself aside from the many iterations of Classic WoW, Dragonflight wasn’t so heavy-handed with its reuse of old content. It achieved this by smoothly incorporating it into modern systems such as Mythic+ and Dragonriding. The former has been exceptionally well received, and the current system of mixing in dungeons from years ago was introduced in the tail end of Shadowlands.

Mythic+ Dungeons Have Kept Their Roster Fresh

Since then, Dragonflight has provided Mythic+ players with a roster of dungeons both old and new, carefully reworking ones from ages past to suit the surmounting difficulty of Mythic progression. This provides a real change of scenery, as Dragonflight’s own dungeons, despite being new, can’t carry players through two whole years. People can easily grow to hate instances they’ve been forced to push through over and over, so using old dungeons is ironically a great way to bring in fresh content.

Experiencing WoW's Old Zones From the Saddle of a Dragon

Dragonriding and its competitive companion, Dragon Racing, have taken Azeroth’s skies by storm. Allowing players to complete timed courses as they zoom through Dragonflight’s zones was a brilliant way to test their skills in the new dynamic flight system and let them experience the full scope of the Dragon Isles’ vibrant scenery.

Naturally, it didn’t take long before special events were added wherein players would take to the air across World of Warcraft's other realms too. The Kalimdor Cup, followed by the Eastern Kingdoms, Outland, and Northrend Cups, introduced Dragon Racing courses to those continents as well. If players wanted to collect the cosmetic rewards from these limited-time events, they had to travel to said places and experience every one of their zones intimately.

Revisiting the Past Can Have a Huge Impact on Players

For newer players who had never been to those areas, it would have been a compelling way to rocket through mysterious and intriguing scenery, piquing a desire to give old expansions a deeper look. For veteran players, soaring over these zones no doubt awakens nostalgic emotions, combining newly developed flying skills with halcyon memories.

With all this in mind, Dragonflight’s tasteful incorporation of Dragonriding with old zones has been a pleasure for players who want to participate, and Skyriding races are likely to be expanded even further to lands like Draenor and the Broken Isles before long.

Optional Events Can Use Old Content to Keep Players Happy

On top of this, limited-time events like Plunderstorm allowed players to goof around in the Arathi Highlands, an iconic sight that has hosted great battles in years gone by. Mists of Pandaria: Remix, a three-month-long event still in swing, basically set players loose on that expansion’s content, albeit with several wild changes. This unique version of WoW gives players something new to do while they wait for The War Within’s pre-patch, and comes with an avalanche of collectibles.

Re-introducing Removed Content in a Sneaky Way

WoW: Dragonflight also allowed players to uncover a secret means to unlock the Classic dungeon Scholomance in its original form, letting them collect its unique transmogs. Classic Naxxramas is also likely to follow, although the secrets for unlocking this legendary instance have yet to be unraveled by the community. World of Warcraft has long used secrets hidden in old areas, but this is the first time it’s permanently unlocked old versions of instances.

All things considered, Dragonflight has leaped at every opportunity to incorporate old content to keep players entertained. Simply recycling past activities isn’t nearly as appealing to players, so it’s been vital to freshen them up with a modern WoW flair.