Shadowlands will drop some achievement dependency for flying in World of Warcraft

The upcoming Shadowlands expansion pack for World of Warcraft is set to allow traversing around the regions of Draenor and the Broken Isles much easier, with Blizzard relaxing the dependency on the Pathfinder achievements needed to unlock the ability to fly in the areas.

In expansions since Warlords of Draenor, in order to be able to use flying mounts in the region off the ground, you were required to complete two parts to the Pathfinder achievement. This typically included a collection of achievements that the player had to complete, such as discovering every area in the region and completing all of the major storylines. 

This system persisted through The Broken Isle in Legion, and all of the regions in Battle for Azeroth. While this is fine for those who completed them at the time of them being current, any new or returning players for the latest expansions that did not complete them were stuck in old content without the ability to fly, meaning that players had to go through much of the same content over and over on the ground unless you completed story missions of the expansion.

This was particularly unhelpful as the level squash happened at the end of Legion’s life cycle, when the enemies in previous regions all matched your current level, allowing players to level where they wished for each level range.

However, with this announcement, players leveling their characters in the new expansion will be able to fly in the Broken Isles and Draenor with the Expert Flying skill. It will be added to the alpha of Shadowlands in the next update. All of the islands from Battle for Azeroth will still require the Pathfinder achievements for flying.