WoW Forever: How Flight Paths Work

Flight paths in World of Warcraft: Forever work like taxi routes between flight masters: talk to a flight master once to learn that point, and from then on any flight master of your faction can fly you there for a small fee. You can only fly to points you have already visited, so the first trip anywhere is always on foot or mount.

Below we cover how to learn and use them, the costs, the separate Alliance and Horde networks, the change that lets you end a flight early, the Legacy perk that makes flights cheaper and faster, the first flight paths worth picking up, and where flights stop and ships and zeppelins take over. Checked against Blizzard’s WoW Forever posts and development notes as of November 7, three days after launch.

How Flight Paths Work

Blizzard’s new player’s starter guide puts it in one line: “Keep your Hearthstone nearby and visit flight masters to learn flight paths that make distant travel easier.” In practice:

1. Find a flight master. Every capital and most towns have one. If you cannot spot them, ask a guard: the starter guide says guards give directions and mark the spot on your map.
2. Talk to them once. The first time you speak to a flight master, that point is added to your flight map. This is called learning, or discovering, the flight path.
3. Pick a destination on the flight map from any flight master on your network. Points you have not learned do not appear as destinations.
4. Pay the fare and fly. Your character rides a gryphon, wind rider, hippogryph or bat along a fixed route and lands at the destination’s flight master.

In the original game, each character learned its own flight paths, and Blizzard has not announced an account-wide unlock for WoW Forever, so plan on every alt learning its own.

Who the Flight Masters Are

Each faction can only use its own flight masters, and a hostile town’s flight master will not fly you anywhere. Some neutral goblin towns have a flight master for each faction.

Costs

Flights cost money, and longer flights cost more. At low level the fares are small next to the walk they save. Two things bring the cost down:

• The Frequent Flier Legacy perk. Blizzard’s Legacy system overview says it “reduces the cost of flights and speeds them up.” Our Legacy Points guide shows how to earn the points to buy it.
• Choosing the closest point. Flying to a nearer flight master and riding the last stretch often costs less than a long flight.

Ending a Flight Early

WoW Forever lets you get off a flight before the end of the route. Blizzard’s November 2 development notes added “Gamepad support for ending a flight path early using the Back/Cancel action” and say “Players will dismount at the next available flight point.” So ending a flight does not drop you in the middle of nowhere: you land at the next flight master along the way. It is handy when you picked the wrong destination or remember an errand halfway.

The First Flight Paths Worth Learning

The ones below open up the most routes early on. Pick them up the first time you pass, even if you are just riding through.

Alliance:

• Stormwind and Ironforge, the two hubs.
• Westfall (Sentinel Hill), Redridge Mountains (Lakeshire) and Loch Modan (Thelsamar), the towns between the capitals and the next zones.
• Menethil Harbor in the Wetlands, for the ships.
• For night elves: Rut’theran Village, Auberdine and Astranaar. Teldrassil’s flight master is in Rut’theran Village, not in Darnassus; our guide to getting to Darnassus from Stormwind explains the route.

Horde:

• Orgrimmar and Thunder Bluff.
• The Crossroads and Camp Taurajo in the Barrens, which link the two cities. Our guide to getting to Thunder Bluff from Orgrimmar passes both.
• Undercity, the Sepulcher in Silverpine Forest and Tarren Mill in Hillsbrad Foothills in the Eastern Kingdoms. Undercity’s flight master is in the city; our guide to getting to Undercity from Orgrimmar covers the trip.

Where Flights Stop

Flight paths do not cross the sea. The Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor each have their own network, so moving between continents means a ship or zeppelin:

• Horde: zeppelins from the towers outside Orgrimmar to Tirisfal Glades and to Grom’gol in Stranglethorn Vale.
• Alliance: WoW Forever’s new ship from Stormwind Harbor to Auberdine, plus the Menethil, Southshore and Auberdine route, according to Blizzard’s Found Photos panel recap.
• Skyborne: Zephras Isle is reached by skyboat or zeppelin, not by flight master; our guide to getting to Zephras Isle has both routes.

Transports had a rough launch: on November 5 Blizzard said boats and zeppelins were “becoming lost in the maelstrom,” and it added temporary portals by the docks while it fixed them.

Tips

• Bind your Hearthstone where you quest, not where you fly. A Hearthstone home plus a flight out covers most trips.
• Learn every flight master you pass. It costs nothing to talk to one, and it can save a long ride later.
• On the PvP rulesets, flight masters are a safe way past contested zones, since you do not stop on the way unless you end the flight early. Our ruleset guide explains world PvP.

Every WoW Forever guide we have is on our World of Warcraft hub.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you unlock flight paths in WoW Forever? Talk to each flight master once. That adds the point to your flight map for that character.

Why can’t I fly to a town I have never visited? You can only fly to flight masters you have already spoken to. Make the first trip on foot or mount.

Can you get off a flight early in WoW Forever? Yes. Ending a flight early drops you at the next flight point along the route, and Blizzard added gamepad support for it.

Are flight paths account-wide? Blizzard has not announced account-wide flight paths for WoW Forever, so plan on each character learning its own.

Can you fly between continents? No. Flight paths stay on one continent. Use the zeppelins or ships to cross.