One of the most popular questions with any new World of Warcraft expansion is “How long until I can fly?” In past expansions, including Battle for Azeroth, this usually involved grinding out reputation until you hit an achievement, and flight becomes your prize. Shadowlands, however, is taking a different approach with the incoming Chains of Domination update.
During a Q&A session in the World of Warcraft deep dive for BlizzConline, Game Director Ion Hazzikostas addressed the Pathfinder achievement and flying requirements for Shadowlands. Flying will come with the addition of Chains of Domination. There will not be any reputation requirements for it. All you need to do is complete your entire Covenant campaign, and finish the story chapters coming with the 9.1 update.
Hazzikostas reminded everyone that you will only be able to fly within each of the four world zones in Shadowlands. You cannot go from zone to zone due to the game’s placement of the zones in the overall World of Warcraft universe. This also means that using mounts in The Maw is still restricted to the handful currently allowed in that zone.
Fortunately, Pathfinder is an account-wide achievement. Like previous versions of the requirements, you will unlock flying for all of your characters who are Level 50 and above once you hit the requirements for Pathfinder with a single character.