Patrick gave a firm refusal on the question of sending the Dragonhawk Riders into battle. Still, with dragons present, the allied air force would not suffer too humiliating a defeat. But if the Qiraji poured out in full force, even the dragons would find themselves unable to do all they wished. Their numbers were what they were. No matter how much support Wyrmrest Temple provided, the dragons would certainly number only a tiny fraction of the Qiraji. Any flying Qiraji the other dragons could not spare the attention to deal with would surely attack the allied forces directly, and the dragons could not possibly protect the entire army.
As for the Qiraji air force, Patrick had plans of his own. "Since the dragons cannot spare the attention to deal with the Qiraji air force, I think we, as Quel'Thalas's elite troops, should have no problem helping the allied forces fight them. Besides, the blue dragons are friends of Quel'Thalas, so we can work together more effectively against those winged bugs."
Throughout the War of the Shifting Sands, given the Blood Elves' troop composition and the quality of their soldiers, Patrick favored positional warfare. The Alliance and Horde were responsible for protecting the allied army's two flanks, while the armies of the other neutral powers all occupied the center as a buffer. The troops Patrick led were among them.
This allowed them to support both the Alliance and the Horde quickly. Moreover, the Blood Elf forces consisted mainly of the Farstriders, the Dark Curse Burning Legion, and the Magisters' Legion, who already excelled at inflicting damage at range and had their own methods of defending against aerial attacks. With the elves' small numbers of elite soldiers, it took a long time to recover from the loss of even one elite, making