Can I follow the story in order?

Hi there,

I’m a returning player, I stopped playing when Cataclysm came out.

I wanted to play classic but thought I’d give retail a try again too.

What I wanted to know is it possible to play retail in correct chronological order? What I mean is can I play the game with out getting spoilers, so I play the game then the BC then LK and so on.
I’m asking as I’ve created my character and it was all going fine until I had to leave the Ghostlands. Now I’ve seen Sylvanas as the leader of the Horde and in a quest I just started she talks about defeating the Lich King. This puts the story all over the place and does kill the fun for me.

So is it possible to follow the correct order or is it now a case of quests are all mixed up and there is nothing I can do about it?

Thanks

Yes you can but xp gain is too much so you can out level expansion so fast.

Either you have stop xp
Or
You just level through dungeons(first 15 lvls and last expansion not recommend) and explore story faster at Max lvl with one shoting most things.

Till cata all quests are mixed up and scattered but after it you will find questing story in somewhat in order

Timelines get a little complicated in WoW.
Some areas are present day, at least for your character as you level them, while others are pretty much a time bubble that you step into and live out history basically, Caverns of Time style.
(This may get very confusing in a minute…)

For example blood elves, their starting area is technically still set during Burning Crusade times if I recall correctly (it’s been a while since I leveled a new one so please forgive me if I get this timeline wrong).
As you mentioned leaving those starter zones you then walk into Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor which for you at that level are still dealing with the aftermath of Deathwing breaking out and wrecking things from Cataclysm.

Outland and Northrend are strictly speaking set in the past, before Cataclysm, so that really is like stepping through a time machine.

Cataclysm to Mists of Pandaria, Warlords of Draenor, Legion and then Battle for Azeroth, those line up from your characters perspective for the most part, with a couple exceptions like who’s leading the Alliance and Horde at certain times but for most of the time you’re living your character at that time, the story progresses and time moves forward as you level them.

It is possible to do in order, kind of, there’s a small bit of flexibility you need to have in mind for Outland and Northrend as I mentioned, if you think of it like Caverns of Time and going back to events in the past that’s how I have it in my head at least.

Hope this helps and you do have a blast questing and catching up on the stories, there’s plenty of awesome ones out there to find and experience.

Alittle xD?
Alot info is within Books.

Like Sylvanas’s plan to take over Stormwind, thats not Ingame.
in " A Good War " novel, Saurfang knew about it, and he could have told Anduin about her plans, but did not Why is that i wonder.

Chronicle states that Sargeras was Green with Fel.
When he clearly was not in the Antorus cinematic.

Alot of info is in Books, however alot of info in Books that takes place in our
" Timeline " is almost Non-canon as Medan was.

But to answer the OP, Yes you can experience about 75% - 80% of the Lore ingame, rest 25% - 20% in Books.

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I’m gonna ask my question here too, kinda similar.
I also quit in cataclysm and I have characters all over the place, few at 85, some at 80, 70, 60, few in between and lowest one is 30 something hunter that I havent played since like wotlk and he got stuck in STV haha, weird to log onto him.
I also have few 100/110s thanks to free boosts.

Anyhow, I kinda wanna level through the expansions I missed. I do not have BFA so I guess mist, wod, legion but so much has changed it’s kinda hard to start. Logging in on old characters and a lot of my skills are missing, talents changed, everything’s different so I started a demon hunter and it’s kinda easier but not sure how to proceed on other characters. It asks me to pick a expansion I wanna level in or something like that, how does that work? Also heirlooms can be upgraded now, gotta look into that. I used to love doing all the zones and quests at least once on each faction and then just power leveling alts but now when Ive been out of loop for so many years it’s daunting. Any tips?

Welcome back!

  1. Expansions and levels are kind of droopy elastic now.

TBC and Wrath are levels 60-80. You can level 60-80 with either, or a bit of both.

Cata and Mists are levels 80-90. You can level 80-90 with either, or a bit of both.

So on your Cata characters, start on Mists. Mists will get you from 85-90 easily. In fact, even the first zone, Jade Forest, will get you almost all the way there - but do pop over to Halfhill, in the Valley of the Four Winds, and say hello to the townsfolk, sometime during your Mists career.

  1. Classes have been changed a lot, yes. Even what a class means has changed a lot. A lot of things have been removed, which means you don’t really build or make choices for a class any more. I suggest not thinking about it too much; pick a spec and start killing things. You should get into the groove fairly quickly if you focus on that!

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