I’ve done a few runs through Exiles reach on new chars to try and cover any transmog stuff for the different gear types. It’s quite a nice little starting area and just thought I’d make some observations for anyone thinking of trying it out.
If you’re a long time player, go to settings and turn off the tutorial stuff or that gets quite irritating. It’s also a bit glitchy and will often repeatedly tell you to equip a bit of gear even if you’ve already equipped it.
As hunter, you can tame Killclaw the Terrible (the elite bear) and when tamed he keeps his name and title which is pretty nice. Killing him solo with a few heirlooms is easy enough but without these it’s tricky (quest suggests 3 players). He respawns quite quickly and it’s a straightforward tame.
So far I’ve found 2 rares but neither dropped anything useful other than another bag.
The dungeon at the end is easy as well as very short. You get a NPC tank and healer so just let the NPC take aggro. Everyone else is marked as dps. Oddly I dropped into one as the only player and even then it was pretty fast. Worth repeating for any items you’re keen on getting.
The thing that stood out for me is whoever did the mouth animations when NPCs speak in cutscenes is the same that did Sylvie way back where the jaws are all over the place lol.
The Alliance appear to care much more about the fate of spiders that were trying to kill you moments ago than the Horde do.
Boots…they seem to have forgotten to add boots for any of the sets.
Following the questline back to Org or Stormwind sets you on a path to start levelling in BFA…errm no, had quite enough of that tyvm!
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I really enjoyed Exile’s Reach - had fun running around and exploring rather than steamrolling through the quests. The scenery is set up in a really nice away - some areas where the landscape frames a view really nicely so it gives it a very cinematic, picturesque feel.
The lack of boots is very disappointing. I’m also desperate for one of the fancy armoured wyverns as a mount now - they look amazing! Not done it as Alliance yet to see if they also get a nice mount to fly hem off the island.
Thanks for letting me know about turning off the tutorial stuff, I can imagine it’s super annoying on later play throughs. Another thing to note is that if you’re in a party and the lead queues for the dungeon, your own pop up telling you to queue does not go away until after you hand in the quest for completing the dungeon. It was really annoying having that pop up there, especially as it got in the way of my bags and I could not equip a new piece of gear from the first boss so then had a second popup telling me equip the gear…
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Yeah I had the constant join dungeon pop up thing all the way through a couple of them and after I’d finished. If you have an heirloom in a bag then ding a level the heirloom goes up a level so it starts demanding you to equip it if that ding makes it better than what you’re wearing. There’s a few differences Alliance side, mainly the quest where you use a zapper on boars and I just noticed the Alliance go on a bit about the spiders more than Horde do lol.
It was only after rolling a 3rd char that I noticed there’s a tickbox to turn off the tutorial! I’ve also never seen so many chauferred mechanohogs in one place lol.
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That’s interesting because when I did it on Wednesday there were surprisingly few chauffeur mounts. The island is so small that I didn’t feel it necessary to get out a mount myself and it seemed like most others felt the same. But I suppose when people are doing it for the umpteenth time then they’ll want to be faster and won’t be interested in taking in the scenary again!
At least it’s quick. The model you get of the bear doesn’t have the weapon stuck in it but happy enough with the name staying…unless of course Blizz decide that’s an error at some point and remove it lol
Exile’s Reach is certainly a fresh breath of air, especially to those of us who have replayed the racial starting zones several times by now. The place has a very contained story, but the voice acting and writing made it very enjoyable to participate in.
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I’ve done it like 6 or 7 times now
Cant say im a fan of the ogre section
The difference between the boar on the alliance and horde is hilarious
I like how quick and easy it is
Dear God I cant find the tutorial settings though so they are doing my head in
Kinda bored of the place now, probs won’t go back for a while
I can’t do the old race leveling zones now after trying out Exile’s Reach. It’s super chill and the scenery is easy on the eyes. Love it.
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It’s a pretty nice intro, I imagine especially for new players.
Shame we didn’t get to unlock all that was data-mined but I’m hoping we’ll still get it in the future then.
I started it yesterday afternoon and I didn’t see any chauffeur mounts. I hadn’t even thought of using one. Haven’t finished it yet, but enjoying it so far.
One problem I noticed when I was doing it on my warlock is that you can actually miss quests/chests/mob kills and end up with lvl 9 and around 90% of exp.
This is a big problem because the next quest in og/sw requires you to buy the riding skill which is not available at level 9.
I fixed it by going outside of og and killing mobs until lvl 10. When you try to leave og there’s also a popup with the options to teleport back to og or leave the tutorial.
I managed to fix this, but if this happens to a new player that will definetly be super confusing.
I don’t think it should be possible to miss stuff on the island. This is targetted at new players after all.
Oh and thanks for the tip:
That was annoying me so much. This was my screen at some point:
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I thoroughly enjoyed Exile’s reach on my warlock, but yes, turn off the tutorial if you don’t need it, it’s really glitchy. I’ll be levelling a leather, mail and plate class through there just for transmogs.
Edit - In fact I’m just taking a hunter through there for mail transmog.
edit 2 - I have to turn off the tutorial every time I reload (setting up a character is lots of reloads) but it only takes a second.
Exile’s Reach was a bland and boring experience.
There is also a big friendly giant guy on the beach over to the left of the beach where you wake up at.
Its a bit of a swim to go over and talk to him…but you won’t have to worry about getting back lol.
He’s got a great arm.
I’m going to swim back over and see if he is still punting, and look around that bit more thoroughly for my last transmog set, cloth…I just rushed last time and was punted before I took a real good look around on ptr lol.
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For those who don’t know yet, you can skip the whole bfa intro stuff by saying to the first quest giver in Stormwind/Orgrimmar that you already know the city (white speech bubble icon beneath the quest text), that way you finish the tutorial. Otherwise you cannot start Chromie until you started bfa.
To turn off the tutorial…after the 2nd quest (ish) your options ? will appear bottom right of the screen. Click that, select interface, display and the tutorials on/off is on the right side.
I ran a character through last night and I’m impressed you managed to miss any quests. It’s a fairly small zone and all the quest givers are marked.
As a starter zone I think it’s a great introduction to new players. I turned the tutorial mode off pretty soon after I landed. It was just too annoying for someone who has been playing a long time.
Just found him and went for a throw lol. There’s also an underwater cave with some Tortollan who will launch you back to ‘friends’.
After talking to other people I’m fairly certain I missed the quest for that elite boar/bear. I also didn’t loot any of the treasure chests.
Back when I tried exiles reach on the PTR I played rogue and my class specific quest send me down in that boar/bear area anyway.
On warlock I didn’t really get close to that part of the island, so I probably just missed it.
While that’s 100% on me I think it shouldn’t be possible for new players to get into this situation, no matter what they do.
I have no idea how you managed that. There is so little to the island. Special talent xD
I was glad to see they nerfed the group quest considerably so it can be soloed. On Alpha it was more challenging 
It’s worth giving that feedback in game btw, there is a section under Help 