Hello and welcome to the game!
Sadly, if you’re planning to reach level 110 relatively fast, you won’t have the chance to go through all the good storylines in every expansion. If I had to pick-- Borean Tundra (without Coldara) and Howling Fjords are two zones worth opening with - they’re starting zones and serve, in some ways, as opening exposition. I’d follow them with Dragonblight (especially for the Dragonflight lore and Wrathgate), Stormpeaks (First real jump into the prehistory of Azeroth). Finally, of course, Icecrown Glacier.
You can, of course, come back later - once you’re max level and pick up the storylines you’d like to learn more about-- and in some cases, you’d have to - as some of them find resolution in raids (at max level, you can easily finish them alone).
Is it worth to invest time in content from previous expansions?
Not really.
Again, it is something you can get back to once you’re at max level.
If you over-invest yourself in the levelling content, you’ll find yourself with a questlog full of missions from previous expansions as you progress ever closer to level 110 (and eventually, 120).
Now speaking of BfA and gearing up.
Don’t worry, the Azerite stuff gets confusing even to veterans. I’ll try to explain the basics of it as we go.
Every piece of gear in the game is described by it’s “Item Level” (ilvl for short, I’ll be using that a lot).
The higher ilvl, the more powerful the item is - as it carries more stats like Haste, Critical Rating or Mastery.
Some classes benefit more from specific statistics (for example, casters mostly rely on Intellect, while Rogues use Agility) and not every gear at the same item level is equally useful to you. Some classes work better when you stack Haste, others rely more on higher Critical Rating.
As you level up, however, generally any piece of gear that has higher ilvl is an upgrade - so don’t worry about specific stats now.
Once you reach the content of the Battle for Azeroth, you’ll be introduced to Heart of Azeroth (a necklace) and Azerite Gear.
Heart of Azeroth is-- for lack of a better word-- power aggregator. As you travel around the world, you’ll be collecting Azerite which will empower your Heart of Azeroth.
In turn, necklace empowers Azerite Armor - allowing you to use its Traits.
Confusing? Let’s break it down.
Azerite Gear can be put in only 3 slots - Head, Shoulders and Chest. There is no Azerite Gear that fits any other slots.
You can wear 3 different pieces of Azerite Gear - one in each slot.
Each Azerite Gear has a list of special skills you can activate - those skills are called “Traits”.
The higher ilvl of a given Azerite Gear, the more Traits you’ll be able to activate on it.
Okay, but what are Traits? Traits upgrade your character in a minor way-- some of them increase your basic stats, others make certain skill you use more powerful. Not all Traits are equal - some of them are more useful than others, therefore it is likely you’ll be looking for Azerite Gear with Traits that are most useful to your class and playstyle.
Hopefully, this cleared up the basics of Azerite Gear. Now, let us talk about gearing up and endgame!
Level 120 is currently maximal character level in the game. After reaching level 120 the only way to increase power of your character, would be to find better gear!
I’ll take a wild guess and say, upon reaching level 120 your average item level will be 280.
The following is the (probably incomplete) list of gear sources available to you:
- World Quests / Emissaries
- Professions
- Reputation Vendors
- Warfronts
- World Bosses
- Dungeons
- Raids
Disclamer: I intentionaly don’t discuss PvP gear rewards. I’m haven’t done PvP in WoW for years and don’t want to talk BS about something I simply don’t know anything about.
World Quests / Emissary Chests
World Quests are quests that spawn on the world map for a specific number of hours and are eventually replaced by other missions. WQ can provide various rewards - from War Resouces, Gold and Azerite Power, all the way to various gear - be mindful that gear rewards from World Quests scale with your ilvl - the stronger gear you wear, the better rewards you’ll get from finishing World Quests.
Emissary Chests are missions that require you to finish 4 World Quests for a specific faction - granting you in return a chest with semi-random rewards. Gear is possible content of the chest, but it isn’t guaranteed.
To unlock World Quests you must:
- Reach level 120
- Complete 3 foothold questchains - For the Horde it means establishing outposts in 3 zones of Kul Tiras, for Alliance, securing 3 basis in Zandalar.
- Reach Friendly with 3 factions: Zandalari Empire, Talanji’s Expedition, Voldunai for Horde or Order of Embers, Storm’s Wake and Proudmore Admiralty for Alliance.
Professions
While rather expensive in terms of materials, you can craft yourself new pieces of gear that will be relevant in your gearing up process - at least early on.
Problem with crafting gear is that the cost of materials is rather high, considering alternative forms of obtaining gear. Still, it is an option for those who don’t do other forms of content.
Warfronts
Warfronts are two PvE scenarios available in the game in 8.1:
Arathi Highlands and Darkshore. Each scenario puts 15 players in charge of fighting a battle against NPCs of the enemy faction. As of now, Warfronts do not feature PvP - as all combat is done against computer-controlled forces.
Warfronts operate on a “cycle”, with Alliance and Horde trading the zone every 20-24 days - constituting a Cycle.
Once per Cycle you can pick up a quest that will guarantee you a random piece of gear (Arathi Highlands - 370 ilvl, Darkshore - 400 ilvl) upon finishing the Warfront. You can join Warfronts as many times as you want during the 7 day window within a Cycle (when your faction assaults the zone, while the opposite defends it). Each completion of Warfront Scenario guarantees as 340 ilvl piece of gear.
Furthermore, both Darkshore and Arathi Highlands are populated by Rare, powerful enemies - which you can kill once per cycle for a chance to win a various reward - from a small bit of Azerite, to mounts and gear pieces (ilvl 340).
World Bosses
Once a week you can win a 355 piece of gear from a World Boss. Those powerful enemies will take a large group of players to kill and provide a random reward at the end - either Gold, Azerite or Gear.
Once per Cycle, you may also slay a Warfront specific bosses:
Arathi: Doom’s Howl/Lion’s Roar - ilvl 355
Darkshore: Invus the Forest Lord - ilvl 400
Dungeons
Dungeons are 5 man instances that provide a wide range of gear upgrades-- as well as challenges!
Harder difficulty means better loot - no pain no gain, as they say.
On level 120 Normal instances will drop ilvl 340 from bosses.
Heroic instances provide 355 ilvl loot.
Mythic instances give you a chance for 370 ilvl gear - however, unlike two previous difficulties, the gear can only be obtained once a week (determined by the reset cycle every Wednesday morning for European players). If you run the same instance more than once during the same week, you’ll not be rewarded loot for killing any bosses.
Upon finishing your first Mythic instance you’ll be given a special item - Mythic Keystone.
Mythic Keystones have associated numbers with them, starting from +2 and going up from there.
What is a Mythic Keystone and how does it work?
When entering a Mythic level instance, you may notice a small pillar at the entrance called Font of Power. If you have a Keystone for the given instance you may place it within the Font of Power to increase the difficulty of the dungeon even more (while providing the potential for even better rewards at the end).
Mythic+ instances are governed by specific rules - there is only one chest with a potential for loot provided at the end of the instance (individual bosses don’t drop anything).
Mythic+ dungeons also come with a timer. If you complete given M+ within the given time, you’ll be rewarded with a new, higher Keystone. If not, the Keystone will downgrade by one.
Loot rewards by the end of the M+ instance are not affected by the timer. If you finished the instance in 15 minutes or an hour, the same loot will await you by the end - the only difference will be the keystone you carry out with you at the end.
At the end of every week, you finished a M+ instance you’ll be eligible for a chest with loot based on the highest M+ you finished. It doesn’t matter how many instances you’ll do in a given week - only the highest M+ run will count for the weekly chest.
Weekly chests will also contain a new Keystone at the beginning of each week, that will be one level lower, than the highest Mythic+ you finished (so you don’t have to start from M+2 every week)
The rewards for M+ look something like this:
M±–loot—chest
+2----375----380
+3----375----385
+4----380----390
+5----385----390
+6----385----395
+7----390----400
+8----395----400
+9----395----405
+10–400----410
Example:
Last week, my guildmate Nick finished a +9 keystone as his highest that week - therefore the weekly chest for him contained +8 keystone and 405 ilvl pieces of gear.
We ran the +8 instance with him on Sunday, but we failed to complete it in time - therefore upon finishing the instance Nick’s key was downgraded to +7.
We still got the 395 loot, and - presumably - if we don’t run any other instance this week, his weekly chest will contain a +7 key and a 400 ilvl loot reward.
On the other hand, the highest instance I did last week was +10. Therefore my weekly reward was a +9 keystone and a piece of 410. I choose not to do anything with me keystone this week at all.
I will still be eligible for the same rewards by the end of the week as Nick, since I ran the +8 instance with him. So in the coming week, I can expect a +7 key and an ilvl 400 piece of gear in the weekly chest.
Lastly, another friend of mine - Diana, recently hit max level on her Shaman. We took her to her first Mythic instance, where she obtained a +2 keystone. We went to her +2 instance and finished it in time, she received a +3 key. We finished that one in time as well - and she was given a new +4 key.
Her weekly reward will contain a 390 ilvl piece of gear and a +3 keystone.
Those lower keystone instances have no impact on Nick’s or my weekly reward.
Raids
Last, but not least is the raiding content - specifically Uldir and Battle for Dazar’alor (BfD in short). Raids are designed for 10 or more players and present the pinnacle of game’s content, with potentially best rewards the game has to offer (however loot from high mythic+ instances might compete with heroic or even mythic raiding gear)
Raids - just like Dungeons are separated into different tiers of difficulty:
LFR, Normal, Heroic and Mythic.
Loot’s ilvl distribution is as follows:
Raid-------LFR-----Normal-----Heroic----Mythic
Uldir------340-------355----------370--------385
BfD------- 370-------385----------400--------415
Raids do not have M+ settings.
Disclaimer: While you can do Normal and Heroic instances and LFR difficulty raids using Group Finder option that automatically finds a suitable group, for Mythic, Mythic+ instances and Normal and above raids you’ll have to find a group manually using the Premade Group feature.
Players met in those tiers of content will expect you to know what you’re doing and be reasonably equipped to handle the content.
To smooth transition into endgame content, I’d strongly suggest finding a guild or a community that focuses on that aspect of the game.
This is a very brief and general introduction to World of Warcraft endgame, as it is in patch 8.1
For more details, like specific class guides, boss tactics and Azerite Gear breakdown I’d suggest looking at Youtube (as some creators are brilliant at not only being informative but also entertaining).
Enjoy the game!
Ionis
New to the game? Got questions?
Add me to your Friends list and feel free to ask:
Battletag: Ionis#2574 (It’s capital “I” like Iron, not lowercase “l” like “lead” 
)
Discord: Ionis#8876