I resubscribed yesterday after having a long break since Legion. I did a few quests in Shadowlands I believe, but I have been away from the game for years.
I have watched videos, read topics on the forums but am still a bit confused.
I have not bought Dragonflight when it was out, and I have not bought The War Within (yet), so I do not have the expansion Dragonflight. But it seems I have leveled 9 levels on this character in The Dragon Isles.
How is it possible I can do that? and
Is leveling not divided between 1-60 content and 60+ (Dragonflight/Dragon isles) content?
Is it better to start a new character from scratch? I have done the Gear Update on this character and questing and taking on multiple mobs is not an issue at all, still it feels it is more down to that the character/class (Prot Paladin) is overpowered instead of me using a lot of abilities.
I do like the questing in Dragon Isles, but I have to say (as a veteran player, played vanilla to Legion), there is a lot to take in.
Dragonflight is included in the game for just subscribing. The War Within is the new expansion and would need to be bought.
The default for new or returning players would be to level a new character on Exile’s Reach (1-10) then go to the Dragon Isles on their first character (10-70). It is up to you what you feel is best. The current cap is 70 and is accessible to anyone paying a subscription/has game time.
Only you can decide if you want to start over or carry on with the characters you have. You could always go back to those later if you wanted to start over. The character cap is currently 65 so you have plenty of wriggling space.
There is simply too much WoW to level through all of it so Blizzard introduced Chromie Time where players can choose an expansion to level through. Previously this worked 10-60, now extended with the new cap for TWW so it’s 10-70. There have been some teething problems with Chromie throwing players out early around 60/61 but many were able to go back in. I don’t know if that has been fixed yet, the Devs have been fixing all sorts of issue caused by prepatch.
Unfortunately a lot of guides on the internet probably need to catch up with the changes for prepatch. Don’t be afraid to ask. Here or in game in newcomer chat.
Puny has covered your questions. I’d just like to add:
Yes. Yes, there is.
Most returners’ reaction is to feel whacked against a HUGE wall of new things.
This is normal. Expected. Be patient with yourself as you reacquaint yourself with WoW and take in the new features.
Prot Paladin, like any Tank class will be overpowered for questing. Well, maybe not overpowered exactly; Tanks sacrifice damage for toughness. You will kill things more slowly than, say, a Mage, but you will be very hard to kill.
If I came back and had a Prot Paladin at 60, I would definitely, definitely level it to 70 in the Dragon Isles. Learn Dragonriding and get the Dragonriding Glyphs https://www.wowhead.com/guide/skyriding/glyph-locations-dragon-isles at least. You want to have at least one 70 for the start of The War Within, and the Dragon Isles is the best place to level 60-70 now.
Thank you Punyelf and Gráinne for the thourough answers.
I am level 63 now, and having a blast. ‘Problem’ I have/had is returning and then worrying about a lot of things like which realm to play, guild, talent builds etc.
But actually I should (and I have this afternoon) focussed on one of the most important things I think: getting back in and having fun, without thinking what is ‘optimal’.
What is the situation with realms? All RP realms per region connected? PvP in the world enabled through warmode?
Does it matter what realm I play on, could I join a guild from a different realm?
Really, nobody will thoroughly know that for a few months. There have been big changes since you left.
Horde and Alliance can team up in dungeon and raid instances.
Guilds are now cross-realm and cross-faction.
Communities have been created, that are also cross-realm, and you can join as many of them as you want.
Your Warband Bank allows you to transfer gold and items to your alts on other realms.
The importance of realms has decreased hugely. What we don’t know yet is how cross-realm guilds will affect realm population and activity. When you don’t have to be on one of the biggest realms to get into top guilds. and when you can effectively buy from any realm’s AH, with a bit of extra shuffling, will people still choose to crowd into the biggest realms, with their lag and downtime downsides. or will they spread out? We’ll just have to see.
Yes. Just switch it on or off as you choose.
Yes, you definitely can join a guild from any realm.
I definitely would not transfer any characters until the dust settles on all of this.
By the same token, if you wanted to make a new character, it is much less important that it be on the same realm as your Paladin, since you can feed it gold and items on any realm or faction through your Warband Bank.
It definitely loosens the constraints we all used to feel about which realm to choose.