Properly playing WOW

Community General Discussion
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Hi.

I have been playing wow for a while now, mainly chaotic in a sense.

What I really want to do is play throughout all the expansions in order.

I know the order, but I wonder if each expansion is connected with a specific territory in WOW? I know for example WOTLK develops in Northrend, so is it like this with all other expansions? You complete all quests and then a final raid in a specific territory for each expansion or is there more to it?

Thanks!

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It’s basically like this:

  • Every expansion introduces a group of new zones (Burning Crusade introduced Outland, Cataclysm revamped the Old World (Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms) and added new zones to it, etc).
  • The questlines in these zones are often disconnected from the main storyline.
  • Raids and Dungeons usually have their own separate storylines, but Raids are usually connected with the main storyline since those are about the big bad guys and endbosses.
  • Later expansions introduced overarching questlines that were connected with raids (e.g. Battle for Dazar’alor is a big moment in the War Campaign).

If you want some examples, feel free to ask. I can also write out a short guide how you should play WoW if you want to get all the lore of every expansion.

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Thank you, Haiete.

I have read prior to this post some of the BC history, such as 2 new races being released and Outland introduced. I get how expansions work in general.

Suppose I want to engage Cataclysm. It turns out I just have to find those quests in Kalimdor and EK which are connected with the lore and then the Raids as well? There is probably a list somewhere here with info?

And yes, feel free to give some guidance, it would be much appreciated!

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You can’t really play classic(afaik). Because of Cataclysm happening classic zones are a mixture of vanilla and cata quests. So it’s a mess there.

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Thanks. Btw, are you Bulgarian by any chance, the name implies so? I am Bulgarian!

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Yes, I am. Although most of my other characters are named after Belgium beers :slight_smile:

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There’s also a handful of zones added by Cataclysm which weren’t old zones revamped. They’re fairly well laid out and point you to their related dungeons and raids through the questing there.

Once you get past level 60 it’s all quite straight forward; It’s just the 1-60 zones that can be a bit confused at times.

If you’re not aware of it already, there’s a great website called Wowhead that has loads of guides and information. It’s basically a Wow Wikipedia.

Wow has some pretty great stories that cross several zones, so I can definitely recommend doing them in order. (A personal favourite of mine are the Drakuru quests in Grizzly Hills and Zul’Drak).

Good luck and have fun :slight_smile:

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Страхотно :slight_smile: If you want, you can add me. Adrian#25294

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I would, but currently I’m playing final fantasy and I’m not subbed. For some unknown reason I’m still able to post on the forums though.

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There isn’t that much intricacy connecting expansion zones to previous content. The mission board in the city should suggest to you some options relevant to your level, and when you pass 60 and 80 you’ll get a quest delivered via drone (apparently) which asks you to choose Outland or Northrend, and then Cataclysm or Pandaria.

There are however portals to these places in your capital. At least, there definitely is for Pandaria, and I assume there is for other expansion starter zones. For Outland, just head for the dark portal and find the questgiver outside it. Northrend can be reached by boat from the Stormwind docks.

The raids… the raids will be a problem. Basically nobody does them. You can quite easily go back on a level 120 and solo them, but freezing a character and doing a raid for the right level? Very few do that.

That said…

We are considering a bunch of alts, frozen at 80, going for an achievement in an Ulduar raid. If that’s a thing you’re interested in, join us, say hello :slight_smile:

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Classic/Vanilla have Eastern Kingdoms and Kalmidor, storylines have been revamped to fit Cataclysm story but there plenty of original story that was just adapted left.

Each expansion has it’s own continent:

  • The Burning Crusade - Outland
  • Wrath of the Lich King - Northrend
  • Cataclysm, this is an exception, instead you hav 5 zones spread out on different continetns (Vashj’ir, Mount Hyjal, Deepholm, Uldum and Twilight Highlands). Fear not you should obtain a quest with a scroll that lets you choose Cataclysm or Panaria at level 80. If you choose Cataclysm you will get Personal Summons quest that leads you to the special portal hub that has portals for all 5 cataclysm zones. You can also just try to go there an hop without a quest into a portal. It’s a small islan on the map of Stormwind right under the banner that says Stormwind.
  • Mists of Pandaria, well you need the quest to start and you should get that if you haven’t done it yet. Just like above it’s a special item that lets you choose expansion. If you chose Cataclysm then you should be able to just obtain quest for Pandaria as soon as you enter Stormwind again. Quest is called the Art of War. It all happens in Pandaria.
  • Warlords of Dreanor, this is for level 90. You should get the quest called The Dark Portal. It happens in alternate past Dreanor.
  • Legion happens on Broken Isles. To start it you need a quest called Legion Returns(I think). You should get it automaticly after entering Stormwind after reaching level 100. You do Broken Shore scenario, then get the quest In the Blink of an Eye to teleport Dalaran over Broken Isles. Then just run aroun Dalaran until someone with a quest comes to you.
  • Battle for Azeroth, here are 2 continents: Kul Tiras and Zandalar. One is for Alliance to levelup, the other is for Horde. You also have war campaign and max level content to on opposite faction’s continent. You travel between them by ship. Now to start it you again should get a quest(can’t remember the name) at 110 when you enter Stormwind, this sends you for a Battle for Lordearon. Then you are sent to Silithus to talk to Magni. After that you start introduction for Kul Tiras(or Zandalar in case of horde).

As for how to know what dungeons and raids are connected to what expansion. You can just open Adventure Journal(shift+j), and ther you have tabs called Dungeons and Raids as well a dropdown menu to choose expansion. That way you can check what expansion had what dungeons and raids in it.

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The problem with WoW lore comes down to this: it’s impossible to find out what an expansion is about if you didn’t get the events that led to the expansion. And many of those events are described not in-game, but in books.

To understand Cata lore, you need to know the following:

  • After the Battle of the Undercity during the Wrathgate questline (this questline is removed from the game), High King Varian Wrynn witnesses the cruelty and barbarianism of the Forsaken (you can visit the Undercity and see what Varian saw). He (informally) declares war on the Horde (led at that time by Thrall) and ends the cold war-state the Alliance and Horde were in by openly ordering his soldiers to attack the Horde.
  • After the Ashen Verdict executes the Lich King in Icecrown Citadel, Garrosh Hellscream, leader of the Horde forces in Northrend returns to Orgrimmar and becomes very popular because of his efforts in the North.
  • Thrall notices that Azeroth is in turmoil and returns to his Shamanistic ways. He appoints Garrosh as acting Warchief while he travels to Nagrand to reconnect with his ancestors and learn from the uncorrupted Orcs, the Mag’har (do NOT confuse them with the PLAYABLE Mag’har!!!).
  • Deathwing, former Warden of the Earth who became corrupted due to the Old Gods’ influence, emerges and destroys Azeroth.
  • Warchief Garrosh becomes permanent Warchief after the Cataclysm since Thrall needs to aid Azeroth. He goes on a conquest in Kalimdor and attacks Ashenvale (peace at this point is pretty much impossible due to some other events that took place shortly before the Cataclysm), Stonetalon and other zones. He also orders Sylvanas Windrunner, Banshee Queen of the Forsaken to attack Gilneas as he wants to turn it into a military harbor.
  • Sylvanas goes on a rampage through the rest of the north of the Eastern Kingdoms in an attempt to save her race (which she deems necessary) and attacks various Alliance settlements.

So, with all of this in mind, you can play Cataclysm. Most of this stuff is not even described in-game, but in a novel called The Shattering, and some minor stuff is described in Wolfheart (which is mostly about Varian and the Ashenvale invasions).

Just try to play through as many zones you can, and link them to specific events. Darkshore is ruined because of the Cataclysm, so you can link that to Deathwing. The Southern Barrens is under attack by the Alliance for retaliation for Ashenvale, so that’s another connection. And with the background knowledge, you can expand on it by playing the quests.

I can assure you, lore becomes easier in Mists of Pandaria with some important questlines that explain what’s going on. Warlords of Draenor is an utter mess. Legion also, unless you play a Demon Hunter because their class campaign is really important. Battle for Azeroth, while the lore is at its bare minimum in terms of quality, is actually really easy to understand.

As a general rule of thumb:

  • Read up on what led to a certain expansion - why is Dalaran in Northrend during WotLK? What is going on with Ulduar, and what kind of facility is that in the first place? Just reading the expansion’s Wowpedia article (NOT Wowwiki, avoid that) should be enough.
  • Play through the quests in the zones.
  • Play through the Raids but also read up on the relevance of the Raids of Wowpedia, again just read their articles.

I’m not sure if I left out anything, but if you need any other info, feel free to poke me here or in-game or elsewhere anytime.

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Little note; go through the Pandaria portal in SW, and you’ll be right next to an NPC that wants to send you right to the starter quest for Pandaria.

He nags me every, single, time. I just want to go do my farming dailies and make friends with the Tillers, but he won’t let me forget that I forgot to actually… do the intro quest :stuck_out_tongue:

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Does doing it like that still gives you the cinematics you get by starting it in SW?

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Play expansions in chronological order, then follow the level boundaries. Be prepared for some long reading of quest text

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Keep in mind I’m speaking from the horde side of things, things may be different for the Alliance but for horde it goes kinda like this :-

For classic it kinda depends on your race. For example the forsaken start in Deathknell, move to Tirisfal Glades then to Silverpine forest that leads to Hillsbrad foothills and then continue the effort in Arathi Basin That then lead to the hinterlands, after that you free roam doing missions for your factions until you are level 50, then you start in Western plague lands and move to Eastern plague lands for the forsaken finale.

For TBC you all start in Hellfire, move to zangarmash then move to terrokar forest then Nagrand then blades edge mountains, then shadowmoon valley and end in netherstorm, I think the blades edge mountains and shadowmoon valley could be in reverse order or interchangeable, don’t remember correctly.

For Wotlk, you actually have the option to start in one of two places, Either borean tundra or Howling fjord, which then lead to dragonblight and grizzly hills, which then lead to Zuldrak, a mini quest to discover dalaran in crystal song then you head to sholazar basin and then into icecrown for the finale, you can visit storm peaks but back then you only could complete a handful of quests before max level there.

For cata you either started in deepholm or Vashjir, then moved to Hyjal, then to Uldum and then the finale was in Twilight Highlands.

For MoP you started in the jade forest, then moved to the valley of the four winds, karasang was kinda optional, from then on you go to Kun-lai summit, move to Townlong steppes and the finale is in the dread wastes.

For WoD you started in tanaan jungle then moved to your respective faction start, frostfire ridge being the horde’s and Shadowmoon valley being the Alliance’s start, then they move to gorgrond Followed by Talador then into spires of Arak and the finale happens in Nagrand.

For legion the starting point is Optional and the actual lore of how things happened is vague, some people hinted at it being broken shore > Class questline > Aszuna > Stormheim > Highmountain ~ Val’shara > Suramar.

For BFA it’s the same as legion, the order is vague and you can start anywhere, but it’s know you don’t actually quest in the other faction’s islands unless its for the establishing a base which happens at the respective level they’re available at.

Hope I helped!

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Don’t know, I’ve been ignoring him every time :smiley:

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