Returning Player - Where to Start?

[Jaelaana-quelthalas]

I am returning to give Warcraft another go, quit during Shadowlands.
Pre-purchased The War Within and used the character boost.
So I am now staring Dragonflight for the first time at level 70.

I know this may be asked a lot but as I started at 70 I can do nearly everything from the start and there seems a lot to do, so where do I begin?
Is there a suggested route to take for the different zones?
Should I do the campaign first then tackle the zones?
What do you recommend I do first?

Thanks in advance for any assistant you can offer.

[Chronormi-outland]

To answer that I’d have to know what your goals are.

If you want to experience the story a boost is generally a bad idea, though you can follow the campaign if you follow the wow wiki starting from the Waking Shores chapter:

Waking Shores storyline

If you just want to do max level content then just do the last hurrah weeklies from Therazal in Valdrakken (involves doing weekly events) and run dungeons to gear up.

Therazal

[Jaelaana-quelthalas]

@Chronormi-outland

To answer that I’d have to know what your goals are.

Good point

I had to buy an expansion so I got The War Within as it includes Dragonflight, that comes with the boost as well so I used it rather than it go to waste, don’t really alt much.

I am a casual player so just going through the story whilst I wait for TWW.
Not really interested in end game, won’t be doing Mythic’s, I might try one or two random raids through group finder.
Will do a dungeon if the quest requires it.

Would it be best to do zones first then campaign, or campaign then zones, or try to do both at same time?

[Chronormi-outland]

If you wanna see the story just do the zones (leveling campaign) and then do the max level campaigns and patch/max level zones. The wiki I linked is a good source if you want to do them in chronological order.

[Gráinne-earthen-ring]

With the boost, you got 424 gear.

Whatever way you choose to work through the content, better gear will make it more comfortable.

Thus, at the start, I would prioritise some activities that will get you better gear fast.

The current base level of gear is 454, and there is a significant difference between 424 and 454. You can also get a few pieces of 480 gear easily each week.

At the fountain at the bottom of the steps in Valdrakken, there is a weekly quest Last Hurrah, that requires you to complete a couple of events. Each of those quests will give you a big upgrade piece of gear, and the Last Hurrah quest itself will give you an even higher one.

Each week there is a Dreamsuege quest in a zone. This week it is in Thaldraszus. For collecting 100 Coalescence, you can buy a 454 gear token at the vendor there, and you get a Dreamsurge Cradle for which you can buy a 467 from the quest-giver.

There is a quest that I think you will have auto-accepted, Call of the Dream. This leads to a quest sequence in The Emerald Dream. Once there, you will find 3 weekly quests - Blooming Dreamseeds, The Superbloom, and Aiding The Accord: Dream Wardens. Each of thse also gives a 480 piece.

These are definitely worth doing each week.

Blizzard pretty much replaced world quests to get gear with these “Public Events”. It’s pretty awful, but it does deliver good gear.

Gear can be upgraded with Flightstones and Crests that you will collect in the process of doing these events and world quessts.

So, as Chronormi said, to see the levelling campaign, start at Wingrest Embassy at the Waking SHores, and follow the quests within shield icons through Ohn’ahran Plains, Azure Span, Thaldraszus. That will leave you where you would naturally level to 70.

Thsn you pick up the quest for the Forbidden Reach behind Alex at the top of the tower to goto the Forbidden Reach and that quest chain.

Then you pick upo the quest to start Zaralek Caverns, and the Sulver Scale to see the story of the Dragons and Tyr.

And finally, the story wends to Call of the Dream, which you have already opened to get a jump on gear.

I also note that DF has introduced Follower Dungeons. If you open the LFD interface, you can choose Follower Dungeons in stead of Normals or Heroics. Follower dungeons are like Normals, but give you 4 very capable NPCs as party members, soyou can do those for the necessary quests if you prefer.

There is plenty about all of this on Wowhead and YouTube, but do please ask again with any questions you may have!