I had quite a journey activating Gear Update and trying to resume questing on a very old level 10 character. If you want one bug as the headline item, it’s that the Silvermoon portal didn’t work (perhaps level restricted) after using Gear Update and getting ported to Orgrimmar, even though I was
- Playing a Blood Elf
- solidly in the level range for Eversong/Ghostlands
- with ACTIVE GHOSTLANDS QUESTS in my log
But really, there were so many janky elements of the experience, why stop at just one…full tale below, buggy junk in bold.
So I probably hadn’t logged into this mage in 10 years. I’d guess she was near level 20 before SL squished her to 10, which is fine. She was in beautiful Silvermoon City before activating the GU. Never traveled outside of TBC zones in her life 
I’m positive another Gear Update I did in the last few weeks asked me if I wanted to clear out my quest log; this did not. That feels inconsistent, but I can’t say I mind: I was (theoretically) happy to continue questing where I left off in Ghostlands. I’d certainly rather it leave active quests alone than default to erasing them.
It did not prompt whether I wanted to a) be ported to Orgrimmar or b) reset my Hearthstone to Orgrimmar. I’d call this a bug but I understand the purpose of this tool is to railroad people into the new content, so I guess working as intended. Given the travel problems though, I really wish they left the Hearthstone bound to my old spot.
Upon logging in, I got the usual mishmash of sounds before the world even loads signifying auto-accepted quests for the xpac + anniversary event, maybe some removed quests (heard that “quest error” noise), a levelup from being squished to 1xp below threshold and then being ported to a city I’d never been to earn exploration xp…you know, the usual. That all could probably be smoother but I know I’m nitpicking and I deserve what I get for logging into an old alt. Specifically, maybe:
- delay the exploration XP until I actually move
- cool it with the auto-playing dialogue from “The Dragon Isles Await” (I remember same annoying thing with Shadowlands breadcrumb) before I even clicked anything
- Horde UI flow: login after GU, Ebyssian immediately auto-dialogues at you, golden highlighted quest objective says “click to view quest”, clicking it brings up quest UI with only option to Accept
- Alliance UI flow: login after GU, quest UI is already up on screen, Wrathion dialogue does NOT autoplay and waits until you Accept
- Why do the factions work different here??
- Why do I have to Accept if the quest is already in my log?
- Maybe I don’t want to accept this quest and just wanna go back to ghostlands man, let me decline (yeah never gonna happen)
- Ideal flow: login after GU, see highlighted quest in objectives UI, click to view, have a decline option, dialogue only plays when when you click Accept. Neither faction got it right but Alliance is closer.
After absorbing the flurry of UI sounds and popups, I jump off the Org cliff, execute a perfect Blink landing, and head to portal room.
UHOH. My Blood Elf can’t go back to Silvermoon? WHO IS THIS PORTAL EVEN FOR. Frankly, if there’s a portal to any friendly racial capital, it should be level 1 unlocked. It should DEFINITELY be unlocked for a character meeting all the bullet points at the top. (To be clear, never touched Chromie Time on this toon.)
Okay I guess I gotta get there the old fashioned way. Climb up zeppelin tower to Undercity portal, end up in Tirisfal Glades where Zidormi should be, but isn’t. The land is blighted. I carefully ride around pools of goo into the courtyard to see what exact phase I’m even in, and find the Silvermoon translocator chamber intact…but ALSO not working. Presumably the same level restriction the Org portal had? But taunting me are three mages in the corners of the room maintaining portals back to Org, to STV, and TO HOWLING FJORD. I can jump straight into Wrath of the Lich King on my level 11 character, but I can’t get back to Silvermoon City, for the love of A’dal…
Side note, when I did this dance with another alt a few days ago, I had the same Zidormi-less arrival to UC, but I flew to WPL and back and found the phase returned to pre-Battle status. My level 12 can’t fly though so I didn’t try that again. Who knows if it would’ve fixed the translocator anyway.
Instead I rode to Brill. New Brill? The Brill surrounded by blight and ?? level undead. There I found a flight master, with a flight available…to Undercity! Huh that’s interesting, there’s no way they’d have a flight into a city of death right? (Not the Forsaken kind of death. You know what I mean.) Maybe if I take it, the phase will update and I’ll come back up and find a working translocator!
Lol no. My bat took me straight through the solid rock barrier blocking the UC sewer tunnel, swooped me through a lovely tour of the utterly empty city, and deposited me in the equally empty Trade Quarter where three ticks of blight was all it took.
What else could I do but resurrect in Brill, and order a 7 hour flight through the plaguelands back to Tranquillien? Aka the REALLY old fashioned way. As I was flown north from the TBC boundary, I looked down and saw a lone PC coming up the road below me. When I clicked on him, he’d already targeted the crazy elf flying overhead, as if astonished anyone else would’ve bothered to make the journey. Indeed, my friend. They did not make it easy.