How to Start Warlords of Draenor

I have Warlords of Draenor: The Dark Portal. But when I get to the blasted lands Khadgar isn’t there to talk to. I’ve talked to Chromie and selected ‘Iron Legion’. I need to start the questline to build my garrison but I can’t figure out what to do.

I am returning to the game after several years away.

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How to start Warlords:

  1. Talk to Chromie, select “The Iron Horde” campaign. Accept the quest that Chromie gives you.
  2. Talk to the Vanguard Battlemage, select the dialog option to get sent to the Blasted Lands. For Alliance, the Battlemage is just inside the doorway of the Mage Tower in Stormwind; for Horde they’re in the lower portal room in Orgrimmar next to the portal to Ashran. (Even if you’ve been to the Blasted Lands before and can fly directly there, talk to the Battlemage anyway.)
  3. Alliance will arrive at the Shattered Beachhead in Blasted Lands, Horde will arrive at Shattered Landing. Either way you’ll need to travel to the Dark Portal in the center of the zone. For Horde, just follow the road northwest out of Shattered Landing until you get to the main north/south road; for Alliance your best bet is probably to mount up & ride south along the beach to get to the road coming down from Shattered Landing & then go northwest. With any luck you won’t need to stop to fight along the way.
  4. When you get to the Dark Portal, Khadgar should be standing on the path leading up to it and there should be a steady stream of Ironmarch Grunts coming through the portal with a crowd fighting them at the base of the ramp. Talk to Khadgar to start the event that takes you through the portal.
  5. If for some reason when you get to the Dark Portal you don’t see the stuff in #4 but instead just see some Demons walking around, then follow the road north to the border where it crosses over into Swamp of Sorrows and talk to Zidormi (look for the little speech bubble on your minimap when you get there). Select the dialog option “Take me back to the present”, and when you go back to the Dark Portal you should see the right stuff this time. But this shouldn’t be necessary if you talked to the Battlemage in step 2.

Be aware that once you go through the portal it’s going to be a while before you have access to a mailbox or much in the way of support services. You do not want to leave Draenor until you establish your garrison so make sure you take care of business before you start & take anything you need (like food and/or drink) with you.

Once your garrison is set up make sure you do the quest to go to Ashran; that’s where the portals back to Azeroth are located, so you’ll be traveling there occasionally and the quest lets you grab the flight point there. Once you’ve done that it’s safe to go back to Azeroth if you need to; if you don’t have your garrison hearthstone yet, Stormwind & Orgrimmar have portals back to Ashran & you can fly back to your garrison from there.

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