Is there a chronological order to questing in classic areas?

Lore Story Forum
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Hello all,

I’ve made this toon to go through each expansion one by one doing all the quests in each zone and dungeons/raids for fun. I’ll be level capping myself at each kinda break point (20 for classic area, 25bc, 30 Wrath etc.,). Basically I was wondering, is there a chronological order to do Eastern Kingom / Kalimdor? With BC it starts to get easier to follow a path, with Wrath it kinda has a 2 sided approach but again kinda funnels you into IC at the end, and each expansion after kinda gets easier to see the path.

My question is, since the sundering is there really a path in old world? As a Horde doing this, Eastern Kingdom somewhat has a path that can be followed a bit if you start at Tirisfal Glades you kinda get sent to Silverpine and go from there a bit but even so its not really a great flow.

I’m curious more so from a story perspective if there is a list that kinda shows “Okay start here, then this zone, then here…”. If not I’ll probably just pick one zone at the top and work my way south and do it that way honestly but if there is a bit of a story flow that I can follow I would love to do that instead!

Any help much appreciated. Looking forward to chillin, vibin and doing some old quests while I wait for TWW. Have a great weekend all.

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If you mean the Cataclysm zones, there are sort of chronological ones you can go through that are individual threads tied together, however not all zones have overarching story connections with each other and were defined by the level you could go to them back before scaling, or by breadcrumbs. One change in Cata from Vanilla was that a lot of zones started to just have self-contained arcs rather than one larger meta-arc.

For example, Tirisfal->Silverpine->Hillsbrad->Western Plaguelands can be assumed as happening chronologically, but you’re not following a quest chain from zone to zone, just finishing the questlines in each then getting the breadcrumb quest to go to the next one. WPL is even a stretch as being linked, because it does have Forsaken story being advanced but back at Cata launch you generally needed to do another zone to get to the needed level.

In Kalimdor there’s a BIT more of a path, if you’re in certain zones. Ashenvale both Horde and Alliance side takes place before Stonetalon, due to the overarching chain about the big scary bomb. So there you can infer: Durotar->Northern Barrens->Ashenvale->Stonetalon->Southern Barrens, for Horde.

One aspect of Cata as well is that some arcs or characters from one zone would pop up much later, showing that one took place after the other. In Redridge, you meet Keeshan, who you last see trying to kill a black dragon as it flies off towards the Steppes, and then you encounter him later in the Burning Steppes.

Now if you’re doing the former 80-85 zones, that’s much easier. Vash’jir and Hyjal happen at the same time, then Deepholme, then Uldum and then Twilight Highlands. And all of them can be inferred to be taking place at least somewhat after most of the 1-60 zones, though that’s a bit dicey because they’re somewhat distinct from each other.

My advice if you’re looking for SOME measure of chronological order is to try and find the original level order in Cata, before level squish and scaling, and try to follow it from there. You can pretty easily assume that if a zone is the same level as another in a different part of the world, they happen at about the same time.

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For the old cata era 1-60 experiences, the pathways went like this. I’ll base them off the racial paths. So humans would go this way, orcs that way etc. It is important to note that zones like Azuremyst / Bloodmyst isles along with Eversong Woods and Ghostlands are in the TBC timeline. So chronologically, you would go to Outland following those zones. Likewise the DK starting experience for core races (minus Pandaren) is early Wrath. So Wrath zones are the next one afterwards. Demon Hunters of course should go straight to Legion following their starting experience. In which the first half does take place in TBC. Anyway, here are the pathways for each core race relative to their time period.

Alliance:

Human: Elwynn forest → Westfall → Redridge Mountains → Duskwood → Northern Stranglethorn → Cape of Stranglethorn → Western Plaguelands → Eastern Plaguelands → Badlands → Searing Gorge → Burning Steppes → Swamp of Sorrows → Blasted Lands

Alternatively, after Cape, you can go to Dustwallow Marsh instead and follow the path in the night elf / worgen section afterwards.

Dwarf & Gnome: Dun Morogh → Loch Modan → Wetlands → Arathi Highlands → Hinterlands → Western Plaguelands → Same as human from this point

Night Elf / Worgen: Teldrassil / Gilneas-> Darkshore → Ashenvale → Stonetalon Mountains.

From here you get the first of two splits

You can either go

Stonetalon → Desolace → Feralas → Thousand Needles or Stonetalon → Southern Barrens → Dustwallow Marsh → Thousand Needles. Both routes converge with Thousand Needles.

Thousand Needles → Taranis. From Taranis you got another split.

Taranis → Un’goro → Silithus or Taranis → Felwood → Winterspring.

Draenei: Azuremyst Isle → Bloodmyst Isle → Outland path

Horde:

Orc & Troll / Goblin: Durotar / Kezan & Lost Isles. From here we got a split choice. You can either go

Durotar / Kezan & Lost Isles → Azshara or Durotar / Kezan & Lost Isles → Northern Barrens. Both paths lead to Ashenvale. From there follow the Night elf / worgen path. I will say that Goblins should go to Azshara as it does follow up on some of their starting experience plot lines instead of Northern Barrens.

Tauren: Mulgore → see orc & troll / Goblin line.

Also you can get a breadcrumb to go to Northern Stranglethorn at some point if you choose to go there instead. I believe you got it after Ashenvale. If you go down this path, follow the main human line.

Forsaken: Trisfal Glades → Silverpine Forest → Hillsbrad Foothills → Arathi Highlands → Follow Dwarf / gnome line

Blood Elves: Eversong Woods → Ghostlands → Outland Path.

Neutral:

Pandaren: Wandering Isle → Pandaria

Dracthyr: Forbidden Reach → Dragon Isles

If you are going for a true chronological order, then you should start with TBC zones, then Wrath and then Cata era etc . That includes the old 1-60 experience then the old 80-85 experience.

However it is implied that zones that shared the same level bracket happen around the same time.

As for dungeons and raids. They are a mess. The vanilla era has seen a few dungeons and some former raids updated for Cata’s timeline. These include

Stormwind Stockades
Deadmines
Shadowfang Keep
Stratholme (more like a model swap for some bosses and trash mobs)
Zul’Gurub (end game cata)

Zul’Aman also got a Cata update. So the Burning Crusade version is gone. Like Zul’gurub, this is set in the end game part of Cata’s story. So post Twilight Highlands.

Others got updates in MoP and WoD respectively. Now whether or not these dungeon updates match the timeline of those expansions respectively, I do not know. I believe they are set around Cata with one exception. That being Upper Blackrock Spire. The following vanilla dungeons got updates

MoP:

Scarlet Monastery
Scarlet Halls
Scholomance
Ragefire Chasm

WoD:

Razorfen Kraul
Razorfen Downs
Blackfathom Deeps
Upper Blackrock Spire

I believe WoD’s UBRS takes place before we begin our invasion of AU Draenor. You could do the first three bosses during WoD’s prepatch after all. Also doesn’t make sense to leave Zaela alive until after AU Nagrand’s story.

The rest of vanilla’s raids and dungeons take place during actual vanilla. Except Gnomeregan, at this point the dungeon is non-canon as Theraplugg dies in Gelbins stort story. So these include

Ulduman
Maradoun (did get a limited time cata prepatch version that saw the canonical end of Princess Theradus)
Wailing Caverns
Dire Maul (all 3 wings)
Lower Blackrock Spire
Molten Core
Blackrock Depths
Blackwing Lair
Ruins & Temple of Ahn’Qiraj
Temple of Atal’Hakkar
Zul’Farrak (did get a limited time cata prepatch version that doesn’t really mean much in terms of the lore)

Note that the vanilla versions of Scholomance and the Scarlet Mono wings are back in the game

Also Naxx and Onyxia’s lair got updated for Wrath. Although neither the vanilla, nor the wrath version of Onyxia’s lair is canon. Since she dies to Varian Wrynn during late TBC.

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I cant thank you both enough. This helps a lot. Thank you very much!

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