I tried to visit some areas in Shadowlands but seems I don’t have access. I was away from the game during that time, so was curious if I have to now do quests to open those flight paths and areas, or is there a way to bypass it and still gain access? I’m just looking to go farm transmogs I missed and look around the area. I really don’t want to have to do hours upon hours of questing there if I don’t have to.
If you’ve never done Shadowlands before on any character, then you’ll have to do the campaign.
If you’ve done the campaign on a character already, your other characters may be able to skip the campaign. At level 60, threads of fate should be available which allows you to pick a covenant, skipping the campaign. However, this has been very buggy, and for some reason, some characters don’t get the option. In those cases, I haven’t seen any resolutions other than to just do the campaign.
All of the campaign requirements are still in effect as far as I know if you haven’t finish the campaign one time. If you happen to level to 70 first, every single combat portion of the level 50-60 campaign will be done in seconds because what you look at will be dead. You may even come across some cool lore related cinematics that interest you along the way.