In Theramore, I got the “Proof of Treachery” quest from Jaina. She said King Wrynn was missing and sent me to Stormwind. She is, of course, referring to King Varian Wrynn. However, when I got to Stormwind, “King Anduin Wrynn” was sitting on the throne as I spoke with the nearby Admiral.
It is unfortunate, and seems so unnecessary, that new players do not get to see the quests as they should be.
Hm, weird. You should be speaking with King Varian Wrynn for that quest. Varian isn’t dead when your character is level 50 since time flows by level in this game.
I think post Varians dustification all quests related to him were either shifted to Anduin or Grand Admiral Jes-Tereth. If you have a look at the Alliance Pandaren intro the sparring session with Varian has been been removed in favor of you simply talking to Anduin instead.
One of the most challenging moments for me as new player last year was realizing that the world makes no sense from a timeline perspective and that Blizz apparently has no intention of ever making it so.
Best thing to do is think of it as “flashbacks” or even better, not to think of it at all.
Currently lvls 1-60 take place in the Cata era - you then go back in time to Outland and Northrend - then return to Cata and then things progress pretty linearly from there, with the exception of WoD which is an interdementional time travel of its own. Main hubs like Stormwind are not fully time phased - so like you mentioned, you see the new king, even though your playing thru content where he is just a pup - when you get to MoP and he is a kid it get weirder…
If you want to know the lore get the Chronicles books - they are easy reading and give a great overview - the way you play thru it in game is just a whacky mess.
Would be awesome if they made some better use of “Phasing” to allow a more seamless progression as you level. No reason why a level 40 standing in the throne room can’t still see King Varian with a kid Anduin standing next to him.
Necro’ing for justice.
Necro’ing for justice x2. Can’t turn in Proof of Treachery after trying to 100% every zone lol. Guess Dustwallow Marsh is permanently closed.
This. My first experience with Wow was playing for a couple weeks during Legion after a friend begged me, so after returning for Midnight I was not "brand new” per se but new enough. And man it was a rough learning experience. I was constantly Googling quests, only to realize I was reading the Classic guide and not the Retail, reading 12 year old reddit quests, and then finally going to Discord to ask people who may not have done the quest in 20 years. While sometimes the challenge can be rewarding, doing it nonstop is exhausting.
Where this is really glaring is with professions, imo. The game does a poor job of explaining that the resource you mine/collect in Cata zones are pretty much useless if you learned DF or Midnight professions.