Hello I’m playing a undead and I’m roughly in the western/eastern plaguelands but I’m really confused about the order to play through the quests at this point. I want to play through the quest content roughly in expansion order as close as I can but I can’t figure out what I’m actually supposed to be doing at the moment which is kind of leaving me stuck. Some of the quests around me seem to be alliance based which seems wrong. If anyone knows and has tips on the order to do things and where to go to accomplish this I would greatly appreciate it so I can play through all the quest content in order 
So a few things first: If you can pickup a quest, it’s something you can do. Any quest that is Alliance only won’t even appear for you. Likely it’s from a neutral NPC, which isn’t aligned with either faction.
If this is your first time through you’re going to hit a road block doing everything in order. Technically, the order from oldest to newest available content is:
BC (scales to 30)
WotLK (scales to 30)
Cata (revamped vanilla zones) (scales to 30)
Cata (new zones) (scales to 35)
Pandaria (scales to 35)
WoD (scales to 40)
Legion (scales to 45)
BFA (scales to 50)
Now that you’re level 38, you’re not going to be able to get much XP going through any of the old world/Cata zones unless you’re in Chromie Time.
To access Chromie Time you need to have a level 50 character on your account. If you are eligible for the free copy of Shadowlands (have a paid license on an active account, until 9/5/22), then you get a free level 50 boost. In Chromie Time you can choose which expansion to level in. That said, you will likely get to 50 and be kicked out and sent to Shadowlands before you finish all quests in an expansion.
The “easiest” way to see everything in as much order as possible is to level multiple characters, each through a different part of the content. Remember this game is almost 18 years old. There is a LOT of content.
Gotcha ok that clears up a lot and yeah this is my first time hitting the content, I don’t mind not getting much XP I’m just enjoying the lore, but it is more fun at level when I can. if I just follow the active quests in the area on my map will that eventually lead me through the expansion content as well? or will I have to know what piece of content is for what and know what areas are what?
Because you’ll likely need it: To turn on low level quests - right click on your mini map and select show trivial quests. Once you out level a zone this is the only way you’ll see quests on the map.
You can also visit an NPC in Ogrimmar to freeze your XP so you don’t out level content.
As more expansions have come out, they have gotten better at making the story flow better from zone to zone or to having the zones have their own unique stories that wrap up before you move on.
In BC content (the oldest content currently in game) you will get feeder quests to go to the next zone, but you’ll often get these well before you finish the zone you’re in.
In WotLK you can choose between two starting zones (Howling Fjord and Borean Tundra). They did this so not everyone would be going to the same place when the expansion first came out. The quests feed into the same second zone, although there are a few more options from there about when to move on. Completing a whole zone from beginning to end is enough to level from 10-40+. Same thing for Cata, two starting zones, meeting up once they’re done.
Pandaria has a story that guides you through each of the zones, but you have some choices after the first zone.
WoD Horde and Alliance start in different zones then come together after completing the first zone. You get a quest to move onto the second zone pretty early on.
Legion and BFA have a different system entirely. Once you go to the main city you choose which zone to go to. After a certain number of levels you choose another zone. There is no order and each zone is it’s own story that fits together as part of the whole.
Shadowlands starts with a clearly defined story going through each zone, then once you’ve leveled one character you can choose how/where you want to level others.
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Thanks that is very helpful, thanks for taking the time to explain all that
Wanna play together and run dungeons? I’m new too
if you want but I warn you in advance I play very sporadically and like every other week or so. So sure but if you are looking for something more consistent I’m probably not the person you are looking for, just gonna be honest and up front about that.