I recently got the itch to play WoW again and have re-subbed after last playing through vanilla classic stopping just as TBC dropped. I logged into to get my old toon back (yay!) an alliance 60 lock on the Benediction server with decent (at the time) gear. I spent about an hour last night in Stormwind just kinda…wandering around lol. Cata looks awesome, but I never played it on retail.
I’ve tried to watch some guides on YT, but it all sounds like a foreign language now. Perhaps I am not searching the right keywords or something. So, my big question is…where do I start? A few questions that came to mind last night while running around:
What zone should I be moving into to start the leveling process and pick up the story line?
Gear - should I word on modding what I have or is there a quest line/dungeon I could do right now that would help me to have a leg up? (Everyone has like 100k+ HP! I had no idea that these stats got that high).
Mounts - Flying mounts are a thing I see. How do I get on that?
If I wanted to re-roll a toon just for nostalgic sake or if I get a friend of mine to join back, is there a boost or method I could follow to do this you would recommend?
Are level-capped PVP characters still a thing? Can’t remember the term that was used for this.
Lastly, for further context, I am a 40 year old dad and only plan to play casually to unwind after my kids go to bed.
Thanks for taking the time to read. If you are a content creator or have someone you follow that you like that has a guide close to the questions I ask, I am happy to explore on my own or if there is a post here on the forums that better dives into this, I’d appreciate that too!
TL;DR just go to outlands and level, any raid gear you have will last you until like lvl 65 at which point even quest rewards will outpace it. This happens every expansion, as for the crazy HP we all have now it’s mostly due to cata, we went from like 25k hp as a dps in WOTLK to 125k hp.
At 80+ go to hero board to pick up the introduction quests to the Cataclysm zones.
I suggest Mouth Hyjal from 80 to 82, then Deepholme to 84 (clear the zone as its your shoulder enchant rep), then do the intro to go to Twilight Highlands which takes like 30 minutes, don’t disconnect on the ship.
In Twilight Highlands see if you can do a group quest chain with people called Crucible of Carnage (COC)(quest lvl req 84), get some really good exp and entry level weapons (ilvl 333).
Make sure you’re in a guild for the 15% experience boost, and depending on the guild perks unlocked maybe buy the cloak and helm heirloom gear for a further 15% experience increase, will cost you 3k for both.
If you need guild rep, remember you can buy a guild tabard that increases rep gain from the guild vendor.
Happy hunting.
If you want my opinion on the fastest way starting from 60.
Go through the Dark Portal in Blastedlands.
Hellfire until 63
Nagrand 63-67/68
Go back to Home city at 68
Take boat to Howling Fjord
Howling Fjord until 68-72
Dragon Blight 72-74
Zul’Drak 74-78
Stormpeaks 78-80
Portal to Home city >follow the start of my post from here.
p.s if you do have honor to spend, at 60 the Generals/Highwarlord wep will last you from 60-68, at 70 the Brutal Weapons will last you from 70-78, at 80 just buy a blue from AH that’s 308+ ilvl from Cataclysm.
if you want to start a new character i’d recommend starting fresh in cata as all of the level 1-60 zones have been revamped with new quests, items, npcs, and the zones are quite different looking.