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Hello again WoW community, its been years.

Quick history before questions. I played from launch up into Cataclysm before I became a part time player, I had done just about everything up to the end of Cata including PvP and raids, Tried the Pandaria beta but it didnt grip me and that was the last time I played. Been quite a while, played a bunch of other MMOs but have seen a downturn in positive development of those I have been jumping between (Swtor, ESO, LotRo) though FFXIV and GW2 have been steady in quality just…running out of content and fun for me so here I am, gave the free first 20 levels a go and find myself wanting to sub again!

On to questions. I will try to place a # in front of each question so people that want to help can just list out answers instead of quoting. The below is based off of not buying Dragonflight yet until progressing through the story ive missed.

#1 Is there an acronym list? lol…saw “CT” a lot on the forums yesterday and had to do a long search to find out its Chromie Time…oi so much to learn.

Speaking of Chromie time. I am wanting to experience the full story again as a refresher. It “seems” from what I have read that if I choose the Cataclysm Campaign, I will be at the Cataclysm story and not original expansion. #2 Is this correct? If so, #2.1 that means to redo the original through pre-Cataclysm story, I would need to do classic wrath or is that just wrath zones? #2.2 I am guessing I will not be able to use a current character and would have to start over or transfer? #2.3 If on that wrath server, that means none of my current unlocks will be there? IE mounts and such.

#3 On the above, has the expansions after Mysts, altered the story you can experience via the Chromie choices so much so I “would need to” do classic to experience the full early expansions story? I mean, I know Cataclysm changed the landscape and knocked out more than a few NPCs but you used to still be able to do much of the original story from start to finish. Really don’t want to have to do classic unless I have to.

Sticking with Chromie Time. From reading, it seems that I can only do this up until level 48 and when hitting 49, it will end…#4 is there a way to slow/stop experience gain so I can actually do all expansion content up to Dragonflight? I feel as if I am missing some important information here because it sounds like I would end up having to create a bunch of characters using each one to continue on the expansion the other was not able to complete due to hitting that level cap. Perhaps I should be asking #5 Is it even possible to experience all the story with a single character anymore? Seems odd they would create something like Chromie Time and allow it to end before you could even do the old content.

The level squish has me a bit confused/worried about gearing so, #6 if I am doing Legion and, say am level 42, will I be getting gear needed to survive and be able to transition to Battle for Azeroth content smoothly? #7 Anyone know of any gearing guides for returning players? Perhaps one for new players would be better as its been so long I should call myself one…

I used to LOVE crafting and gathering not only as a time filler waiting on raids to form and battlegrounds to pop, but as a way to chill and even make money. #8 Is this still viable? Is there a market for low, mid, high level materials or crafted goods anymore? #9 Is crafting still a viable way to get decent gear if gearing while leveling is an issue at all?

#10 Anyone have a decent must have add-on list for new/returning/mostly solo players (for now) especially those that deal with gather/crafting. #11 Is Curse game/ing still around? Posting all this at work so cant do research right now but recall that was the place to go for WoW add-ons. #12, if I end up having to do Classic first, will the same add-ons work for it as non-classic?

Anyways, hello again WoW, thanks for any help you may provide and hopefully there will be enough pointers for my research to begin later tonight when I can do it!

P.S. Any extra tips like pointing to key new editions to the game (non-Dragonflight for now) is welcome…im thinking I should have done research for a few days before subbing since so much has been added lol.

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Hoo boy, lots to go over here. I’ll answer the best I can. And welcome back! It’s certainly been a while. The game has changed a lot since Cataclysm!

1 - Short answer, no. Long answer… no. You’ll learn as you go, but a lot of the general gamer acronyms and abbreviations will apply in wow too. Most of the newer abbreviations will be for dungeons, raids, etc. (Bonus note! Acronym only applies if the abbreviation spells out a word, otherwise it’s just an abbreviation. :wink: )

2 - There is no way to experience vanilla old world content using Chromie time. If you wanted to do that, you would need to play classic. However it is a completely separate game. Nothing will be shared between your classic and retail accounts.

2.1 - Classic Wrath is the world as it existed in WotLK, so the old version of EK and Kalimdor zones are intact minus any minor changes that BC or WotLK brought to them.

2.2 - See above.

2.3 - See above.

3 - There have been no further changes to any old zones after cataclysm. Everything is more or less as it was starting from there. I only say more or less because some later expansions have added content to some older zones, but you won’t see those changes unless you’re playing at the appropriate level because they are completely phased versions of the zones.

4 - Currently, you can stay in chromie time until level 60. As soon as you ding 60 it will transport you out of chromie time and you will be unable to return. I’m unsure about xp locking as I seem to recall seeing some threads that the NPC’s disappeared, but I’m not able to log in to check currently. But I can update later if I think about it.

Chromie time is designed for one character to complete one expansion’s main storyline from level 10-60, though some things will still be missed along the way. You will run out of levels before you run out of content in expansions with a lot of zones like WotLK for example.

All that said, for your very first character, you will not be able to access chromie time at all. You need to have a level 50 character on your account before subsequent characters are able to level using Chromie. It will try to force you through BFA zones for your first character, but if you don’t want to do BFA you can certainly go out and just level the old fashioned way from zone to zone.

5 - Yes and no. If you’re talking about a pure leveling experience, no. But nothing is stopping you from doing all of that content even if you out-level it just to experience it.

6 - Gearing while leveling is honestly nothing to worry about. The quest rewards will be scaled to your current level when you receive them, so as you level you’ll continue getting more powerful gear naturally. You won’t have to seek anything out during the leveling process.

7 - Not a necessary thing. Gear gets outdated so fast during leveling, and is easily replaced enough that there’s no point for a gearing guide.

8 - A big emphasis was put into recreating the crafting system with the dragonflight expansion. For the most part there isn’t a market for low level crafts (exception being items that people seek for transmogs, mounts, and some quests), but there is a lot of money to be made at end game with crafts. A big portion of end game gearing revolves around crafts now. Not as starter end game gear, but as necessary high level end game gear. But that is way too much to get into for a “welcome back” post.

9 - You can craft gear while you are leveling, but it’s not going to give you any real advantage over quest gear.

10 - Addons are completely subjective. For leveling, I suggest starting with a clean UI and when you come across some part of the game that you wish there were an addon for, seek it out. There probably is.

End game addons are a bit of a different story, and many people will tell you many different things are “necessary”. Start with DBM (Deadly Boss Mods) and Details! (most accurate damage meter) and go from there. Many people will tell you that Weakauras is mandatory as well, but that’s much too complicated of an addon to get into now. Suffice to say it’s an addon that you can load miniature, custom addons into.

11 - Curseforge is definitely still a thing. They have an addon manager that allows you to easily add, remove, and update your addons. Gone are the days of manually installing addons and updates. The downside of Curseforge’s own addon manager though is that it is very ad heavy, so if that bothers you I would suggest using WowUp-CF instead. It’s a lightweight app that does the exact same thing.

12 - No, but your addon manager will be able to manage addons for both versions of the game. You just flip back and forth between the game you want it to install addons for.

Hope all that helped, and keep asking questions! It’s what we’re here for. :slight_smile:

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EDITED TO ADD: I am the OP, I thought I changed the character before posting but it did not take.

Well, thanks a bunch for that. I supposed if the old zones hasnt been changed afer Cataclysm it means I could technically still do the game as I last experienced it without having to do classic which is kind of a relief.

The Chromie being level 60 now means the little I did read for research so far is…outdated. ugh lol. Perhaps it isnt as necessary as the article made it out to be. It made it sound like you basically had to do it to fully experience each expansion it offered.

Also, when I returned all my characters were dropped down to level 32, but I was able to bring up the Chromie quest before leaving for work so I already know I can access it.

Anyway, thanks a ton for the response I have a lot to take in…the work day cant end soon enough so I can try to make it all make sense while in game.

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Got a new question now that I have done a little more research.

I have been trying to figure out which builds are better for some classes and took a look on Wowmeta and noticed vast changes between Dragonflights list of best DPS builds and Shadowlands.

Example: Shadowlands shows a Fire Mage is at a rather low B rank, while Dragonflight has it at an S rank and near the top of the list of DPS.

So my question would be, without owning Dragonflight yet, are those changes due to upper level skills gained via Dragonflights levels or are those based on the classes being reworked all together?

I have noticed in 1 night of playing that I went from blasting through everything to now taking 4-5 spells to kill every single mob as a fire mage so have already noticed I have become weaker. as an FYI, I am in the Chromie Cataclysm campaign so all mobs are my level.

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It’s mainly due to class changes with each patch. None of those tier lists apply to classes while leveling either. They are based on the class with all of their spells and talents available to them, and secondarily with proper stat weights. Meta classes change each and every patch, so the only information that matters right now is information related to patch 10.1.5. Information from 9.3, 10.0, or even 10.1 will be outdated.

As far as your character feeling weaker, this is a byproduct of the scaling systems in game. Every class starts to feel weaker the higher level you get until you finally reach max level and start gearing for end game, at which point you’ll start feeling your player power rise again. There will be some points during leveling where you’ll get a new power boost that evens things out when you get certain talents and whatnot, but for the most part that’s just the way it goes.

Fire in particular can feel a bit squishy for solo leveling because the class design of it has really embraced the “glass cannon” fantasy approach this expansion. If you’re careful and use your entire spellbook though, it’s still a capable spec to level as. It just won’t be tanky like frost is.

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Gotcha. I was already advised in game that for leveling, Arcane is best in terms of killing faster but I was getting very conflicting information about the builds question. I figured it was based on update changes and not just a major boost from expansion levels while also being based on end game raiding damage but figured it might bleed over to non-raiding damage as well.

Thanks again for the pointers.