Unlocking dark ranger transmog questline after 60 in prepatch?

Ive gotten myself into a conundrum. to start have never played through shadowlands. I started on my hunter, but when prepatch came out, I left and leveled to 60 using chromie in a different timeline. now, I want to go back to shadowlands because I want to unlock the dark ranger transmog set. threads of fate is gone, and I cant access Chromie because im level 60. is there anyway I can choose a covenant on this character? what options do I have to go back and unlock the questline for the transmog set? do I really have to level a hunter from 1-60 again just to unlock the questline? will leveling an alt through shadowlands unlock the questline on my hunter? why is this always so hard!

You don’t have to level a new character from 1-60 but I think you still have to play through the Shadowlands storyline if you’ve never done it before. Once you’ve done the story once you can choose a covenant as soon as you get to 60, but until you’ve played through the story once you won’t be able to choose a covenant on any character (except maybe Evokers, I think there might be an exception for that class specifically).

Threads of Fate would not have been available to you yet, so its removal didn’t affect you in this case.

im just curious how I can choose a covenant on this character. if I level an alt how will my hunter choose a covenant if threads of fate is gone and im locked out of shadowlands storyline

If you don’t still have the quest to talk to Darion Mograine in front of Stormwind Keep (which is the quest that starts the Shadowlands intro) and the portal to Oribos in the mage tower isn’t working for you, then yeah you might be stuck for now on this character as I don’t know any other way to get there. I’ve seen a few posts from other people who have level 50+ characters who are in the same situation; I don’t think there’s a solution yet. Except maybe a mage teleport?

i figured out I do have a questline so I guess I just have to go through it. thanks for your help.