Why do you get to pick which starting zone?

Community General Discussion
1

I thought it was going to be everyone had to go exiles reach?

2

Only new players (or returning players if their account was inactive for a long time) are forced to go Exiles Reach -> BFA -> Shadowlands for leveling.

Core race DK’s (excluding Pandarens) still do the DK intro chain set in early Wrath. DH’s still do their intro chains. Allied races & Pandaren DK’s start at level 10. If you already had a level 50 when prepatch hit, you can choose between exiles reach or your core races starting area (unless that character is a DK or DH) when you create a new character.

This was stated when blizzard announced exiles reach and chromie time at blizzcon 2019. Some details (such as DK’s and DH’s starting levels) did change between then and Shadowlands beta though.

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3

If everyone had to go to Exile’s Reach that would disenfranchise those who want to see those original starting areas. I’ll probably do Exile’s Reach once, but I have over 20 level 40+ characters, I’m no newbie, and I wouldn’t want to be pigeon-holed into one starting area irrespective of race.