01-13-2007, 10:48 AM
Preface: Above all else in the expansion, take your time and enjoy it.
A while back, Umu offered an extra beta key he had received to me, saying he knew I would do something productive with it. This is going to be the the result of that gift. I would like to thank him for the opportunity to do this for the Tribe, and also thank Efluvia for providing the excellent maps for the zones I will discuss below. Some of this will be from my own exploration, and other parts will be from online resources. I hope you find it helpful, and I will attempt to include as few lore spoilers as possible.
Your exploration of Outland will begin at the Dark Portal in the Blasted Lands. This is the only way to reach Outland, and you must be 58th to journey there. You will find an Alliance and Horde camp before you joruney through, and a quest that will lead you on your way. From here, you arrive in Hellfire Peninsula. I will discuss Hellfire more in the next post, but I want to give a rough idea of how the zones in outland are laid out.
The best resource I can suggest is the interactive map of outland(click on a zone for more information):
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/burningcrusade/townhall/outlandmap.html">http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/burningc ... ndmap.html</a><!-- m -->
The intended path of leveling progression through outland is as follows:
Hellfire Peninsula
Zangarmarsh
Terokkar Forest
Naggrand
Blades Edge Mountains
Netherstorm/Shadowmoon Valley
This is a loose estimate, but I will say that appropriate challenges for your level range will feel much tighter in Outland. Areas 3 levels higher than you will feel harder than they did in Azeroth. Quest availability is also limited at first, so while you could go directly to Zangarmarsh, there will not be much available for you to do until 61st. Naggrand is much the same, with most quests not opening until 64th.
That brings me to questing. I will cover some quests for specific zones in the posts below, but I recommend doing them all. Why? Because there are many quest chains for the various factions that are important later, they let you explore with a purpose, and they give significant faction rewards.
Factions are a very significant part of Outland, and there will be at least one per zone. They all give rewards for tradeskills and items, but more importantly, you must be revered with the appropriate faction to access the heroic version of an instance, which will be important in the long run. While this may sound like a grind, it really isn't for most of them. Running the instances themselves boosts your faction, and none of them require the endless killing of creatures that the old world ones did.
Shattrath City: It is important to note this location, as it is the only major city in Outland and it is very unique. You can find a quest in the main center building when you arrive that will guide you around town and introduce you to the story behind it. This city has 4 major factions, and 2 of them oppose eachother. These are the Aldor and the Scryers.
An important note on the Aldor and the Scryer: When you choose one, you will become hostile to the other one and will be attacked if you venture onto their terrace.
Before you choose a faction, you are neutral to both of them and can freely explore their terraces and examine what they have to offer. Each one has their own bank, faction vendor, and trainers... consider your choice carefully. While it is possible to reverse your decision, it is extremely difficult and requires many hours of work. Any quest you do for one faction will result in a penalty with the other.
For help in choosing based on rewards, I recommend this wowwiki article as a good starting point:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.wowwiki.com/Comparison_of_Aldor_and_Scryer_rewards">http://www.wowwiki.com/Comparison_of_Al ... er_rewards</a><!-- m -->
Another important note about the city are the portals. You can find a portal to every major city in the old world in the central building of Shattrath City, which makes it an excellent place to bind your hearthstone. However it is important to note that these portals are one-way and that there is no auction house in Shattrath.
Finally, a note on tradeskills. The highest level trainer for each tradeskill will only be found in outland. I do not know where all of the specializations can be found, but I know that armorsmithing and weaponsmithing recipes can be found in the lower city of Shattrath. Also, I recommend one of the first things folks do is take a trip to Falcon Watch in Hellfire Peninsula to learn the next level of first aid right away. It will require roughly 100-120 runecloth to reach a point where you can start making netherweave bandages, and you start finding netherweave right away. Most of the other tradeskills can be trained in Thrallmar, as can cooking. You will need to travel to Cenarion Refuge in Zangarmarsh for fishing though.
Below I will discuss each of the first four zones individually, with varying levels of detail, as a guide on how to get around and what to watch out for.
A while back, Umu offered an extra beta key he had received to me, saying he knew I would do something productive with it. This is going to be the the result of that gift. I would like to thank him for the opportunity to do this for the Tribe, and also thank Efluvia for providing the excellent maps for the zones I will discuss below. Some of this will be from my own exploration, and other parts will be from online resources. I hope you find it helpful, and I will attempt to include as few lore spoilers as possible.
Your exploration of Outland will begin at the Dark Portal in the Blasted Lands. This is the only way to reach Outland, and you must be 58th to journey there. You will find an Alliance and Horde camp before you joruney through, and a quest that will lead you on your way. From here, you arrive in Hellfire Peninsula. I will discuss Hellfire more in the next post, but I want to give a rough idea of how the zones in outland are laid out.
The best resource I can suggest is the interactive map of outland(click on a zone for more information):
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/burningcrusade/townhall/outlandmap.html">http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/burningc ... ndmap.html</a><!-- m -->
The intended path of leveling progression through outland is as follows:
Hellfire Peninsula
Zangarmarsh
Terokkar Forest
Naggrand
Blades Edge Mountains
Netherstorm/Shadowmoon Valley
This is a loose estimate, but I will say that appropriate challenges for your level range will feel much tighter in Outland. Areas 3 levels higher than you will feel harder than they did in Azeroth. Quest availability is also limited at first, so while you could go directly to Zangarmarsh, there will not be much available for you to do until 61st. Naggrand is much the same, with most quests not opening until 64th.
That brings me to questing. I will cover some quests for specific zones in the posts below, but I recommend doing them all. Why? Because there are many quest chains for the various factions that are important later, they let you explore with a purpose, and they give significant faction rewards.
Factions are a very significant part of Outland, and there will be at least one per zone. They all give rewards for tradeskills and items, but more importantly, you must be revered with the appropriate faction to access the heroic version of an instance, which will be important in the long run. While this may sound like a grind, it really isn't for most of them. Running the instances themselves boosts your faction, and none of them require the endless killing of creatures that the old world ones did.
Shattrath City: It is important to note this location, as it is the only major city in Outland and it is very unique. You can find a quest in the main center building when you arrive that will guide you around town and introduce you to the story behind it. This city has 4 major factions, and 2 of them oppose eachother. These are the Aldor and the Scryers.
An important note on the Aldor and the Scryer: When you choose one, you will become hostile to the other one and will be attacked if you venture onto their terrace.
Before you choose a faction, you are neutral to both of them and can freely explore their terraces and examine what they have to offer. Each one has their own bank, faction vendor, and trainers... consider your choice carefully. While it is possible to reverse your decision, it is extremely difficult and requires many hours of work. Any quest you do for one faction will result in a penalty with the other.
For help in choosing based on rewards, I recommend this wowwiki article as a good starting point:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.wowwiki.com/Comparison_of_Aldor_and_Scryer_rewards">http://www.wowwiki.com/Comparison_of_Al ... er_rewards</a><!-- m -->
Another important note about the city are the portals. You can find a portal to every major city in the old world in the central building of Shattrath City, which makes it an excellent place to bind your hearthstone. However it is important to note that these portals are one-way and that there is no auction house in Shattrath.
Finally, a note on tradeskills. The highest level trainer for each tradeskill will only be found in outland. I do not know where all of the specializations can be found, but I know that armorsmithing and weaponsmithing recipes can be found in the lower city of Shattrath. Also, I recommend one of the first things folks do is take a trip to Falcon Watch in Hellfire Peninsula to learn the next level of first aid right away. It will require roughly 100-120 runecloth to reach a point where you can start making netherweave bandages, and you start finding netherweave right away. Most of the other tradeskills can be trained in Thrallmar, as can cooking. You will need to travel to Cenarion Refuge in Zangarmarsh for fishing though.
Below I will discuss each of the first four zones individually, with varying levels of detail, as a guide on how to get around and what to watch out for.
Kosath Whitehorn
"The Tribe is my weapon. I am their shield."
"The Tribe is my weapon. I am their shield."