YouGamers.com

Articles

The Lich King is Coming - Part 2

The Lich King is Coming - Part 2

First Steps

Once you are all set, the first order of business is to get to Northrend. From here on out, I'm going to be mostly Horde-specific, as I don't play Alliance weenies (For the Horde!). I'll try to give some pointers also for the the Lesser Side of the conflict, but tips will be mostly from the perspective of the Horde. From this point onwards this article will also contain spoilers about the expansion content. You have been warned.

Before heading out, you should set your Hearthstone in Shattrath City - it still has the portals to all other cities and it'll be a while before you'll get to Dalaran anyway (more on that later). Mages should obviously set their Hearthstone to every town they visit on the way as they can always just teleport back to the old world. Nerf Mages.

Routes to Northrend

There are actually two separate starting areas available to both sides, Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord. Neither is "better" in any substantial way - there just happens to be two separate zones designed for level 68-71 characters. You can happily skip one of them for each character, no need to scour both for quests and experience.

Note that while there is no fixed level limit and you can go to Northrend as level 1 if you insist, the minimum level for receiving any quests in these areas is 68. When leveling up a new character, it's really up to you if you want to hit 70 with the old content before moving up, or if you head out the moment you are 68. This is similar to the Burning Crusade - you could hit Outland already at 58 and get quests.

Horde Routes

• Zeppelin from Orgrimmar to Warsong Hold in Borean Tundra
• Zeppelin from Undercity to Vengeance Landing in Howling Fjord

Alliance Routes

• Boat from Stormwind Harbor (Northern Stormwind) to Valiance Keep in Borean Tundra
• Boat from Menethil Harbor (Wetlands) to Valgarde in Howling Fjord

While there are no substantial differences between the zones, I'd wager a guess that Borean Tundra might end up more popular for the Horde players as the travel route to the zone starts from Orgrimmar which tends to be the hub of activity for Horde players. For Alliance, I really can't say - new Stormwind Harbor might draw people, but Menethil is closer to Ironforge.

Once you step out to the new continent, you should note that all tradeskill trainers can be found from every starting village, so snoop around and quickly grab some training. This is especially important for gathering professions so you can start gaining skill in skinning, mining and herbalism while you level up. Minimum character level to pick up new tradeskills past the previous maximum of 375 is level 65, but this no longer applies to gathering skills as of patch 3.0.3.

Most crafting skill recipes in Northrend actually start from skill level 350, so if you are a few points short of 375 you shouldn't worry and spend massive amounts of gold on materials to hit 375 before the expansion - you can continue skilling up with new recipes as long as you have skill level 350 and the early recipes tend to be a lot cheaper to craft than some of the old stuff. Same goes for gathering skills - minimum level to gather up ore, herbs and leather in Northrend is 350.

Also don't forget to grab new training on First Aid, Cooking and Fishing as all these are also at each starting town in both Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord - not that you have much time to fish early on...

Page 1Page 2Page 3Page 4Page 5

Tags