I made it my weekend goal to see Dalaran, the fabled floating city that was introduced in the Lich King expansion, but I had a way to go. I had assumed that I needed to be level 70 to access the new content areas, so that was my immediate drive. By the time I finished Netherstorm in its entirety, I was level 68 and considering my options. That’s when it hit me.
I had the coin for cold weather flying and expansions often allow for not-quite-under-cap people to explore new lands… AND the gear rewards would be nicer than anything I could get in the Outlands. I would try for Northrend! Reading briefly on the Internets, I headed to Stormguard and in moments I was on a boat and heading for adventure!
In very short order, I learned a number of things. First, and most importantly, flying was forbidden until level 77; they wanted to make sure people enjoyed their finely-tailored content instead of flapping over it. Second, I learned that the expansion crushes what I thought was a decent video card; in order to play I had to turn down shadows to “lame”. Then I learned that beloved Dalaran couldn’t be accessed until a level 74 quest was started. Finally, I learned Northrend was just the place I could really shine!
Taking stock of my starting zone, the Borean Tundra, I smiled and spoke to the first quest giver I could find. What wonders would this new land behold and what challenges awaited Strev? “Kill ten rats.” Goddamn it. Fortunately, things did improve over time.
The zone starts out on a ship/harbor, and as I went from questing hub to hub, I got a feel for the overall zone as being a collage of disparate styles; a bit of a change of pace for the single-themed classic (and Outlands) zones. From craggy coastline to rolling plains, from icy tundra to a field of lakes, there was much to explore and much more to do. I was right about the rewards—using quest rewards I quickly replaced all of the gear I had been so proud to win in dungeons over the past week and the experience was easily twice what I was getting from Outlands critters. Quest rewards shot up to 5-10 gold per completion and all total, I did 109 quests in Borean before running out of reasonable tasks to perform. Level 70 ticked by quickly (in 7 days, 11 minutes of total play time) and I hit 71…eventually. XP to level has tripled in the past two levels, but it seems to be ticking by quickly, due in no small part to the large number of quick quests.
I then headed east to Dragonblight…or something or another. I swear, I could probably make a Blizzard name generator just by stringing together two arrays of words and have it sound convincing (Darkmount, Vilefen, Duskfall, Snowpool, etc…). The running “theme” for the area seems to be drakes, dragons, and scaled flapping things….and tons of undead.
Some content really stood out as exceptional. Highlights included doing a number of animal preservation tasks for Northrend’s version of PETA to avenge atrocities by Nesigwary (which, of course, I had performed…remind me to tell you of my battle with the Fur Lord), driving tanks (complete with troops deployments), a Choplifter-style mini-game requiring you to airlift peasants fleeing hordes of zombies, and the awesomely repeatable quest of stuffing bags full of wolfman babies (puppies!!!) to carry back to the Tuskarr, a race of walrusmen who probably aren’t going to eat them.
But oh, Dalaran! That level 74 quest? You can undertake it at Level 71 if you’re a mage. It starts a chain that culminates with the learning of a spell that lets you teleport straight to the heart of the city! I checked it out and it was amazingly pretty. I quickly found that while beautiful, it was completely devoid of anything for me to do. It is home to a large number of quests that unlock at 80, I think. So, mild disappointment there for now, but I’m sure to find a love for the place in a month!
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