I got back into WoW and leveled 1-10 in Eversong Woods, 10-60 in Legion and 60-70 in dragonflight. Some random thoughts about the legion areas and I'll try to write something about the dragonflight areas. The dragonflight areas were all quite fun and I liked them almost as much as the human starting area quest chains.
I leveled in the blood elf starting area and basically nothing has changed here. Just a boring set of quests to quickly speed run to level 10. I always liked the wretched stuff and seeing the withered later was great. I wish the blood elf starting area was given a similar level of care for the questing because the whole addiction thing is relevant and depressing.
I didn't like the opening cinematic, following along the intro quest stuff. It was just boring and I wish they had just put me into the siutation. Or made it non-interactive. There was no fear as everything was scripted and plain. I didn't get the point of making this a quest and actually have objectives as it all felt pointless. Voljin dies and Sylvanas becomes warchief.
I was looking forward to this as Howling Fjord is one my favourite zones. The idea of more mountains and Vykul stuff is great and I thought I would get to see more giant vikings. The zone was unfortunately pretty boring and it was largely just doing a set of quests to prove myself worth. There was the God King Skolvold but he was in background and didn't do much. At least I didn't see him much and it seemed like he just wanted power. We got no expanation why or what he was up to. The other Vykrul at least had the motivation that they didn't want an outsider to win their shield and so they decided to destroy traditions for it. Havi was cool and a nice guy. Very focused on cooking food. I noticed the ravens next to him and I thought that reminded me of Odin. At the end Havi turns into Odyn and that was pretty neat. A nice little surprise that actually got me.
The Sylvanas questline and the questline to capture Eyir was cool but it was still a meh storyline. We didn't get much reason for what was going on. I did think it was weird that I had already finished a quest line with Ashlidor and then I was killing her shieldmaidens.
The grappling mechanic was neat but the lag was bad and so it wasn't very fun.
The zone itself isn't really much and the storyline in it was the same way.
Some described this as being like Yosemite and it was not. I was expecting some wide vistas and beautiful mountains but it was mostly just dark and dull. The Highmountain tauren were in trouble and I needed to do various things to cement the new leader and help her rally the troops. It was cool to see demons everywhere and Tauren running around. The storyline with the black dragon being a spiritual advisor for 1000 years was cool.
Much like stormhold, this was a boring zone with the quests also being pretty boring.
This was a great zone. Nightelf ruins everywhere reminded me of darkshore but it was also bright which made things beautiful. I love seeing old ruins everywhere and really gets at what I love about fantasy and WoW. The story of Senegos was great and seeing the Withered was brutal. I have my favourite blue dragon pet that follows me around now from here. Runas the Shamed was a great character and seeing him being addicted to magic was depressing. I'm glad he didn't betray me ultimately as I was expecting him to turn into a villain at some point. The story of Prince Farondis was another highlight. Seeing someone who rejected Azshara and the demons but then gets looked down on by the people he serves was great. I wish they went a bit more into why he never told anyone as it sounded like his people didn't realize Azshara was evil and the demons were bad.
There was also a quest chain involving joining a fight club where you get throw into the fight like a pokemon. This was a fun diversion and I wish it was a bit more fleshed out. Though that might have been because I started rushing at this point.
This zone was much better than the previous two and the storylines got more engaging.
Another great zone and one of the prettiest in all of WoW. The zone is lush and green and its described as the closest we get to the Emerald Dream. It really did feel like that. I loved this region. It was so vibrant.
This zone had the Malfurion storyline where we gather the druids to help Cenarius. When Cenarius is taken, Malfurion goes rogue to try and find the demon who did this. We get help from Ysera and Tyrande to find him again and ultimately we lose Ysera and she becomes a demonic dragon.
This was crazy. We lost a whole aspect. We kill her and she has a beautiful scene where Elune seems to take the dragon to her.
Possibly the best zone in all of WoW and the best quest chain. Its a gorgeous zone with the ruins of the elves. It has the largest and most inhabited city. Suramar feels alive and being in that city is amazing. I wish it had become a hub city as I think it would be extremely popular.
The quest chain involves rebuilding a rebel fort which is great and finding the location, setting it up, building out the portals, gathering new people is all fun and follows beautifully. Doing the quests into Suramar and wearing a disguise to get around was brilliant. The city changes as you progress and more and more demons arrive. Suramar becomes darker and more dangerous. I even limited myself to use my walking mount as flying felt like cheating. This is a zone where I think flying should have been dropped. I did cheat a bit but I think walking around would make this zone truly great.
I loved seeing more of the withered and helping them.
I love using Anarys' disguse to do things as she doesn't want to be involved but her sister is part of the rebellion so she wants to protect her sister. I hope this doesn't come back to bite us later.
The quest chain of assasinating and spreading rumours to help someone win an advisor position was brilliant and it truly felt like a book. I bet the person read Red Seas under Red skies. The only thing I wish was that I had done this with the help of some ragtag bunch of friends.
The arcwine questline was also wonderful and super creative. Learning that the palace strictly controls the arcwine and that there is more than enough for the nightborne was crazy. The palace is truly an evil place even before the demons showed up.
It became a trainwreck at level 59 when half my quests started giving no exp and I wasn't sure what was going on. I went to Chromie which took awhile as I'm still unfamiliar with how to travel in WoW. That was a waste of time as I was still in Chromie time. I went back to Suramar and got to level 60 by doing the Fel Hold quests which gave exp. I wonder if the final Suramar quests just don't give exp by design. I had thought it was because of my level. Once I dinged 60, I hightailed it to Ogrimmor to start dragonflight. The Suramar quests seemed to have died down and the story is standing still at us getting ready to attack Suramar and take back the city.