Fun in Northrend

Level 80 is the norm now, so better start climbing your way to the top of the food chain once more, with all the perils and puzzling quests that the process implies. 10 new big regions are available for exploration at a roughly same size as the previous Outland continent introduced along with The Burning Crusade. Fortunately, I don't have to start this article from scratch and explain every minor detail in the game. Instead, I will merely point you out to my previous WoW reviews and just reveal the important changes that took place in the world of Azeroth in one year.

The overall quality of quests has grown, and more story and more fun is involved in completing many. You'll get the occasional giggle more often, and the depth of the story is enriched with the new vehicle quests that you can now find all over. Yes, Blizzard developed war machines and all sorts of other transports that are under the direct player control. Taking on a tank, a flying machine or a famous shredder will change your primary spell bar with a set of abilities that the vehicle possesses. A quick preliminary read of them will insure a successful quest most of the times, but if in doubt and too lazy to read, you can always press 1 a few times and then 3, that seems to do the trick most of the time. Just imagine you are a combat rogue in a raid. Ooooh, I did NOT just say that!

Level 80 and the zones you quest in

Starting slow and going slower and slower (especially if you don't wait for the rested bar to catch up), you will finally attain level 80 after a couple of weeks of assiduous work. The stress levels for me were quite high at the end, where the last two levels just didn't seem to be attainable in a reasonable amount of time. But hey, at least I can recommend you my favorite regions, so you know and not get bored to death while trying the achievement Nothing boring about Borean Tundra.

First off, don't go to - yes, you've guessed it - Borean Tundra. Howling Fjord is such a cool new zone that does Blizzard proud in all ways, from the design, to the cool colors, to the mythology centered around the area. If you're Alliance, take the Menethil Harbor boat to Howling, and you won't regret one bit. The first thing that will make up your mind to start questing there will be the music you hear even when you still ride the boat towards the harbor.

I found Borean Tundra a really bland and uninspiring starting zone, that I decided I will maybe go back to do some quests there only at level 80 for some money... Another zone that I would advise you to stay off at least until level 77 is Zul'Drak. Although not so big, it has many layers at different heights amongst strangely built ruins, and this will make your life a long living hell unless you've got your flying mount.

The rest of the zones are fairly ok to great, but if I were to choose, my favorite level up path would go through Howling Fjord, Grizzly Hills, Dragonblight, Sholazar Basin, Storm Peaks and Icecrown. There are plenty of quests on each map for level 90 probably, so don't be shy to drop one you don't like or don't know how to do.