Coming back to WoWFollow

Well the questing in Cataclysm is extremely linear. You can choose to start off in either of the two main starting quest zones, Vashjir or Mount Hyjal. There is a message board normally located near the auction house to give you a quest that leads you on your way to these zones.

The main thing to consider is that you gain reputation with different factions while doing these quests, and there are different items that may be useful to whatever class you play on different reputation vendors. I'd spend some time researching which items you want from which vendor and then focus on the appropriate zone to increase your faction with them. If you like to do daily quests and get to revered/exalted, you should get started on the daily quests in Deepholm and Twilight Highlands when possible. You must complete the entire line of quests in Deepholme before you can do the daily quests in there, and you need to get pretty close to the end of the quest line in Twilight Highlands before those open up for you. You can't go to Deepholme until lvl 82/83, or twilight until 84/85 (can't remember lvls). Also at 85 you can to Tol'barad daily quests for other great gear and i'd get started on those asap if you're into that.





TL;DR Do quests/rep grind and you can level up to 85 via questing without missing anything important IMO.

The one zone that is pretty much mandatory is Deepholm, the level 82-83ish zone. You have to complete pretty much every quest there to unlock the Therazane faction, which is where you'll get your shoulder enchants if you aren't a scribe. For right now, the enchants are BoP, so you have to do the rep grind with every character.

If you have any casters, you want to start out in Hyjal with them. Particularly if they're a priest. The caster head enchant comes from the Hyjal rep, and by the time you finish the zone you'll have high enough rep to purchase it. Plus the exalted cloth belt is very nice for priests.

At the very least, you want to do Vash far enough to the point where you get your sea horse mount. Especially if you don't have the 100 mount achieve yet. I can't really think of a specific quest/quest hub that you really want to do. To be honest, all of them are pretty awesome. It just depends on your tastes. If you're a fan of Egyptian lore or Indiana Jones at all though, Uldum is awesome.

The OP will need to do all of Deepholm and want quest rewards from the end of the TH quest chain. I've leveled a few toons to the new cap, I know these things.

I'm assuming some desire to raid of course. If you're a PvP person do Uldum sooner, cause the quests are bad ***.

I too recently returned to the game and I always have when I return to the game after a lengthy break, I decided to level a new character before jumping right back onto my main characters. It's really up to you how you want to play, I found enjoying the changes to Azeroth to be an exciting and fun experience because as others have mentioned it is quite different. The new areas are quite linear as others have stated so it wouldn't be all that difficult for you to level up to 85. As I too am just getting back into WoW, I can't really say what must be done levelling from 80 to 85.