Borean Tundra or Howling FjordFollow

They are about the same in all honesty, I liked Fjord more than Tundra personally, then again I didn't wear a single quest reward until 78.

I don't know about Mages, but I recall thinking that HF was crap next to BT for my DK... (This is gear-wise, not plot-wise, though Borean does have Dragons...)

Plus, Borean will give you this or this.

My DK used the axe from that quest all the way through to level 80. I assume Mages will also get a lot out of it. And both of them are WAY better than your current one.

I did Borean first. I don't think either area was very fun. Dragonblight and Icecrown were the fun zones for me. And I didn't upgrade anything until I did Icecrown at 78.


To include what Pigtails said, this was my order of zones:

Borean > Howling Fjord > Dragonblight > Grizzly Hills/Sholazar > Icecrown. I didn't finish Grizzly Hills because the xp flow was slower there so I moved to Sholazar and did what quests I could to get 78.

Edited, Apr 1st 2009 9:38pm by Kyrin

Given the higher gold return @ 80, you'll probably want to do both.

On my mage, I did HF, then BT. I did the opposite on my 'lock. You should come out of that around 75-76, and be done with Dragonblight around 76-77. Goal is to hit 80 with most of Icecrown, Storm Peaks, and either Scholazar or Zul'Drak untouched, ready to be quest-farmed for gold.

The exception is if you can get a group for the Ampitheatre in Zul'Drak, do so as soon as you can. The staff drop from there is quite nice, and will outdo most Main/Offhand combos until you're getting the better rep/instance gear.

It really depends on how fast you go. When I finished Borean Tundra, I was at least 72 (from 68), and I only did HF to get me to 73/74 to move on to DB

When I got to 80, I still had a ton of quests to do in HF, all of GH, a ton in DB, I never touched ZD, did enough just to get the factions in Sholazar, had done ones all through the Sons of Hodir chain and that was it. I still, essentially, have 3 full zones of quests waiting for me, after spending time to finish all those zones.

Note: I also did dailies. I was exalted with Kaluak pretty fast (as in early in levels). My Wyrmrest Accord was Revered before I hit 80. My SoH was exalted before then. I have Valiance Expedition capped, and a ton of Kirin Tor rep from cooking dailies. I got exalted to FH and halfway through revered with the Oracles. Etc, etc, etc.

If you are going to power level straight through, I guesstimate you will end up in Storm Peaks before you hit 80, without touching ICG. But, if you take more time, do dailies, accumulate rest exp it will be way before that. Mobs give a ton of exp in Wrath, so rested is actually a big boost.

i'm 72 and not even half way through either. i've run Nexus and UK and couple times each. full runs of these give you almost a half of a rested level plus blue drops.

HF is better for farming cloth initially. this leads you into GH, which will open up pvp-coin dailies. BT will lead you into Dragonblight faster and will grant you Wyrmrest Rep for many quests.

FWIW, the Coldara chain rewards from Nexus replaced some of my T4 gear in one run.

I do both, but usually start with Borea just because it's a little easier to get back and forth from.
I tend to get out of Borea at 62-63 is if I start there at 68, and by this time I have collect all the FP's across to BT and maybe upto Dala, so now trainers from BT are jsut a flight away instead of a boat ride and a flight away.

Only problem with starting in BT is getting a group for UK as a lot of people start in BT amking it hard to get anyone to go and summon.

I'll throw in my two cents here... I entered Howling Fjord at 69 and by the time I started in Zul'Drak (last night) having only done HF, DB and GH in their entirety and about two runs of each instance in those zones, I'm almost 79.

Rested XP is an amazing thing. :)

Only really made a passing effort at the Wyrmrest dailies and the GH PvP ones to get some venture coins.


edit: does anyone know at what level below you mobs turn grey? ie. when I hit 80, will I still get xp from finishing off the level 70 BT quest mobs?


Edited, Apr 6th 2009 9:15pm by apothik

I believe mobs turn gray at either 5 or 6 levels under you, and no you won't get any exp from killing 70 mobs at 80 because you'll be 80 and thus won't be earning anymore exp. >.> You will still get gold from completing lvl 70 quests though, but I'm not sure how much.

I did BT first, and then HF. I felt like BT had more quests closer together, but HF had great scenery and was a more pleasant time. By the time I finished HF I was around 74 (started at 70 in BT). Finished Dragonblight around 76, went to Zul'drak and finished that around 78-79, then went backwards to Grizzly Hills and dinged while running green quests there. Never touched SB, Icecrown, or SP until 80. I finished SP last out of all the zones.

Ahem, on the original topic, I recommend BT first because I felt like I leveled faster there, but if it's too dreary for you then HF is an awesome place. Doing them BOTH will make later leveling easier because you'll outlevel many zones by one or two levels.

I think I learnt mine from the dude standing on the edge of Dalaran? Krasus' Landing or something like that...