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Starting World Of Warcraft For The First Time In 2023? Here Are A Few Things To Consider

Robin Baird Posted:
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With the launch of Dragonflight revitalizing World of Warcraft, many players are considering returning or even playing for the first time. As great as this is for the overall health of WoW, choosing to start a new MMO or returning to one can be a difficult choice with limited information which might apply to you directly. With this in mind, let’s discuss some major points to consider when deciding if World of Warcraft Dragonflight is a good fit for you.

Do you already have a character at least level 58?

You’ve no doubt seen all the cool clips of people doing dragonriding races, heard about how expansive and interesting the new zones are, and how much fun the expansion is overall. It is important to realize that many of these things are only available once a character heads out to the Dragon Isles, which you cannot do until level 58. Depending on what level you are starting at, you might have to wait a while before you can experience all the new things Dragonflight brought with it.

If you are new, you have one leveling path to choose from.

One of the things Blizzard implemented with Shadowlands was an entirely new leveling experience for new players. The first ten levels are done in Exiles Reach, which is a new island that introduces many of the basics of gameplay. As a new player, there isn’t a way to skip this, but it goes by quickly depending on how much extra time you spend wandering around and exploring. There is a lot to find there if you want to, but it is also completely possible to focus on the main storyline and get through it super quickly.

From there, new players go to the leveling storyline for Battle for Azeroth, which will take you from level 10 -60 (or 58 if you want to head to Dragonflight asap). The leveling storyline and zones for BfA were solid, so don’t let having to play through BfA content dissuade you. Hearing that you have to level through about 60 levels before getting into the new expansion might seem like a lot, but it goes by quickly. Even if you tend to level slowly, it’ll likely still breeze by quickly. Once you hit 58, you’ll be able to go to the Dragon Isles (you don’t need to go to the last expansion, Shadowlands, at all) and start playing all the new exciting content.

Are you looking to get into max-level content asap?

 To unlock everything you’ll need to do at max level, especially to help gear up, you’ll want to finish the leveling storyline. Because of this, you’ll probably want to focus on the story and mostly ignore the side quests and avoid exploring very much. There are really only two points in the storyline where you might have to do some extra content to catch up with the story quests in level, but for the most part, there are by far enough things to do in each zone to get you to max level by the time leave the second zone. So, if your goal is unlocking everything so you can gear up asap at max, focusing on the main story is the way to go.

Did you hear you can make professions your main gameplay?

This one is a bit difficult because, yes, the whole professions system has been completely overhauled, and the work order system is overall an improvement over the old way of crafting random things and posting them on the AH or spamming Trade Chat. These systems are very much a work in progress, and many pain points must be worked through. However, the main one is that many of the most desirable recipes either come from reputation locks or random chance from various activities. So, if your goal is to make professions your main gameplay, you will have to do a lot of stuff that has nothing to do with professions as well. Additionally, you’d be starting behind the curve of everyone who has been playing since Dragonflight launched. Also, a word of caution with professions. Specialization points can’t be reallocated or refunded, so spend them carefully.

Do you enjoy running into random things in zones and exploring everything?

Then yea, Dragonflight will be a ton of fun for you. Every zone is jam-packed with things to explore and experience. This might sound counterintuitive since most of the attention has been given to how fast and far everyone can travel on a dragonriding mount. However, it is also well worth the effort to run around on foot a bit and see what you find. Additionally, all of the zones have a fair amount of verticality to them, so sometimes, to find hidden things, you need to go up. This truly is the perfect expansion to wander and explore if that’s the type of thing you enjoy doing.

Have you heard how alt-friendly Dragonflight is?

There are a lot of things Blizzard has done with this expansion to make it more alt friendly. Not having any borrowed power, which needs to be leveled up, is a huge one. Also, making dragonriding talents account bound was a huge quality of life help for alts. Additionally, the ability to obtain many reputation cosmetics is also unlocked for an entire account rather than just one character. The main drawback though is the reputation levels are not account bound. This may not be an issue for people who love having lots of alts, but it could be an issue for anyone who wants to see all of the campaign and reputation-related storylines. There’s a fair amount locked behind reputations, so without that being account bound, it can be a disincentive to play alts.

Do you generally like theme park MMOs?

Regardless of Dragonflight’s changes, WoW is still a theme park style MMO. At max level, players are generally filtered towards certain activities to progress their characters, and if you don’t like those things, then nothing about Dragonflight will make it better for you. The gear treadmill is still very much alive at max level, and although you can choose different goals, it is nowhere near a sandbox.


Arlee

Robin Baird

Robin loves RPGs, MMOs, JRPGs, Action, and Adventure games... also puzzle games... and platformers... and exploration games... there are very few games she isn't interested in. When it comes to MMOs she focuses on WoW and GW2 but will pick-up other games as they catch her fancy. She's a habitual returner to FFXIV because that game is an all-around great MMO.