Not Quite the Realm First

So I hit level 80 today. It is nice but doesn't really feel like an achievement to be honest. For a while, not much is going to change. I'll be seeing new areas and doing new dungeons (including heroics) and starting rep grinds, but there is still so much more to do. I feel like I've really barely touched Northrend or its quests.

I arrived on the shores of the Howling Fjord and did all of the quests there, then moseyed cross country to do all of Borean Tundra. Both zones were nice, pretty graphics, something new after having seen Outland for so long. Neither however interested me all that much. Most quests were like oldies with different mobs and items. Kill 10 X, gather 15 Y, etc. The Vrykul don't interest me terribly. I think Blizzard could have been a lot more creative making them based on Norse mythology without pretty much copying names and tweaking them somewhat so they aren't exactly the same. Borean Tundra was a little more interesting. At least the Scourge parts were. I guess that is what I see in Northrend, Scourge. That's our enemy and our target.

On another note... anyone find it unusual and terribly lazy that so many mobs exist in two places at once? Blizzard didn't even replace Hemet and Harold in Nagrand like they did with Junior in Stranglethorn. The same happens in many places.

Okay so after those places I came to the Dragonblight. Now this zone is an absolute beauty. Maybe not as much aesthetically, it's a lot of ice. But here is where the lore and storyline is wonderful. I love quests and lore so this zone had a lot for me. Even if you aren't much of a quester, you really need to do the Wrath Gate quest line. I really regret having watched the video of it's culmination during Beta, it would have been so much more powerful seeing it the first time when you are supposed to. It was still great though.

After Dragonblight I headed over to Grizzly Hills. This zone was also kinda boring for me. It was fun seeing old Arugal again, though I wish he got an instance instead of just a quest objective. It was just his shade though, maybe his rotting corpse is somewhere making mischief yet to be revealed.

And that is all I've done really. I have run most of the lower instances along the way and just a couple quests in Zul'Drak to get that last bit to 80 but that still leaves so much to be explored. I haven't even touched Sholazar Basin, Storm Peaks, Icecrown, Crystalsong (are there quests here or just a way to get into Dalaran?) or Wintergrasp, excepting that one time I was AFK flying and forcefully ejected into unknown territory. It took me quite a while to figure out how to get out.

So as I said, it doesn't feel like I've achieved much in reaching 80. There is still so much to do, and I look forward to it... especially Icecrown.

So what's next? Do I keep doing what I'm doing, burning through every quest on Northrend with some instance runs peppered in? Do I go right to a reputation to work on? I have my eye on Knights of the Ebon Blade for their head enchant and a nice new weapon. There is also the Oracles. I don't like Murlocs and the Frenzyheart exalted trinket looks quite nice, but the Oracles can sell you this curious curio. Now that interested me at first because there is a chance you can get four pets (have I mentioned yet that I like non-combat pets?) but now apparently you can get a Green Proto-Drake from it. It's 280% speed but it's still a beauty, especially when your choices are the old gryphon or a dime a dozen Netherwing drake.

Oh what to do, what to do... I'm also getting into playing Anguish. He's finally at 300 skinning, mining, and cooking, and ready to lay waste to Outland. I'm loving playing a Death Knight but Koji's my pride and my main, he'll always come first.