World quests, Suramar, a class campaign, the Broken Isles and much more await returners in World of Warcraft: Legion. It can be overwhelming, and you might not know where to start. We are here to help.
With this expansion, you really can’t complain about long content breaks. Some may even find it a bit too fast. And then there are those who might just be starting the addon or have taken a long break. What should you do first when returning to WoW?
The Level Phase
If you haven’t played Legion at all, you’ll be greeted by the adventurer guide and receive the corresponding starting quest. In this quest, you travel to the Broken Isles, unlock the Class Hall, and receive your first task for your Artifact weapon. Which weapon you choose is not crucial, as you will unlock all of them during the leveling phase.
Additionally, from the Class Hall, you can choose which of the four quest areas you want to enter. Since the enemies scale with your level, the order is up to you. Each location, each zone tells its own story, which always ends with a visit to the respective instance.
As long as you pursue a profession, you will receive tasks regularly in Dalaran. These are easy to complete and unlock new recipes for you. Later, these will lead you into instances and raids.
It is advisable to complete as many quests as possible and explore the map, because some tasks are a bit hidden. On one hand, you need the experience points, and on the other hand, you also need the reputation, which you will need for a later quest.
Level 110 and what now?
At the maximum level of 110, you will receive some additional tasks in Dalaran and the Class Hall. Depending on your progress, some of the following tasks may not yet be unlocked, but sooner or later they will all appear in your quest log:
- Uniting Islands: This unlocks world quests, which represent the new daily quests. Additionally, you receive the Flight Master’s whistle, which teleports you to a flight point nearby. You need to have friendly reputation with all factions of the four leveling areas for this.
- Khadgar’s Discovery: This opens Suramar for you. With this area come a new faction, numerous quest chains, more world quests, and two instances.
- The Heart of Light: Assuming a corresponding progress in the class campaign, you will begin another quest chain. This is relevant for the story, but not for unlocking additional content.
- Forced to Trade: This can unlock even more world quests and the now outdated raid instance “Trial of Valor”.
- Edict of the God King: This quest starts the unlocking of the Karazhan instances.
- The Legion Judges: This quest line grants you access to the current content: the Broken Isles. You must first complete the Uniting Islands.
- The Deaths of Chromie: A scenario for solo players to break up the WoW routine.
- Heat Things Up: This quest can be completed on-site. It unlocks the Obliterum Forge, which upgrades crafted gear to item level 900. This cap increases with patches.
In addition, there may also be tasks for your professions. The Class Hall is the starting point for two more quest lines: the Class Campaign and the “Heart of Light” chain, which begins in Dalaran but continues in your refuge. This inevitably raises the question: What should I start with?
The Broken Isles
The Uniting Islands takes priority. Without this, you cannot go to the Broken Isles. And of course, you will unlock the world quests, which offer numerous different tasks and a first opportunity to farm gear. We have elaborated more on these missions in a separate guide.
Upon arriving in the Broken Isles, you will receive some additional missions. This slightly longer quest line is not mandatory, but it unlocks an exclusive mount for your class. We have already introduced all of these class mounts.
It is advisable to complete the quest line a bit away from the camp, which starts with “Spinnen, was?”. The day after submission, a new task will be given. Until you have unlocked the special vendor for Wyrmwood chests at the end. These chests contain many useful items. Although the key from the vendor costs many nether shards, every few days you receive a generous discount through a world quest.
A Higher Item Level
Now you are on the island, and you are eager for new gear. Start with the world quests, as this allows you to easily earn the first item levels. The gear you receive can be higher than what the quest reward indicates. For instance, an item of 850 might turn out to be 860 upon receipt. This is how random item upgrades work in Legion.
Artifact Power and Artifact Knowledge
With quests and world quests, you will repeatedly receive items with Artifact Power. Use these items as soon as you have them in your inventory and you are wielding the correct Artifact weapon. This will increase their level and unlock additional abilities for them.
In the Class Hall, you will also receive Artifact Knowledge, which applies across all weapons. It exponentially increases the value of Artifact Power that the items grant you. However, this only applies to new items, not to those in your inventory.
At the beginning, it is therefore not worth it for you to do world quests that grant Artifact Power. Rather, collect gear and Class resources and increase your Artifact Knowledge. You can research up to level 25, after which you can farm Artifact Power.
The Artifact Weapon
At some point, you will have gathered enough power with the weapon to have skilled all abilities. This unlocks a new quest in Dalaran: “Search for Lost Knowledge“. This upgrades your weapon and gives you new unlockable abilities. Furthermore, the Artifact Knowledge can be further increased.
Even now, it is advisable to refrain from farming more Artifact Power. Rather, research a bit longer until you reach Knowledge Level 40. This can be done within a few days, as the research time was drastically reduced in the last patch (4 hours per level). After that, you can happily farm Artifact Power again.
Simultaneously complete the Class Campaign, as this will unlock a third slot for an Artifact Relic. These increase the item level of the weapon and count as the greatest power gain for your character.
Legendary Items
However, not only the artifacts grant a power gain, but also legendary items. These provide high attributes along with an additional property that can change or optimize your gameplay style. You can only carry a limited number of such items at the same time; initially, it’s two, later it will be three. And so these items do not gather dust in the bank after a few months, their item level can be increased. Here you can find out how upgrading legendary items to 970 in patch 7.2.5 works.
And how do you obtain these items? You cannot explicitly farm them; you obtain them randomly. From loot boxes, instances, raid and world bosses, and through nether shards.
Other Equipment Sources
While doing world quests, you may have already encountered nether shards. With 5000 of these, you can obtain gear with item level 880 or higher from a vendor at the Broken Isles camp. We have explained how to farm these shards in this guide.
In Dalaran, there is also a weekly quest line near the entrance to the Violet Hold. The task is related to the bonus event, which can be seen in the calendar. The dungeon event, for example, gives you the weekly task to complete several instances at mythic difficulty. The reward is a chest with high-quality gear.
Of course, there are still the said instances and raids to farm for gear. For the 5-man variant, there is the Mythic+ difficulty; the higher the number, the better the reward and more dangerous the instance. Certain levels grant the instances affixes that add variety and even more danger. Therefore, mythic instances can only be entered with a fixed group, not randomly.
Learning by Doing
Who doesn’t know the problem? You want to do a specific instance to get more gear. If you are looking for a group in the dungeon browser or trade chat, you will find that the required item level is higher than what you possess. But not only that, it’s also higher than what you would receive from the instance.
And that’s not the only problem. Rush and flames go hand in hand; the DPS does too little damage because they are busy only running behind. The healer is allegedly incompetent because they didn’t keep the players standing in the fire alive. And the tank is usually always to blame for everything.
Certainly, not every group is like this, but likely everyone has experienced something similar. And particularly beginners or returners without experience find it particularly difficult to find a group.
To remedy this, the “[L]earning by Doing” group was formed. This group offers both mythic instances and successful heroic raids, all without flames, rush, and is suitable for beginners. The community is divided along faction lines – separated by Horde and Alliance – on Discord.
- Forum thread for instances: [L] like beginners or slow for dungeons
- Forum thread for raids (Alliance): [L]earning by doing – groups
- Forum thread for raids (Horde): [L]earning by doing – groups
- Alliance Discord: https://discord.gg/Jd85MvK
- Horde Discord: https://discord.gg/merHVQe
The Remaining Quests
Back in Dalaran, there are still plenty of tasks to unlock new things. The order is up to you, as they are far less relevant. Suramar is a huge quest area and unlocks two additional instances. For those interested in the story, this area is a clear recommendation.
- WoW: Legion – Suramar – The best zone WoW has ever had?
- WoW: Legion – Questing in Suramar
- WoW: Legion – What is Ancient Mana used for?
The Deaths of Chromie are also worth recommending.
- WoW: Chromie Guide – How do I start “The Deaths of Chromie”?
- WoW: The goal is more “evergreen” content – what does that mean?
We wish you much success on your return to Azeroth!
