Returning To The World Of Warcraft

Warlords of Draenor is coming on November 13, and if you’ve taken a break from the game or never played at all, this might be your best chance to come back on even footing with folks who have played for all 10 years. It’s perfectly acceptable to wait for the expansion to drop to jump back in with the accompanying level 90 boost, but if you’re looking to be prepared with capped professions and a handle on your class, now might not be a bad time to get back into the swing of things.

Starting at 90

As you may know, you’ll receive one character boost to 90 with the expansion back. Additional boosts are available, but they will cost you $60 so try and decide what character you’re going to want to play ahead of time. You can either take a character immediately to level 90 or wait until you have a level 60+ character to use the boost on. Boosting a higher-level character will also take your character to level 90 with capped trade skills of your choice, so this is a great way to come into the expansion with 600 Skinning/Leatherworking or Mining/Jewelcrafting or any other selection of skills without the arduous tradeskill level ups associated with going from 1-600.

Dungeon Time!

Depending on when your last experience with World of Warcraft was, you may or may not have had a chance to use the dungeon-finder tool. This is a great way for players starting at level 15 to get fast groups for 5-player content. It’s also a great way to check out various classes and group roles. Not sure what kind of character you want to use your boost on? Play a few and try out some of their skills in dungeons. Dungeons are a fast way to level up, and by the time you hit 60 and you’re ready to boost with maximum efficiency, you’ll know if the class is something you enjoy.

Heirlooms

If you are coming back to the game to play with friends, you can make your leveling even easier with some heirloom gear. Join a friend’s guild (or any guild, really, as there are plenty of big level 25 guilds out there that just recruit lower levels) and ask your buddies for a loan. After you get some reputation with your guild, there are some highly accessible account bound heirloom items available for purchase at your guild vendor that will make the leveling experience easier. You shouldn’t worry if you can’t get these, as you can always just pop right to 90, but if you’re looking to get the max tradeskills or you’re not sure what class you want to play, some of these items can go a long way toward rolling many characters until you settle on one you want.

Timeless Isle

Once you are 90, the first place you’re going to want to head is Timeless Isle. This island is packed with rare creatures you can take on in a casual group setting (you won’t have to form parties, you can just tag the mobs and you’ll receive credit) and chests that contain high-level loot. This will get you up to current raid-gear item level quite quickly, and even if you’re not planning to step into a single raid you’ll be entering the expansion pack with an edge. While these items will be replaced quickly with Draenor greens and blues, you’ll be able to breeze through the early levels.

Raiding and Cloaks

If you want to engage in the Siege of Orgrimmar, Timeless Isle loot can get you up to speed. You can pick up some fun loot in SoO using the Looking for Raid tool if you just want to casually experience some of the last year’s content while picking up some fun toys and transmog skins for Warlords of Draenor. You also have the option to punch out the epic cloak quest line. This will be fairly time consuming, but the cloak will last you to level 100 with ease.

Battle Pets

If you’re all geared up and ready to rock, you may want to take a peek at WoW’s battle pet system. Similar to Pokémon, there are tons of rare pets to find, collect, and fight with. What began as a small mini-game is now a fairly in-depth system that will have you scouring the world to pick up cool pets in out of the way places.