This is the story of somebody returning to Azeroth after 4 years living in the real world. Somebody who played World of Warcraft since before the EU release, but quit when a year later when his waistline couldn’t take any more. To coincide with the release of “Cataclysm” – World of Warcraft’s most ambitious expansion pack yet – This is the story of Danny’s relapse.

“Your talents have been reset” – Okay.
Behind the pop-up box lies the barren lands of Tanaris, one of vanilla WOW’s most boring areas. It was here that  I finally packed it in all those years ago. Stuck between quests to high or low for my level, I dropped to my knees in the dirt and logged off. Returning today things have already change, significantly. First of all there’s a small workshop town behind me. It’s as if they carefully constructed the tiny camp as I slept just to see the expression on my face as I turned around the next morning. In the distance there is what looks like a lake – it must be a mirage I think, Tanaris is desert for miles. Remembering this I open my bag and soul-stone back to more comfortable surroundings. Time to go home.

Ironforge is a place close to my heart. My level 47 Dwarf Paladin learned the ways of this world only a few miles away in the snowy crags of Dun Morogh. First thing’s first I re-spec my talent tree. According to this friendly website, protection is the best spec for Paladins so I drop all my points in there, visit the local trainer, learn all the new spells, repair my gear, check my mail (ooh free penguin peg!) and visit the local gryphon rider. It’s finally time to get my day one character to the level cap. So, where to?

First of all, the interface in WOW is much improved over what I was used to. Quest locations are now directly fed into your map, there is help text everywhere and the on-screen prompts during fights make strategy a lot easier. It’s made the process of getting comfortable again much easier. One of the problems I used to have was trying to find quests and monsters that were suitable for my level, and this doesn’t seem to have been addresses. At level 47, I’m looking at a map with 3 extra continents and a blurry recollection of how to get around.

The game has no hints to where I should go next, so I consult mother Google to see where to next. Most websites only give me tips for the broad area of level 40 to 50 and others have little or no consensus for what the best place is for one specific level.  I jot down a couple of place-names and decide to go exploring. Even I get lost I figured it’s is a pretty good way to get used to the fundamental mechanics of the games exploration.

First up is The Hinterlands, a lush dark-green forrest full of shitty level 32 Wolves I’m gaining no XP from killing. Soon enough I was on the boat to Dustwallow Marsh in the Horde continent of Kalimdor. I take a flightpath to the other side of the continent to the jungles of Feralis. Total waste of time, nothing worth my while there either, so straight back to the Marsh (which looks remarkably different to what I was used to). After a brief spell killing raptors for hardly any XP, I trek south to Thousand Needles, an area famous for its huge sandstone columns.

As you can see, somebody left the tap on.

This was the first shock I had during my journey back. The entire area has been flipped on its head. Navigation via rope-bridges is no essential. Of course being the impatient twat that I am, I spent most of the next 30 minutes swimming and trying to find a way across the southern mountain range. After finally taking a past West, back through the jungles in Feralis, I took my final bird of the day to Tanaris.

Apparently my day had started in the very place I need to be, but Tanaris was no longer the desert I remembered. Some of the water from Thousand Needles had seeped through the northern mountain range and dramatically changed the eastern shoreline. This is where I will spent the majority of my time until level 50. I’m feeling excited about it too, something I couldn’t say I felt about WOW in a long time. I’ve always been more an explorer than a leveler, and in my three hours game-time I barely scraped one quarter of a level. This will have to change if I’m to hit the new level 85 cap in any reasonable time.

Right so. Nose to the grindstone!

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