Entering Outland can be a traumatic experience if you’re not ready for it. Gird your digital loins with our six-step plan.
Leaving Las Azeroth
Forget Azeroth, Outland is where it's at. You can enter the Dark Portal at level 58, and it's worth the trip: loot out there is raid quality. Before you go, grab some Runecloth, get your First Aid and Cooking to 300, stop off at Nethergarde Keep and buy some booze (seriously, it's for a quest later) then sit back and enjoy the ride.
Dungeon crawl
The first two instances in Outland are just a stone's throw from the Alliance and Horde bases in Hellfire Peninsula. Hellfire Ramparts and The Blood Furnace will be the instances of choice while starting out in Outland: they're five-man and are at the same standard of difficulty as Azeroth's level 60 dungeons. Each has three bosses, and can be completed within an hour. Just pack a few Fire Resist items before leaving: there's a dragon inside that you might want to watch for.
Bring it on
There is one quest to pick up before starting the Ramparts instance: "Weaken the Ramparts," which involves picking up various body parts of each boss, Gargolmar, Omor and Naza, rewarding you with a nice blue item. The first bit, with Gargolmar, is a simple tank and spank. The second needs your team to spread out: Omor will curse one member of your party with a 400 damage spell. It's not harmful to the victim, but will hurt anyone within 15 meters. Watch out for his friends, too: they'll heal him when he gets below 50% health. Nazan is a nightmare, being a dragon and all. First kill the two guards. Once they're down, the rider will get off, and he's easy enough to kill. But while you're at it, Nazan will fly overhead, dropping puddles of fire, and breathing on your team. Keep moving, avoid the hot patches, and pray he doesn't pick on your healer.
Tradeskillz
Master trainers for each main profession will happily charge you 10g to allow you to skill up to 375 while Herbs, Mining and Skinning need 300 minimum to be able to carry out these tasks in Outland. Level them up before you leave for the new world.
Quantum Leap
Back in Azeroth, you'll find that the Caverns of Time have opened up. They're just to the southeast of Gadgetzan. There are three level 70 instances inside, each bringing to life a piece of the WoW backstory. The Escape from Durnholde Keep has you helping Thrall to escape his Alliance captors (the tutorial campaign from Warcraft III), the opening of the Dark Portal (how the Orcs came to Azeroth in Warcraft I) and The Battle of Mount Hyjal (the final level of Warcraft III ). The first two instances are for five players, while the latter is a 25-man raid. Getting in there is a big deal.
Escape Gravity
At level 70 flying mounts become available for everyone, while at level 68 druids are able to train the equivalent of a standard flying mount as a skill. They cost 100g for the artisan version and double that for the expert one. This might seem cheap until you factor-in the cost of learning the actual skill... 800g for level 225 and 5,000g for 300. The standard cheapo version only swoops along at 60% faster than usual, however the epic version is 250% faster, allowing access to otherwise inaccessible places across Outland. One problem: you still can't fly back in Azeroth.
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