Gorgrond First Impressions

With the latest Warlords of Draenor beta build, the zones Gorgrond and Talador have now opened up, and the level cap has been raised to 96. Upon hitting level 92 in Shadowmoon Valley or Frostfire Ridge, you'll get a quest sending you to Gorgrond.

I played through Gorgrond on a Dwarf Protection Paladin, so this is an Alliance perspective on the zone. I also chose to get the Lumber Mill, which may have meant that one of the quest chains I got was different than what you would have gotten if you chose the Sparring Arena. Once the servers are a bit more stable, I'm going to try it out the other way.

First of all: Gorgrond is nothing like I expected it to be. The image I had was of the rocky, mountainous region that you see Grommash riding through in the announcement trailer. Given that it's the home of the Blackrock Orcs and all their industrial stuff, and indeed many of the screenshots I had seen, it actually turns out that about half of Gorgrond - and it's the half in which you spend your entire time while leveling up - is full of dense vegetation. The main antagonists you face are the Botani, are race of creepy-as-hell plant people who seem to serve these massive plant-beasts called Genesaurs.

It's kind of cool, but it really seems like what I was expecting to find in Tanaan Jungle. I personally love desert settings, so in all honesty this was a bit of a let-down. That said, there is a whole other half of the zone that I didn't even have quests sending me to, and so I'm pretty confident that there will be level 100 content that will take us to the rocky, dry, badlands of Gorgrond.

I have not yet gone into Talador, and at the moment the world server is down, but what's exciting and encouraging is that upon returning to my garrison, I found a pretty cool and pretty plot-heavy quest chain back in Shadowmoon Valley.

BIGGER SPOILERS, I GUESS

When you get back to Lunarfall at 94, you get two quests. One simply sends you into Talador, but the other has you go down to the Night Elf outpost that's basically your next-door neighbor. Khadgar and Cordana Felsong (who is a Warden, like Maiev, but minus the crazy,) have become aware that there is some Shadow Council business going on in the woods to the northwest. Now, the Shadow Council is not a part of the Iron Horde, but they still sure as Fel want to do their usually nefarious things.

You and Cordana capture an Observer demon and force him to reveal what is going on, and you discover that it's actually the leadership of the Shadow Council who is meeting in the woods. Gul'dan gives instructions to Teron'gor, Cho'gall, and Razuun (the traitorous Draenei/Eredar who you may recall killing in the Deathforge in Outland's Shadowmoon Valley.) You go with Khadgar and attempt to capture Gul'dan, but Gul'dan breaks free and sets Razuun on you. (This chain also has a great callback, involving the Infernal Krosius, who at least used to be in Felwood.) And when you return to inform Khadgar of Gul'dan's escape, you suddenly get Sapped, and Khadgar Ice Blocks just in time to prevent getting skewered by none other than Garona Halforcen. Cordana chases her off, but yes, it looks like she's in the mix as well.

I have yet to play the Horde side of this, but presumably there will be a similar experience. Philosophically, I like the idea that a zone does not have to be strictly limited to a single level range. Indeed, it appears that every zone in Draenor will have at least some content for level 100, which should make those who enjoy questing happy. And for those who don't, I have to say that leveling is very quick in Draenor. Partially this is because, with twice the levels, it's designed to take half as long for each ding. But I also think they've very consciously tried to make the process quick. And given how much questing I did in Shadowmoon Valley after hitting 92, I suspect that if you don't care for a given zone, you can very easily level past it in previous zones.