After the usual leveling binge, I got my good Paladin to 120 by the end of Tuesday. I did a bunch of top-level content, including the conclusion of what I imagine is Jaina's 8.0 storyline (though a quest bug had me skip the Siege of Boralus dungeon. I've only run a couple heroics at this point, so I'm not quite ready for SoB (ha!)
Aside from some pants and his ret weapon, my main is now in full rare gear (though some are not quite up to Normal dungeon level.) So far I think I've gotten an item from every dungeon I've run, making me wonder if there's a sort of guarantee (does that make it more likely for you to get one of the last boss? Not sure how those statistics work out.) At the moment I think that's his best gearing option, but of course I'm trying to slow down after the initial sprint to the cap.
My Rogue has been the first Horde to the cap in every expansion since Cataclysm, but while his undead-sneakiness ties into the war storyline quite well, especially given Nathanos' increased role (though I think he'd be pissed that Sylvanas lost Undercity and isn't all that enthused about killing Alliance,) my Shaman seems like he'd fit in better among the Zandalari, and I actually really like how Enhancement feels these days (ask me again when I'm only in questing greens though.)
So I've done a few big quest chains in Nazmir, and the Shaman is sitting at 111. I'm definitely planning on taking it slower for him. To help stave off questing burnout, I'm probably going to alternate Alliance-Horde-Alliance-Horde, at least for the first five characters. So after the shaman, it'll go Death Knight, Rogue, and then Demon Hunter.
One thing I've noticed is how there's sort of parallels going on between the three zones on each continent. Drustvar and Nazmir are about how an ancient foe is cultivating a creepy cult that threatens stability of the continent. Tiragarde Sound and Zuldazar are about conspiracies within ruling class to try to usurp power from the local monarch. Stormsong Valley and Vol'dun are about seeking out missing military assets (that's more of a stretch for Vol'dun, to be fair) and discovering a connection to the Old Gods.
So far I'd say I think Zandalar is hands-down the cooler-looking continent, but on the other hand, Kul Tiras has some really cool things going for it (just about everything Drust-related is pretty awesome.)
Questing feels a lot more free-form than it has for a while - the model seems to be to have a main story, but then tons of shiny exclamation points to lure you away from it. This does make for a lot of truly optional quests, but it does lead to some odd pacing issues. For example, Stormsong Valley has its most exciting quest chain, which leads into the zone's dungeon, all happen as more or less a prerequisite for the rest of the zone, which tends to be lower-stakes stories (until you get to the west coast and Fort Daelin.)
One note: at the level cap, Alliance players get a quest sending you to a manor south of the Shrine of the Storm, and a series of quests that are all one big deep-cut reference to Darkest Dungeon, a game I've written about on this blog. I don't know what people who haven't played that game will think of it, but as a fan, it's pretty delightful to see how many very specific references that whole area is making.
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