Posted by pixiestixy on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 - 33 Comments
Tags: Alliance, dragon, dragonblight, fantasy, Horde, lich king, lore, naxx, naxxramas, questing, ruby dragonshrine, scarlet onslaught, scourge, wyrmrest temple
In the past few weeks here at Project Lore, we’ve had the pleasure of watching the crew battle their way through Naxxramas, until finally reaching the powerful “Kel’ Thud.” And while they’ve been busy up in the necropolis in the sky, I’ve also been busy leveling down below in Dragonblight.
This zone has got to be one of my favorites in the game. The fantasy elements of WoW are a big draw for me, so a zone dedicated to the lore around dragons sucked me in.
The valley wasteland known as the Great Dragonblight is a somewhat mysterious land littered with the corpses of all different kinds of dragons who have come for their final rest. But the Lich King and his Scourge legions have found use in the remaining skeletons, many which have been reanimated into undead frost wyrms such as the tragic Sindragosa and the very Sapphiron who now resides within Naxx.
As for quests, the Dragonblight’s offerings range from level 72 to 75 in the long grind to level 80, with a good few group quests, some giant elites to battle in the north and also several dailies.
Both factions can pick up some sizable XP rewards (especially if you take advantage of rested XP when killing mobs) through questlines messing with the Scarlet Onslaught. Yes, the same baddies formerly in the Scarlet Crusade now have moved into Dragonblight in hopes of destroying the Lich King - and anyone else who stands in their way. I’m still trying to find a PUG to finish up Do Unto Others and the end of the Horde line. Another good line with some fun dragon lore lies in the Ruby Dragonshrine. And again both factions can partake, which is a plus in my book.
But for me, the real fun came with visiting the holy Wyrmrest Temple, riding a dragon to the top and taking on missions from Alexstrasza, the queen of the dragons and guardian of all life on Azeroth. Plus, her character model looks really damn cool. She and Lord Afrasastrasz are involved with Horde, Alliance and neutral quests alike. And if you just can’t get enough of her majesty, there’s always the Defending Wyrmrest Temple daily that opens up after completing the Rifle the Bodies questline. You’ll get to shoot down dragons while earning a little money, some xp and a bit of rep with the Wyrmrest Accord all at once. And as an added bonus, if you can manage to complete the quest in under two minutes, you’ll earn the Rapid Defense achievement. That’s my kind of quest.
There’s actually a ton more about Dragonblight that has really made me love this zone. I just have a couple more group quests to finish up before dinging 74 and moving on, probably to the dreaded Zul’Drak zone. I’m going to miss it.
Has anyone else felt a kind of attachment to Dragonblight? How about any other zones? I’ll admit it, I also still get nostalgic thinking about the many, many hours I’ve spent leveling in the Barrens.
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By scruffy on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
first! i love dragonblight as well but it is so hard to find a group for the group quests
By Kriissii on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
I love sithilus
I think all the quests are fun, and it has AQ! 
By Drakk on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Yeah Dragonblight turned out to be filled with lots of pretty lore! I especially liked the Dragonshrines, with the Chromie quest line on top (past and future self)!
By Luutarha on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
The Defending Wyrmrest daily is what got me through the slog of leveling for quite some time. I enjoyed not only the lore surrounding the dragons but also the Titans. I really hope Blizz does something with Dragonblight to up the lore there and maybe give us a closer look into the past of the area. Other than Storm Peaks I think Dragon blight may be my favourite area in Northrend.
By Zach on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
The cutscene after completing the long line of quests in Dragonblight, and the quests that follow made up the most fun I’ve ever had playing WoW.
By Quo on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
@ pixiestixy
Obviously interesting and astonishing Dragonblight can very well compete with Netherstorm (floating giant pieces of PURPLE land, joined together by bridges and blood elven mana factories…together with those strange environmental bubbles with plants, lakes and springs…) or Storm Peaks/Zangramarsh/Hellfire Peninsula… and so on! There were so many cool areas I can’t really pick my favourite one, because I’m so focused on the look and never completed fully all the areas and their posibilities. The truth is, they all have some beauty and inner awesomeness connected with WoW’s story…I mean they all in some points of the game (quest or instance, special boss etc) fill the missing information about what we have already got to know. That’s what’s so exciting when finding those little puzzles. While You’re leveling in order to get 80 as fast as possible it’s hard to stay for a moment. take a deep breath and look around though so good luck with that if You’re not aiming for ultra gear at the first point.
By Bib on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
I like SB please it reminds me of STV and I loved STV.
By Bib on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
Place*
By cocopuff on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
ya DB is really cool i ran 3 characters trough it and every time i thought i would be set for a while but what do you know i end up doing the same quest i never get tired of watching taht cut scene or destoying UC in the chain allso it is so cool to see what i read right infront of me in the orb quest lne whear you watch athas betray his crue and taht dwarf its allmost as cool as COS the one turn away is is taht daily its allways so annoying t oget ambushed by 5 dragons
By Daywind on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Don’t worry about Zul Drak. Its tonnes of fun too, with the Guru Of Drakuru questline winding up and all the cool Knights of the Ebon Blade/Argent Crusade lore fleshing out a bit, and dont forget riding around on a vengeance hungry storm giant just for good measure! Lots of fun to be had
By Kimeghale on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Dragonblight and icecrown were by far my favorite northrend zones, but part of that is for some reason i love the snow covered zones such as those 2.
By Stewy on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
The main thing that dragged my into the dragonblight was the quest line involving the Wrathgate. Its awsome, its got a pretty nice cinematic video, a awsome battle in UC and lots of xp and gold. Also the lore behind the dragons i have loved, im a big lore fan.
By alex on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
I’ve been bringing up this point all along, with everyone rushing to the level cap, most people never take the time to do all the questlines in the game. there is so much lore in the game if people would just go through each area and quest. each area also has dungeons or questlines that take you to dungeons which help with the lore behind the instances. These are my favorite things in the game is all the lore behind it that’s probably why it took me over 2 years to hit the level cap is because i’ll quest and quest and quest and do it without much rested xp bonuswhich makes doing the quests alot more fun because you’re doing them at or near the level they’re intended for. All this “POWER”leveling going on just so you can have an 80 in a day or 2 is a bunch of crap i mean what’s the point of it you miss 90% of the content in the game by rushing the leveling process.
By alex on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
instances are another point specially since BLIZZ has removed most of the attunments required for most instances like karazan. people don’t bother with doing the long questlines filled with the lore behind the instances thus promoting “POWER”levling. how many people are out there that are attuned to karazan or heck even The Molten Core in Blackrock Mountains I bet if we polled the WoW community you’d probably find less the 1% are attuned to The Molten Core and less then 5% are attuned to karazan. and ask them if they’ve heard of The Eye or Blackwing Lair and less then 5% will even know what you’re talking about because most have never seen those raids
By Raknor on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
I cant believe you didnt mention the Wrathgate questline when talking about Dragonblight. That whole chain was very cool, capped off by a battle movie! Whats better than that?
By Garmazel on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Dragonblight sure was the highlight of all levling!
By Furyrip on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
Dragonblight actually spurred me on to levelling all the way to 80..
I mean, all the lore ( or dialogue, I like to call it
) just inspired me to carry on, and find out what actually turned Arthas against us..
Then there was The Wrath Gate cutscene, which was probably the only reason I carried on levelling my DK, i had given up on my 72 hunter, Borean was so monotonous, but my DK was just enough fun to get me through to DB, and that made my levelling all the more sweet!
By Brokenwing on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
SB is absolutely amazing with such detail. Not to mention all the different altitudes, water, forest, etc. Grown up STV imo and “I’m lovin it.” Secondly comes Howling Fjorde! not an amazing questing place but still visually appealing to me
By Kyndranigar on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
I didn’t much like the zone itself, all white wasteland with dragon bones, but I did like the overall climax of the questline. (Yay Wrathgate) the zone I find visually beautiful and while the lore isn’t great, I enjoy my time there was Grizzly Hills. I grew up in the shadows of a redwood national forest and GH just takes me back.
By Amatera on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Dragonblight has some cool lore, but it’s just a big tease. There’s so much in the game that deals with the Dragonflights, that only having a quest or two dealing with some of them is kind of disappointing!
By kstroud on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
Sholazar Basin is definitely my favorite zone. I’ve always enjoyed zones such as these, nagrand, un’goro, stranglethorn vale, etc. Sholazar was the only zone I was determined to finish every quest.
By Quo on Friday, May 29th, 2009 at 4:56 am
Be honest: who was in a progressive raiding guild and didn’t rush to get 80 as fast as possible to get heroics going, and so after gearing up - 10 man Naxx? Loads of people did! And all we can do now is feeling pitty about lost lore. Now, we can experience it it only on alts or by trying to get back to the quest lines we didn’t finish/ passed. Personally, I will surely!
By Weeney on Friday, May 29th, 2009 at 6:04 am
I loved Dragonblight but my all time favorite place in Northrend for questing would have to be Grizzly Hills Thats where i dingd 80 because i solo’d those Pit fighting group quest with my DK btw i have lvl 80 Druid aswell but i like my DK the most. Grizzly Hills is my favorite place because the Quest were great and it realy made wow seem big again like u were in this vast forest.
By Alex on Friday, May 29th, 2009 at 6:45 am
@ Quo
I know we didn’t know we was going to have an achievment system to spur most of us to do things that most people playing the game would normally do. #1 is actually falling off a 50 foot cliff or ledge or platform just to get the “going Down” achievment. and most people that are trying to get as much of the achievments they can and as many titles they can are actually going back and doing the quests in the “OLD” world as well as running though “SOLO” through “OLD” world instances just to get credit for them so they can get their dungeon master title. granted most people didn’t get credit for them when the new achievment system first went live and they had to go do them, but actually how many people ever did any of them while they were leveling up or did any of the quests that went along with them i’ll estimate less then 5% of the whole WoW player base did all the instances at the level they were meant to be done at in a group and less then 20% of those that did do the instances at the proper level did the questlines that went with them. I know i’m rambling on but it’s a good point. personally I loved the lore behind the wrathgate in dragonblight, but I also liked the nestingway lore started off in STV then later on in Nagrand, and then off to SB. there’s also the whole pirate theme based lore in Howling Fjord and the start of the dragon lore in Boreon Tundra. as well as the D.E.T.R.A. or whatever the 5 letter acronym is for the druids in the tundra. there’s alot more of the “OLD” world lore I also like but enough rambling on you all get the point
By Kalgorn on Friday, May 29th, 2009 at 9:07 am
“the dreaded Zul’Drak Zone” ? I don’t understand these words. Personally, i enjoyed Zul’Drak far more than i enjoyed Dragonblight. I fully enjoyed all the quests in all the zones but i don’t think i read a single one while completeing them thanks to the miracle of Questhelper. Got me my ‘Loremaster of Northrend’ achievement without having to read a single one of the quests.
But in Zul’Drak i know i read those. Those were some epic quest lines. Especially Guru of Drakuru. LOVED that
Dunno why, but it was alot of fun.
Also…
@Alex
It’s D.E.H.T.A.
It’s Blizzards way of making fun of P.E.H.T.A. which is a group that’s against killing animals such as Deer. That’s why when you kill something around BT and then go over to them, they all attack you. Pretty hilarious if you know the story of it.
By Helmarn on Friday, May 29th, 2009 at 9:34 am
Dragonblight was enjoyable, my favorite part was the Wrathgate quest-line for sure.
I will admit though out of all the zones that I’ve leveled in I have enjoyed Storm Peaks the most, even though you have to fly everywhere and it’s a pain if you don’t have epic flying (which I didn’t when I was leveling there). I still need to finish off Icecrown, Sholazar & Borean Tundra for the Loremaster of Northrend parts, but that’s what I like so far.
Great quest-lines and lore in Storm Peaks!
By cocopuff on Friday, May 29th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
sadly you dont have a choice no matter what you do you’re gointo miss content if you go to slow you will miss teh end game content go to fast uyyo will miss the begininggame content but i am must say the lore is a bit confusing i didnt know orcs from another planet untill mount dew realesed taht game fuel promotion whear you watch or at least click o nteh videos for 25 tokens i watched teh orc starter video i allso didnt know that drenei aand orc were from teh same planet when i first went though the HOS event whear bronze beard trys to crack teh computer and it starts rembling about the course of flesh and the old gods the first time i heard of the old gods because i took m y time and tryed to get as much out of WOTLK as possible i missed the the eye off eternity and naxx and i aam missing ulduar i missed all the BC and vanilla all teh raids i made up for some of them like the AQ ZG and kara the eye aka tampest keep seprpent shrine caverns intrestingly enough i didnt knnow existed before doing it gruul magtheridon blade edge mountain werent so bad i self the one place i wish i done is BT and mout hyjal to kill such historick idols illidan or archimond i just gave up all hope of ever doing kil’jaeden
By Alex on Saturday, May 30th, 2009 at 6:56 am
@ Kalgorn
thanks for the right acronym it’s been awhile since i visited the tundra busy doing some argent tourney dailies for gold and reputation as well as saving up those champion seals for the pets mounts and some of the gear.
@ cocopuff
get a new keyboard or learn to type hard to read your post. but your right to a point you do miss content if you rush to 80. And yes you’ll be behind on new content if you take the time to do all the quests to get all the lore the game has to give at this point. but IMO it’s worth it to take the time.
I wish thet the game was setup so to progress to higher level content you need to first “Graduate” from the lower level content, including the instances in the zone.
By Voldenmist on Sunday, May 31st, 2009 at 6:00 am
For lore sake, Sapphiron was not exactly reanimated from the corpses in dragonblight. He was reanimated by Arthas himself in Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne after Arthas killed the Blue dragon with the same name.
Same difference I know, but again, just for lore sake.
By Strongsword on Sunday, May 31st, 2009 at 7:47 am
Dragonblight, after Grizzly hills, was my favourtie zone in northrend, most likely due to the really cool questline that ends with a great cut scene and an achievement. I missed it when I left but things have to move on
By Staffan on Sunday, May 31st, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Dragonblight was OK,with some highlights like the Bronze dragonflight quest and the whole Wrathgate thing. My favorite zone in LK is the Storm Peaks, with awesome quests that have you doing things like having battles against the Hyldnir on dragonback, and reuniting Thorim with the Sons of Hodir. You definitely want an epic flying mount before doing the SP quests though, with all the times you have to fly up that HUGE peak to talk to Thorim.
By Drall on Sunday, May 31st, 2009 at 5:11 pm
Dragonblight was tons of fun. Oh, Oacha’noa…
God, she freaked me out.
Grizzly Hills is fun too, reminds me of Canada…or, what used to be Canada.
Too bad we don’t have too many of those fur trading posts anymore.
By Kalgorn on Monday, June 1st, 2009 at 9:16 am
Haha. Love the Grizzly HIll comparison to Canada.
While Dragonblight was rather enjoyable, can’t say anything against the questlines there such as Wrathgate and Wrymrest Temple. I can also remember one quest with The Bronze Dragonflight(i think) you have to take some item to that area and use it. Then you have to fight against yourself. Pretty fun
But of all the zones in Northend, the best place to quest, for me, was Icecrown. From the beginning of LK content when i started a DK just to try them out and experiance their questline, i can remember hearing Tirion(i think that’s him) saying ‘we will tear down the fortress of Icecrown!” right after the battle at Light Hope’s Chapel. The name sounded intimidating because i knew that’s where this Lich King resided. I wanted to go straight there but with no flying and always on foot, walking to a 78-80 zone wasn’t a good idea.
Was glad to finally get there when i did. It was loads of fun. All the group quests made it interesting
The only thing i can say i like about Storm Peaks is the Skinning cave. As im a skinner/Leatherworker, i love that cave. Great place to farm Borean Leathers if you need some. And you need ALOT of it! Fortunatly you can get alot in there. And it may just be me, but it seems to me that the ‘Arctic Fur’ drops there considerably more often than anywhere else. I’ve farmed there for an hour and got an entire stack of it along with about 6 stacks of Borean Leathers.
Sons of Hodir quests(which im sadly just starting) are pretty good too. Simple and fast enough to enjoy them while doing my dailys.