BE newbie zone

The Blood Elf newbie zone, Eversong Woods, is spectacular. We’re less enthralled with Silvermoon Ruins, which are a little chaotic and difficult compared to traditional start areas, but Eversong Woods absolutely make up for it. There is an abundance of quests, most of which stack nicely. Experience and equipment rewards are suited very well to the player’s progression. For example, Warlocks won’t find themselves having to assault a trio of higher-level mobs in order to get their pet, as they might in Elwynn Forest. The Hunter class gets a good bow as a reward for one of the class quests, which we can attest to from experience.

There are impressively long quest arcs, considering the low levels, and a fairly large variety of enemies – beasts, Wretched, Trolls, mana creatures/elementals, Undead and Night Elves. Drop rates are generous and we didn’t really feel a shortage of equipment with any of our trial characters, even the hunter we leveled up to the point he could get out of the zone.

Overall, Eversong Woods is spectacular. It doesn’t force the player into many awkward situations, such as by having him run through a group of higher-level mobs to get to his quest target area. The balance and flow of the action, the variety of enemies and tasks, and the consistently high quality of the quests makes this by far the best newbie area in World of WarCraft, even at beta stage.

Beyond Eversong Woods are the Ghostlands, the Horde-cursed and occupied woodlands where the elves used to reign. Here the Blood Elves find themselves making common cause with the Forsaken Undead against their mutual enemy, and are unusually pragmatic about the whole arrangement. Quests here remain interesting, with the player having to take on some semi-mandatory tasks. What does semi-mandatory mean? Well, if you’d like to use the merchant in the first town in Ghostlands, you’d better bring him supplies. We haven’t spent as much time in the Ghostlands as in Eversong Woods, but they share more than a passing resemblance to Duskwood in atmosphere, though the layout is wildly different and more reminiscent of Elwynn Forest than anything.


The Blood Elf racial powers are extremely attractive. They can drain mana from up to three targets, and also use an area of effect silence (centered on themselves) if they have at least one mana tap running. The silence spell will also give the Blood Elf a boost in mana, depending on how many mana taps he had going. We’re not sure about the effectiveness of the silence, though the mana is very nice for all sorts of casters. Mounts for the Blood Elves will be a living version of the giant chicken (officially known as a Hawkstrider) that gnomes ride.