Marvelous sedative - spoiler requestedFollow

You do realize that it is one of two starter zones for Cata, right? The only reasons for an 85 to be there are farming (Deepsea Scale sells well on my server) or story.

The story starts slow because if you had gone there at 80 (as intended) you'd need to build up your gear a bit. As you progress from cave to cave you get more of the story about the naga and their machinations; you'll even go through segments where you relive past events and play as one of them. From that standpoint, I'm rather fond of the zone.

I haven't run it on a horde toon yet, but I'd guess that transit works the same for both factions. Alliance can get back and forth using the flight masters but at some point you also unlock the portal, just as you do with other zones for Cata.

See, that's just the difference in it, I took my rogue there yesterday, had been languishing at 80 since Lich King, hit 82 before I signed off for the night (house to myself, cleaning can wait )

the last 3 characters I leveled from 80 went through Hyjal and yes the rogue will have to go there as you have to do so much of Hyjal to access certain things that you'll want to do later so Hyjal was my default to start.

The only trouble I had in Vash'jir is the quest where you're cleaning out the cave I got turned around and had trouble finding my way back to it to get the other corpses to clean out as I was on the phone with family...

I had arrived in the zone with around 30K hp total, and in 2 levels with just the gear upgrades from quests I'm over 45K hp.

Going to the zones at the intended level makes them more enjoyable for sure... like going back with an 85 to the zones you've missed for loremaster, you just blow through them and nothing is a challenge but following up with an appropriate level character... you see more of the challenge in it.

Rogue's been enjoying the volume of skin-able creatures that are involved in the quests there too.

World of Warcraft, like most MMO's, is built around the concept of the four D's. Defend, deliver, destroy, drop. Some quests do an amazing job at hiding the fact you are doing one of these quests. Other quests tend to fail at that department.

That said, you never really need to step a foot in Vashj'ir due to Hyjal being a highly recommended zone (dailies at 85 once you get far enough into the zones quests). Me? I will probably do Vashj'ir again. I enjoy the story in the zone and being able to quest in three dimensions is pretty cool.

Edit: I should note that if you are a tank you will need to go to Vashj'ir to get your helm enchant. I would also highly recommend getting your sea-pony before visiting the vendor, would make the trip a bit easier.

Edited, Jan 14th 2012 12:18pm by Criminy

Maybe its just me, but I find Uldum to be far and away the toughest of the 'regular' zones. Its the only one I've found where an 85 actually NEEDS a party to beat one of the quest bosses. That &!*%^ Pit Lord nailed me so often that I finally pulled a Nixon victory (declare victory and abandon). Even the bloody camels and antelopes make a serious fight of it.

the pit lord IS a special case, and I think a glitched one on my server I've got 3 characters stuck at him for zone achievement because it's glitched, running you get invisible mini-crocs hanging off you and jumping doesn't dislodge them, haven't been able to get a group together yet to at least try healing me through it but certainly annoying being stuck through my completionist drive.