Howling Fjord vs Borean Tundra: Where Should You Start?
Galoheart posted some good views and tips on the leveling experience from 70-80. I figured I'd weight in my opinion on the debate between starting in Borean Tundra or started in Howling Fjord.
Let me first just get out of the way that you are going to want to do both starting zones to get the full picture of what's going on. The order that I quested in beta was Borean Tundra to Howling Fjord to Grizzly Hills to the Dragonblight to Zul'drak and from there I would have gone to Sholazar Basin to the Storm Peaks and the culmination at Icecrown Glacier.
Borean Tundra and Howling Fjord span the same levels (69-72). The Grizzly Hills and the Dragonblight span the same amount of levels (73-76). Sholazar Basin and Zul'drak span the same amount of levels (76-79). And finally, The Storm Peaks and the Icecrown Glaicer span the same levels (79-80). In essence, if you ran a lot of instances, you could go straight from 70-80 doing just one half of Northrend. I don't think this is best way as I hit 80 about halfway through Zul'drak in my journey and that left three and a half zones for me to quest for gold.
Now the question on a lot of peoples minds (I know some people located this blog by searching the question in Google), is whether they should start in Howling Fjord or Borean Tundra. I'll give you a nice set of pros and cons for each zone.
Borean Tundra
Borean Tundra is on the west side of Northrend. The Horde get here from the zeppelin tower outside Orgrimmar and the Alliance get here from Stormwind Harbor.
Borean Tundra is the launch point of the orcs lead by Garrosh Hellscream and Overlord Saurfang. The main enemies you face are blue dragons, nerubians, magnataur, Nessingwary hunters, and generic undead Scourge forces.
I think that majority of people are going to hit Borean Tundra first. Orgrimmar and Stormwind are more popular than the Undercity or going to Menethil Harbor. So expect to see Borean Tundra crawling with people. Borean Tundra is also quite ugly. A mixture of whites, reds and browns make up the color palette.
On the upside though, the initial quests in Borean Tundra will give you more experience than the ones in Howling Fjord. The initial Borean quests all give 20k experience each, with the initial Howling Fjord ones giving only 12k each. (Note: I only know this from early beta, so they may have retuned the experience rewards since then). If you're in need of weapons, Borean Tundra has a quick questline that culminates in a blue weapon that is fairly simple to get through.
The variety of quests in Borean Tundra is also a bit more exciting as well, having multiple quests that give you control of siege weapons.
There is one level 70 instance here where you fight the Blue Dragonflight.
Howling Fjord
Howling Fjord is on the east side of Northrend. The Horde get here from the zeppelin tower outside the Undercity and the Alliance get here from Menethil Harbor.
Howling Fjord is the launch point of the Forsaken and their quest for a plague. The main enemies you face are Vykul and Dark Iron Dwarves.
I am expecting that Howling Fjord will be the less populated place just because more people just have the instinct to go to Northrend as soon as possible and their habits lead them to Orgrimmar and Stormwind and not Undercity and Menethil.
I do think that Howling Fjord is a much more beautiful zone. Sweeping green hills and lots of trees as well as a great soundtrack as well. It just doesn't have as many quests as Borean Tundra. But while the quests are less varying in style, they aren't short on lore.
Howling Fjord also has one level 70 instance where you fight the Vykul.
Synopsis
All in all, it just depends on your own personal preference. I expect for the first couple days Borean Tundra will be as bad as Hellfire Peninsula was whereas Howling Fjord, while busy, won't be nearly as populated. If you're trying to rush to 80, I think Howling Fjord would be the path (even though the quests are less experience initially there will be less competition). I know some people that are set on Howling Fjord first because they can't wait to see the Forsaken lore and fight with vikings. I know others that are dead set on Borean Tundra because they love the orcs and the Blue Dragonflight.
If you have any other questions about the zone, just leave a question in the comments.
October 31st, 2008 - 12:29
Thanks for this nice write up
October 31st, 2008 - 22:29
Have you considered a group of 2-3 people going straight to dragonblight or grizzly hills at level 70? I expect that a lot of people will flounder around the first two zones, and as they are going to be crowded, it’s going to take people quite a while to finish. A medium sized group should have no problem with the slightly higher mobs, and you don’t lose out on too much, for the gear from the quests (at least in Howlin Fjord) is much worse than welfare honour epics almost everyone has these days.
October 31st, 2008 - 23:30
If you’re trying to power rush, I guess, I prefer seeing the lore though. Also, there are some questlines in each of those zones that are shut off until you finish the Fjord or the Tundra. Also, I prefer doing all the lower zones so that I can do quests for gold at the higher zones.
November 1st, 2008 - 11:58
Any opinions an how your crafting professions influence this choice? For example, as a leatherworking, where do I get more skins?
November 1st, 2008 - 14:27
To be honest, I don’t think either zone has you killing too many beasts. It’s actually probably about even, maybe just a little in the favor of Borean Tundra because it’s just a larger zone with more quests.
November 12th, 2008 - 01:59
Thanks Mordiceius that was a great post. After reading I’ve decided to start in Howling Fjord.
November 12th, 2008 - 02:10
Umm mate, is it possible to do both starting areas, and still do every other zone? Cos i personally want to try out everything.
November 12th, 2008 - 07:54
It is possible to do both starting areas and that is actually what I would suggest doing for the full experience.
November 12th, 2008 - 11:41
Very good post!
November 13th, 2008 - 08:06
Nice one! last night was crazy as hell, as imagined by all Borean Tundra was as busy as Pub on St Patricks day, thank god respawn rate was HUGE. The Boat trip out was funny as hell, a boat FULL of 70′s all yelling and screaming is always gonna be amusing. Plus everyone runing around like headless chickens trying to complete as many quests as posible….I took the boat out to Howling Fjords just to see if i could chill and level at my own pace but found it to be much the same so in the end my advice is to just enjoy!
November 14th, 2008 - 13:11
So which quest line is it that gets you the blue weapon?
November 14th, 2008 - 14:54
Doing all the Warsong Hold quests get you a weapon.
November 21st, 2008 - 08:42
what weapon ima 70 rogue..so id like to know if the chain is worth it..also how do i start the chain and wheres it at??? And i personally started in Borean..good skins specially on amber edge wit hall the dragons, the mana worms also. Lotta fun with ghouls and necros. Good Luck
November 21st, 2008 - 14:03
The quest talked about is one you receive after you finish everything out of Warsong Hold. Hellscream will send you to Taunka’le Village with this quest: http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=11916
November 24th, 2008 - 22:08
I’m confused, well hey, thats right I will not be 80 for a while…plenty of time to lay out my plan…60 more levels :O
I hate having to start a whole new account.
December 21st, 2008 - 23:15
I have only gone to Borean Tundra, but after looking at WoWhead and other sites, I realized that it has a lot more better drops than Howling Fjord. Howling Fjord does have some pretty decent trinkets though if you are in the need.
The population in Borean Tundra is still pretty rediculous, but once you get past the starting quests and get a move on, there are less and less people. If you want to be alone and quest I would say go to Howling Fjord. To me, the drops are more than worth dealing with the population in Borean Tundra.
March 26th, 2009 - 00:28
Great psts guys ty
April 2nd, 2009 - 07:56
The tundra really is ugly:)
April 6th, 2009 - 10:05
Great post. I quested in Borean, I found it fun and entertaining. And and now doing the same with my Shaman. I mean, WOTLK has too many vrykuls in it anyway, why bother to spend more of your time killing them =p Plus Borean, to me [I have only seen my boyriend quest in Howling so have never dont it before, so may be biased] Borean has more diversity to it, dealing with bugs first, then scourge things, then ley lines in the water, then murlocs, also of different things in your line of quests, something to keep an easily bored person amused xD
June 2nd, 2009 - 13:49
To me, Borean Tundra is so much more FUN, like releasing baby murlocs from cages and watching them run behind you, making cute little noises. Watching poachers get caught in their own traps, and running in cave wearing a murloc suit.. those are just a few of the quests that are entertaining. Nothing boring about Borean!
August 26th, 2009 - 19:03
In my opinion.. I would say that Borean Tundra is more focused around new stuff compared to the Fjord. The Fjord has the same pattern and could be easy for some newer players. If you happen to enjoy exploring, go Borean because The Fjord is a bit boring
January 29th, 2010 - 16:57
I am going to be starting borean, then move on to howling fjord to get the full experience. Wows lore has gotten amazing with wrath and I don’t want to miss anything! Also, I really think borean doesn’t look to bad… In a way it has a really pretty setting… It reminds me a lot like alaska! Which is very beatuiful!
April 4th, 2010 - 00:46
My advice: If your class has water walking – go Fjord, it will be faster and more enjoyable. If you dont – go Borean, most of the area is land and shallow water.
May 17th, 2010 - 11:27
Well, tbh it doesn’t really matter which zone you go. Howlin also has many easy and entertaining quests like idk hunting the turkeys or controlling the robot. The stuff they provide is nearly the same(well borean a bit more) Howling has nice quest setups but less amount compared to borean. But to tell you the truth you would better go both to get follow-ups to next zones.GL with love Borntowin pally
May 21st, 2010 - 21:10
Gotta hate having to choose between two great areas D:
Gotta hate having to skip more than half of outland because you level too fast D: