Well I didn't really know what to expect. I am not so much into surfing all the websites for any images that can be found on new games etc. I have looked at a few pictures here and there but that is about it. Of course as all beta's go this one was not with some hassle at the beginning. For one thing the Blizzard downloader is as usual anything but fast. Also for the first couple of days the WoW-EU site was going down and you could not upgrade your account or transfer mirror copies of your characters. I was lucky and got mine done right away. It took about 2 days for the characters to be copied over.

So once I had the game installed I just made new level 1 char of the Blood Elf and Draenei.  The Draenei starting area is somewhat dark, but very pretty. The graphics on this expansion are very fantasy like. I also decided to make a Blood Elf and I have to say I was amazed. If Blizzard is trying to get more people to play horde I think this will do it. Its like a fairytale land. Its very bright and colorful, and the Blood Elves themself look very nice. I will post screenshots tomorrow in the photo gallery we are adding today.

So finally my level 60 priest and hunter are here. I logged into Ironforge and took off on a flight to Nethergard Keep. From there I rode over to the dark portal. The mobs are no longer in the crater, so you can ride straight up to the portal. I also didn't know I needed to redo my talent points. They reset them back to 0 so you can respec and try out the new talents.

As I approached the portal I had no idea what would be on the other side.

Taking a deep breath, I walked into the portal. On the other side where a lot of NPCs running around and 2 sides, one for Alliance and one for Horde. You get a quest there to go to the flightmaster which in turn gives you a flightpath to the first area called Hellfire Peninsula.

This is on the other side of the portal. As I walked down to see more, this is what I ran into next.

There is some ongoing battle here between these mobs and the NPCs that guard this area. I stood back because I did not want to be part of the battle as the mobs are level ??? elites.

So I decided ok lets get out of here and I jumped on the bird to the next city. You fly into what is Nethergard Keep on the other side. In fact it was like Blasted Lands in outer space. Below are some pictures I took as I rode around a little bit.

I am not a fan of Blasted Lands so I will not spend any longer in this place then I have too. We did explore a bit out of here and the next areas are a bit nicer. There will be tons more pictures coming as Raven is the king of screenshots.

Nytewynde Dragon
Guild Mistress of VoM