Northrend East

The eastern tip of Northrend is more typical of what you’d expect from a wintery expansion, dominated by the snow-tipped mountains of Howling Fjord, and the pine forests of Grizzly Hills.

12) Holy disappointment: The Argent Dawn (a human faction searching for ways to combat the Scourge) have sent a search party to Zul’Drak to discover how the trolls are holding back Arthas’s undead army. They won’t like the answer.

13) Mind the troll: Arthas sheltered at Drak’Tharon keep while searching for the runeblade Frostmourne. Now, it’s a Scourge dungeon, with two instances: a 71-73 one reached via an entrance from the Grizzly Hills, southern side, and a 74-76 one from the north.

14) Happy lodgings: Amberpine Lodge is by far our favorite location in Northrend – a hunting lodge perched at the edge of a cliff, overlooking a spectacular waterfall. It’s a minor quest-hub, but you may find yourself returning just to enjoy the ambience.

15) Naval warfare: Venture Bay is a small PvP objective that both Horde and Alliance players can scrap over. You’ll find a quest inside which rewards you for killing enemy players.

16) Angry Vikings: The natives of Howling Fjord are the Vrykule, a race of half-men, half-giants. They’ve recently allied themselves to Arthas and the Scourge, although there are hints in Warcraft lore that the Vrykule are the progenitors of the human race. 

17) Sky boats: The hills and cliffs of Howling Fjord are made slightly easier to traverse thanks to a series of lifts. The great lift is the most spectacular – a grand cable car where passengers sit in a Viking longboat.

18) Wild at heart: Gun’Drak is the ice-trolls’ capital city, and seat of the baddest troll bosses. You’ll enter the capital as a five-man party, and it’s meant for levels 76-78. Prepare to fight giant dinosaurs. Seriously: the trolls have been breeding some freaky creatures.

19) Step up: Zul’Drak is one giant ice-troll temple, now mostly abandoned or infested. As it rises, the temperature drops. Along the banks, you’ll find a few old troll huts and villages, but it’s dominated by floating Necropoli and Scourge camps.

20) Big log: Grizzlemaw is a spectacular centerpiece for Grizzly Hills – the hollowed out stump of a giant tree. Inside, you’ll find a nest of Furbolgs who are experimenting with the magic that created the tree in the first place.

21) Herding cows: On the road down into Grizzly Hills you’ll meet small Tauren caravans, cows migrating into the slightly warmer climate. They look peaceful. So kill them dead.

22) First stop: Utgarde Keep is a central fixture of Howling Fjord, a giant castle and home to a pair of five-man instances. The first, Utgarde Keep, is set for parties of level 70-72 and should be your first stop. The latter is for level 80 players. Both feature fights against angry Norsemen. 

23) Off the boat: Horde players begin at Vengeance Landing, where they’ll discover that they’re fending off an Alliance raid. Battleships off the coast are shelling your fortifications, so grab a gryphon taxi, fly out to the boats, and finish off the gunners.

24) Pillage idiots: Alliance soldiers land at Valgarde, which they must defend from the local wildmen. Or you can always spend time chasing turkeys: there’s an achievement for killing 20 of them in three minutes.