World of Warcraft Wednesday: Howling Fjord
Places of Interest
Utgarde Keep
Valgarde
Vengeance Landing
New Agamand
Westguard Keep
Apothecary Camp
Fort Wildervare
Camp Winterhoof
Kamagua
The other starting zone for Northrend is Howling Fjord, which is a little less meaty perhaps than Borean Tundra, but deals more directly with the Lich King storyline. In fact, even if you start in Borean Tundra, it would behoove you to head over to Howling Fjord for a while to pick up on the Lore thread.
It is an interesting zone, insofar as it’s quest hubs are very spread out, but in a way that makes a lot of sense, and makes your progression through the zone and into Grizzly Hills feel very natural. There’s an oddly Horde bent to Howling Fjord, they have one more town than the Alliance and the Horde’s questlines are more fleshed out than the Alliance’s, except for one little interesting quest for the Alliance that explains were humans come from.
Mining: Cobalt. Lots of Cobalt here, especially along the various coastlines and fjords. A lot of the nodes are out of the way, but you should get a decent amount by the time you leave the zone.
Herbalism: Goldclover, Tiger Lilly, Deadnettle. Not a huge selection or collection of herbs here, but enough to get a leveling herbalist going. Deadnettle, by the way, is similar to the Old World’s Swiftthistle, in that you find it by gathering other nodes, not by itself.
Cloth: Frostweave. You’ll be farming a lot of your Frostweave off the Vykrul here, and it’s pretty easy to come by. It doesn’t drop stacks at a time like Netherweave seemed to in Outlands, but you’ll have more than enough to keep your professions moving.
Leather: Borean Leather. Bunches and bunches of Leather to be had here. In fact, Howling Fjords is one of the easiest leather gathering zones in the game, next to the “Nestingwary” zones (Sholozar, Nagrand, and Stranglethorn) which have more beast mobs than necessary by design.
Howling Fjord isn’t as well made as Borean Tundra, and the quest lines, especially for the Alliance, bear that out. But, while the Tundra focuses mostly on Malygos and the Dragonflights, the Fjords at least thrust you right into the action with the Vykrul and the Lich King. The individual quests are also better, I think. There’s one in particular which has you getting into a fistfight with yourself that is particularly impressive. So definitely check it out, but maybe as your second zone rather than the first.