Starting out in Wrath

So, with two toons over 68, I had the luxury of being able to test the waters in both start zones, Horde-side.

Sadly, I think Ideale will hit 71 before Ahami hits 70, even though Ahami is now supposedly my main. This is because the Borean Tundra may be the "Boring Tundra" to the Alliance, but to the Horde (or me at least), it's the "OH GOD WHY ARE ALL THESE BUG THINGS SWARMING ME EVERY TIME I LEAVE WARSONG HOLD!?!?! OH CRAP I DIED" Tundra. Seriously, it's a little terrifying. I finished up with the bug things and ran away to the taunka village, and now I'm afraid to leave.

Plus, Howling Fjord is both way prettier and has a giant wandering elite akin to the Fel Reaver for me to dodge, and this makes things much more interesting. And I got my turkey-killin' achievement.

As far as quests, there are a lot more Horde quests in Borean Tundra than Howling Fjord, but the Howling Fjord ones are way more fun. The Borean Tundra ones are more standard — go kill some bugs and destroy their egg sacks, go kill some boars and bring back their meat, go kill blah blah kill blah. It's all running around and killing and then more running around and more killing (so far, anyway). Howling Fjord, on the other hand, has a bunch of "go kill stuff" quests, but it also has some cool Forsaken-related quests, like the one where you go get the ingredients to make a plague, then bomb some ships with it, then go do some research, then run the research to New Agamand, then go get more ingredients to make another plague, etc.

Gear-wise, both zones seem great for a fresh-70 hunter; Borean Tundra seems better for enhancement shamans, while Howling Fjord seems to offer more upgrades for elemental and resto shamans. This is, of course, for 68 to fresh, green-geared 70; even the crappy blues I have on Ide are mostly about the same as any "sidegrades" I'm getting here. For example, I got a nifty axe with +61 agility and stuff on it, but the hit in, well, +hit and +stamina I took by switching has me second-guessing. If I was currently specced survival, it'd be no contest, but as a BM hunter with crappy +hit to start with, I'm not sure it's worth trading yet. I did get some boots that are much better than my old ones, and actually match my current gear, though!

I'm thinking that what I will do, because Ahami is killing things quite excruciatingly slowly compared to Nagrand, is play pocket-healer to willing guildies or others in both starting zones (and beyond once I'm a higher level) whenever I can; I should really do the quests in both to catch up and gear up a little before moving on, and this will make it a bit more fun. I am a healer, I want to heal things! It would be less frustrating, I think, had I had a month or so at 70 to heal in the battlegrounds and maybe some instances, but without a break in the leveling grind, it's a bit frustrating. And if I want to be able to do that PVE thing with her, I need to keep up at least a little with the wave of death knights in my guild who are about to hit Northrend (having already missed the first wave of people sticking with their current toons). Because I hate most PUGs veryvery much.

The best start zone in Wrath, hands down, though, is the Death Knight zone. :-D Even if you don't plan to play or keep a DK, roll one just to get to level 58 and do the quests. The lore is fantastic, the feel of the quests are pretty epic (though I do think that Blizz could have played up the redemption quests a bit more, as they were very borderline anti-climactic), and then when I saw the little scene play out between Keseleth and Anselm at Vengeance Landing, I was like, "HEY! I KNOW HIM!"

In conclusion:
Borean Tundra: Not totally horrible, but definitely not fun
Howling Fjord: Awesome
Ebon Whatever-it-is in EPL: Even more awesome
Grizzly Hills: Pretty, though the border with Howling Fjord is distinctly lacking in grizzlies

Death knight: Fun, keeping her, leveling her to 80. Been playing meat shield to my roomie's shadow priest in STV while I figure out rotations and what everything does, and to help my roomie catch up (she has another priest to solo with and solos quite a bit on her main during the week, and has the hang of the class down fairly well, so our weekend strategy is now to try and speed her through about 4-6 levels each time we play together, so she can spend her solo time playing with new abilities and rotations and exploring whatever zone I left her in; we're hoping to hit Outland by Christmas).

Professions: Taking herbalism and alchemy on Silang. Might take engineering on Ahami once I get Silang to Northrend — maxing out her inscription, Ide's jewelcrafting, and Silang's alchemy should keep me busy until then, and selling mats for mad gold could be helpful with my mount and gear situations. I need an alchemist, though, so I can stop dumping money into mana pots for Ahami all the time. And alchemy is just such a perfect fit for an undead death knight, isn't it?

EDIT: The OMG I'M GONNA DIE Tundra gets better after you get out of Warsong Hold, luckily. I would have given it a C- yesterday, but I was playing Ahami last night a bit and I think I'd raise it to a B-/B range. It's pretty and the quests are not bad, but it's still way less fun than Howling Fjord.