Where The Hell Is It?: Alliance Edition

[Seppun]

Where The Hell Is It?
Alliance Edition

Since the Cataclysm a lot of things have been shaken up, literally. While even current players are finding themselves lost it's the new players and people just coming back from long breaks that are completely in the dark about major changes to Azeroth. So...where the hell is everything?


Portals and Flight Paths

Shattrath City of Outlands and Dalaran of Northrend used to be the hearth stone hot spots because of their major city portals, Blizzard says "No more!"
You can still access the Caverns of Time portal, with proper reputation, from Dalaran.

All of the new zones can be accessed through a small hub in Stormwind City. Each of these have to be accessed in their own time.


Starter Zones
Vash'jir opens with an automatic quest the first time you log in to Stormwind at 80+ sending you on a short quest chain to gain access. While the trip there is simple, the trip back is a bit more convoluted. You have to swim to the surface a look for a surface flight path the closest one to Ironforge is in the northern reaches. After your first visit there will be a portal in the main Stormwind hub mentioned earlier.
Hyjal can be accessed through any of the Hero's Call boards around the city (one is next to the main AH) which send you to speak with a Night Elf in Stormwind Keep. After your first visit, a portal will be spawned in the main hub mentioned earlier.


83+ Zones
Quest chains will lead you to be able to use the portals in the main hub, otherwise you will have to fly yourself, though it should be noted that Deepholm is not accessible without the portal.
Deepholm has a portal to Stormwind available in the temple and Twilight Highlands has a short quest chain that will lead to you opening a portal to Stormwind there as well.


Boats
Stormwind's new-ish harbor is basically unchanged; the southern dock goes to Darnassus (Rut'theran Village if you'd like to be technical), middle dock goes to Valliance Keep in Northrend, and the northern docks goes to Vash'jir if you have the quest.

Darnassian boats go to either Stormwind (the dock closest to the portal) or to the Exodar. You now only fly to the new Night Elven town of Lor'danel as Auberdine has been destroyed.

Menethil Harbor boats still go to either Theramore (dock closest to the flight path) or Valgard Keep in Northrend.

Goblin shipping lanes are still up and running without any changes.

Trainers

For the most part trainers in major cities have not moved, here are some things you do need to know

Professions
You can now train Illustrious levels of all professions in the major cities and a Jewelcrafting trainer has been added to the Canal District (northern side of the Trade District) of Stormwind.
Archeology can be trained in any major city.
New Cooking (in front of the Inscription trainer) and Fishing dailies have been added to Stormwind in addition to the Northrend dailies.
There is still no Mining or Blacksmithing trainer available in Darnassus.

Classes
Darnassus has added a Mage trainer to the Temple of the Moon and a Warlock trainer inside of the Howling Oak, the new Worgen area.
Stormwind felt that leaving the Druid trainers in the giant pit that was once the Park District was uncivilized. They were sent home and replaced with a kindly Worgen in a broken hut near the portal hub.

Mounts/Riding
Stormwind trainers and vendors are all now at the Flight Path area, this includes the old world flying trainer.
Darnassus, Ironforge, Gnomeregan and the Exodar are unmoved, flying will have to be learned in Stormwind.


Quartermasters
Quartermasters now exist for each major cities faction, you can buy a tabard that will increase your rep in the same fashion that WotLK tabards did through dungeons. In addition to gaining access to the mounts, you can now also use your standing to buy a 16 slot bag and blue quality cloaks for lower levels.

The Darnassian and Gilnean quartermasters can be found in Darnassus next to the portal between the city and Rut'theran.
The Stormwind quartermaster is next to the ramp up to the flight path.
The Ironforge and Gnomeregan quartermasters are next to the Ironforge flight path
The Exodar quartermaster is on a platform outside of the main ramp down into the city.

Misc.

Confused on where to level now that zone flow has changed? MMO-Champion released a handy map: Handiness
The Gnomes have taken back Gnomeregan, check it out.
Archeology requires you to go to where shovels (on the zoomed out view) or red spots (on the zone view) are on your map.
The second clue is between the two halves of the ship.