Vanyalosswen's Guide For New 70s
There is an absolutely dizzying amount of things to do once you hit level 70. Most of it was introduced to the game gradually, but for someone just getting there now the list of activities is almost paralyzing. This guide should help you sort it out. It is divided into three sections: Soloing, Instance/Raiding, and PvP. Read whichever section concerns you, but reading in the order given lists the objectives in order of priority, as I see them. The game is built on the assumption that you will do things that require fewer people first, and players tend to assume this too.
The guide is long, but only because I don't want to leave out anything. It was produced by inferred request for a guildmate of mine who just got his first 70 and needed some direction.
SOLOING
Your Flying Mount:
This is what you've probably been looking forward to! Unless you're a druid, this will cost you about 1100 gold. If you don't have the money for it, make this your first priority, because most 70s expect other 70s to be able to fly. Use whatever money-making techniques you have (gathering professions are great) but also try the fishing, cooking, and Shattered Sun Offensive daily quests (see below), most of which do not require flight. Engineers can craft a mount for modest materials; everyone else has a choice of 3 colors of gryphon or windrider--or if you have the right trading card, a rocket.
Maxing Out Professions:
If you have crafting professions, maxing them out will probably get you access to some of your first good epic gear. Get this done as quick as you can; running the daily quests listed below is a good source of money for it, and some good skillup recipes require reputation grinds also listed below. Engineers should take 375 seriously too: though you get your goggles at 350, the epic crafted flying mount requires 375.
Chefs should swing by The Rokk in Lower City every day for a daily quest that will provide materials and useful recipes. Fisherpeople should check in with Old Man Sarlo, out by Silmyr Lake, who has a fishing daily quest that provides +100 lures and other useful, valuable, and fun items.
Epic Flying Mount:
Whether your mount is standard, crafted, or shifted, everybody needs to pay 5000g to ride an epic. Epic Flight Form and Netherdrakes even require paying the money before progressing in the quest line. A great way to get money is to do the daily quests I have listed below; if you focus on the rep, don't buy anything else expensive, and gather your own crafting mats, you should get 5000 gold surprisingly fast.
Types of Epic mounts:
Swift Flight Form: Once paying the training fee, Druids can pick up the quest from the trainer in Moonglade. The quest requires a Heroic Sethekk run, but also provides an equivalent to the Riding Crop trinket for flight forms. The extra boss involved also has a small chance to drop a unique epic land mount.
Flying Machine: Crafted by engineers at 375 engineering skill. Requires the slow version and some expensive parts as materials.
Gryphons/Windriders: Purchasable from the Wildhammers/Orcs for 200g.
Nether Rays: Purchasable from the Skyguard at Exalted reputation for 160g (including rep discounts).
Nether Drakes: This quest line begins with the quest "Kindness" in Shadowmoon Valley. The first chain will get you to Neutral with Netherwing; after this point you must train epic flight skill to continue. Once you have, go back to the questgiver who gave you "Kindness" and do the ensuing daily quests--which also provide a Riding Crop and a nice stamina/temp combat pet trinket. At the end of the chain you can choose one drake for no further cost, and extras are purchasable.
Hippogriffs: Purchasable from the Cenarion Expedition for 1600g (including rep discounts). They only come in one color, and have no "walking" animation; they hover.
Armored Nether Drake: Awarded to the highest-ranked Arena teams at the end of a season. These go extra fast.
Phoenix: Rarely drops from Kael'Thas in The Eye (Magister's Terrace Kael drops other fun items.) These go extra fast.
Rocket: Requires a trading card.
Daily Quests and Reputation:
Daily quests are the only, or chief, way to gain reputation with several factions. Research the listed factions to see which have rewards you would like, and work on those first. As you progress you will get a sense of which are quick and fun to repeat afterwards for more money. Note that many dailies have prerequisite starting quests.
For factions below that depend on daily quests, an estimate is given of how long it would take a non-human to reach Exalted with the faction if they did all its daily quests, every day, until complete, but no other quests. I got these numbers from WoWiki. Since most do have some one-time, repeatable, or dungeon-based reputation sources, the real minimum possible time may be much shorter. Since you can only do 25 daily quests of any kind each day, even at this rate you would have to set priorities.
Shattered Sun Offensive:
Starts from an NPC by your inn in Shattrath. Make sure to also get the quest for Heroic Magister's Terrace attunement. Quests are located on Quel'Danas Isle and around Outland, and most do not require flight. The rewards are very nice, but be warned that the mobs to kill are balanced with the assumption that you have fairly good gear (blues+) already; they were introduced late in the game. At Exalted reputation, you can buy a title for 1000g.
SSO quests synergize well with grinding Aldor/Scryer reputation.
Approximate time to Exalted: 13 days
Sha'tari Skyguard:
The first, most classic set of daily quests; all require flight. Starts from an NPC by the Shattrath FP. Skyguard quests are good for perfecting your flight maneuvering skills. After reaching Honored reputation, you have access to a special flight path to Blade's Edge Mountains, where there are some extra quests if you are also Ogri'la attuned. The path also gives a good visual preview of the Nether Ray mounts. Rewards include trinkets, a parachute cloak, and Nether Ray mounts.
Skyguard synergizes well with Ogri'la; do the prereqs for both if you can.
Approximate time to Exalted: 26 days
Ogri'la:
Starts from A'dal, in the center of Shattrath or from some ogres associated with the faction. The prerequisites require finding a group. Rewards include access to special consumables and a challenging event in which you mind-control demons for a chance at epic drops.
Ogri'la synergizes well with Skyguard.
Approximate time to Exalted: 30 days
Netherwing:
Requires paying for epic flight training to begin dailies, but is a good way to recoup the cash afterwards. Most quests happen around Netherwing Ledge in SMV. While there you will be disguised as an orc, complete with a sample drake mount that is epic speed even if you flew in on a slow one. (Druid shapeshifts override the disguise; they are out of luck.) Rewards include a stam trinket, a riding crop, the drake mount, and a chance to see Illidan face-to-face.
Approximate time to Exalted: 14 days
Consortium:
The only Consortium daily quests are the daily dungeon/heroic quests, but they have other repeatable quests and item turnin quests that make it an easy faction to grind. Besides providing patterns and other standard rewards, an NPC in Nagrand will give you a bag of gems every month. The better your rep, the more and better gems you get. Also, at Revered/Exalted you can do a quest line that lets you summon an extra boss in Heroic Mana Tombs.
Consortium synergizes well with Kurenai/Mag'har.
Aldor/Scryer:
If doing your Shattered Sun dailies doesn't get you to Exalted with your Shattrath faction, invest a little more time for the good shoulder enchants and whatever patterns you need. This also contributes to unlocking the alchemist NPC in your faction's bank.
Kurenai/Mag'har:
If you still need rewards from here, including a talbuk mount, a 70 has no problem killing the required ogres.
Finish Your One-time Quests:
Any standard quests you didn't do while leveling are a great source of money at 70. You might also get good rewards and progress towards attunement titles.
Search for purchasable gear:
There is some dropped and crafted BoE gear that might be very good for you as a starting 70 or even epic gear. Try to look up some of it, and depending on what you are willing to spend, consider investing some money in it. Always compare it with other similar pieces you might have access to in dungeons, etc. to be sure you won't immediately replace it.
INSTANCE/RAIDING:
Temet Nosce (Know Thyself):
Study your class. Read the Elitist Jerks forum, class-related blogs, and other such places to ensure that you know how to perform well in an instance, how to behave in a group setting, and what gear upgrades to roll on and which to let others have. Find out the common griefs other classes have with yours, so you know how to avoid them. When you're alone, it's your $15/month at stake, but when with others, it's theirs too. You may have learned a lot of this while leveling, but if you leveled solo, now is the time to become aware.
Take a look at how much time you can and want to devote to dungeons and raids, and keep that in mind when looking for guilds. Remember that everyone has to start in greens and blues at some point--just don't try to overreach yourself. Know what places you are geared for, what roles you are specced for, and what you have to do before making the next step.
Heroic Attunements:
For most heroics, attunement consists of getting to Honored with the related faction, then buying a key from the quartermaster.
Honor Hold/Thrallmar: Ramparts, Blood Furnace, Shattered Halls
Cenarion Expedition: Slave Pens, Underbog, Steamvaults
Lower City: Mana Tombs, Auchenai Crypts, Sethekk Halls, Shadow Labyrinth.
Sha'tar: Mechanar, Botanica, Arcatraz
Keepers of Time: Escape From Durnholde Keep, Black Morass
Magister's Terrace is the exception; for this heroic you must complete a quest in Normal mode, regardless of your Shattered Sun reputation. This actually makes more sense, because it ensures that everyone in a Heroic group has played the instance before and knows the layout and strategies.
Be warned that although you may be attuned for a Heroic instance, you may not be sufficiently geared for it right away. For most heroics, try to be in at least mostly blues. Also note that the relative difficulty of the heroic instances does not go in the same order as their normal counterparts. Ramparts is in fact quite challenging on heroic mode, and Durnholde is an absolute royal pain while Black Morass is not so bad. "Easy" heroics include Slave Pens and Mechanar, if you want a good starting place. Durnholde Keep has very challenging trash. Heroic Magister's Terrace is difficult throughout, but as compensation drops better gear than other heroics.
If you need better gear for running heroics, keep running the normal mode instances and finish any world quests you may have.
Remember to stop by the questgivers in Lower City to pick up the daily heroic and dungeon quests. The Heroic du jour is usually easier to get a group for, and the quest rewards extra badges.
Also stop by the badge vendors beside and above the Quel'Danas portal in Shattrath, and pick out what items you'd like to get first. Compare them to available drops, consider how quickly you are able to accrue badges, and budget wisely; there are no refunds!
What follows is a description of how to start the attunement quests for all the level 70 raid instances. These are optional now, but many provide rewards that will facilitate actually running the instance later.
Karazhan
This chain is now optional; the key is only needed to open the gate blocking the instance portal. However, non-rogues will consider it annoying not to have their own key, and the quest gives a lot of Violet Eye reputation, which is certainly helpful later. The chain starts at the gates of Karazhan. For starting Karazhan, try to be in at least all blues, with some heroic drops or badge gear. During weekends you can often find PuG groups. Do realize that PuG raid groups value a smooth run over showing the participants new content, as would happen in a guild run, and the level of gear they ask you to have may reflect this.
Be careful when selecting your first Violet Eye ring; you will only receive direct upgrades to your selected ring type until Exalted, at which point you must pay gold to change it. The same holds for Hyjal rings. (Example: if you select the tank ring, you will only get better and better tank rings until Exalted, and then can you trade it, with some gold, for a healing ring.)
Zul'Aman
Zul'Aman has no attunement, but Griftah in Lower City will start some quest chains you can do there. For an untimed run, try to be in mostly Karazhan gear; for a fully timed Bear Mount run you need to be in Tier 5 or 6. PuG untimed runs are occasionally organized.
Gruul's Lair/Magtheridon
No attunement needed; gear should be Karazhan or better. PuG runs are occasionally organized.
Serpentshrine Cavern/Tempest Keep
The now-optional attunement quest for SSC begins in Heroic Slave Pens. The TK quest line starts with "The Hand of Gul'dan" in Shadowmoon Valley; check your mailbox after defeating Cyrukh. This line is ultimately quite long and involved, but completing both of these will award you with a title. For these instances, and anything beyond, you will need to be in a dedicated raiding guild (or else have very good connections.) Gear should be Kara/Gruul/Mag+.
Hyjal/Black Temple
Hyjal attunement starts with the quest "The Vials of Eternity" in the Caverns of Time. BT attunement starts with the SMV quest "Tablets of Baa'ri"; when the line stops the next section is picked up from SSC. Both quests are optional now but completing both will award you with a title. Gear should be Tier 5+.
Sunwell
The Sunwell has no attunement, but guilds need to be in Tier 6 to have any success. Mobs there ignore some of your dodge chance and have a high parry chance, meaning tanks need to take special caution and stack some Expertise.
PVP
PvP is not my personal strength, so I have given it a less detailed treatment.
The big feature of level 70 PvP is ranked Arena Teams. You can be on one team of each size, and will be awarded points from whichever team would give you the most each week. In order to get points from being on a team in a particular week, the team must play at least 10 ranked games, and you must participate in at least 30% of all the games played. For teams of the same rank, larger team sizes earn more points than smaller ones.
In order to be considered valid material for a serious team, you will need at least 300-350 resilience, as much of the best honor-purchasable gear and casually-obtained arena gear as possible, and will need to be properly arena-specced. If you want to compete more casually, you can easily make a team with some friends or anyone else who just wants to "play for points".
In order to get better PvP gear outside of arenas, start by visiting all the quartermasters of the heroic key factions. They will have blue-quality PvP gear available for purchase at Honored. If you wish you can turn in Spirit Shards from Auchindoun and Halaa Battle Tokens for more pieces. Other than that, playing in battlegrounds is the usual way to get gear upgrades. Every day there is a daily quest for a random battleground that awards extra honor, and if you find yourself with extras of all the Battleground Marks of Honor you can turn those in for honor as well.
Also try to get some Badges of Justice; there is a PvP cloak you can buy with them, and with more badges you can get a Battlemaster's trinket without spending honor points.
As for world PvP, there are daily quests available at Honor Hold/Thrallmar, Allerian Stronghold/Stonebreaker Hold, and Telaar/Garadar. These require varying amounts of capturing locations and killing enemy players, and will award you with extra honor.
Ultimately the best way to improve in PvP is to practice. Reading up on other classes' abilities and tactics is very useful, as is discussion with other players, but there is no substitute for practicing.