Lich King Impressions, Part 1

Its been a few days. Alright, more like a week. I've been wrapped up in Wrath of the Lich King, of course. Here's some of my initial impressions.

Questing:
Not a whole lot has changed here, and there haven't really been any "Wow!" quests. More kill and collection quests, looting quest items, killing named mobs because they're ugly and they told off someone's mother, that type of thing. The vehicle quests are definitely fun, and the lore is great, but overall, so far, the quests haven't changed much from BC and earlier content. I understand, though, that there's a certain epic quest chain in Dragonblight that will stand out, although I'm not there yet.

Factions:
So far, I'm revered with three Northrend factions - the Taunka, Warsong Offensive and the Kalu'ak (Tuskarr). All that just through questing. I have to say, it much more fun gaining the majority of faction rep via quests instead of mindless grinds of items, dailies or instances. Rumor has it, you can gain any faction rep in any level 80 instance, if you have their tabard. Just wear the tabard in the instance and that's the faction you gain rep with. I like this...I like this a lot.

Professions:
Honestly, I'm a bit disappointed, especially in cooking. I started doing the daily cooking quest in Dalaran the day I got there. I enjoy the way its set up, where you get cooking awards to buy recipes, spices and such. I don't enjoy that I was 402 cooking, bought a recipe that required 400 cooking skill and as soon as I learned it it was green to me. That is ridiculous. Seriously, does Blizzard even think?

Fishing has been fun, though. I've been fishing to advance my alchemy, as well. Herbs are plentiful and I haven't had a problem finding enough of those, either. My one complaint about alchemy is similar to that of cooking - recipes go green way too quickly.

Howling Fjord:
This is the first zone I quested in. I really enjoyed the zone overall, but didn't care much for the "new plague" story lines. I really enjoyed the Taunka story (through all three zones I've quested in so far, actually). I like the feel of the zone and the Scottish highland-type musical score that plays throughout. Although, I think the Horde got the bum end of the deal as far as cool-looking towns goes.

Borean Tundra:
I went here after the Fjord and was greatly disappointed. This should be renamed Boring Tundra. Its nothing but flat, swampy wasteland. A couple highlights, though, is Coldarra, off the western coast, and the crashed necropolis on the eastern side of the zone. Also, the Taunka story lines continue and are quite interesting. Don't miss the murloc quests on the western coast, either.

Dragonblight:
I haven't gotten too far in the quest chains here. The zone reminds me a lot of Winterspring, at least the western part of it - trees, snow, old ruins with Highborne ghosts, etc. I'm looking forward in learning more about the Wrathgate and seeing the much-talked-about quests that deal with that.

There will be more to come, I'm sure. These are my first impressions of a few things.