Skyborne on Zephras Isle — what to decide first, and the way off

The Skyborne and Zephras Isle need a paid upgrade. Blizzard lists them as content of the Skyborne Heroic Pack, and the packs above it include everything in the Heroic Pack. The cheapest is $29.99 / €29.99.

Do this before launch night, not on the character creation screen.

You choose Horde or Alliance on the character creation screen, not during the starting zone. And the two sides do not get the same classes:

• Horde (Windshaper): Druid, Hunter, Rogue, Shaman, Warrior.
• Alliance (High Order): Druid, Hunter, Mage, Rogue, Warrior.

So a Skyborne shaman is Horde and a Skyborne mage is Alliance, full stop. If you are on the PvP ruleset, your faction must also match every other character you have there — see the PvP ruleset and its faction lock. The wider list of new combinations is in new race and class combinations.

Zephras Isle is flagged as a sanctuary: no player-versus-player combat on the island. That holds on the PvP ruleset too, so levels 1–12 are the safe part. The danger starts when you leave.

The island is big and its quests are far apart. Small tornadoes around the zone give the Blessing of Zephras: 40% run speed for five minutes. Being hit does not end it. Attacking does — a spell, a right-click on an enemy, or any crowd control ends it at once.

So when you are crossing the island to a quest, run past what attacks you instead of fighting it, and pick a fight only once you arrive.

The way out that the sources describe is an airship from Valanaar, on a timer — if the dock is empty, you have arrived between runs.

The two factions do not land in the same place. warcraft.wiki.gg lists:

• Alliance → Dalaran, in the Alterac Mountains.
• Horde → Skywatcher Plateau, in Mulgore.

Icy Veins agrees on both. One guide, All Things How, has both factions flying to Dalaran from separate docks (Alliance east, Horde west). We go with the two that agree, and will change this if the Horde dock turns out to go elsewhere.

You land in Dalaran, not in an Alliance capital. Inside the Violet Citadel, on the northern side near the dock, a portal takes you to Stormwind's Mage Quarter. From there the Deeprun Tram goes to Ironforge.

Warcraft Tavern's route runs Valanaar → Dalaran → Stormwind → Ironforge, which is the way to the Alliance's Hall of Thanes at level 13.

You land in Mulgore. Getting to the Eastern Kingdoms — for example to Ruins of Lordaeron, the Horde's new dungeon at 15–20 — means the same thing it means for a Tauren: make your way from Mulgore to the zeppelins first.

Stormwind and Orgrimmar each have a portal that only Skyborne characters can use. On the Alliance side that is the Skydome Portal in Stormwind's Wizard's Sanctum, which goes to Dalaran.

That is a travel perk worth remembering later, not just on the way home. Method calls the Stormwind–Dalaran portal "a much faster shortcut" for an Alliance Skyborne heading to Ruins of Lordaeron — see Hall of Thanes as Horde, Ruins of Lordaeron as Alliance.

In the beta, characters of other races have been able to fly to Zephras Isle and do its introductory quests, without the pack. Icy Veins is unsure whether that is intended, and it may not survive to launch.

If it does, it is the one way a friend who did not buy the pack can quest beside you at the start. Do not plan launch night around it.