How to Get to Draenor

Author: Luxrah
Date: March 28, 2023
Updated: August 5, 2024
Expansion: World of Warcraft

Whether you want to build a garrison, knock out some achievements, or just quest your way through Draenor, you’ll need to figure out how to access Draenor first. How you go about it depends on whether you have played through the Warlords of Draenor expansion before. If you have, you should be able to skip some of these steps.

If you’ve been to Draenor before, you may be able to get there via portal or Garrison Hearthstone. But to actually play through the Draenor story, or if you’re a new or returning player who hasn’t played the Draenor expansion at all, you will have to go through the introductory quests. We’ll start there.

Starting the Warlords of Draenor Story

The first step in getting to Draenor is to start the Warlords of Draenor storyline. If you haven’t reached level 50 on any character yet, you may need to complete the Dragonflight introduction before these options become available. We have a separate guide for that here . Once you have completed the introduction, you should be able to start the Draenor expansion. Your character must be at least level 10 to start these quests.

This introductory quest chain will take you through a quest or two in your capital city before sending you off to the Dark Portal. If you run into trouble with these quests, Blizzard has a helpful support article here with a few common issues and their solutions.

You have three options to start the Warlords of Draenor introductory quests:

Option 1: Chromie Time

Find Chromie near the Stormwind Embassy. Speak with her to select a timeline. Select “The Iron Horde” to start the quest Warlords of Draenor: The Dark Portal. This quest simply leads you to Archmage Khadgar and the Assault on the Dark Portal. You must be below level 60 to access Chromie Time.

chromie stormwind — Chromie is near the Stormwind Embassy

chromie time the iron horde — Chromie is near the Stormwind Embassy

Option 2: Hero’s Call Board

Head to the Hero’s Call Board in the center of the Trade District in Stormwind. Clicking on the board, you may see an option for “Tanaan Jungle.” Selecting this option will start the quest Warlords of Draenor: The Dark Portal, which will lead you to Archmage Khadgar and the Assault on the Dark Portal. If you do not see Tanaan Jungle as an option, you can select other options until it appears, and then abandon the others.

stormwind tides of war quest start — The Hero’s Call Board is in the Trade District

heros call board tanaan jungle — The Hero’s Call Board is in the Trade District

Option 3: Archmage Khadgar

Find Archmage Khadgar outside The Dark Portal in Blasted Lands. Speaking to him will play a quick cinematic and give you the quest Warlords of Draenor: The Dark Portal, which will start the Assault on the Dark Portal questline.

To get to Blasted Lands, you can speak with the Honor Hold Mage, who is just inside the tower entrance to the Stormwind Portal Room. If you are already on the quest Warlords of Draenor: The Dark Portal, you can speak to the Vanguard Battle Mage instead, who is right beside him – but the Honor Hold Mage will place you right next to Khadgar.

stormwind wizards sanctum portal room honor hold mage — Honor Hold Mage is in Wizard’s Sanctum

blasted lands dark portal archmage khadgar — Honor Hold Mage is in Wizard’s Sanctum

You have three options to start the Warlords of Draenor introductory quests:

Option 1: Chromie Time

Find Chromie near the Orgrimmar Embassy. Speak with her to select a timeline. Select “The Iron Horde” to start the quest Warlords of Draenor: The Dark Portal. This quest simply leads you to Archmage Khadgar and the Assault on the Dark Portal. You must be below level 60 to access Chromie Time.

chromie orgrimmar — Chromie is near the Orgrimmar Embassy

Option 2: Warchief’s Command Board

Head to the Warchief’s Command Board next to Grommash Hold in Orgrimmar. Clicking on the board, you may see an option for “Tanaan Jungle.” Selecting this option will start the quest Warlords of Draenor: The Dark Portal, which will lead you to Archmage Khadgar and the Assault on the Dark Portal. If you do not see Tanaan Jungle as an option, you can select other options until it appears, and then abandon the others.

orgrimmar warchiefs herald quest start — The Warchief’s Command Board is next to Grommash Hold

Option 3: Archmage Khadgar

To get to Blasted Lands, you can speak with the Thrallmar Mage, who is downstairs in the Orgrimmar Portal Room. If you are already on the quest Warlords of Draenor: The Dark Portal, you can speak to the Vanguard Battle Mage instead, who is right beside him – but the Thrallmar Mage will place you right next to Khadgar.

orgrimmar pathfinders den portal room thrallmar mage — Thrallmar Mage is in Pathfinder’s Den

Assault on the Dark Portal

Now that you’ve started the Warlords of Draenor story, you’ll head through the Dark Portal to Draenor. But before you can freely run around the world, you’ll need to complete the Assault on the Dark Portal quest chain. This quest chain is slightly different for Alliance and Horde.

Alliance
Horde

how to get to draenor the dark portal — The Dark Portal in Blasted Lands

Getting a Garrison Hearthstone

You’re out of the introductory zone and free to roam Draenor. You’ll probably want to establish your garrison next, either to continue the Draenor quests or just to establish a base of operations on the world. Unlocking your garrison will also get you a Garrison Hearthstone, which gives you a quick way to get back to Draenor without having to set your regular Hearthstone there.

Once you have unlocked the Garrison Hearthstone, it will be available in the Toy Box of your Collections interface for all of the character in your Warband.

The Alliance garrison is located in Lunarfall in the Shadowmoon Valley zone. These are the quests to unlock the garrison:

alliance garrison lunarfall shadowmoon valley draenor — The Alliance garrison in Shadowmoon Valley

The Horde garrison is located in Frostwall in the Frostfire Ridge zone. These are the quests to unlock the garrison:

horde garrison frostwall frostfire ridge draenor — The Horde garrison in Frostfire Ridge

Portals to Draenor

There are portals to Draenor in a few different places, as well as items that can teleport. Portals are the easiest way to get to Ashran, which is the main city in Draenor.

Mages can create a portal for their party members with Portal: Stormshield (Alliance) or Portal: Warspear (Horde).

For personal use, they also have Teleport: Stormshield (Alliance) and Teleport: Warspear (Horde).

There is a portal to Stormshield, Ashran in the Stormwind Portal Room.

stormwind wizards sanctum stormshield ashran — The portal to Stormshield, Ashran in Stormwind

There is a portal to Warspear, Ashran in the Orgrimmar Portal Room.

orgrimmar pathfinders den warspear ashran portal — The portal to Warspear, Ashran in Orgrimmar

The Relic of Karabor can teleport you to Path of Light in Shadowmoon Valley. It requires Revered with Council of Exarchs.

The Bladespire Relic can teleport you to Bladespire Fortress in Frostfire Ridge. It requires Revered with Frostwolf Orcs.

The Admiral’s Compass can teleport you to the Shipyard at your garrison. It requires completing the Seaman achievement.

About the Author

Luxrah

I've been playing World of Warcraft on and off since vanilla, usually as a healer or caster and often as a guild leader. I play both retail and classic. I also love RPGs, sandboxes, and sims.