Dalaran

More tasteful than a theme park and less dread than the dread citadel, Dalaran is... Dalaran. I kid, of course; really I can barely begin to describe the extent of Dalaran's wonders. The floating magical city is a clear foil to Naxxramas in WoW-space, and it is as delightful as Naxx is evil. I am also pretty convinced that it is made out of candy. This would explain why people are eating the city, creating holes to Crystalsong Forest below.

Arabian Nights meets high fructose corn syrup.

This fountain is brought to you by tears from Dalaran mage qq.

Dalaran is so nice that you won't even mind the blatant mage favoritism. The central inn is totally swank, with a lower level dominated by a spacious bar and luxurious accommodations upstairs. When you step outside you see cobblestone streets lined with well-groomed shrubberies and lampposts that you can actually turn on and off. In addition to the standard general goods vendors and white weapon-hawking repair dudes, Dalaran hosts a plethora of novelty shops and stands, including a mechanical toy shop, a non-combat pet supplies store, a relics vendor, and a treant named Applebough who will sell you fruit.

Omg wtb!!!!

I'll take the Mana Tide, plz.

Also new is the tabard vendor in the visitor's center, yet another win by the bag-space activists who brought us summoned mounts and disposable [Riding Crop]s. You can purchase any tabard you have the rep for, although there's no currency exchange market in sight, so you'd better have your apexis shards and glowcaps on hand. You can also necro any non-purchasable tabard that you might have destroyed for good reason, such as the [Green Trophy Tabard of the Illidari], which I prefer to call the Ugliest Item in the Game.

The Illidari tabard is why Illidan wears a blindfold.

The shady sewers below Dalaran must be this century's most inspired innovation in urban planning. The pipe walkways are paved with foul sewage and lead to the city's rodent-infested haven for — you guessed it — arena! That's right, no longer must arena gladiators tread on the toes of WoW's first-class citizens; they can now be safely quarantined in this lower level where they have an arena battlemaster, a season gear vendor, and even their very own scrubby inn. Man Blizz, just segregate the trade channel too and we are g2g!!

Dalaran sewers: where the vermin thrive.

Between the flight master at Krasus Landing, the teleporting elevators, the sewers, the portals, and the barbershop floor, there is certainly no shortage of ways to get out of Dalaran. The Silver Enclave feels deserted and is actually kind of a vanishing point, probably because right now it is little more than a lineup of portals to not-Dalaran. There's nothing particularly Alliance about this Alliance quarter, especially now that they have replaced battlemaster NPCs with more advanced mage technology: queueing for battlegrounds is now a click of a portal away.

Creating unemployment for battlemasters everywhere.

The migration to this new impersonal, automated system is great for actually being able to queue, and certainly an improved iteration from the discarded pedestal idea of 2.4, but you gotta admit that half the fun of queuing for Warsong was an excuse to talk to sexy war-worn Lylandor with the long shadowsong amethyst locks. Hopefully they'll populate the enclave with some NPCs to make the area less of a giant EXIT sign.

Finally, there's this mysterious instance that Galli and I aren't old enough to enter yet.

Open sesame bagel restores 13200 health over 30 secs.

Clearly there's more to Dalaran than can be seen with the naked eye. I can't wait to find out what delectable mage secrets lie behind those shiny doors. (Food table recipe???)