What sort of guidance should World of Warcraft provide to players?

There are a lot of activities a player can participate in at level 70 in Dragonflight — there are soups to make, hunts to finish, dungeons and raids to run; PVP, elemental storms, World Quests and even a handful of daily quests; not even to mention exploring everything that can be done with the new profession system. Yet sometimes it can feel like there is both too much to do and nothing to do — there are a few weekly quests that can guide you, but once those are completed it can be a little confusing. How many Grand Hunts should I be doing? Is it worth helping Big Kinook make soup more than once a week? Should I do every world quest on the map, or focus on one faction at a time?

There’s a lot to be said for a game that embraces the “sandbox” playstyle; nobody likes to be forced into activities they’re not really keen to do after all. At the same time the number of options can feel overwhelming for some players (and yes, I count myself among them). This wasn’t an issue in Shadowlands and prior expansions because the daily Callings gave you a direction — it could be worth the boost in gold and reputation with a Covenant to complete activities in a zone, especially when the available ones allowed you to double or triple dip. In Dragonflight, outside a few weekly quests that let you choose a faction to gain reputation with, there’s nothing that says “today’s a good day to visit the Azure Span.” Patch 10.0.5 is introducing the Trading Post and that will provide a little more direction, although the fact that you have a month to complete activities may not really help.

Even a situation where choosing a side seems important — Wrathion vs. Sabellian — it ends up not really mattering. There’s enough quests that can be unlocked that you can keep the two reps pretty close, and there’s nothing really lost by choosing Wrathion one week over Sabellian. Not that I mind, of course — an Aldor vs. Scryer or Oracle vs. Frenzyheart situation can feel like the player is being denied some rewards. The illusion of choice feels hollow, though, and it undermines the importance of the conflict.

Of course I may be overthinking the whole situation so let me throw the question to you: Do you feel like Dragonflight is providing enough guidance for players, or are you flailing? Do you find the sandbox more enjoyable or is the sand getting into your shoes and making you want to go elsewhere? Or have you not really noticed and you’re just having fun doing what you do?