Wouldn't say Luculla forest is unbalanced, but would seem so if you end up skipping an entire region first which got me during my first full playthrough as well.
I knew I could kill thems shrooms, but being a nice guy I decided not to weedwack 'em.
I ended up exploring the entire Luculla forest including the mines up to the deathknights before I backtracked and eventually found the other way to open the barrier.
When I was finally at the WW area, I was a wee over leveled.
