Favorite Warcraft zone and why?
>Hinterlands
>Nice greenery
>Jintha'alor felt like a dungeon and actually gave a feeling of invading a troll fortress
>One of the most comfy Horde quest hubs
>Barely any alliance
>Every part of this map felt like it had lore behind it
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Elwynn Forest, Westfall and Duskwood are the best zones. You can tell Blizzard spent the most time fine tuning those zones.
Feralas
>green
>elf vibe
>people forget about it so it's never populated
ive never played wow. is it too late to start?
No, just play on Elysium (Vanilla) or wait for Felmyst (Tbc).
Hitlerlands?
Azshara pre cataclysm.
Comfy as fuck. The base ambient audio had a wind flowing though wheat with a distance shore. Every now and again you would hear, very faintly, dogs barking on the far distance.
Was my go to sleep music in my early 20s. As far as I can tell it's audio does not exist anywhere anymore.
Is there even a zone that Cata made better?
Agreed
I remember there being an attunement for a dungeon at the altar, I think it was the temple in the swamps of sorrow
Barrens is pure kino pre-Cata.
Vashj'ir is pure kino post-Cata.
Zul'drak for some comfy voodoo leveling.
also the mallet to summon a hydra boss in zul'smthing
Stranglethorn Valley for early level world PvP
Tyr's Hand for end game world PvP
>Barrens is pure kino pre-Cata.
you mean pure shit
>arathi highlands
i remember being a humble level 20 dwarf and stumbling my way into that zone for the first time.
It's where i learned just how big the game truly was.
All the time spent exploring, finding that pirate ship and quest line hidden behind stromgarde. getting introduced to towns and cities of the other faction coexisting in the same zones as alliance towns.
Basically impossible to level in due to non stop war
Un'goro is pretty awesome. Looks sick, cool dinos, lots of quests.
You mean one of the best designed and comfiest zones in the game?
Bump for Hinterlands. Still my favorite.
>levitating down the cliff back to base
Winterspring
>comfy elven architecture clad in a beautiful white
>while not having to many quests, the ones who are present are quite ok
>timbermaw hold
>dat music
>dat purple glow
>being one of the last zones of the game, reaching it signifies reaching a certain point of maturity for your character
beta Plaguelands, Searing Gorge and Burning Steppes were the pinnacle of zone design. None of them had a single flightpath in them. The idea was that once you approached max level, the highest level zones were so dangerous and remote from civilization that you had to ride there yourself from an adjacent zone.
Alliance had to ride in from Lakeshire to get into Burning Steppes. Horde had to ride in from Kargath to get to the Searing Gorge. In the middle between the two was of course Blackrock Mountain. Now imagine the kind of PvP taking place when the alliance has to ride in from the south entrance and the horde from the north entrance to get to their dungeons in the middle. An entire zone worth of ganking on either side where the enemy faction has no choice but to ride through. And that's before you even get to the mountain. Inside you have two factions worth of heroes battling eachother for control of the mountain-entrances, pathways to the dungeons and the dungeon entrances themselves.
For looks and athmosphere, easily Silverpine. Shame it had so few quests and you basically had to visit Barrens anyway as Forsaken. Also, Shadowfang Keep is really good too
stonetalon mountains
borean tundra
because it has cool music, it's a nice cold spacious area that introduces northrend and all the enemies on the continent. horde and alliance bases are close to each other.
this is the area where you witness garrosh's might
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also because im a wotlkbaby
picrelated my horde genocide char i played on in legion. on some realms there is decent number of ppl questing in borean tundra to this day. it has always been northrend equivalent of STV and hellfire peninsula (my other fav zones) where you can clash with enemy players
Grizzly Hills
Coziest zone in the game
Grizzly Hills/Howling Fjord
Viking mode activated.
Music is amazing.
Vanilla: Elwynn, STV.
TBC: Both Draenei and BE starting zones were majestic as fuck, the music and the quests were just on point. Also, I loved Nagrand and Terokkar.
WOTLK: probably Zul'Drak, Grizzly Hills and the Howling Fjord, the scenery was cool as fuck.
riding into the fortress could be such a pain because its so huge
after assembling you could run into a decked out group and spend like 30 minutes trying to get in
i don't know how is the game now but you could kill bosses and then walk out with that gear and murder horde and feel pretty good about it
pre-cata Desolace really lived up to its name, comfy as fuck
>wotlkbaby
i pity you. The expansion may sell the most but the uniqueness of wow died down.
Loch Modan
Zangamarsh
Reminder that Cataclysm Azeroth has officially been around longer than Vanilla Azeroth
Loch Modan, Wetlands, Feralas, Azshara, Grizzly Hills. Terakkar Forest and Nagrand (bar shitty nesingwary quests)
My favorites are
>Hinterlands
>Elwynn Forest
>Duskwood
>STV
>Both Plaguelands
>Grizzly Hills
>Nagrand
>vanilla Hillsbrad Foothills
>Silverpine Forest
>Burning Steppes
They all have their own vibe that I really like. There's also quite a bit of nostalgia for the vanilla zones before they were changed.
og niggas know
Will the world ever be "fixed"? I will never forgive them for draining the water from Loch Modan
I have a feeling they'll update the current vanilla zones in the new expansion
no blizzard is way to lazy for that
It's a pain to quest here though.
>What if we have natural disasters permanently destroy many of our most beautiful zones?
>Genius.
Will we ever see a mmorpg as great as vanilla/tbc/wotlk WoW? These threads get me so nostalgic that I'm tearing up.
Fuck man.
fuck vanilla barrens then and fuck it now
vanilla barrens was a once in a lifetime experience.
>dog dick filling a condom map
yeah once in a lifetime meaning i dont wanna do it twice
I thought it was a pretty cool idea at the time. Kind of stupid that the zones never recovered though. That's why I thought the Emerald Dream expansion would have been the perfect follow up to Cataclysm. The climax of the expansion would have seen the old world 'healing' back to its almost normal self again. You could keep most of the redesigned quests and you still got like 4 years worth out of the assets. But no we got Pandas instead.
>tfw we will never know what the unused area under badlands was supposed to be
Is there a way to get heightmaps of the original WoW zones
the GOAT
Comfiest place in the game by far.
>dat ascetic
>comfy ass villages
>sweeping valleys
>wildlife everywhere
>half of your quests are hunting, the other half are killing midgets and flying whores
>Tauren culture is a copy paste of general native american customs, but still provides a cool setting
>Cancer Tauren child
>Thunder Bluff, the best Horde city, resides in there
>coziest
You misspelled Elywnn Forest
>Silithus
>BUGS FUCKING ALL KINDS OF SHIT UP
It was never going to "be" anything, it was the result of shitty map construction like everything else
>they don't enjoy Netherstorm.
This was the zone that sold the expansion to me. it shows what happens when magic and power run amok. Worlds die.
>dull purple barren ground
>big purple rocks
>electric pink everywhere
It was fucking hideous
Why does that costume look like it's squeezing chest/stomach/torso/etc fat into her arms?
the only part that sucked about this area were the shitty bearmen dens and the fact that you were never able to find a group for the elite troll quests
That was the point, you fucking dunce
There's Outland (TBC server) on Warmane, x5 exp and another one (can't remember the name) with x1 rate
Vanilla, it's Thousand Needles. I loved the aesthetic of the zone and traveling through a forest of mesas.
All time, Grizzly Hills.
Storm Peaks
Best music
Best aesthetics
Best quest chain
Best raid
No, it was just aesthetically and graphically shit like every other Vanilla/TBC attempt at making a convincing wasteland zone
There's zero nuance to it. It's one flat, shitty colour broken up by the occasional rock with some neon thrown on top for flare. It looks like vomit.
It has to be stranglethorn.
I had the most player interactions there leveling up and even at 60/70. The server had tournaments in the arena, and people usually went and fought for the arena chest.
By TBC this kind of phenomena disappeared because of flying mounts, the Nagrand shit doesn't come close.
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Ashenvale seemed to bring about a lot of mystery and danger for new players just entering at level 18-19. It was one zone that players were introduced into World PvP with the other faction and seeing those red name plates appear near you while questing gave a real feeling of urgency and danger while you run back to Astranaar or Splinter Tree post for safety.
>people forget about it
Damn, you're right. I remember pretty much every zone from when I played it 5 years ago or so, but to me Feralas is just "That place where Dire Maul is".
>Vanilla
Stonestalon Mountain
Duskwoods
>Burning Crusade
Nagrand
>Wrath of the Lich King
Grizzly Hills
>Cataclysm
Vash'ir
thousand needles
>Pandaria
Wandering Island
>Warlord of Draenor
Spires of Arak
>Legion
Stormhein
Elwynn Forest was the area where they did a lot of alpha testing. It really shows, the first two hours of playing a new character (in a Vanilla server) is always super fun and they did a lot of work to accomplish that. I have tried many other MMORPGs that have early gameplay designed as an afterthought which is a HUGE mistake.
raphkoster.com
>The newbie zone also gets you right into the action. Everywhere you look, there’s a building or two, a couple of NPCs, and monsters. Within five minutes of starting up, you can fight monsters.
>Northshire valley, for example — we spent an inordinate amount of time on it. Where do we put the trainers, how does the combat feel, etc. We probably spent more time on it than any other area, by an order of magnitude.
>We didn’t go out and build the entire world of WoW until we knew what we were building. It didn’t make sense to do that until we had figured out all the details of the fun. If you have to retrofit the fun into the content, you’re gonna be screwed.
>STV
How? On a PvP server it's a fucking warzone
That's part of the fun.
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When does it come back?
Their original intention was to have you do quests from 1-10 and then it was literally nothing but pure grind up to 60
I really liked Jade Forest
That quest line with Lorewalker Cho was pretty good. The things he tells you about your race, visiting his house, learning more about the pandas
and that music
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nope
Yeah, I think they changed that in Friends & Family -alpha.
I personally really enjoy the very loose hub based questing rythm in Vanilla and I think it was mostly an accident caused by the fact that questing was fully fleshed out so late in the development. Railroading was getting too heavy for my tastes already in TBC.
Tauren best race, too bad Blizzard keep forgetting they exist, and when they remember they nerf their racials into the dust.
I wish WoW had a modding scene that caught on as well as Wacraft 3 did.
the shimmering flats was nice, though. i ganked a lot of allies there
TAZDINGO XD
funny enough ulduar and storm peaks were the PEAK of wow before trial of the cucksader came and signaled the beginning of the end
>ywn ever feel the same way about a game again
>no more of that anticipation that you are about to enter a whole new universe
>no more of feeling like you are part of something
>no more enthusiasm to play only one and one game alone wishing you could go back to it everytime you are away
>no more bonding time with friends you are playing with who are as excited it about as you are
>no more feelings of reverence over the lore, characters, races and the classes
>things we found funny a decade ago seem awkward now
What a shocker.
Loved the feeling of clearing out the quest journal and then just opening the map and being able to decide where I wanted to go next without being hand held through every single zone.
I think there are some benefits to the new system but I do kind of miss the old ways a bit as well. both WoD and Legion feel very directed. I guess it makes the grind feel less long though.
Surprised that no one is mentioning any of the MoP zones (DUDE PANDAS LMAO notwithstanding). Jade Forest, Dread Wastes and Valley of the Four Winds are some of the best zones they've ever made.
I think Zangarmarsh takes the cake for me - wonderfully atmospheric and perfectly captures the alien theme of the expansion. Hellfire kinda felt like the Blasted Lands with a different skybox, but Zangarmarsh was really the "not in Kansas anymore" moment.
Duskwood and Ghostlands are my two favorites. For some reason the slightly spooky forest is a zone that always appeals to me.
Vash'ir is great too. Probably one of my favorite intro zones.
A thousand needles, i spent 2 days there when i was leveling back in vanilla. Enjoyed the fuck out of it.
I actually enjoy some of new Thousand Needles.
my nigga
>Vanilla
barrens
ashenvale
Both zones felt huge and had so much shit to find just by wandering around
>tBC
Hellfire. The whole zone felt appropriate for what it was. The other entry to a fucked planet full of demons and pissed off creatures ready to destroy your ass. On launch with everyone flagged, fel reavers, and huge aggro ranged mobs that hit like trucks it felt like pure bedlam.
>wrath
Grizzly Hills but it's an easy pick. Sholazar was cool too.
>anything after wrath
Who the fuck cares?
>Best Location to farm ghost mushrooms
>Warlocks from both factions in a free for all to get them
>Occasionally gankers come and spice shit up
>Jin'tha Alor is literally an uninstanced dungeon
>Green Dragon World boss
Good zone. People who think its barren just because it doesn't have any quest content missed what was imnportant about WoW
Vanilla - Very hard to choose one... I always feel very nostalgic when hearing Orgrimmar/Durotar's old music. Durotar is probably my favorite zone and Orgrimmar is probably my favorite city in Vanilla since I played an Orc warrior from the get go and that was my main until I quit in WoD.
TBC - I never understood the love for Nagrand so much, my favorite place was Hellfire Peninsula, definitely. Blade's Edge Mountain is a close second. I feel like most people don't like these 2 zones but I always loved them. The introduction to Hellfire is spectacular and I remember to this day crossing the Dark Portal for the 1st time, it was truly a very memorable experience. The sky, the demons and the music are amazing here.
Blade's Edge Mountain I liked because of how ''primal'' it felt, with the impaled Dragons and spiky mountains. I like Gronn too, I remember reading about their lore on WoW's TBC mini site before the expansion launched.
WotLK - I'd say it's a tie between Grizzly Hills and Howling Fjord. It's very hard to choose one because both have amazing music and scenery, the questing seems a bit better at Howling Fjord though IMO. Overall I think WotLK had the best combination of zones in an expansion.
Cata - quit after playing for a while, 3 months I think, so I don't have a favorite zone here, but unlike most people, I do like some of the changes made to the Vanilla World.
MoP - didn't play at all
WoD - Hated this piece of shit expansion, only played through half of it but I have to admit that leveling was decent and I liked most of the zones and the music was fantastic. Talador is the one I like the most, Gorgrond would be my 2nd pick.
I have not played Legion at all.
>I personally really enjoy the very loose hub based questing rythm in Vanilla and I think it was mostly an accident caused by the fact that questing was fully fleshed out so late in the development. Railroading was getting too heavy for my tastes already in TBC.
This. Vanilla zones felt like they were part of a world and you could just show up and help out the local population. Newer zones feel more like hand-holding theme parks that guide you around to make sure you don't miss any attractions.
Absolute garbage taste.
Netherstorm wasn't supposed to feel comfy, or be any in way a soothing zone to be in. It was a final frontier, all throughout BC you're mingling in an alien world, close to outer space but it's easy to forget this fact until you hit Netherstorm.
Netherstorm was basically where a zone meets space itself, it came across as something otherworldly traversing these platforms bordering on the twisting nether, where a misstep meant falling into the void itself.
There is no zone in WoW like it, a zone completely different to anything in the game, to be on the brink of space itself walking among the remnants of a destroyed land, which eternally floats in the enigma of the twisting nether.
It delivered what it was supposed to be flawlessly, an otherworldly feeling of taking your first step into the endless universe in WoW that we hadn't ever been to or seen anything like.
It was breathtaking and delivered an experience that nobody will every experience anything close to in real life.
The fact you don't appreciate the old WoW wasteland zones just shows how awful your taste is, not every zone needs to mimic somewhere in reality or be a densely lush zone with lots of stuff in it. The contrast is what made them so good, going from Desolace to Feralas for example.
Duskwood.
storm peaks
>best music
>best lore
>best expansion
>riding through ashenvale at higher level
>low levels from the opposite faction run away from the road
That was pretty funny
>I have not played Legion at all.
You're not missing anything, every zone in Legion is a rehash of an existing one.
Literally did Barrens 5 times in Elysium and could do it again. Ez quests, great layout idk why do you hate it?