Every single last zone is filled with canyons, walls, cliffs etc to the brim.

[Deleted]

This is NOT about flying. Please keep flying out of this, thank you!

Well then. The most open zone we currently have in the game are Suramar and arguably Aszuna. Both of them have their fair share of artificial movement restrictions. Especially aszuna features an abundance of tiny plateus all over the place to limit movement and force people into certain paths. Other zones such as Highmountain, Stormheim and Val'Shara meanwhile are complete and utter mazes to the extreme.

They top anything seen in the game before in how little freedom they give people to find their own paths. They're more reminiscent of Guild War (1) maps with extremly limited movement options than the open world one is used to in WoW. While I like the atmosphere of these zones and think that quite a few of them were beautifully crafted I do not enjoy this change at all.

I always liked WoW because it gave me the option to find my own way, to traverse freely, because it had rolling plans and open accessible maps. One just needs to look at places such as Mulgore, The Valley of the Four Winds, Dragon Blight or Uldum to see what I mean. Yes they had obstacles in them but they weren't outright mazes with people being forced onto narrow paths as their only way of moving forward and in many cases only one right path existing. The longer I play the more cramped, suffocating and wrong these changes feel.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

You say this isn't about flying, but can I make it about gliding?

This is why we needed the kite. There's so many death drops in this expansion that your options are now Become an Engineer, Roll a DH, or take the long narrow road around the cliff.

And while that opens up new ways to hide things (like just today I found an entire area of Highmountain I didn't know existed because it's over a dead drop by the sea) it also makes it incredibly easy to just on-rails the questing experience. Or die.

Have I mentioned deaths by falling?

[melodramocracy]

artificial movement restrictions

That's not what they are.

I always liked WoW because it gave me the option to find my own way, to traverse freely, because it had rolling plans and open accessible maps.

Hop on a ground mount and go through some older zones, and get back to us about how much freedom you truly have. Lots of zones have rather specific entry areas, and many of the same sort of perceived restrictions.

[mistahwilshire]

Other zones such as Highmountain, Stormheim and Val'Shara meanwhile are complete and utter mazes to the extreme.

Welp. You tripped and fell over your hyperbole. You'd have to be mentally impaired to have any difficulty with these zones.

Who the hell actually died by falling while questing? Geez.

[Grakey]

You say this isn't about flying, but can I make it about gliding?

This is why we needed the kite. There's so many death drops in this expansion that your options are now Become an Engineer, Roll a DH, or take the long narrow road around the cliff.

And while that opens up new ways to hide things (like just today I found an entire area of Highmountain I didn't know existed because it's over a dead drop by the sea) it also makes it incredibly easy to just on-rails the questing experience. Or die.

Have I mentioned deaths by falling?

You can buy goblin glider kits, they only have a 3 minute CD still, and are very cheap.

[Deleted]

I like it. I had my fill of flat plains cute little hills, like one mountain only there to complete the background, and straight pathways in Draenor. Making getting from A to B something of an adventure again? Fuck, sign me up. This is a world. It functions like a world. It's great.

You can still access everything, you can, you just have to actually try now.

All this crap about having to roll engineering and get the glider plus a toy and become pro. What? I haven't even constructed the glider, nor am an engineer, or a race with any mobility perks, I am making my way through this terrain JUST fine.

Dying as a consequence is considered an acceptable practice in raids, dungeons and pvp, why is it not accepted as a consequence for failing at navigation, at exploration? I've died like twice now to silly falls and I've just laughed. This hasn't happened to me since vanilla.

Who the hell actually died by falling while questing? Geez.

Okay in my defense the first one I was auto running and trying to talk in Gchat and didn't pay attention, second time I lept at a node too fast and fell right through it faceplanting into a bloody mess below. Not my finest hour.

[grondik]

While i do miss the vast deserts of uldum or northrend, i must say the canyons and cliffs give me a better feel of the game. every quest is a little bit of exploration, not just wandering around some sand collecting coins and killing spiders (Uldum starting quests, im looking at ya). But, i agree, That a combination of Cliffy zones and plane zones would be the best.

Speaking of realism, deserts and plateus are natural for continents. And For LARGE islands, see Madagascar, Greenland. The broken isles i kinda small, and my impression is it looks a lot like Madeira, a portugeese island. The terrain is... similar.

What i say is... such change of pace is not a bad thing, after the "mostly same height over the sea level" zones in Draenor. And pandaria too.

P.S. Please stop using the word "artificial". It takes me more than an hour to get to my job, a trolley, metro, and then a bus, all cause there is no direct route to it. Should i call it artificial restrictions too? No. Forget the word. It doesnt suit here.

[Provenance]

You say this isn't about flying, but can I make it about gliding?

This is why we needed the kite. There's so many death drops in this expansion that your options are now Become an Engineer, Roll a DH, or take the long narrow road around the cliff.

And while that opens up new ways to hide things (like just today I found an entire area of Highmountain I didn't know existed because it's over a dead drop by the sea) it also makes it incredibly easy to just on-rails the questing experience. Or die.

Have I mentioned deaths by falling?

Or become a paladin like me and jump off the cliff, mis-click BoP, die, enjoy a long run back.

[Seramore]

I don't think anything can ever beat Guild Wars 1, but yes there does seem to be some pretty fucking terrible roadblocks in some of these zones.

I definitely agree with you about the "cramped" feeling. There have been better zones designed to give the zone a larger feeling without having to create gigantic cliffs between road ways with only one or two roads to get around. I don't mind the lack of flying, but when the majority of the zones are designed like this it can get a little bit frustrating.

[Lochton]

I'm loving the zones!

Well, Highmountain and Stormheim is my top on the list.

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Or become a paladin like me and jump off the cliff, mis-click BoP, die, enjoy a long run back.

Then you are no true paladin! ^^ Besiddes, always stock up on gliders.

[Deleted]

This is why we needed the kite. There's so many death drops in this expansion that your options are now Become an Engineer, Roll a DH, or take the long narrow road around the cliff.

My moonkin laughs at you, while he flaps to safety.

[FertsBlert]

Or become a paladin like me and jump off the cliff, mis-click BoP, die, enjoy a long run back.

Or be an engineer like me, replace your cloak and forget to re-tinker it then enjoy the fact that most graveyards make sense.

[Shadowspire]

I like it. I had my fill of flat plains cute little hills, like one mountain only there to complete the background, and straight pathways in Draenor. Making getting from A to B something of an adventure again? Fuck, sign me up. This is a world. It functions like a world. It's great.

You can still access everything, you can, you just have to actually try now.

All this crap about having to roll engineering and get the glider plus a toy and become pro. What? I haven't even constructed the glider, nor am an engineer, or a race with any mobility perks, I am making my way through this terrain JUST fine.

Dying as a consequence is considered an acceptable practice in raids, dungeons and pvp, why is it not accepted as a consequence for failing at navigation, at exploration? I've died like twice now to silly falls and I've just laughed. This hasn't happened to me since vanilla.



Okay in my defense the first one I was auto running and trying to talk in Gchat and didn't pay attention, second time I lept at a node too fast and fell right through it faceplanting into a bloody mess below. Not my finest hour.

I can top that. I wasn't distracted but was trying to flee from mobs and feel off in stormhiem. Now here's the kicker , I was a demon hunter when happened.

[Okacz]

You say this isn't about flying, but can I make it about gliding?

This is why we needed the kite. There's so many death drops in this expansion that your options are now Become an Engineer, Roll a DH, or take the long narrow road around the cliff.

And while that opens up new ways to hide things (like just today I found an entire area of Highmountain I didn't know existed because it's over a dead drop by the sea) it also makes it incredibly easy to just on-rails the questing experience. Or die.

Have I mentioned deaths by falling?

Deaths by falling, yeah. I found myself sometimes actually choosing to fall to my death from a cliff rather than go around it, knowing that corpse run is the fastest solution. If suicide is the way to go in the game, and it's not called "Kamikaze Simulator 2016", something is terribly wrong.

More on topic, those zones are freaking riddiculous when it comes to those cliffs. It kind of seems like Blizzard created all 4 zones with cliffs in mind. Kind of breaks the immersion saved up by having no-fly policy, when all I can do is think of how much it must suck for civilians to live there. Imagine a random Vrykul who just wants to go hunt a deer, but oops, deer is on top of a fucking cliff again.

It's just kind of funny. All of the zones are amazing, but cliffs are strong with them.

[Molis]

Not every zone should a be a flat desert that you can auto run in from point A to point B.

Also the flight paths are barely 30 seconds from each other.

I can also cherry pick some zones that are harder to traverse.
Vanilla zones like Felwood, Feralas, and Winterspring.

You people have literally ran out of things to bitch about.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Learn to navigate, maybe?

I'm loving the terrain in Legion, and would much rather have to learn how to navigate a zone over zones that grow tired and boring as quickly as Mulgore and other flat areas. I have yet to come across an area in the Broken Isles where there's 1 path to take and no other ways. There's also that whistle with a 5-min CD for people that for some reason can't overcome the terrain even after running through it 100 times... Go to the highest located FP, look in the direction you're headed, jump and glide. Easy peasy.

- - - Updated - - -

Not every zone should a be a flat desert that you can auto run in from point A to point B.

Also the flight paths are barely 30 seconds from each other.

I can also cherry pick some zones that are harder to traverse.
Vanilla zones like Felwood, Feralas, and Winterspring.

You people have literally ran out of things to bitch about.

Indeed.

Legion zones are not even close to the fishbowl feeling offered by WoD zones.

[derpkitteh]

Or become a paladin like me and jump off the cliff, mis-click BoP, die, enjoy a long run back.

i did this. jumped off thunder totem, hit divine steed instead of divine shield. splatted.

and yeah, i would like a more open space for once. nagrand was like that in WoD, and frostfire to some degree. but for the most part it's ledges and cliffs everywhere and it does get annoying.

[Deleted]

You must be pretty special needs if you can't navigate around Legion zones. Also Flight Master's Whistle is your friend if you need to get from one side of a zone to the other.

[MoanaLisa]

We used to have a saying when I lived in the Midwest: If you don't like mountains, stay in Kansas.

[Shauren]

I don't really have a problem with cliffs etc because engineer but what really annoys me are the random roots and rocks sticking out of the ground everywhere that stop your autorunning completely (and no "slide" around them if you run into them long enough)