Awesome zones that blizzard wasted/ wish Blizzard made more use of

[Gadzooks]

Even if it is not a "over-world" zone, I think the Azjol-Nerub zone/instance is the single most wasted opportunity Blizzard have made, and ties in with the lackluster 3.2 patch and ToC raid.

For those who played WC:TFT, you probably know of the underground kingdom campaign level where you have to survive going through Azjol-Nerub. This shit was prime for a full raid tier in WotLK with Anub'arak as its end boss. Instead we went in and killed Anub'arak in a lackluster low-level 3-boss dungeon, only to have him resurrected and put at the end of the ToC. If the raid tiers of WotLK had been Naxx -> Ulduar -> Azjol-Nerub -> ICC, I have no doubt the expansion would have gone down as the best one ever raiding wise (though maybe still not because of Naxx).

The problem is that they would have had to do some ret-conning - the place was wiped out in the War Of The Spiders - the scourge, under Ner'zhul, wiped it out. It would have been just endless empty hallways and rooms. They could have done it, sure, but lore-wise, it didn't make sense. It wasn't a roadblock to Icecrown, it was empty.

They could return - the dwarves are still down there, and there could be a connection to Azeroth the baby titan, as the Nerubians were more about philosophy and science and being in tune with the earth. They could have been talking to her. They may know a lot about the old gods, that we don't.

[Shammyrock]

Icecrown for me. Just felt very very empty when it was supposed to be the last scourge stronghold

[Benomatic]

All the zones I am about to list are all zones I'd love to see expanded and be used more:

Winterspring
Wetlands
Arathi Highlands
Un'Goro
Tanaris
Redridge mountains
Tirisfal
Southshore
Stranglethorn
Aerie Peak/Hinterlands
Uldum
Ghostlands
Eastern and western plaguelands.

Repair sundering damage
each zone having a world boss or two relevant to the levelling experience and quest chain
new or small additions to villages, town outposts.
the make the world actually feel that it is alive, growing and developing
have daily or weekly quests in each zone where you may have to defend the town or village from gnoll warbands, flesh defias supporters and flush out spies and assassins, defend a caravan from murlocs. Thats sort of thing.
New dungeons or micro dungeons per zone. New reasons and incentive to explore.
New rep/faction hubs, heck make some exclusive to others, "you have joined the scarlet crusade, you are now unable to interact with the argent crusade", have unique in game factions opened up so you can purchase toys, pets, tabards or mounts after getting exalted with them.

[Kazgrel]

Seeing the variety of zones nominated makes me wonder how people would respond were a WoW expac to rely on a story arc/questline that didn't involve yet another new zone and instead the questline spanned over all sorts of these unused areas. Then again, I recall similar things happening in the events leading up to the end of MoP (where you assisted in the Battle of the Barrens or whatever it was called, all those phased quests and such).

To stay a bit more on-topic, for the amount of time and effort that went into the revamp of EK + Kalimdor with the Cataclysm, so many of those zones being nothing more than questing areas (that can be completely skipped) screams "horribly underused". Crystalsong Forest also comes to mind, but with Dalaran hovering overhead in that zone, that pretty much made any sort of major questing there not a good idea.

[Jazzhands]

Vanilla Azshara. I spent a lot of time wandering around there looking for stuff. There were some random quests here and there, but it was a huge zone and the only interesting thing really was the world boss.

[Lazerbrain]

all the old zones should be revitalized with some sort of world dynamic questing all over the place. make it all relevant again,.

[Thetruth1400]

Can anything beat crystal song forest as misted wasted zone?

Agreed. That has to be the ultimate wasted zone, having a total of what, 3 quests in it?

For me, I think it's as follows:

Vanilla - Silithus
TBC - Tough call, but probably Nagrand. Pretty much was just "Kill these animals" and not much more than that. This probably was even more so for Horde, as it had stories for both Thrall and Garrosh.
WotLK - Definitely Crystalsong.
Cata - Vash'jir had the most wasted space, but overall I think it was a sub par zone that was clearly just an experiment. Uldum though, theme wise and look for me was the least utilized.
MoP- Vale of Eternal Blossoms. Basically used as a base, that's kind of it.
WoD- Can I just say the entire expansion? Zangar Sea, which was just that, sea and nothing more. Nagrand again takes the spot for me, as they just cut the content from the bottom left of the map completely.
Legion - I think content has been pretty spread out so can't really say, "Sure wish I saw more of this zone!" Highmountain has been my favorite zone, but don't really see what else they could do with it.

[huth]

They found out that they couldn't use Crystalsong for anything more due to Dalaran being there. It was originally meant to house the tournament. There's a reason it just hangs over the water in Legion.

Just realise that you'd have to relocate resources from another zone to do that. So in the end, you'd likely just shift around which zones are "wasted", not change their total number.

[Deleted]

Duskwood. It is spooky and has some lotr taste.

[Coronius]

Definitely vanilla Azshara. Loved the zone back in Vanilla, but you never really had any reason to go there. Now it's ruined.

[Rudkobing]

The starter zones like Gilenas and that one for goblins.

[Phasma]

Kezan and Gilneas for sure. I've always hated the idea of "you can never go back once you leave" zones. It's a completionist's worst nightmare.

[Deleted]

So let's break it down per expansion:
Vanilla:
Arathi Highlands - very few quests, Stromgrade almost unused overally beautifull zone with nothing in it
Azshara - same as Arathi. There could be dungeon or two there or some epic questline (and battleground)
Silithius - pretty much wasted zone. I love the sunny/sandy setting with danger that can crawl underneath you
Deadwind Pass - There could be at least something like a epic karavan escort quest

The Burning Crusade:
There wasn't really and zone that was wasted although Hellfire Peninsula was a little bit lackluster (I was hoping something closer to W3 outland or the another HP from vanilla files

Wrath of the Lich King:
Crystalsong Forest - definetly this one. Soooo much wasted potential over here. Crusaders coliseum would totaly fit here and would make the zone more alive, however, I understand why it was moved to Icecrown (remember Lagaran?)
Azjol Nerub - When I first saw wotlk reveal trailer I was sooooooo hyped to visit this place... I mean It could span underneath at least 4 zones. It's supposed to be huge underground labyrinth. I was so sad when it was reduced to 2 small dungeons...

Cataclysm:
Uldum - the questline in there was just a big cringefest of how they put their money on Indiana Jones theme
Kezan, Lost Isles and Gilneas - pretty much one time only zones with Gilneas being ghost town after the intro quests

Mists of Pandaria:
I felt like they hit the mark in Pandaria zones although Vale could use more love before the destruction

Warlords of Draenor:
Shattrath City - Although not a zone, but I was so dissapointed it was used just for one scenario and some apexis daily zone that nobody cared about
Karabor/Bladespire Citadel - just why blizzard... WHY ???
Ashran - it was presented like neverending old school Alterac Valley on steroids where you can build/destroy buildings... It was never delivered...
Farahlon - same thing as Azjol Nerub... It was the zone, I personally awaited the most

Legion:
Suramar city - It is good but I expected more from it. They could at least put some questline involving Tichondrius. In the Nighthld he is just... there

[Kaleredar]

The problem is that they would have had to do some ret-conning - the place was wiped out in the War Of The Spiders - the scourge, under Ner'zhul, wiped it out. It would have been just endless empty hallways and rooms. They could have done it, sure, but lore-wise, it didn't make sense. It wasn't a roadblock to Icecrown, it was empty.

They could return - the dwarves are still down there, and there could be a connection to Azeroth the baby titan, as the Nerubians were more about philosophy and science and being in tune with the earth. They could have been talking to her. They may know a lot about the old gods, that we don't.

We saw it in WotLK and it was bursting with (un)life. They could have easily flushed it out to an entire zone.

You had the Nerubians controlled by the scourge, the resistance nerubians fighting against them, the faceless ones and old god influence, the fungus creatures, and all other manner of cool underground wildlife they could have fit in. Plenty of grounds for a zone.

[Draeth]

Moonglade, Crystalsong Forest, and Gilneas have probably been the most objectively underutilized zones in the game.

[Aphrel]

Aziol nerub..

They couldve made an underground zone spanning the entire northrend continent, full of mysteries and old forgotten things. With great nerubian cities and tons of big badass world bosses and perhaps even The Sleeping City itself!

Instead we got a 10 min instance with a major lore Character dying at the end...