Most Under-Appreciated Zones

[Felfaadaern Darkterror]

Went mount farming recently, and that took me back through some old zones. One of those was Vashj'ir, which I've always cited as an attempt by Blizz to get creative that was shut down by community reaction, discouraging something we should be encouraging (Blizz experimenting with new ideas). Yeah, there were issues with how some combat abilities worked in 3D environment, but it was open world content so was never so hard anyway. And it was the only zone of its kind Blizz has ever done. Nazjatar was a sad pale comparison - an undersea world with the water removed lol.

Likewise I remember players slamming Suramar because it was actually easy to die if you weren't careful, while I loved sneaking around on rooftops and strategizing how to achieve my objectives.

Which zones do you think were maybe under-appreciated by players at the time, or long-since forgotten, that actually deserve a round of kudos?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Krasarang Wilds. It's a swamp but feels comfy. Also good music. Isle of Thunder had beach waves that were sadly never seen again.




Gorgrond. I hated it back then because it's when Blizzard began the claustrophobic map design squashing things together and jacking up the mob drnsity so you can't run 10 feet without aggroing something, but now that I'm overlevelled and not being harrased by mobs and can fly, I can finally take in the beauty. I like the geysers and salt water and rock monsters, also again good music.

The Class order halls. Paladins were based underneath a Church surrounded by crypts and it feels solemn. The Demon Hunter class order hall set on an alien spaceship orbiting a shattered world was also cool. Highmountain has an underdeveloped underground area, wish it had been fleshed out more.

Zuldazar was the only BFA zone I liked at all. Guess that's not considered underrated but there is no way I'm nominating Vol'dun or Drustvar or whatever else.

Bastion is ofcourse the only scenic zone in Shadowlands. Ardenweald at points too but it's overall too blue. I wish the garden area of Zereth Mortis with the floating trees and orbs was the whole zone. Exile's Reach had ocean waves that sadly aren't seen anywhere else.




I wish the waterfall/rock pillar area of the Waking Shores was bigger. I also liked the two twisted Primalist tunnels and wish there was more fantasy landscape like that, ad the Dragon Isles are otherwise mundane plains and forests and mountains.

[oldgeezer]

Boralus. Amazing city - the attention to detail is staggering.

Azuremyst Isle - a very chill place to hang out. Bloodmyst too, very spooky & atmospheric. I'll bet the vast majority of players have never been there.

Frostfire Ridge - again, very atmospheric. Love the skybox there.

[Aucald]

The WoD version of Shadowmoon Valley - I used to park somewhere on the heights and just enjoy taking in the night sky and general ambiance of the zone. I also really appreciate Revendreth from Shadowlands for capitalizing on the whole Gothic and vampiric vibe very effectively, and how Castle Nathria seems to dominate the skyline of the zone wherever you are.

Shadowmoon Valley:


Revendreth:

[Lolites]

One of those was Vashj'ir

never understood the hatred for it, like it had its issues for sure, but i enjoyed it, too bad the raid was scrapped

[bbakyu]

Kun-Lai Summit.

[SynDethroc]

Uldum and Drustvar are two of my absolute favorites that I rarely see love for

[Woggmer]

Kezan - Most people don't consider it fun or fits the theme of WoW, but I disagree as it does fit and feels welcomed and establishes Goblin society pretty well. Where it falls flat is when you leave for the other islands, and it all just feels like a slow crawl and stuff that makes no sense unlike the goblin cityscape.

Pre and Post Cata Westfall.. Nobody thinks too much about this zone, but it is one of the lesser iconic places in WoW. The stronghold of the Defias Brotherhood, roving farmlands, coyotes, mechanical scarecrow things wandering the fields. Even in Post Cata where it has a whole CSI Miami parody going on.

Zul'Drak has one of the most unique aesthetics in WoW with aqueducts, half the zone is taken over by the Scourge.. various different temples along with scaling to the top where the stronghold Drakkari city Gundrak sits. All the while creating a mix of a frozen Aztec style landscape.

Terokkar Forest in Outland looks and feels ethereal (not WoW ethereals) but there's a sense of calmness to these forests that is hard to describe. What compliments or drives home the beauty of it is when you cross over to Auchindoun's territory and see the absolute desolation of the area as a stark contrast. (WoD's Talador is similar, but without the contrast of the desolation from Auchindoun, it's just a regular forest.. though Shattrath in Talador [despite the Legion's presence] is a gorgeous area to explore on your own.)

Stormheim despite how long it is and how arduous some of the bonus objectives are, is very under-appreciated by how big and grand it feels from the tall statues to the imposing Vrykul villages.. and even better is that we actually go into Helheim and meet with Helya herself and see what her domain is. This is also coupled with that one cutscene at the end of the zone which (regardless of how you feel about Greymane's actions) is only moment the entirety of WoW where Greymane looks like a badass.

One last zone that is immensely under-appreciated and overlooked is Feralas. Not only does it showcase the Alliance having a strong foothold on the area with the Feathermoon Stronghold, but it has a large Horde/Ogre presence as well. Both sides fighting for control with the Alliance having the Shen'dralar staking their claim on Dire Maul while the Ogres have control of it. (This could've been a good area for a Warfront in BFA and give a great reason to include Ogres into the Horde.)

[Arlette]

Spires of Arak. It has one of the best single contained zone stories in the entire game but gets overlooked a lot because weirdly there's not a cinematic for it at the end like every other zone in WoD (Except Gorgrond which was literally just unfinished).

Also yes Vashj'ir is great. I always like doing it.

[Gestopft]

I'll try to do one per continent, though I don't necessarily know which zones are the most appreciated so...

Dragon Isles: Azure Span. It feels varied, and wild, and is absolutely huge. Some Grizzly Hills vibes, some Borean Tundra vibes, lots of little hidden spots to explore.
Northrend: Dragonblight. It doesn't have the grandeur of Howling Fjord or Grizzly Hills, but I always found it a great place to quest, with tons of storylines leading you all over the place.
Broken Isles: Azsuna. I think the whole content of the Broken Isles (minus the Broken Shore) was fantastic and beautiful, and I always enjoyed the Mediterranean vibes of Azusa with its coastal mountains covered in olive groves.
Kul Tiras: Tiragarde Sound. While Stormsong is one of my favorite zones of all time, and I absolutely love Drustvar, I feel Tiragarde Sound utter nailed the "seafaring nation" vibe.
Zandalar: Vol'Dun. It's the only zone I like in Zandalar, but some of the sweeping dune vistas and rocky coastal hideaways are really cool to me.
Pandaria: I don't know if I'd consider any of the zones 'under-appreciated,' but I really do like the little hidden village in the north of Kun-Lai summit.
Eastern Kingdoms: Probably Twilight Highland. Scenery is pretty decent, and I love the alliance-side questing with the Wildhammer Dwarves.
Kalimdor: Winterspring I guess. It just has a very serene winter vibe that I really enjoy.
Outland: Can't think of any really. Lots of the zones were pretty fun to quest in, but everybody already knows that Nagrand is the best.
Draenor: Probably Spires, but it's still my fifth-favorite zone on the continent.
Shadowlands: Maldraxxus. I ended up liking it way more than I thought I would.

[Gurahk]

Frostfire Ridge, I think it's heavily underappreciated and mostly gets remembered as the zone with the frozen Horde garrison.
But the zone is actually really cool, a frozen dune with volcanos and a great soundtrack. I prefer it over Shadowmoon Valley despite that being the more popular starting zone.

[McNeil]

Both Azuremyst and Bloodmyst Isles. It has a great atmosphere and some nice serene music going for it, but there is no reason to go to these isles other than starting with a new draenei character. I would have liked if they did something more with this place like the draenei fully setting in and build a grand city in the middle or something, rather than just some small huts that the survivors made. They would also have to update the Exodar to fly again.

The Hinterlands is another vastly underappreciated zone because in classic it had a lot of cut content. The Wildhammer Clan and Revantusk Tribe were originally going to play a much bigger role and have some more rivalry within the zone. The zone looks nice and one of the oldest memories I have when playing WoW for the first time was gathering a group and climb all the way to the end of Jintha'alor which at the time took quite some time to get there.

Alterac Mountains... which isn't even its own zone anymore because it got merged with Hillsbrad Foothills post-Cata. They've never done anything with Alterac other than adding Metzen the Reindeer for a single holiday event. I'd like to see the city restored and the Alteraci possibly joining the Horde.

Zul'drak gets a lot of hate but its actually a very interesting zone. You get to experience the annihilation of an entire troll tribe who have been living there since the beginning. It showcases how powerful and ruthless the Scourge gets, the same thing would happen to the rest of Azeroth if Arthas had won. The Drakkari were pushed so far to the edge that they were sacrificing their own gods just to survive.

There are probably more but these came to mind.

[baskev]

Went mount farming recently, and that took me back through some old zones. One of those was Vashj'ir, which I've always cited as an attempt by Blizz to get creative that was shut down by community reaction, discouraging something we should be encouraging (Blizz experimenting with new ideas). Yeah, there were issues with how some combat abilities worked in 3D environment, but it was open world content so was never so hard anyway. And it was the only zone of its kind Blizz has ever done. Nazjatar was a sad pale comparison - an undersea world with the water removed lol.

Likewise I remember players slamming Suramar because it was actually easy to die if you weren't careful, while I loved sneaking around on rooftops and strategizing how to achieve my objectives.
[/IMG]

As druid i loved those under water zones. I think it was a good thing. I know many people hated them. But it was a very vertical experience. I liked it.

Suramar was also great. But i think there are more people who liked that one.

[Lordofbelbol]

Went mount farming recently, and that took me back through some old zones. One of those was Vashj'ir, which I've always cited as an attempt by Blizz to get creative that was shut down by community reaction, discouraging something we should be encouraging (Blizz experimenting with new ideas). Yeah, there were issues with how some combat abilities worked in 3D environment, but it was open world content so was never so hard anyway. And it was the only zone of its kind Blizz has ever done. Nazjatar was a sad pale comparison - an undersea world with the water removed lol.

Likewise I remember players slamming Suramar because it was actually easy to die if you weren't careful, while I loved sneaking around on rooftops and strategizing how to achieve my objectives.

Which zones do you think were maybe under-appreciated by players at the time, or long-since forgotten, that actually deserve a round of kudos?

This is why alot of good old things got changed
forums gave a voice to every stupid opinion

[ParzivalMcfly17]

Boralus. Amazing city - the attention to detail is staggering.

Azuremyst Isle - a very chill place to hang out. Bloodmyst too, very spooky & atmospheric. I'll bet the vast majority of players have never been there.

Frostfire Ridge - again, very atmospheric. Love the skybox there.

Yoooo Azuremyst and Bloodmyst was top tier. So many Draenei leveling experiences. Thank you for bringing me back.

[Tojara]

IDK if underappreciated can be applied to newer zones. Underappreciated to me would dictate really cool looking zones that rarely get talked about. Twilight Highlands and Vashj'ir are amazing looking zones, but not necessarily good leveling zones. There simply aren't zones that are like these at all in the game at all.

Frostfire Ridge gets overlooked as well and probably has disdain by Horde simply because of the garrison was lodged there. It has cool ambiance, a cool theme and the skybox in that area is fucking amazing.

Goblin starter area is also one of the coolest starter zones in the game. It's only fun once though, sort of like the Pandaren starter area.

[Teriz]

Kul'tiras as a whole was just a wonderful place. By far my favorite "continent" in WoW.
I love Shadowmoon Valley WoD. Wonderful ambience.
Crystalsong Forest never got its due. Love it.

[Orby]

never understood the hatred for it, like it had its issues for sure, but i enjoyed it, too bad the raid was scrapped

I think a lot of the complaints was it was navigating the verticality of it...

I dunno, I never struggled with it like others did, I really just liked the zone, the feel and theme. I always wanted an underwater zone so I really basked in it when it was released and I would still level in that zone too even after. So its not nostalgia making me say that either :P

[Varodoc]

Truly underrated? All of Outland, except for Nagrand.

Outland is the most creative, original, and ambitious continent that Blizzard has ever designed.







This is why I say that they need to make an Outland Revamp, either as part of the Worldsoul saga or as an expansion afterwards. Too much wasted potential, too much untapped potential dragged down by 2007 graphics.

The concept of Outland is the most original and ambitious expansion setting Blizzard has ever made. The broken remnants of a shattered world, floating in the endless nothingness of the Twisting Nether? I'm already sold.

[Viridiel]

I recently did Loremaster and Vashj'ir stuck out for me more than any other zone in the game. I hated it when it was released because there are issues with visibility and a lot of technical challenges associated with the caves we have to constantly visit, on top of the obvious problems with mobility. But visibility seems to be a lot better, and getting around as a druid with aquatic form removes most of the issues (there are still some areas where you get dismounted/unshifted when swimming over a cave, but only a couple) and it turns out it really is a beautiful zone with a great storyline. I hope they don't let the broad sentiment that Vashj'ir sucked prevent them from having another crack at an underwater zone like it seemingly did with Nazjatar because I think we definitely have the technology now to make it work.

Hyjal was also more enjoyable than I remember, but I don't think it's underappreciated.

Also, I guess it counts as underappreciate because I never hear anybody talking about it, but post-Cataclysm Desolace is a great zone. Like most post-Cataclysm zones the story is a little bit anaemic, but I really love the vibe of questing around the Cenarion Wildlands.

One last zone that is immensely under-appreciated and overlooked is Feralas. Not only does it showcase the Alliance having a strong foothold on the area with the Feathermoon Stronghold, but it has a large Horde/Ogre presence as well. Both sides fighting for control with the Alliance having the Shen'dralar staking their claim on Dire Maul while the Ogres have control of it. (This could've been a good area for a Warfront in BFA and give a great reason to include Ogres into the Horde.)

I agree with Feralas. The quests are kinda lame and severely underutilise its potential but Feathermoon Stronghold has my favourite night elf architecture and it's probably the most interesting Sentinel area.

I won't mention Stonetalon Mountains because I think it's adequately appreciated, but I do think that Stonetalon, Desolace, and Feralas are my favourite post-Cataclysm old world zones and they just happen to be next to each other.

Oh, honourable mention for Blasted Lands. Never hear anybody talking about it but the murloc and worgen areas are unlike anywhere else. Very cool aesthetics with interesting stories placed in a boring corner that nobody visits other than to go through the portal.