Vash'jir, Deepholme and Mount Hyjal really have this sense of scale to them

[Narwhalosh Whalescream]

Deepholme is well deep and very very tall and wide, full of caves and floating things. Vashj'ir is also enormous but also it is even deeper than deepholme, full of cracks, deep seas and sea ravines. Mount hyjal is on a high mountain where you can glide off as a mage, and then there's the lake there that is super deep and fun to summon people inside.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Yeah, it's a shame that WoW rarely uses verticality to such great effect. Had a sense of scale when you were looking up from the Northern coast of Pandaria at Mount Neverest, or when you were in Stormheim looking up at Highmountain. Mac'aree also has that feel when you're looking up at the huge city in the skybox.

GW2's Heart of Thorns expansion launched... what? 6 years ago? And in that time, we've had... four WoW expansions? It boggles my mind that WoW never borrowed from GW2's vertical map design, like Verdant Brink or Draconis Mons. They truly felt huge - not because of the surface area, but because of the verticality.

[Firefall]

Vashj'ir is my favorite zone in WoW. It's literally the only zone with unique gameplay and the verticality is amazing. And the story of the main chain is really fun because by the lore you're stuck there. It's unfortunate that so many people apparently disliked it so we will never get something like it again /:

[Candy Cough]

Why I have been dissapointed with zones since legion

They all just feel so tiny, I can swear stormpeaks alone is like half the size of the broken isles

[sighy]

It's because those zones are designed, with fast flying in mind and actively incorporate it into how you are meant to approach them. (Well swimming in Vashj'ir)

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I dunno if flying is a thing in GW2

There is flying in GW2, but it's done differently than in WoW. In WoW you have unlimited move in any direction and can hover in the air forever, so there is no challenge to flying. In GW2, your Griffon mount is a glorified glider. You can flap your wings to gain height but that consumes energy. Flying in GW2 is momentum based, so if you dive into a free fall you will start gaining a huge amount of momentum. Flying in GW2 requires some skill in order to stay in the air, so just having a Griffon doesn't completely invalidate land routes.

[Irian]

Yeah, it's a shame that WoW rarely uses verticality to such great effect.

This is something I almost never see talked about that's driven me insane about WoW since about WoD and onward. I see so much praise for the world design but to me it all feels wasted when it's boringly cut into little pie pieces on a tiny, nearly flat platform of an area. It almost takes me out of the idea that this is a world and starts to feel more like I'm at a petting zoo and each of the questing areas in an enclosement where I get to go pet the animals before moving on to the next segment.

Verticality and using obstructive terrain to produce a sense of grandness used to be something WoW did better than almost any other game, but these days it almost feels like they're trying to produce the opposite effect. I feel like I can fly slightly overhead or stand on a hill and see the cutoff area for each questing sub-region at this point.

[plz delete account]

Vashj'ir is my favorite zone in WoW. It's literally the only zone with unique gameplay and the verticality is amazing. And the story of the main chain is really fun because by the lore you're stuck there. It's unfortunate that so many people apparently disliked it so we will never get something like it again /:

it's disliked because trying to avoid mobs in 3 space is much harder then avoiding mobs in 2 space

[Nathanyel]

it's disliked because trying to avoid mobs in 3 space is much harder then avoiding mobs in 2 space

Which rarely happens again after the initial subzones, when different mobs are stacked, it's at much greater height depth differences, limiting chances of adds.

Vashj'ir was a great zone, in design and storyline, but while players always demand "new" stuff, they rarely want "different", just the same in different paint, else they complain.

[plz delete account]

Which rarely happens again after the initial subzones, when different mobs are stacked, it's at much greater height depth differences, limiting chances of adds.

Vashj'ir was a great zone, in design and storyline, but while players always demand "new" stuff, they rarely want "different", just the same in different paint, else they complain.

Right, but why would I struggle with what happens to be a very annoying problem in those subzones, when I can avoid the frustration entirely?

[Al Gorefiend]

Mount Hyjal was a great zone, it felt huge and Hyjal always held this sense of mystery to it before Cataclysm since it was an unfinished zone. I still like questing there, I wish Ragnaros' invasion would clean up so the entire zone isn't in total chaos though.

Also I really dislike that so many people disliked Vash. As far as zones go that one is the single most unique one, Ive leveled a character through it since SL launched.

[The Stormbringer]

Vashj'ir was my favorite Cataclysm zone, actually. Yeah, it definitely dragged on longer than it felt like it should have, but it was still so huge and epic in scale. You felt like you were in the middle of nowhere, in a hostile environment, with barely any friendlies nearby. I thought it was fantastic.

[GreenJesus]

This is something I almost never see talked about that's driven me insane about WoW since about WoD and onward. I see so much praise for the world design but to me it all feels wasted when it's boringly cut into little pie pieces on a tiny, nearly flat platform of an area. It almost takes me out of the idea that this is a world and starts to feel more like I'm at a petting zoo and each of the questing areas in an enclosement where I get to go pet the animals before moving on to the next segment.

Verticality and using obstructive terrain to produce a sense of grandness used to be something WoW did better than almost any other game, but these days it almost feels like they're trying to produce the opposite effect. I feel like I can fly slightly overhead or stand on a hill and see the cutoff area for each questing sub-region at this point.

Then you have BFA Azshara land where they took "verticality" in the worst possible way and just made it annoying and unnatural. It would have maybe made more sense if you could swim/fly, but the way they implemented jt was horrible.

[rayvio]

the pathing in Vashjir was a bit problematic at times for melee characters but it wasn't a huge problem and likely could've been fixed. it still remains one of the best and most unique zones in WoW. I was really looking forward to Nazjatar zone until we learned it would be drained

[Krowth]

Vashj'ir was a better Nazjatar than Nazjatar tbh

[Myradin]

I dunno if flying is a thing in GW2 but I think that kinda hurt any sense of scale vertically WoW had. Neverest and the rest of your examples do look daunting and massive when you’re on the ground but with flying enabled they’re little more than minor inconveniences.

Quite the contrary, they felt massive because even with fast flying they took a while to traverse. The only reason why blizz built the zones that large is because flying was a thing. You realized the value of flight, because without it, the zone was massive and would take too long.

Its why zones suddenly became small and cramped once flight became locked behind pathfinder. Because blizzard wanted to make things more convenient so you'd miss flight less.

Its like how games with sprint have larger maps than those that don't.

[minkage]

Storm Peaks, Hyjal, Vash'jr, Deepholm and High Mountain are amongst some of my favorite zones because of that unique verticality.

Its no suprise that Revendreth is my favorite of the shadowlands zones in that it features the most verticality and even that is not a patch on all the other zones listed.

[rayvio]

Quite the contrary, they felt massive because even with fast flying they took a while to traverse. The only reason why blizz built the zones that large is because flying was a thing. You realized the value of flight, because without it, the zone was massive and would take too long.

Its why zones suddenly became small and cramped once flight became locked behind pathfinder. Because blizzard wanted to make things more convenient so you'd miss flight less.

Its like how games with sprint have larger maps than those that don't.

exactly. flying was there from the very start in Cataclysm and it meant that the new high level zones were designed with that in mind, something that allowed them to be truly huge without feeling overly daunting. it worked well with Storm Peaks too, where flying was unlocked around the same level as the zone, in fact the ability to start the zone and then unlock flight not only made flying feel like more of a milestone it also made the zone feel truly special having that feeling of it all opening up once you could fly

it always amazes me how blizz can continue to ignore some of the best moments in their game that should have inspired further successes and yet they can keep trying to push the same mechanics that the playerbase very vocally rejects (ie: mission tables)

[muto]

Vashj'ir is my favorite zone in WoW. It's literally the only zone with unique gameplay and the verticality is amazing. And the story of the main chain is really fun because by the lore you're stuck there. It's unfortunate that so many people apparently disliked it so we will never get something like it again /:

Yeah same here. The zone is epic.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Yeah, it's a shame that WoW rarely uses verticality to such great effect. Had a sense of scale when you were looking up from the Northern coast of Pandaria at Mount Neverest, or when you were in Stormheim looking up at Highmountain. Mac'aree also has that feel when you're looking up at the huge city in the skybox.

GW2's Heart of Thorns expansion launched... what? 6 years ago? And in that time, we've had... four WoW expansions? It boggles my mind that WoW never borrowed from GW2's vertical map design, like Verdant Brink or Draconis Mons. They truly felt huge - not because of the surface area, but because of the verticality.

I think part of the reason is the Devs' insistence on not allowing flight except after you jump through 50 hoops.

What made those Cata zones work with all that verticality was flight. Otherwise it would have been the biggest pain in the ass to backtrack and navigate. Like the Broken Isles were.