Least favourite starting zone

[Whitedragon]

Voted Shadowgeln.

For traversal its Shadowglen, between the tall tower and the more spread out mini zone it always feels like it takes way longer then it should to complete. honorable mention here goes to Kezan.

For aesthetic, I find the Valley of Trials to be really boring to look at. Deathknell gets #2 here.

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This is still a thing, for the most part. Difference is that you have to finish the very early racial intro, which is done in under 10 levels and ends when you get sent to the next town, after that you are free to change starting zones and go wherever.

This being a ranking of the mini zones we spend the first 4-6 levels in, I feel his point somewhat stands.

[Varolyn]

My ranking for these zones goes like this:

Shadowlands Starter experience>>DH, DK starting experience>>>>>> Forsaken, Blood Elf, Pandaren>>>>>>>>>>>>> the rest.

A majority of the races have painfully bland starting sub-zones. Shadowlands did a lot of things wrong, but the new starting zone was one thing they did really well on.

[Skayth]

My least favorite is mulgore then orc. Sorry. They are full and boring. They were fine when they came out, but they didnt age well, along with their revamped cata sides.

I dont know why people have a problem with dh, beyond the inability to skip it. Beyond the dk starter (arthas lk), elwynn woods and evensong, it's my favorite.

[cparle87]

I feel like a major flaw of the post-Cata starting zones is that they're isolated experiences that you're forced into whether it's your first time going through them or your seventh. Part of the appeal of the Vanilla / BC starting zones IMO was that, at any time, you could just up and leave and go somewhere else, wherever you wanted, whenever you wanted, which led to memorable experiences like the infamous Level 1 Nelf trek across Wetlands just to get to the human starting zone.

I love how the tutorial area in Elden Ring is completely optional, and you can just skip it and go wherever you want right away

How is any of this true? There's nothing stopping your level 1 elf from making the trek to Northshire and doing that questing instead. The only thing that's changed is the trip is easier now with the Darnassus to Stormwind boat.

[Eluvium]

Gnomes, Dwarves, Orc

[Xenonn]

orc zone to this day is still an eye killer from all that orange

[Iain]

Mulgore is...uneventful, but it's got a great atmosphere.

Bloodmyst Isle has a shitty atmosphere and is boring.

But Shadowglen takes the care, worst looking zone in WoW. Especially now that you can contrast it with Ardenwaeld. So this gets my vote.

Bonus mention for Gilneas. Which has a mandatory quest that often gets bugged. Same for the new starter area. Two bombing run quests that get the player stuck.

[ABK Morgan]

OG DK for me, loved it at first, but playing it again recently a few things irked me. The constant running back and forth just to "talk" to npcs, remote turn ins and quest accepts would be a boon here. Then there is the quest where you have to slap the scarlet soldiers with those dual sticks til they talk.....horrendous, they either die before they talk, you have to go through 15 of them before rng gives you a squealer or you just give up and make an allied race DK because you dont have to do that zone at all.

[SR84]

It's crazy seeing how spread it is..but still.. there's a few leaders here.

Goblin, gnome, orc, DH, DK, night elf, and draenei

But so many coming up close..

Another couple hours and I'll redo a Top 5 worst starting zones

[Orby]

I was gonna say Gnome, but that at least is very quick to wiz through. The worst is the Darkspear one, so much running around and the quests are horrible connected and uninteresting.

[czarek]

Dun remember DH zone tbh need to check it. Kezan for me. Looks like garbage and dirt pile. Beside i dun like goblins tbh. I mean they are ok but not as playable race for me.

[Khaza-R]

I never felt compelled to re-play Kezan again. Where I can't say the same for all the other starter zones.

[LordVargK]

How is any of this true? There's nothing stopping your level 1 elf from making the trek to Northshire and doing that questing instead. The only thing that's changed is the trip is easier now with the Darnassus to Stormwind boat.

Exactly how I play non human alts.

[Deventh]

Demon Hunter. Very boring and bland experience. In terms of races I'd say the trolls.

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I never felt compelled to re-play Kezan again. Where I can't say the same for all the other starter zones.

Kezan is pretty darn cool (island, volcanos, BFFs storyline, shipwreck) It's not for everyone, but if you like the theme they were going with it's super cool zone tbh.

[sunxsera]

Orcs & Trolls. Just super boring.

[Lex Icon]

the Orc area has very little going for it.

[Khasim92]

Valley of Trials is boring but I will always love it since it was there where I first interacted with the game when I created my first WoW character back in vanilla. Bonking lazy peons on the head and whatnot.
Worst one in my opinion is Kezan. It's too big, drags on way too long and is littered with quests that try really hard to be funny but fail completely. The part on the second island isn't bad though.
All the other zones either have great atmosphere, fun quests, or both. Kezan is the only one that lacks any of these.
Gnomeregan might be worse, but I never created a single gnome character despite having dozens over the years, so I couldn't tell you.

[Puri]

I hate the Goblin starting area. Not Kezan, but the island part that comes after.
The quests are a nightmare, you have to run several times across half the map to the same spot to complete the quests. It obviously lost some of it's dread from the chauffeur mount, but it still sucks balls.

[Skirdus]

How is any of this true? There's nothing stopping your level 1 elf from making the trek to Northshire and doing that questing instead. The only thing that's changed is the trip is easier now with the Darnassus to Stormwind boat.

Post-Cata starting zones as in death knights (I forgot about this one but they count too), goblins, worgen, pandaren, and demon hunters.

[Jujudrood]

Spacegoats.
Never cared for the whole "crash landed spaceship" and how long it takes.
Quests are boring and forgettable, and I don't feel like I just was introduced to a larger world, just some random landmass that looks almost nothing like anything else and feels completely detached from the rest of the game.
Belf/Gob/Worgen also take longer than I'd like and have similarly annoying quests, but I can actually remember some specifics, whereas goats... I mean, there's a core hound, a bunch of color, and... not much else worth remembering, IMO.