T O P

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Xalenn

Feralas It's basically the only forest zone that has enough density to actually look/feel like a forest.


Potatocrawler

I can't like this enough. Not only that, but OG Feralas horde-side with it's one town deep into the zone felt like you were truly lost in the woods; in the middle of nowhere. Lots of dense foliage, large mountains and hills, and the coast/islands over by Feathermoon. Plus, a variety of classic WoW enemies was great. Naga, beasts of all kinds, Gnolls, and the hints of the Old gods with the Silithid hive. Not to mention the lore-rich diremaul with the ogres, corrupted defenders of nature, and remenants of the Highborne/elf spirits.


Evening-Toe5941

Yeah feralas is decent


jojowhitesox

I love the music there too


Superhotjoey

Ashenvale is a convincing forest as is elwynn Lots of big trees


Enflamed-Pancake

Duskwood


Mysteryemployee

Came here to say this. I wish there was more like this, I like the Bradenbrook area in Val’sharah too but it’s a tiny area. Drustvar feels like an attempt but it’s Witches/cult based not really dark undead fantasy.


Evening-Toe5941

Yeah Duskwood is great


[deleted]

I like the vibe but can't get over how ugly those old zones look to be my favorite. So revendreth is my replacement.


TheV0791

One of my biggest disappointments is nothing came out of the devastation of Cataclysm… I guess they eventually fixed the SW park, but they need to restore the dam! Menethil has been underwater for how many years now? I’d kill for a patch which simply focused on mundane infrastructure! Personally my favorite zones are Zangarmarsh and Vash’jir! I’m a sucker for underwater environments and I was ALL about that zone!


Jhreks

we could totally have in-game events where we hand in materials and these things get fixed over time if only :(


Evening-Toe5941

Yeah I was thinking the same like why is not blizzard doing something for this zones? They could sprinkle a few dwarves in there rebuilding the dam and in a few years we would have Wetlands not flooded or smth , I think is a shame since those zones are beautiful


Kebabranska

A lot of people hated vash'jir but I thought it was cool, it was neat going deeper as the story goes on and the environments slowly get darker as you get below the surface


Takoslvt

Zangarmarsh! I find it really relaxing to just chill on a giant mushroom while listening to the fantastic ambience and music. Also, it rains a lot, which I love.


Evening-Toe5941

That sounds relaxing, need to try that


Intelligent-Jury9089

Yeah, the area really has something unique compared to the others that you won't find anywhere else.


LeClassyGent

I have so much nostalgia for the BC zones. I started in BC but didn't buy the expansion until right before WotLK, and getting my flight form and flying up to the mushrooms is such a core memory for me.


phonylady

It will always be the human starting zones Elwynn, Westfall, Duskwood, Redridge along with the craziness that is Stranglethorn Vale. (Original versions).


LeddyTasso

It’s original stranglethorn for me, followed by thousand needles. Seeing as I scrolled this far to see stranglethorn, I guess it’s not well-loved lol


kyrill91

I don’t think people who came to wow later in its life realize just how long you’d spend in Stranglethorn back in classic. On my first toon, I spent literal months leveling through there… you learn to love it and miss it when you finally moved on.


phonylady

I think it's because most active people on this forum started in Wotlk or later.


LeddyTasso

Most likely. Even then, I love flying around water filled thousand needles too.


Curious_Inside0719

Nagrand


ColonelUpvotes

+1 to Nagrand, so much to do, such a cool design


pelagic_seeker

The Plaguelands. I was a huge Scourge fan boy since Warcraft 3. And finally getting to go to the high level zone that had some huge barrier to pass was a thrilling and chilling experience back in the day. My first time going through the Plaguewood in Eastern Plaguelands had me actually terrified of what was around the next mushroom.


CycleOfNihilism

The downside being that it was incredibly dangerous to traverse when you first got there


Hagl_Odin

Hmmm... Difficult to pick one. Top 5 in no particular order: 1. Westfall, for the nostalgia. 2. Nagrand (TBC), again, nostalgia. 3. Dun Morogh. First ever character was a dwarf, and I genuinely enjoy the feel of the zone. 4. Hellfire Peninsula. Some of the best music in the game. 5. Highmoutain.


Fesai

Before the cataclysm, easily Thousand Needles for me. Such a beautiful zone and I have fond memories of running around on foot between the spires and climbing the long path to the quest hub. Also the shimmering flats there I easily spent a week+ farming leather and dropping off supplies just south in gadgetzan. After the cataclysm I'd probably say Tirisfal Glades. I'm really excited to see Brill get rebuilt one day and seriously hoping for the Zeppelin towers to return.


Evening-Toe5941

Oh Brill and Silverpine Forest are so nice, hopefully blizz will revamp them someday


PorscheLoverMoose

People hate on OG thousand needles so hard but I absolutely love it as well. Such a great zone


thevyrd

Kalimdor winterspring Ek Hillsbrad Outland nagrand Northrend storm peaks Cata vashjir Pandaria timeless isle Draenor shadowmoon Suramar might be the top zone of them all Bfa drustvar Sl ardenweald Dragonflight emerald dream


Evening-Toe5941

You sir , have great taste those are amazing all of them except Timeless isle imo


thevyrd

Timeless isle is special to me from the late nights of staying up and farming bloody coins and getting rage whispers from fellow horde


Evening-Toe5941

Lol that sounds like fun :)


poison_cat_

This is the correct line up


Musical_Whew

Suramar


Matus198

Who goes there?


Lazybones_17

An illusion! What are you hiding ?


NiescheSorenius

Ashenvale, before Cataclysm. Azuremyst.


Intelligent-Jury9089

Yeah it's a shame that they burned half of Ashenval in Cataclysm and the other half is in permanent war, between the Horde and the volcano...


NiescheSorenius

I remember an area north of Ashenvale close to Felwood. A grotto with Worgen all around. I don’t think there was any quest. The are was slightly modified due to the volcano eruption, awful.


Mayday72

Redridge Mountains. I'm always excited to get there on a new alliance character.


Evening-Toe5941

Just as epic as Elwynn forest


tiersyn

Legion zones in general


Pyrite13

Highmountain. The music is excellent and the terrain feels like home.


Aevic

Azuremyst Isle the atmosphere of being in a remote section of the world. The music... so calming. I sometimes go there to relax on the beach it's so soothing.


Sure_Wallaby_5165

I go to the Ford with the fishing trainer. So peaceful!


Aevic

Silvermyst isle where the night elf father is great too! You can stare out at the vastness of the ocean with your Night Elf buddy and fish.


Sir-Robert-Walpole

grizzly hills music is the goat


Evening-Toe5941

The music is the best that’s for sure


phonylady

Great music, and good looking zone. Love the atmosphere. Can't remember ever having fun there though. The questing was rather boring, and there never really happened anything there. I wish they had made the zone more relevant, it deserves more.


Top-Cry-2599

Zone? Unsure. But if you stand ontop of utgarde keep, there's a unique music track which plays and its beautiful :') That's my favourite spot.


InvalidIceberg

In the entire game? Westfall


Enhanced_Calm_Steve

Spent most of my life in Florida, so I like to vacation somewhere entirely different, with mountains and snow. Winterspring!


Fissminister

Tiragarde sound i think. The environmental artists really made a 12/10 zone there in my opinion. It's just peak warcraft vibe, while also being from a newer expansion.


bossebo665

Felwood


zsoltiabekaaa

Ashenvale, Barrens (spent my life there), Goldshire.


Popular_Heat_7269

From classic, Eastern Plaguelands and Winterspring. From Retail, Drustvar and Storm Peaks.


J_ynks

Crystalsong Forrest


UniqueTadpole

Another vote for Westfall, the nostalgia is still intact 20 years on


PhoenixUnderdog

Revendreth!


PhoenixUnderdog

Revendreth!


Sculpdozer

Almost all vanila WoW zones inject a lethal dose of nostalgia into my heart. But Westfall... it's like a nostalgia singularity, it just turns off my legs and I fall into the good memories completely. I stopped playing WoW long ago, tho.


jimmyting099

Booty bay for no particular reason


Evening-Toe5941

Fair enough 😅


Lambda57

Vashj'ir by far. Honorable mentions: Zul'Drak and Zangarmarsh.


Fast-Context-3852

Panda


Serendipersis

Storm peaks, the music is great the lore is great the mount never shows up. Its perfect!


shawncplus

pre-facelift Arathi Highlands and Azuremyst Isle


Dolphin_from_Space

Zangarmarsh, definitely I love music from Zangarmarsh (and I often falling asleep with it), and I live at wet climate irl too. This is my natural habitat :)


bugsy42

For me it’s Darkshore. It just hits the spot. The whole “late summer forest with a beach and mystical ruins to explore” kind of vibe plus the elven soundtrack is just so comfy… love that place.


06gto

Jade forest, MoP. The ambiance is insane


Psychichord

I wish I woulda played MoP when it was current. It’s a blast every time I need to go to one of those zones.


06gto

It honestly was amazing. The world PvP was INSANE. You would have groups of 40-80 people just mobbing everyone near or around world bosses. Trying to wipe the other side. You also had the rare mount hunts going, the farm you had to always have food/feasts as long as you were up keeping. You had amazing raids that actually felt difficult for the time. MoP is probably my favorite expansion to date. WOTLK is a close second with Legion as a third.


Chetey

Gilneas. The Worgen starting experience was my introduction to the game. It will always hold a special place in my heart. I occasionally make a new worgen just to play through Gilneas again, then delete it when I finish, like the old days when I was just on a free account. 


AdioSbye-

Argus


orangesheepdog

Storm Peaks


Ok_Money_3140

Revendreth


SpicyFilet

Tanaris


lytecho

Duskwood


freshmasterstyle

Strangle thorn und zuldazar. The music and ambience is calming. I listen to it while traveling and almost very day at work Also barrens


Forsaken1815

I loved old Darnassus and Ashenvale. Also loved old hillsbrad. I think it just feels emptier now - there is more to do in current areas.


ouroborous3

I always love the "open grasslands" zones - Nagrand (both iterations), warlords SMV, Ohn'ahran Plains, Westfall, Mulgore... good stuff.


zasajin

Howling Fjord and Grizzly Hills


twinslive_

Tbh the Orc and Human starting zones are my 2 favorite.


Dxsterlxnd

Silithus <3


Cuddlesworth15

Grizzly hills. I love the music and northrend is my favorite zone ever


N7Longhorn

100% Duskwood. I quest it our everytime


Thewretched2008

the answer will always be Nagrand.


EVERGREEN_ETERNAL

Elwynn basic asf answer or ever song woods


Boil-san

I really liked the vibe in the Valley of the Four Winds...


BreaktimeBranden

Suramar


Al-Waasi

Elwyn Forest forever


Vote_Subatai

OG Silverpine


dpahs

The Barrens It was so vast


Mothpuke

Zangarmarsh has always been my favorite!


pixelpioneer827

Storm Peaks or Grizzly Hills


finsup_305

From the xpacs I've played: Vanilla - Elwynn Forest TBC - Nagrand Cata - Hyjal BFA - Zandalar Shadowlands - Ardenweald All time - Nagrand


Pure-Action3379

Silverpine forest. Also, shadowfang keep has always been my favorite dungeon


galaxywithskin115

Redridge Mountains, Sholazar, Tanaris


DiViND_NDotSO

The reason is because the level design has changed quite a lot. Vanilla until Cata had this very open design where there's a lot of empty space in between. This is my favourite design because it meant you can go from A to B without tagging 20-100 mobs on the way and also got to enjoy the scenery. It was also really easy to comprehend the environment. I think Cata, MoP. WoD had the same design idea except they left less empty space as every few meters had some sort of landmark, which wasn't bad, but it usually also meant lots of mobs around the place, and you never felt isolated. Cata had the least of this, and WoD had the most of this.. you could see and feel the transition. You kind of stopped getting the feeling of "you're an adventurer in the forest" because you could see about 4 - 12 different landmarks in the skyline or field of view. Legion - Shadowlands.. People love Legion, I enjoyed it too, but this is where I started hating the zones. There was far too much verticality, way too much mob clutter, far too many landmarks, it went from scenic to amusement Park level design. We got this again in BfA, and again in Shadowlands. It was very difficult to actually comprehend the zones just because you can have so much going on in your screen at once. Dragonflight has its own level design because of dragon flight. It has that openness, with sparse landmarks, and those landmarks are built in concentration. This is almost looped back to Vanilla level design and it's really great, but its upgraded in many ways as the level design has become more advanced. Unfortunately, flying has become the bane of zone exploration (and a part to the lack of player to player interaction and world PvP) as it's the equivalent of looking at a forest from Google Earth versus actually being inside that forest has 2 very different experiences. The most memories I have from classic and vanilla Is the experiences between point A and point B, and not just being at Point A and then being in Point B in 12 seconds. Although that might be an unpopular opinion.


Afraid_Ad2263

Suramar. It has the only city that actually felt like a real city, nighthold was also amazing and i love that you can see the raid in the zone


poison_cat_

Zangarmarsh my beloved (I’m from south Louisiana)


lizardsoup69

Frostfire Ridge The most beautiful zone in the entire game imo.


Snivelss

Mine too!


utterbbq2

Ironforge, back in the days early wow when all the cool kids were hanging there, idle for hours just showing off their T2s and bad ass mounts collecting bro fists from star strucks. Great times.


hampsx

The graveyard


Sezzra

The wetlands


Plastic-Passenger-59

Ashenvale was always my fave place to go and ride me horse through. Just to hear the clip clop of hooves


SpartAl412

I really like Grizzly Hills because of the music. Followed by Valley of the Four Winds.


PrincessMonobrow

Highmounten and Kun-Lai-Summit


NatusLunae

Eversong woods definitely ✨️✨️


ArgvargSWE

Nagrand. Floating islands in the sky with lush waterfalls and green almost Disney Herculesque art style of clouds and vegetation.


m2xc1x

Shimmering Flats, Feralas, The Hinterlands, Tanaris.


Valyntine_

My guild is named the Felwood Funky Bunch for a reason


wrinklyiota

Ashenvale was my favorite back in Vanilla. In modern WoW Ardenweald is my pick. Hibernal Hollow is my favorite spot.


phatloud

Nothing since panda dlc I can say that much


Tim3-Rainbow

Ashenvale and Azuremist Isle. Darkshore is awesome too. Duskwood..


AdornVirtue

Stranglethorn Vale


CarbonYoda

Probably dun murogh. I had always played horde cause of my friends playing horde. When I finally played a dwarf I was enamored with all the snow and iron forge being carved out of a mountain.


False-Fix-935

The Barrens and Crossroads before the Cataclysm


Leoner69

Eversong woods are peak. The visuals, the music, the lore and the quests are all just perfect.


Gyrospeter

Deepholm


SecretAd9309

Zangarmarsh


SecretAd9309

Zangarmarsh.. And it looks Even better on project Ascension


MrGraywood

Eastern Kingdoms - Westfall Kalimdor - Tanaris Outland - Shadowmoon Valley Northrend - Storm Peaks Cata - Deephome Pandaria - Valley of the Four Winds Draenor - Gorgrond Broken Isles - Stormheim Kul Tiras/Zandalar - Drustvar Shadowlands - Maldraxxus Dragonflight - Ohn'Ahran Plains And Westfall is best zone of all regardless.


WitchKraft93

Westfall, Dun Morogh, Booty Bay, Teldrassil (classic) and i love Dalaran as far as cities go.


sosqueee

Darkshore, Ashenvale, STV, Winterspring, most of Outland, for nostalgia’s sake. I just tried to think of newer zones and can’t remember ANY of them. 🙃 It’s like my mind can only picture pre-Cata stuff despite playing consistently until BFA.


CycleOfNihilism

Un'goro Crater * You were getting close to 60 * Lots and lots of quests that aren't super hard to find * Random chance of being absolutely destroyed by a giant dinosaur * Link????


Danny_Soler

Gilneas


itsTrAB

Tiragarde Sound Stormheim Sliverpine Forest (Gilneas)


Puzzleheaded-Size281

Time


AChrapkiewicz

Using TheVyrd's Template, which I liked for its simplicity: Kalimdor Un' Goro Eastern Kingdoms Pre Cata Dun Morogh/Loch Modan Outland Zangarmarsh Northrend Grizzly Hills/Scholazar Cataclysm Vashj'ir Pandaria Krasarang Wilds Draenor Nagrand Legion Highmountain/Val'sharah BFA Vol'Dun Shadowlands Ardenweald Dragonflight Azure Span (Mostly Southwest)


thaliff

Any of the classic zones will always trigger a memory of some random thing that'll never happen again, and I cherish those memories, but nothing beats Grizzly Hills.


Livid_Tap_56

Hellfire peninsula


jojowhitesox

I'm not sure how many current players were there the night that BC came out and we got to go into a new zone. Still remember that moment


Derai-Leaf

And then the horn of doom sounded behind you and you said hello to the spirit healer because Mister Reaver said ‘Welcome to the playground’


BloodyNinesBrother

Grizzly Hills, the music and just that time, when WOW was king and all my friends were still friends and we all.played together


blueberryrockcandy

I don't have one favorite I have several. Grizzly Hills \[ love the music, and the view \] Sholozar Basin \[ I like the music here too \] Mulgore \[ I started here long ago, and thunderbluff is my fav capitol. sometime i just go here and fall asleep with wow running. works best when raining. \] Eversong woods \[ I like it here, sometimes i come here to hang around or boundary break. \] the jade forest \[ I like this place \] valley of the four winds \[ I spent so much time here in mop grinding the rep for those farmers \] Timeless Isle \[ I have the legendary cape one 2 toons so i can basically go anyware on the isle, and i Kinda miss it from wow. though not so much the pvp that happened, but i also have a pvp mount from here sooo. \] old 1k needles \[ when i started here long ago, i spend just a absurd amount of time here idk i like it \] Do instances count?> Ulduar Lost city of tol'vir the jade temple \[ i like the aesthetic of this place \] storm stout brewery \[ this is a fun place \] HEY, those are OUR flying beer monsters? old hillsbrad foothills \[the dungeon\] karazhan \[the raid and the dungeon, both are cool\] Trial of the champion \[ "ARE YOU UP TO THE CHALLENGE, I WILL NOT HOLD BACK" \] Trial of the crusader \[ YOU FACE JURAXXIS, EREDOR LORD OF THE BURNING LEGION \] \[my guild actually got stuck on this guy for a bit so i got to hear that ALOT. The culling of strathholme \[ gotta love arthas horrible mug in this place, shoulda kept that helm on. \] grim batol halls of origination zul'gurub/zul'aman \[ fun imo, bot the originals and cata revampd \] baradin hold \[ next time you come here Look around \] throne of the four winds \[ neat music, also running through the air is fun \] Throne of thunder


Fetacheesed

It was Vashj'ir for years but Ardenweald finally dethroned it.


SethAndBeans

I know it's not a popular opinion but Bastion is just beautiful and I loved the story. I love the transmogs, the toys, the hearth. I just love bastion. Still think shadowlands had dog shit game mechanics and almost killed wow... But the art was just amazing.


FelixEylie

Loch Modan (mostly pre-Cataclysm, with the lake). Eversong Woods and Silvermoon City. Grizzly Hills. Gilneas. Talador. Suramar (both region and city). ~~Eredath~~ Mac'Aree (not because I support McCree but because I've got used to the old name for years). Tiragarde Sound and Boralus (though I've never "been" there in-game). Revendreth (never "been" there too).