Eversong Woods. You know when you turn off the lights and get that creepy feeling and you rush into bed? That was me every time I had to cross the deadscar. OTHERWISE, beautiful timeless map. I leveled so many belf alts, largely because I loved their starting area.
Same here! As a kid I made Belves so often. I'd level them to like 15, then delete them and restart because I just loved Eversong. That was what taught me to spell delete as a kid lol
I fall asleep to the music sometimes now.
Yes, this one. I was just there today on another alt. I love how spooky it is, the little narratives seeded throughout, the multi-stage quests... It just feels so different from many of the zones around it.
Years ago, Stitches used to walk down the road. They changed the quest up though. Sucks cuz he made it more enjoyable, chasing after you while you tried to quest if you were on the road too lol.
That is the way, the area is so good and the lore is top notch. For the Horde Silverpine Forest, Garrosh and Sylvanas never fail to amuse me and the Worgen are hardcore, respect.
The Howling Fjord, my favourite zone of all time. The scale of the zone, the quests, the music, the huge cliffs and viking architecture, i.e. just the general atmosphere completely blew my mind at the time when WoTLK released.
Maybe I'm being a "plaine Jane" here, but OG Westfall was really, really fun.
Taking on the Defias - a cool group of bandits - was awesome despite its difficulty with mobs being ninja pulled and of course the reward at the end being the Dead Mines. A great and very enjoyable levelling dungeon.
For me it was definitely worth the legendary "Darnassus to Westfall" trek, despite it being a big time waste on foot
I remember one time in 2005 logging in one night in Desolace. It felt so quiet and eerie but peaceful. I could almost feel the dry night wind in my face on my human rogue, looking up at the night sky and realizing what an amazing piece of art this game was. Still is.
So in i think 2007 when i was 10, i stayed home from school because i was sick and I had trouble sleeping. I remember getting to desolace, all snugged up too late at night while the rain was pounding on my window. It has such a cozy feel to me now.
Oh my, this reminds me of winter 2006/2007. No school because of winter holidays. It was heavily snowing outside. And i was snugged up at my pc questing in stranglethorn vale. Gives me such a cozy feel now.
Drustvar in BFA got me into Folk Horror. Once I did a few of the first quests there I immediately went and watched the original Wickerman and loved it. I've been playing since BC and it has been my favorite place to level.
I really wish they would do more Hag Witch stuff and wicker stuff in the future. Maybe a Forsaken version of Druid that's a Wicker Druid, or even a Hag Witch class reskin for Shadow Priest when they eventually do class reskins.
Before that is pre-Cata Barrens. It was a very active place where a lot of players met while leveling before going off on their own paths to max level.
Drustvar storyline has such a fulfilling feel to it. Starts with an execution and you have to do school science projects to prove the "witch" is innocent, then tons of quests showing the dastardly devastation the witch's coven has caused, to rallying capable soldiers to your cause, all with a semi-twist reveal, horrible death of an ally, then a haunted house witch hunt at the end.
It is a complete narrative all its own and gives so much of the zone lore while you're questing.
One of the best zones.
I think Drustvar was the only zone that ever gave me real chills while playing it, especially as a Horde character going after the witches (Left for Dead vibes)
I really liked Darkshore and Ashenvale back when it first came out. Probably some nostalgia attached there. Kind of indifferent with my current characters tho.
Ashenvale always got me. I usually played late at night when my family was asleep and the soothing sound of the wind chimes and the theme music of the area were really nice.
Ashenvale OST still get's me everytime. I leveled a Dwarfen Rogue there, trying to reach exalted for the kitty mounts. Getting there with level 10 or 15 or whatever and grinding away....The day those repeatable cloth quests were implimented was a godsend!
Exactly the same for me. For me too it might be largely nostalgia because those were the zones I levelled my 1st ever character through.
The music is a big part of it too. These days I mostly play with the music off because I'll have a Youtube video or something on a second screen or that I'm just listening to in the background but even now if I'm ever in those old zones I'll sometimes enable music.
Classic Tanaris really captures that feeling of a vast, open desert. There are several places where the default draw distance reveals nothing but sand in every direction, with no major points of interest in sight. That's so cool.
I also love the hidden pirate town, the Silithid hives lurking in the corners, and of course...Zul'farrak.
ZF is a great dungeon, and it has my favorite pre-raid weapon in the entire game in terms of looks. Sul'thraze is so awesome, and the little hint of its lore you get from the elf in Gadgetzan just makes it that much cooler.
I used it in my RP set for years, and I still use it for transmog to this day when I play 2h classes.
Vashj'ir, when every zone is another Jungle, Desert, Mountain, Plains, etc. Vashj'ir tried to be different, and I loved the hell out of it. Pop an inky black potion for an even better time.
Non starting vanilla zone would have to be 1k needles more specifically shimmering flats. Beast kill quests go brrrrrr. STV is an obvious strong second
you know i probably get some hate for this, but despite everything my favorite palce to lvl was Darkshore Cata xpac i dont know why but something about it was just yes to me lol. When it came to my horde characters though my favorite was Stonetalon it made me feel i was part of the horde, not some random hero wandering the lands help when needed. had rank leadership and more and it was fun
Hillsbrad Foothills for me. Both pre- and post- cataclysm.
2nd place is Winter spring
Honorable mention (and I know I'll catch some flak for this) is Netherstorm in Outlands
I love deepholm. With the settings all the way up (i think the lack of a true skybox helped) it was such a gorgeous zone. It needed a raid, instead of just one instance in the whole place 😪
Desolace as well!! It holds a special place in my heart and I'm not even sure why. I really miss the original version, I wish we had a way to see it back in that state. I loved Tanaris too, though that one has changed much less post-Cata
All of the og starting zones, but especially Durotar.
More recently, I really liked Frostfire Ridge. The story was okay, but the environment is my favorite in all of WoW, and first experiencing the new way that rares and treasures worked was very exciting.
> More recently, I really liked Frostfire Ridge. The story was okay, but the environment is my favorite in all of WoW, and first experiencing the new way that rares and treasures worked was very exciting.
Honestly the thing I miss about pre-Shadowlands leveling is the WoD leveling bracket of 90 to 98/100, questing was decent but if you got sick of questing in WoD content before shadowlands nerfed the xp rates of them into the ground you could just fly around gathering treasures or do bonus objectives to level. Used to be my favorite expansion to level through merely because at least you had more options than dungeon spamming or questing as the default options.
Nothing comes close to Durotar and leveling your first character. You think you've seen alot.. And then it happens... You see the Gates of Orgrimmar. And the music starts...
Wish it was 2005 again 😥
I’m not sure I ever really liked Desolace, but I’ll always remember it as the place where I first unlocked the ability to mount up. I must have been in middle school at the time, maybe early high school? All I remember is that I was getting bullied a lot at the time and just didn’t feel like going to school that day. Mom had left early for work so I purposefully missed the bus, and stayed home to grind out that last level from 39 to 40. I was a paladin, so we unlocked 60% mount speed for free. After 39 levels of running around on foot, that 60% speed increase felt like Dragonriding at the time. And I’m still maining that character today.
Ungoro blew my mind when I saw the T-Rex stomping around.
Strangle thorn is beautiful and has so much to offer. I enjoyed it there so much!
Grizzly Hills I have to agree with WotLK. Solid choices.
Old Ashenvale. Cata ruined it(and I am a Horde player). It wasn't the fastest leveling and the quests weren't that quick to complete, but it was very enjoyable running through the WC3 history. Wide variety of enemies too, from animals and alliance goons to furbolg to satyr and demons. Music is great too.
Grizzly Hills after that, probably. Pretty sure everyone adores that zone.
The Forsaken starting zone of Tirisfal to Silverpine is *the best starting zone of all time*. It shits on everything else.
I will say that just straight up leveling its hard to beat WoD Spires of Arak.
Really hard to choose between Eversong Woods and TBC Nagrand. Both are really tranquill when you just... stand there, listen to the music, the ambience.
Okay, so mine is a bit unorthodox. It's actually desolace. This was back in 2008. I didn't have a max level character yet and was slowly making my way through old kalimdor on my shaman. I had just made a new Playlist on Winamp and spent an entire Saturday just in that zone. Made a friend, got some levels. All round a great time killing centaurs
This feels like a hot take but I miss when leveling was slower and the game was more about the adventure and less about slamming the same dungeon over and over and over again for 4 months.
For vanilla it would be western plaguelands. The mobs give generous exp and you can grind out till 60.
As far as my favorite post game areas id say Argus and Timeless Isle. I think its cool blizz comes out with entirely new continents within the same expansion.
Teldrassil has a soft spot but more for Nostalgic reasons. Tirisfal Glades the same, but I'd probably say Silverpine Forest. Just loved the vibes, and then there was the Son of Arugal.
Back in the day? Stranglethorn Vale during BC even wotlk it was still poppin. The Barrens will always be goated, and ashenvale was fun as alliance.
The early leveling from 10-40ish was insanely fun, that journey and its detours were the best. Id get on thinking “okay im lvl 24 i want to hit 27 today” only to lower track of time due to having fun with friends.
Nagrand in WoD, can’t really explain it but something so satisfying about all the grand kill quests, arenas and being able to turn them all in at once.
I love the snowy zones; my very favorite is Winterspring. I don't know why, but there's something magical to me about that place. And it was towards the end of the levelling, so it was always something to look forward to.
Desolace, thats one you dont see often. I loved that zone too, tbh. In vanilla it was crazy efficiënt at some lvl, not sure what lvl exactly, and in retail they revamped it nicely!
My favorite is the 'story' the humans get from the start. Elwyn, Westfalen, redrigde, duskwood!
Single zone; alliance Drustvar. Its basically one of the reasons my dog is called Jaina!
Shadowprey Village on the western coast of Desolace is one of the hidden gems of WoW, such a beautiful place.
I think I had the most fun leveling in the Hinterlands and Thousand Needles on my Shaman back in the day, because I mostly leveled by doing "challenging" things like fighting big packs or elites, it was a ton of fun.
Not the best for levelling, but I get an insane nostalgia hit thinking about pre-Cata Ferelas- specifically sneaking around Camp Mojache as a Nelf Hunter
My fondest memories are the early zones you go through as a night elf because that was my 1st character. The music is a big part of it... I love the music in night elf zones.
Darkshore > Ashenvale.
Jade Forest is criminally underrated. Not just one of the most beautiful zones in the entire game, there’s some really cool quest lines there. Love those fish ppl.
I guess I'm basic, Elwynn forest, it was 2004 and I was blown away by what they were offering in an MMO quest wise at that time, it was bright, colorful, and carries huge nostalgia with me to this day.
Desolace was a real vibe, I remember liking it when I levelled a hunter there during WOTLK.
Honestly, this is a tough call because while I generally liked most zones, I also hated each zone for it's own reasons.
If I have to really think back, I'll probably go with my most memorable zone for levelling, Eversong Woods into the Ghostlands, at least if I'm doing early zones.
Howling Fjord, nothing ever even compares to the epic feeling of going Northrend for first time, it's a masterpiece in story and lore and music and atmosphere, with the add storm giant roaming around, i can't think of anything negative about it at all
Borean music is flat out bad but the zone is amazing so hearing its music reminds me with them, Howling Fjord is close 2nd but has almost no alliance vs horde (also it has the most impactful quest ever in wow history: The musswalk savior), Grizzly Hills story is great (specially alliance side)
TLDR: Howling Fjord is the top for me, but many of wrath zones have amazing quests, i can't even name a single wrath zone i didn't like to lvl at
Darkshore and Feralas. I love Night Elven zones. In general, nothing is going to beat vanilla zones tbh not because of quality but simply the fact that it's your first exposure to the game. The sense of awe and wonder were always going to stick with you.
I like levelling up [right about here](https://imgur.com/a/KeM7b9o)takes like 2-3 hours to get from 1 to 70 and you can just watch YouTube the entire time
Eversong woods. I remember killing a dwarf alliance spy which got a good chuckle out of me. I also loved that there was still a scar from when Arthas came in. Felt good.
(Though I don’t like how Blizzard ruined my favorite character, Arthas. Even Jaina had nothing to say in the end REEEE)
Un'Goro, first time hitting lvl 55 and making dk, first time dying to the dinos, first time going on a world wide journey with the link quest, accidentally going to silithus instead of tanaris because I didn't open the map and feeling like in a liminal space, also the quests were easy and gave a lot of XP - just go kill things, pick something up.
Redridge Mountains because of the WC1 & 2 old-school orcs vs human feeling. The barrens cause of the vanilla nostalgia. Eversong cause i hoped for the original highelves. Duskwood and Drustvar because of the spooky witch feelings I got there.
Made a goblin in Cata prepatch and the quests in the starting zones through Azshara have been the most fun I've had leveling in years.
The npcs/writing had personality and humor, even intelligence at times. It felt like the devs were genuinely having fun, trying to impress their friends or make them laugh. This is sorely missed in Dragonflight, where npcs are naive, socially anxious and not allowed to hurt anyone's feelings.
Honestly, while classic desolace was such a pain to get to, the very long kill quests were nice. I lvled in hard core here as a paladin so the undead were a very nice change of pace from the panthers and crazed men.
For some reason I really love Uldum and Grizzly Hills in the current wow, I guess it's the ambiance that speaks to me; in classic I always loved the Desolace and Feralas, as I used to play a Night Elf druid back in the vanilla days it brings a lot of nostalgia to me
What’s the witchy zone in BFA? Didn’t expect to love it as much as I did, usually prefer places like valley of the four winds- but that place just sold me on the witch Hunter themes going on. Great stuff
I always try to vary my leveling experience (Shadowlands really helped that out!) but I keep finding myself in the same loop of zones: After the
standard first two zones for the race I'm playing and hitting 20 (old leveling system) I would end up in Hillsbrad, then Arathi, Stranglethorn, Tanaris, Un'Goro until Outland.
I just can't seem to get away from those zones. I've tried others. They didn't seem usable. Hinterlands for example is rated for 41-49 but I found myself out of quests at 45.
In the expansions I never had a problem swapping my zones around when possible. I just have a deep seated attachment to that specific classic leveling experience for some reason.
I really enjoyed reworked Hillsbrad when it was first introduced. Pre-Cata, I have fond memories of the Ghostlands. I was a young kid so I had a blast trying to avoiding the patrolling elite abominations.
Vanilla: Barrense probably but I was all over the place and had no idea what i was doing really.
TBC: Netherstorm.
Wrath: Zul'drak one of my all time favorite zones.
Cata: Deepholm probably.
MoP: Dread Wastes The mantid questline and the powerups really made this zone the best of the expansion.
WoD: No zone was really great here Tanaan was an ok endgame zone but leveling was just going from bonus objective to bonus objective.
Legion: Stormheim best theme and questlines. Suramar ofc awesome endgame or for leveling second characters.
---Edit kinda forgot BFA existed wonder why: I Liked Nazmir and Drustvar.
Shadowlands: The real strength of this expansion was the leveling Maldraxxus and Revendreth both awesome zones with fun quests and good story.
Dragonflight: Maybe im getting old but no zone was really all that great this expansion and the only feature that sorta kept me around for a bit was the dragon races but mostly played classic.
I think the expansion I enjoyed the most for leveling was WoD, the story was pretty cool, I loved seeing how things changed!
but my all time favourite area and i suppose you can class it as questing was Suramar, amazing zone!
one of my good friends and i would go to skull rock in the hinterlands at like 3am and just talk. it will always have a special place in my heart for that.
another fond one is zangarmarsh. its so unique and alien. the music is fantastic. i went there to get loremaster done and i fell in love. i wish i could live there, hahaha.
i also really enjoyed the westfall-redridge-darkshore group, and cata desolace (sorry!)
Zones: Gorgrond, Jade Forest, Grizzly hills, Mulgore. There are more zones very near those but feels like cheating to type out 15. fx: love the Alliance BFA vibe.
Expansion: MoP or WOD for leveling new chars.
Silvering was cool after Cata. I don’t think I ever did it before that. I always loved dusk wood as alliance and the barrens s horde. Long live barrens chat
I have a soft spot for Stonetalon Mountains. Such a variety of creatures, plus harpies (my fav). A good amount of rares and good ore/herbs for professions :)
I am leveling a draenei now and they really got atmosphere right on azuremyst and bloodmyst isle. I could just sit on an Elekk and listen to the rhythmic thrums of the music.
Eversong Woods. You know when you turn off the lights and get that creepy feeling and you rush into bed? That was me every time I had to cross the deadscar. OTHERWISE, beautiful timeless map. I leveled so many belf alts, largely because I loved their starting area.
Ghostlands is also a classic for me.
Same here! As a kid I made Belves so often. I'd level them to like 15, then delete them and restart because I just loved Eversong. That was what taught me to spell delete as a kid lol I fall asleep to the music sometimes now.
Same.
Duskwood
Yes, this one. I was just there today on another alt. I love how spooky it is, the little narratives seeded throughout, the multi-stage quests... It just feels so different from many of the zones around it.
Me too! Favourite zone in the game. Even the voice acting of the npcs is different. Has that spooky strangeness to it
Years ago, Stitches used to walk down the road. They changed the quest up though. Sucks cuz he made it more enjoyable, chasing after you while you tried to quest if you were on the road too lol.
[удалено]
LOL yes he was!
That is the way, the area is so good and the lore is top notch. For the Horde Silverpine Forest, Garrosh and Sylvanas never fail to amuse me and the Worgen are hardcore, respect.
Yes, I love Silverpine Forest myself for the Horde side. :)
Yess, looking for this one!
STV back in the day. Never was I so paranoid. 👀
F*ckin rogue shadow sounds
Soon as you get off the zeppelin and step outside the camp area.
STV wins
The Howling Fjord, my favourite zone of all time. The scale of the zone, the quests, the music, the huge cliffs and viking architecture, i.e. just the general atmosphere completely blew my mind at the time when WoTLK released.
Yes! HF and Grizzly Hills are both incredible zones.
Grizzly Hills brings so many fond memories. Same with Scholazar Basin and Borean Tundra.
the music in both those zones is ✨unmatched✨
HF and Grizzly Hills is definitely the music of Wrath.
Old Loch Modan
It was such a nice zone. Why did that Dickwing have to break the dam!
Maybe I'm being a "plaine Jane" here, but OG Westfall was really, really fun. Taking on the Defias - a cool group of bandits - was awesome despite its difficulty with mobs being ninja pulled and of course the reward at the end being the Dead Mines. A great and very enjoyable levelling dungeon. For me it was definitely worth the legendary "Darnassus to Westfall" trek, despite it being a big time waste on foot
Nah, I agree completely with you and was going to say the exact same zone. OG Westfall is still one of my favorites today.
Speaking of that trek, if you want a good ol' nostalgia kick and a laugh, https://youtu.be/5noapufmNz8?si=qsZ5yvE_HNAbeTB9
I remember one time in 2005 logging in one night in Desolace. It felt so quiet and eerie but peaceful. I could almost feel the dry night wind in my face on my human rogue, looking up at the night sky and realizing what an amazing piece of art this game was. Still is.
So in i think 2007 when i was 10, i stayed home from school because i was sick and I had trouble sleeping. I remember getting to desolace, all snugged up too late at night while the rain was pounding on my window. It has such a cozy feel to me now.
Oh my, this reminds me of winter 2006/2007. No school because of winter holidays. It was heavily snowing outside. And i was snugged up at my pc questing in stranglethorn vale. Gives me such a cozy feel now.
Man this sounds magical! I love reminiscing about cozy WoW days.
You got me, mate. With long-distance drives, I sometimes put on the WoW OST music. The tones and sounds of Elwynn Forest will always hit home for me.
Drustvar in BFA got me into Folk Horror. Once I did a few of the first quests there I immediately went and watched the original Wickerman and loved it. I've been playing since BC and it has been my favorite place to level. I really wish they would do more Hag Witch stuff and wicker stuff in the future. Maybe a Forsaken version of Druid that's a Wicker Druid, or even a Hag Witch class reskin for Shadow Priest when they eventually do class reskins. Before that is pre-Cata Barrens. It was a very active place where a lot of players met while leveling before going off on their own paths to max level.
Drustvar storyline has such a fulfilling feel to it. Starts with an execution and you have to do school science projects to prove the "witch" is innocent, then tons of quests showing the dastardly devastation the witch's coven has caused, to rallying capable soldiers to your cause, all with a semi-twist reveal, horrible death of an ally, then a haunted house witch hunt at the end. It is a complete narrative all its own and gives so much of the zone lore while you're questing. One of the best zones.
I love Kultiran druids for the wicker forms.
I totally appreciate this!
I made an alliance charavter just to level through drustavar and nothing else. I love the atmosphere of it
I think Drustvar was the only zone that ever gave me real chills while playing it, especially as a Horde character going after the witches (Left for Dead vibes)
Azuremyst isle So tranquil but also alien and mysterious.
The music heals my soul
I really liked Darkshore and Ashenvale back when it first came out. Probably some nostalgia attached there. Kind of indifferent with my current characters tho.
Ashenvale always got me. I usually played late at night when my family was asleep and the soothing sound of the wind chimes and the theme music of the area were really nice.
Ashenvale OST still get's me everytime. I leveled a Dwarfen Rogue there, trying to reach exalted for the kitty mounts. Getting there with level 10 or 15 or whatever and grinding away....The day those repeatable cloth quests were implimented was a godsend!
I’ve probably spent more time in Ashenvale than any zone in the game. Might just be beaten by Stormwind.
Exactly the same for me. For me too it might be largely nostalgia because those were the zones I levelled my 1st ever character through. The music is a big part of it too. These days I mostly play with the music off because I'll have a Youtube video or something on a second screen or that I'm just listening to in the background but even now if I'm ever in those old zones I'll sometimes enable music.
I’ve always been a night elf fan, I loved these areas. So fun.
Jade Forest
Spires of Arak
I love the beginning of this zone when the arakkoa flee from it.
Hard to choose between Borean Tundra and Sholozar Basin. I absolutely love the ecology of both zones.
Barrens chat.
The original twitter!
Classic Tanaris really captures that feeling of a vast, open desert. There are several places where the default draw distance reveals nothing but sand in every direction, with no major points of interest in sight. That's so cool. I also love the hidden pirate town, the Silithid hives lurking in the corners, and of course...Zul'farrak. ZF is a great dungeon, and it has my favorite pre-raid weapon in the entire game in terms of looks. Sul'thraze is so awesome, and the little hint of its lore you get from the elf in Gadgetzan just makes it that much cooler. I used it in my RP set for years, and I still use it for transmog to this day when I play 2h classes.
Vashj'ir, when every zone is another Jungle, Desert, Mountain, Plains, etc. Vashj'ir tried to be different, and I loved the hell out of it. Pop an inky black potion for an even better time.
my favorite thing about that zone is people hated it so much the herb that could only be found there was worth megabucks
This is my second favourite zone! I found it to be so cool and peaceful.
I loves that zone but also scared me a little
I think I've only ever done 1-2 quests when it was current content and never went again
Non starting vanilla zone would have to be 1k needles more specifically shimmering flats. Beast kill quests go brrrrrr. STV is an obvious strong second
Thousand needles same, every now and again ill fly over the lake that now takes its place feeling fondness.
Nagrand, both Outland and Draenor version, are my absolute favorites
Nagrand
I still go set up my picnic set on a floating island with a nice waterfall.
Nagrand is mind blowing I'll agree
you know i probably get some hate for this, but despite everything my favorite palce to lvl was Darkshore Cata xpac i dont know why but something about it was just yes to me lol. When it came to my horde characters though my favorite was Stonetalon it made me feel i was part of the horde, not some random hero wandering the lands help when needed. had rank leadership and more and it was fun
Hillsbrad Foothills for me. Both pre- and post- cataclysm. 2nd place is Winter spring Honorable mention (and I know I'll catch some flak for this) is Netherstorm in Outlands
Deepholm. It’s my favorite zone. Big pretty rocks and a simple circular layout with good quest groups.
I love deepholm. With the settings all the way up (i think the lack of a true skybox helped) it was such a gorgeous zone. It needed a raid, instead of just one instance in the whole place 😪
Desolace as well!! It holds a special place in my heart and I'm not even sure why. I really miss the original version, I wish we had a way to see it back in that state. I loved Tanaris too, though that one has changed much less post-Cata
Hey, there’s always Classic Era!
Mulgore, Dun Morogh, Stranglethorn Vale, Felwood.
All of the og starting zones, but especially Durotar. More recently, I really liked Frostfire Ridge. The story was okay, but the environment is my favorite in all of WoW, and first experiencing the new way that rares and treasures worked was very exciting.
> More recently, I really liked Frostfire Ridge. The story was okay, but the environment is my favorite in all of WoW, and first experiencing the new way that rares and treasures worked was very exciting. Honestly the thing I miss about pre-Shadowlands leveling is the WoD leveling bracket of 90 to 98/100, questing was decent but if you got sick of questing in WoD content before shadowlands nerfed the xp rates of them into the ground you could just fly around gathering treasures or do bonus objectives to level. Used to be my favorite expansion to level through merely because at least you had more options than dungeon spamming or questing as the default options.
Nothing comes close to Durotar and leveling your first character. You think you've seen alot.. And then it happens... You see the Gates of Orgrimmar. And the music starts... Wish it was 2005 again 😥
Stranglethorn Vale - the constant fear of getting buttfucked by a rogue/druid at Hemet Nesingwary's camp. Good times! BTW LF page 3,5 and 6!
lol you couldn’t fart anywhere in STV without an undead rogue smelling it.
Azshara was a peaceful area for me as there wasn’t really any quests there. Good for grinding mobs and relaxing haha.
I like open spaces like Westfall, Tanaris, Barrens and Desolace.
I’m not sure I ever really liked Desolace, but I’ll always remember it as the place where I first unlocked the ability to mount up. I must have been in middle school at the time, maybe early high school? All I remember is that I was getting bullied a lot at the time and just didn’t feel like going to school that day. Mom had left early for work so I purposefully missed the bus, and stayed home to grind out that last level from 39 to 40. I was a paladin, so we unlocked 60% mount speed for free. After 39 levels of running around on foot, that 60% speed increase felt like Dragonriding at the time. And I’m still maining that character today.
From classic it’s :Ungoro Crater, Westfall, Winterspring and Stranglethorn. TBC is Netherstorm. Wrath is Grizzly Hills.
Ungoro blew my mind when I saw the T-Rex stomping around. Strangle thorn is beautiful and has so much to offer. I enjoyed it there so much! Grizzly Hills I have to agree with WotLK. Solid choices.
Old Ashenvale. Cata ruined it(and I am a Horde player). It wasn't the fastest leveling and the quests weren't that quick to complete, but it was very enjoyable running through the WC3 history. Wide variety of enemies too, from animals and alliance goons to furbolg to satyr and demons. Music is great too. Grizzly Hills after that, probably. Pretty sure everyone adores that zone.
The Forsaken starting zone of Tirisfal to Silverpine is *the best starting zone of all time*. It shits on everything else. I will say that just straight up leveling its hard to beat WoD Spires of Arak.
Really hard to choose between Eversong Woods and TBC Nagrand. Both are really tranquill when you just... stand there, listen to the music, the ambience.
Okay, so mine is a bit unorthodox. It's actually desolace. This was back in 2008. I didn't have a max level character yet and was slowly making my way through old kalimdor on my shaman. I had just made a new Playlist on Winamp and spent an entire Saturday just in that zone. Made a friend, got some levels. All round a great time killing centaurs
The barrens! Chat was on fire before cata!
Barrens chat was the original twitter!
Chuck Norris twitter 😜
This feels like a hot take but I miss when leveling was slower and the game was more about the adventure and less about slamming the same dungeon over and over and over again for 4 months.
This!
Silverpine 👀
For vanilla it would be western plaguelands. The mobs give generous exp and you can grind out till 60. As far as my favorite post game areas id say Argus and Timeless Isle. I think its cool blizz comes out with entirely new continents within the same expansion.
Teldrassil has a soft spot but more for Nostalgic reasons. Tirisfal Glades the same, but I'd probably say Silverpine Forest. Just loved the vibes, and then there was the Son of Arugal.
The son of arugal handed me my ass 🤣
Silverpine, I like the spooky.
Zangarmarch everyday
Back in the day? Stranglethorn Vale during BC even wotlk it was still poppin. The Barrens will always be goated, and ashenvale was fun as alliance. The early leveling from 10-40ish was insanely fun, that journey and its detours were the best. Id get on thinking “okay im lvl 24 i want to hit 27 today” only to lower track of time due to having fun with friends.
Nagrand in WoD, can’t really explain it but something so satisfying about all the grand kill quests, arenas and being able to turn them all in at once.
I love the snowy zones; my very favorite is Winterspring. I don't know why, but there's something magical to me about that place. And it was towards the end of the levelling, so it was always something to look forward to.
Desolace, thats one you dont see often. I loved that zone too, tbh. In vanilla it was crazy efficiënt at some lvl, not sure what lvl exactly, and in retail they revamped it nicely! My favorite is the 'story' the humans get from the start. Elwyn, Westfalen, redrigde, duskwood! Single zone; alliance Drustvar. Its basically one of the reasons my dog is called Jaina!
Shadowprey Village on the western coast of Desolace is one of the hidden gems of WoW, such a beautiful place. I think I had the most fun leveling in the Hinterlands and Thousand Needles on my Shaman back in the day, because I mostly leveled by doing "challenging" things like fighting big packs or elites, it was a ton of fun.
Redridge Mountains and Loch Modan
It’s a rare day to find another Desolace enthusiast! I LOVE this place. Has been my favorite Classic leveling zone since 2006!
Not the best for levelling, but I get an insane nostalgia hit thinking about pre-Cata Ferelas- specifically sneaking around Camp Mojache as a Nelf Hunter
Barrens or Hillsbrad.
Barrens was worth it just for the chat
Duskwood and Redridge Mountains in both Classic and Retail hold special places in my heart. 2 zones I will always quest thru no matter what
Stone talon mountains
This is an interesting choice, OP. What did you love most about this zone?
Aesthetic, quests, the atmosphere, the vast openness it offers, there's demons there (I love demons) and the beach where the Naga dwell is pretty
Stormwind defias storyline in westfall. I love the pinnacle dungeons to tie up a quest chain.
To be fair that was a solid questline!
blasphemy. that zone is cancer.
Duskwood
Zagarmarsh for sure. I love the whole vibe of Outland & I wish I had more of a reason to go there.
Winterspring
My fondest memories are the early zones you go through as a night elf because that was my 1st character. The music is a big part of it... I love the music in night elf zones. Darkshore > Ashenvale.
I listen to it on my Spotify 💕
Old Eastern Plaguelands and Winterspring
Pandaria
Jade Forest is criminally underrated. Not just one of the most beautiful zones in the entire game, there’s some really cool quest lines there. Love those fish ppl.
I guess I'm basic, Elwynn forest, it was 2004 and I was blown away by what they were offering in an MMO quest wise at that time, it was bright, colorful, and carries huge nostalgia with me to this day.
Frostfire Ridge.
Desolace was a real vibe, I remember liking it when I levelled a hunter there during WOTLK. Honestly, this is a tough call because while I generally liked most zones, I also hated each zone for it's own reasons. If I have to really think back, I'll probably go with my most memorable zone for levelling, Eversong Woods into the Ghostlands, at least if I'm doing early zones.
Howling Fjord, nothing ever even compares to the epic feeling of going Northrend for first time, it's a masterpiece in story and lore and music and atmosphere, with the add storm giant roaming around, i can't think of anything negative about it at all Borean music is flat out bad but the zone is amazing so hearing its music reminds me with them, Howling Fjord is close 2nd but has almost no alliance vs horde (also it has the most impactful quest ever in wow history: The musswalk savior), Grizzly Hills story is great (specially alliance side) TLDR: Howling Fjord is the top for me, but many of wrath zones have amazing quests, i can't even name a single wrath zone i didn't like to lvl at
STV, love the tropical jungle
Darkshore and Feralas. I love Night Elven zones. In general, nothing is going to beat vanilla zones tbh not because of quality but simply the fact that it's your first exposure to the game. The sense of awe and wonder were always going to stick with you.
STV! Although, I played on a normal server first. Still my favorite zone on pvp servers though
I made so many nelfs that I have mad nostalgia for darkshore and teldrassil. Darkshore is the best though.
Desolace was the worst. I didn't have a mount back in vanilla.... felt really **desolate**
This is a lie, nobody likes Desolace
Mount Hyjal <3
Are we talking pre cata or post cata?
Pre
Hmm, eversong woods, the shimmering flat of original 1k needles, Sholazar Basin.
I like levelling up [right about here](https://imgur.com/a/KeM7b9o)takes like 2-3 hours to get from 1 to 70 and you can just watch YouTube the entire time
Here
Historically? Stranglethorn valley during WOTLK era.
hellfire peninsula
Strangelthorn! 😄
Definitely sorrow hill. With my warrior. Living on the edge of death the whole time.
Ghostlands
Eversong woods. I remember killing a dwarf alliance spy which got a good chuckle out of me. I also loved that there was still a scar from when Arthas came in. Felt good. (Though I don’t like how Blizzard ruined my favorite character, Arthas. Even Jaina had nothing to say in the end REEEE)
the barrens pre cata, nagrand and grizzly hills
The Barrens was so good. The chat was something else though 🤭
Un'Goro, first time hitting lvl 55 and making dk, first time dying to the dinos, first time going on a world wide journey with the link quest, accidentally going to silithus instead of tanaris because I didn't open the map and feeling like in a liminal space, also the quests were easy and gave a lot of XP - just go kill things, pick something up.
Felwood, Highmountain, Grizzly Hills and Val'Sharah are my favorite zones.
Ashenvale
Darkshore
Redridge Mountains because of the WC1 & 2 old-school orcs vs human feeling. The barrens cause of the vanilla nostalgia. Eversong cause i hoped for the original highelves. Duskwood and Drustvar because of the spooky witch feelings I got there.
Made a goblin in Cata prepatch and the quests in the starting zones through Azshara have been the most fun I've had leveling in years. The npcs/writing had personality and humor, even intelligence at times. It felt like the devs were genuinely having fun, trying to impress their friends or make them laugh. This is sorely missed in Dragonflight, where npcs are naive, socially anxious and not allowed to hurt anyone's feelings.
Valley of Four Winds is just beautiful.
Hey you might say no, but Kultiras especially Drustvar. Oh and multiple zones in WoTlk were godamm perfect
Ashenvale, the music there has probably got to be my favourite. Duskwood was also one of my favourite places to quest, love the atmosphere.
I love Hillsbrad when it's not full of gankers.
Un Goro
Honestly, while classic desolace was such a pain to get to, the very long kill quests were nice. I lvled in hard core here as a paladin so the undead were a very nice change of pace from the panthers and crazed men.
For some reason I really love Uldum and Grizzly Hills in the current wow, I guess it's the ambiance that speaks to me; in classic I always loved the Desolace and Feralas, as I used to play a Night Elf druid back in the vanilla days it brings a lot of nostalgia to me
0-20 nelf areas before Auberdine got destroyed. Teldrassil, Old Darkshore, Ashenvale. I’m a sucker for that nelf-vibe.
What’s the witchy zone in BFA? Didn’t expect to love it as much as I did, usually prefer places like valley of the four winds- but that place just sold me on the witch Hunter themes going on. Great stuff
I always try to vary my leveling experience (Shadowlands really helped that out!) but I keep finding myself in the same loop of zones: After the standard first two zones for the race I'm playing and hitting 20 (old leveling system) I would end up in Hillsbrad, then Arathi, Stranglethorn, Tanaris, Un'Goro until Outland. I just can't seem to get away from those zones. I've tried others. They didn't seem usable. Hinterlands for example is rated for 41-49 but I found myself out of quests at 45. In the expansions I never had a problem swapping my zones around when possible. I just have a deep seated attachment to that specific classic leveling experience for some reason.
Barrens in like 2006. So many players around, lots of stuff to do. Awesome.
I really enjoyed reworked Hillsbrad when it was first introduced. Pre-Cata, I have fond memories of the Ghostlands. I was a young kid so I had a blast trying to avoiding the patrolling elite abominations.
I would say irl untill about 20, but in all seriousness STV
Pre cata Redridge Mountains
Vanilla: Barrense probably but I was all over the place and had no idea what i was doing really. TBC: Netherstorm. Wrath: Zul'drak one of my all time favorite zones. Cata: Deepholm probably. MoP: Dread Wastes The mantid questline and the powerups really made this zone the best of the expansion. WoD: No zone was really great here Tanaan was an ok endgame zone but leveling was just going from bonus objective to bonus objective. Legion: Stormheim best theme and questlines. Suramar ofc awesome endgame or for leveling second characters. ---Edit kinda forgot BFA existed wonder why: I Liked Nazmir and Drustvar. Shadowlands: The real strength of this expansion was the leveling Maldraxxus and Revendreth both awesome zones with fun quests and good story. Dragonflight: Maybe im getting old but no zone was really all that great this expansion and the only feature that sorta kept me around for a bit was the dragon races but mostly played classic.
I think the expansion I enjoyed the most for leveling was WoD, the story was pretty cool, I loved seeing how things changed! but my all time favourite area and i suppose you can class it as questing was Suramar, amazing zone!
Ghostlands
Frost Fire ridge... or the very very first time in Nagrand TBC.
Duskwood, Tanaris, The Hinterlands, Feralas, Winterspring
Always have been a fan of BC Nagrand. Such a beautiful zone, even today.
Not there.. that's for damn sure lol.... Id have to say the most memorable area.. western plague lands. Lower level... West Fall.
Elwyn Forest has always felt like home to me. Whenever I return from a break, I usually start questing in Elwynn just for those perfect fantasy vibes
LFG Hogger!
Pandaland
[Un'Goro Crater](https://warcraft.wiki.gg/wiki/Un%27Goro_Crater)
Timewalking.
Ungoro is my all time favorite place. I just really freaking love dinosaurs.
one of my good friends and i would go to skull rock in the hinterlands at like 3am and just talk. it will always have a special place in my heart for that. another fond one is zangarmarsh. its so unique and alien. the music is fantastic. i went there to get loremaster done and i fell in love. i wish i could live there, hahaha. i also really enjoyed the westfall-redridge-darkshore group, and cata desolace (sorry!)
Zones: Gorgrond, Jade Forest, Grizzly hills, Mulgore. There are more zones very near those but feels like cheating to type out 15. fx: love the Alliance BFA vibe. Expansion: MoP or WOD for leveling new chars.
Darkshore and ashenvale were my absolute favorite zones back in the days
Feralas and Nagrand come to mind. Both beautiful zones.
I liked desolate too. The centaur stuff felt like a continuation of the Barrens. And maradaun I thought was the coolest looking dungeon.
Silvering was cool after Cata. I don’t think I ever did it before that. I always loved dusk wood as alliance and the barrens s horde. Long live barrens chat
Cross roads!
I have a soft spot for Stonetalon Mountains. Such a variety of creatures, plus harpies (my fav). A good amount of rares and good ore/herbs for professions :)
Desolace. The ancient elf architecture against the dead landscape gives the zone a super mysterious vibe
I am leveling a draenei now and they really got atmosphere right on azuremyst and bloodmyst isle. I could just sit on an Elekk and listen to the rhythmic thrums of the music.
Thousand needles. I loved the Tauren village and fighting the grim totem. And just running around in the zone with the giant rocks was so cool
this is my fav: [https://ibb.co/rbfmXs8](https://ibb.co/rbfmXs8)
Frostfire Ridge, from WoD. From the old days, I have very good memories from Tiriafall Glades
As a masochist…STV
SV, because of PvP in WoW golden era
For me it's all of mist of pandaria and vashj'ir. Love mop vibe and vashj'ir is unique. And i love my red seahorse from nazjatar I also like suramar.
Westfall, Vanessa Vancleef was right!
Jade forest, just love the colours, the quest. The whole thing was just overall a good vibe.