Blood elf, goblin and forsaken starting areas were really well fleshed-out lore and gear wise. You hit level 10 with something resembling a good idea what was going on with your race and half a shot at surviving w/o heirlooms.
Exile’s reach could benefit from some extensive story tweaks and all would be well.
On my dorf I used to afk inside Thunderbrew Distillery sitting in one of the chairs and /cheer at the lowbie dorfs and gnomes making their way through the starting area. Its a little thing, but I miss that.
I enjoyed running alts through Exile’s Reach for the quick gear but I always took them through their home zones afterward because it helps me get into the head of the new character. Dwarves feel better when they’ve at least travelled through Anvilmar, Dun Morogh, Loch Modan. Night Elves feel more authentic after they’ve been through Darnassus and Darkshore and made the jump into the giant whirlpool before all that was destroyed. It put the characters into perspective and how they might fit into the expansions. It also made RP easier from the start because the characters in those zones had an obvious common thread as they began their respective journeys.
Cheers.
yeah eversong holds a special place in my heart. the unique starter zones have an impact on whatever race you are, bringing you up to speed on their special struggles and place in the world. it gives you a place in the story of warcraft, your humble beginings. it feels like a place that exists and needs my help
exiles reach feels like a tutorial in a video game. every character goes through the same scenario. its sad and part of the problem where the “RP” was lost from “RPG”.
I miss going into the starting zones and handing out care packages of bags and gold to the newbies.
Same except I extorted them.
Do I miss the starter zones? Yes and no. Yes, because I felt the starter zones told a better story pertaining to your character’s race, along with their particular plight. No because it would just feel outdated compared with the progression of Azeroth in general.
I share Reze’s sentiment and agree with their statement. My opinion on starter zones would be to allow for optional ways to begin your character’s journey.
The first choice would be as a solo character beginning in your race’s homeland with an all new and updated beginning. The player would learn about the different professions while also getting new player tips on their chosen class, as well as the different specs.
The second choice would be for a more collective beginning, which would see the player going through a faction-based start where they go through this sort of “boot camp” so to speak and get to learn about the different races within their faction. character professions, and their class specs. There, they would meet some of the characters from Exiles Reach, which would play into the third option.
The third option would be for the player who didn’t want to go through the first two options repeatedly, or maybe someone whose playstyle isn’t to soak up the lore and story. This would be Exile’s Reach and for anyone who selected the second option, they would re-unite with the NPCs they met from boot camp.
Anyway, just my two coppers.
As World of Warcraft progressed the Factions - and the races within them - became more and more flanderized. A lot of the original spirit was lost when the Vanilla starter zones were updated in Cataclysm, and now with Exile’s Reach the races have become the Faction.
Part of what made me love playing a tauren back in the day was learning about their culture through their starting zone and seeing how they lived in their homeland. New players who do Exile’s Reach then immediately plunge into Dragonflight miss out on making that connection to culture and philosophy.
I don’t think there’s anything to fix per se, it’s just a different game these days.
Yes. They gave you a good introduction to each race’s lore and culture, and most had charm to them. Now, you get through them so fast it doesn’t even matter and most of the rewards are trash even for a newbie starting out. I still like them better than Exile’s Reach though.
I just started a new Pandaren character, a monk, and I’m doing the original starter zone. I was doing it so I could pick up some of the lower level Pandaren transmogs, but as I’m leveling I’m remembering how much I liked the Turtle. It’s so pretty.
As much of a slog as it is to do the Worgen starting zone, Gilneas still feels pretty freaking cool to go through. I will always enjoy the vibes that zone gave, even if the story on retrospect makes me laugh a bit.
Watches Sylvanas evil monologue in a church cutely.
Nothing will ever top getting a random drop quest item and having it lead to Goth Night Elf Sylvanas singing with some ghostly waifus.
Heads up, no idea if they finally fixed it but the final quest of the zone is a nightmare solo. Not because its especially hard, but because the spawn rates assume a thriving community of newbies doing the content.
I was trapped for over 2 hours squatting on a single Healer to get any sort of progress.
Yeah, I’m almost there and I’m really dreading it. I recently did it in classic, to get the mount, and there were only a few people doing it when I did. It wasn’t that bad. But I’ve only seen 2 other people since I started this character. So I’ll post how it goes.
i like starter zones because they were about the individual race/kingdom, Gave back story and context for your character
Now its just “youre a soldier of the horde/alliance. band together to fight the big bad”
The goblin starting zone will forever be my favourite of the bunch. To me, it’s legitimately the most immersive: seeing minor NPCs like Ace and Izzy pop up again and again later on is just wonderful (even up to this last patch!), plus there’s the questline callbacks in both Azshara and Stranglethorn.
I’ve always been Team Blue and I only rolled one BELF in all these years, but that was probably one of the best quests in this game.
They fixed it! It took me maybe 2 minutes tops. Killed a couple of the Lizard bois and I was done.
Thats a relief!
In mordern WoW, Kezan and the Lost Isles made me fall in love with goblins immediately.
If we’re talking ye olden days though, the human starting cluster is something I feel is peak WoW. I miss it as much as I miss the old questing system. I remember it was fun for a bit but then it became a slog later on. Kind of prefer the streamlined style.