I’ve noticed while leveling 1-60 many times, I’ve never once actually cared about not being able to fly until level 60. Even when I reach level 58 and go to outland before I can unlock flying, it doesn’t feel super terrible. I think the main reason is that even though the zones are large and not all of them are easy to navigate, for the most part they are flatter and there are more paths to get to where you need to go.
In BFA zones however it’s different. Traveling is a lot more tedious. It’s not quite as bad as it was in Legion, but I feel the strong desire for flying when traveling through the BFA zones. There’s a lot more cliffs, dead ends, and specific paths you have to take to get to where you need to go. It makes traveling feel more like a chore compared to the earlier zones. I’m hoping for a return to Kalimdor/Eastern Kindom style zones.
The purpose of the terrain in those zones was to enable players to get to their quests while keeping them from accidentally wandering into a zone that was too high a level for them. The map was a true reflection of the terrain they would find, and you could clearly see how to get to your next point of interest.
Now maps are created with a phony fantasy terrain that serves the twin purposes of slowing people down and leading them astray so as to waste as much time as possible.
I dunno, it seems like a lot of the “muh immersion” crowd doesn’t like terrain that is realistic anyway.
The entirety of Val’sharah is a terrain puzzle. Multiple levels of stacked earth slabs with tree trunks and thickets blocking your way, and paths you can’t get to even though you can see the elite you need to kill is right there, just on another level from you.
I mean, you’re talking to someone who considers just basic movement and getting around to be a “complex puzzle” so … are you really expecting to get a reasonable response to this?
Flying isn’t really a requirement for BC, but every expansion after that is almost necessary in some zones (Icecrown, Storm Peaks, Uldum). And of course who can forget hugging mountains in Highmountain in Legion to get around. The lack of flying for 6+ months is a regression in current content and not good.
It feels like time wasted trying to navigate annoying terrain. How anyone can defend it and not be trolling is beyond me.
Those that have problems with the Maps of the newer Zones suffer from “Golden Arrow Syndrome”.
That is when a Player aims his/her toon in the direction the golden arrow on their minimap points and just starts going without any thought to what could be in their way… just like if they were flying.
You don’t even have pathfinder. So you can’t even see what a travesty the terrain in Val’sharah is.
You don’t have the 50 world quests achieve. How did you manage that?
Come back after you’ve done 10k world quests in the Broken Isles and we can discuss it like 2 people who actually both have first-hand knowledge of the zone.