Just wanted to remind everyone that these two zones are still classified as contested territories :\ Kinda weird
Contested territories are more about level than whether both factions have quest hubs there. Hillsbrad foothills is the same way with no Alliance quests. Ashenvale is the only zone in that level range where both factions share it.
The real anomaly was Barrens before Cataclysm. Because it started at 10, it wasn’t contested, but it allowed horde to quest in a “safe” zone all the way into the 30s. (Less so in Classic as there weren’t really enough quests to get all they way without leaving, but as leveling got faster, you could level there without leaving.)
Barrens is in a really bad shape right now, it’s content level is higher than ashenvale, old-style run from orgrimmar to thunder bluff below level 20 is 15x harder than scarlet monastery run in classic on alliance.
Hillsbrad foothills had quests, did blizzard change that?
I wish you could switch Eastern Kingdom and Kalimdor zones back to pre-cata form, quests and all. They do have time shifting areas already, like in Silithus and Uldum.
But the “time travel” in zones like Silithis or Uldum only goes back as far as Cataclysm.
What you want is all in Classic. Along with a whole bunch of inconveniences and legacy bugs.
Just the quests and environment (terrain, textures, music, etc) from the vanilla days. Don’t want to play classic really where you can’t continue on to other xpacks.