So it’s no secret that high level areas have a tendency to be “doomy”… ruined, dead, dark, whatever combination of negative descriptors one might imagine. Most recently that would be The Maw and Korthia, but past examples include Argus, Broken Shore, and parts of Tanaan. If you lump xpac-current leveling the list expands even further, like with all the Legion scarred parts of Broken Isles.
What are your feelings on these? Do they get on your nerves or do you find them ok?
Personally I find them tiring. It makes sense that at the places we go aren’t going to be all sunshine and rainbows given that we perpetually seek grave danger, but still, I think there could stand to be more variety. It’d be nice if we had more Wintersprings and Sunstrider Islands where there’s problems but the overall zone theme is pleasant and soothing.
I agree, I’d like an end zone to be nothing but beautiful scenery and enemies. No corruption, no damage, just an evil but gorgeous race of beings to fight against in a pristine locale. Nighthold was close, but that too had corruption.
I love the variety of this game. I dont mind either end of the spectrum as far as this goes…as long as the content isnt designed to annoy me instead of being fun.
Im a horror fan. Dark doesnt bother me at all. I grew up in the 70s on all those gothic vampire movies on Chiller theater, lol.
Its when Ion and crew cant take a theme and keep it cohesive but have to ruin it with hokey mechanix instead to make it ‘challenging’ that its ruined for me.
Any zone in this game short of ZM isnt entirely unpleasant if the content is decent.
Ive run WS nearly 100 times so far, and loved it every time.
Its a really fun zone to level up in on alts.
I enjoyed adventuring in Argus, the Broken Shore, and Tanaan. Korthia’s okay, but kind of dull after a while.
On the other hand, the Maw always feels like a “get your souls/renown, do your thing, get out” kind of place to me. Though I suppose you could argue that that means they succeeded in making it feel like what it was, an awful place to escape rather than dilly-dally in.
ZM was almost but not quite “uncanny valley cheery” where it almost is but isn’t quite. It’s got an odd sterility to it compared to say Mulgore, Eversong, or Nagrand.
Hot-take: We don’t have enough “doomy” zones. Every expansion typically gives us four “chill”/“boring” level zones. Let me tell you, when Legion first came out I hated the leveling zones. I’ve come to appreciate them in their own way, but man, they definitely did not live up to the promise of a “Legion invasion”. Ashenvale 2.0, Azshara 2.0, Howling Fjord 2.0, and Stonetalon 2.0 was the most boring expansion I had seen up to that point. Suramar was basically one of the only things bringing life into the open-world of Legion until it got proper Legion zones like Broken Shore etc.
Honestly, this is a problem with Dragonflight to me. These zones are so boring. We’ve got Nagrand, Grizzly Hills, Storm Peaks, Ungoro-meets-1k-Needles.
I’m going to drop a 2nd hot-take and say I loved the 9.0 Shadowlands zones. Korthia was trash and Zereth Mortis was… eh, but I think the four leveling zones were great and the Maw was great for what it was trying to be.
I guess my main problem is that maybe Blizzard has become too one-note with the doominess. Put a grayscale filter on most of these zones and they’re difficult to tell apart.
If they’re going to do it, do it in a more interesting way like we got with WPL/EPL, Felwood, and hell even Silithus. All distinctly different flavors that all felt very dangerous.
Auchindoun is crazy if you really think about it. There’s just so much stuff going on there. The Arakkoa are there, there’s the Shadow Council fending off a cosmic entity, you’ve got the Ethereal up to shenanigans, all of the various undead Draenei spirits who can’t move on, you’ve got the Legion putzing about the place, you’ve got Draenei necromancers…
I don’t think we will ever see something as wild and jam-packed with different concepts as that area.
As a rule, I generally don’t like them. I like things to be more colourful, I love elf zones (both night and blood elves) and lush natural zones like forests and stuff. I don’t like zones that are super drab - like all grey, brown, etc. And I REALLY don’t like them when they are very dark. I hate not being able to see things properly unless i dim the lights in my apartment lol.
Idk I just find zones like that depressing. It’s fine if there’s a few of them, but there’s so many. In this current expansion, Revendreth was very ugh for me. BUT - suprisingly, Maldraxxus was quite engaging and I liked the zone a lot more than I thought I would considering it was a scourge zone, there was just enough colour and interesting scenery to make it engaging.
Like Icecrown has some of the best quests in the game lorewise. Aesthetically, the zone is so Wrath. It’s the most Wrathy zone of all of Wrath. ICC is looming in the distance, always right there. That constant threat. Perfect zone.
Hellfire is gross. It’s just gross. I hated it in BC and I hate it now. The zone is disgusting and it’s gross. I have fond memories of it. But my fondest is finally being high enough to go to Zangarmarsh.
Everything I said about Icecrown oddly enough does not apply to Shadowmoon because Shadowmoon is also gross. And BT is kind of weirdly hidden for such a high profile raid that kills one of the game’s most iconic villains.
Really just matters what the aesthetic is, I love Drustvar as a “doom” zone, it screams October. At the same time they screwed up with say… The Maw, where it’s grey and bleak and has no visual flair to it. You can do torturous hellscape without making it’s key distinctive feature that you just don’t want to be there. Plenty of other games have done it.
The sheer contrast with Zangarmarsh really does help ease Hellfire. Shadowmoon is weird because it kinda feels like Hellfire hue shifted to green with annoyingly high mob density.
