Yeah nah I totally get it.
For me it was Westfall. Leaving Elwynn forest for the first time and entering the dangerous world!
Creating back stories for my character just for me to enjoy and using them to do respective activities. I also skyride and do so low and slow as well as Iâll walk the 150m rather than just yanking out my mount and super boosting there.
It drives me crazy that other MMOs donât go for this level of sound quality. The effects of things like gathering, ambient environment sounds, the sound quality of the music⊠its all just on another level.
I really like the Undermine soundtrack, but thereâs been a couple times Iâve thought to myself how its disappointing its not recorded at a similar quality to NWâs music.
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What addons? Iâve been thinking for the longest time that reading quests just feelsâŠtediousâŠon my eyes. But I canât explain why.
Short of writing an addon to automatically mute music in delves and undermine, I set my âToggle Musicâ keybind for the first time because of Undermine.
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in terms of being in the world of warcraft, two things stand out to me.
- the first time I got flight form on a druid in TBC.
I went to nagrand. I flew up to the highest islands and jumped off and popped into flight form. i did this for a long time
- in classic reboot, playing a rogue was completely immersive.
I played a ghost strike build with all the sneaky subtlety talents. In the combat tree, I took all the dodgy/parrying stuff.
then, I pickpockets, soloed dungeons for chests and mineral nodes, unlocked chests.
the mobs were dangerous, but I was one sneaky little bugger.
In retail nowadays, I donât quite feel the world so much. the m+ dungeons require focus, but all of that hectic swirly stuff reduces the world down to that one spot on the ground to avoid.
maybe the crystal change every three hours in hallowfall feels a bit immersive.
I guess the one other thing in the game that holds up quite well in retail is the sky. do you ever look up and really take in the sky in the game? they do an amazing job with that.
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I make new characters, lock their levels, and play through old expansions through Chromie Time from start to finish. I walk everywhere to take in every detail and take the questing real slow. Iâm currently leveling a level 45 through Legion and will switch to BfA after Iâve finished.
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ExactlyâŠsame reason here. I was toggling the music when entering/leaving undermine, but then began forgetting to toggle it back and then ultimately finding that I was enjoying the, my new found ambience.
For me immersion is flying around watching the whole zone go by. Dealing with limited sight-lines, maze-like terrain and hordes of dazing mobs isnât immersion, itâs tedium. And being forced to micromanage a travel mini-game is worse. Thatâs why Blundermine will be another ignored zone for me, and Iâll stop paying to play for another flying spitegate. 
First I decided what I want to be today⊠a mage? a cat? a goblin?
Each of my characters have their own backstories, personalities, loyalties/prejudices, ect so I get in that characterâs head space.
Then I jump into their adventure (which I now have to keep more detailed notes on because the achievements no longer track an individual characterâs progress) which typically comprises of wandering old content, open world questing, soloing dungeons and soloing raids.
I walk or use ground mounts so I am in the World, not flying over it.
I have piece of paper taped to the corner of my television that I flip down to cover my mini-map so it is not distracting and directing me.
I play with the music at 40%, ambience at 60% and effects at 100%.
I use Chromie Time for open world exploration and questing.
I do my best to create an adventure that is as realistic as possible for that character.
(For instance, my purist holy priest refuses to step foot in her class hall because shadow is in there so that will not be a part of her adventure)
Anything that catches my/my characterâs eye, I stop to watch or explore.
Thatâs pretty much it.
Immersing myself in this World is not as easily done as it was years before because of all the newer hand-holdy immersion-breaking features (ie flashing icons, pop-ups, ect) but between sticking to older content and employing some serious focus , I am still able to enjoy this World to its fullest.
It really helps that Blizzardâs art team continues to knock it out of the park, creating landscapes that are gorgeous and fascinating to adventure thru.
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I donât because idc about that, I just want to have my fun dodging stuff and hitting bosses. Other aspects of the game donât interest me in the slightest.
Playing retail because current retail wow is so far removed from what WoW once was itâs actually playable.
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Itâs really difficult for me.
I find Classic 95% way more immersive than Retail, because the story is modest and youâre just a soldier- thatâs what I want. No âMaw Walker Chosen Oneâ BS.
Classic dungeons, I liked more than Retailâs short M+ speedruns. Retail canât really call them dungeons anymore, theyâre too short.
But, Classicâs gameplay is so tedious and boring at the same time, Iâll play Retail even if I think the story has jumped the shark several times already.
Iâd love a Classic with Retail QoL, and no, SoD isnât that lol.
Retailâs PvP is also just, better. No infinitely long battlegrounds with exploiters and wall-jumpers wasting my time.
Basically, they both suck and are appealing in their own ways.
Neither is perfect.
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Retail is indeed a game that can be played.
my 4 set keeps making weird sounds. my immersion is broken iâd never wear that stuff.
I think the most immersive zone in the game is Zangarmarsh. Just turn the ambience up to full volume and walk around.
Moon Guard (no cap) is a good server if you want immersion, even if youâre not a roleplayer. Go to Stormwind and just see how alive it is. I like it because it makes the city feel like a real city and just a bunch of NPCs around living their lives.
Mostly though, like I said about Zangarmarsh, I turn the music low, ambeince up, and walk around old nostalgic zones. Felwood is another fave of mine. And Shadowmoon Valley in WoD. So many cool places in WoW.
Dialogue UI is my favourite.
It zooms over the shoulder of your character onto the quest npc and brings up an easy to read very nice looking quest dialogue.
This is the way.
Bad NPC will be good at some point, best to not go into details. Like dark irons.
You speak to a queen! Not one thing to back that up. At allâŠ
I liked her better as a princess. Dead on the floor and see what loot we get.
Itâs always been a world of escapism for me, on and off over the last 20 years. Quite additional to and separate from the âgame mechanicsâ of it.
The âstoryâ is just an outer framework for âlivingâ in the world (just as local and world events are in real life) so I take time out to enjoy the surroundings as the game quests lead me to places if Iâm actively âplayingâ. Experience the world for myself.
On any day as the mood takes me, I may make up little mini adventures, go settle somewhere nice for a bit, think up a âquestâ of my own, whether it be make a journey to find something, or to explore a distant corner of the map. Enjoy the âmissionâ of a delve or dungeon. Remember past companions in familiar places.
Back in the old days when there were mysterious blank areas like Ironforge Airport and coasts to nowhere, I used to write up travel stories with artful screenshots and weave a story for the guild website. I miss that. Even now the mood may take me to, say, go on a pilgrimage to Raastok Glade to go commune with the spirits of passed âcharacter familyâ and listen to the lovely zone music in the trees.
Itâs just kind of channelling and transferring the mind into character really, experiencing the world through that perspective as if in a waking dream.
It comes naturally to me, and how I spend my time is as fickle as my moods, but I also love that there are so many people here playing the game in so many diverse ways.
Weâre all ânutsâ about WoW and thatâs the beauty of it all 
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Sometimes I stand very still and look out over a quest hub and pretend I could tame something like a ferocious wolf and mount it. And thus would begin my hours long ravaging spree of death and destruction as I tore each and every questgiver limb from limb as revenge. At the end while covered in blood only then will I be satiated enough to walk up to the blessed waters in Darkshore of the Night Elves and wash their blood off my face as poetic justice.
Itâs just but one mere fantasy I have at times to increase my immersion.