I was most excited about the zones in shadowlands, then I seen them. Nope. Not for me. It was close on all accounts but what I don’t like were like lines in the sand. Personal opinion time:
Bastion is scenic and beautiful but it felt too clean cut and paladin orientated for me, I can respect it though.
Ardenweald, I liked the idea but I was going in as a warrior. I wanted to be natures protector but was surrounded with goofy fairy creatures, alittle to morning cartoonish for me.
Revendreth was my convenant of choice. I liked what I thought was going to be a castlevania like zone but was disappointed when it was a mix of van helsing and posh vampires.
Maldraxus is what I wanted to like but the zone was too undead focused in the sense that it was a giant forsaken zone. Poisons, slimes and tumors took place more where I wanted skulls, warriors and battlegrounds.
The maw was awesome on paper but the enemies and aesthetics just did not fit the tone and art style of world of Warcraft, in my opinion.
Might be a hot take and in a way it’s my least favorite expansion but. I liked the burning crusades zones. Each were so unique and different than anything we’ve gotten since.
Shadowlands had some good zones (Revendreth was one of my favorites up to this point) but Hallowfall alone makes SL and DF look like embarrassments by comparison.
Hallowfall is literally the best zone they’ve ever added to this game. Nothing competes.
Yeah, no. I am running through Shadowlands on my Hunter. Everything about Ardenweal, from its aesthetic to its story to its repitious and tedious quest objectives, all made me wish I could just equip a gun to my Hunter and have him shoot that stupid seed we were watching over so I could be done with it, give my letter to The Winter Queen, and just get out of there.
Caves suck! Especially with dragon flying. And they are so boring looking. Where’s the crystal caves or gem encrusted caves? Why is fiction so boring? Maybe we have underground mushroom forests or something equally fantastical.
I do agree, however, that the Afterlife in SL felt like Disney’s version of the afterlife.
You were suppose to hate the Maw, that was the idea. That was what was so good about it. “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here”.
Actually I think Azj-kahet is the best zone in the expansion. It really hits the theme of a world of bugs far better than any of the others. I like Hallowfall but it’s not that much different than the typical WoW zone.
I don’t know what it is about these underground zones, but the tunnels look sort of plastic’y. The textures look terrible and artificial… needless to say. I hate them.
Literally every expansion is better than this one. This is the biggest piece of crap they’ve ever released. Delves had so much potential but now they’re just boring. They should have scaled endlessly.
That was the only downside to the expansion. Those travel times were horrendous but the zones themselves were so much better. The only good thing about the war within is that they gave us the ability to fly from day one.
Shadowlands knocked it out of the park with varied zones.
I always felt like they were distinctively different in look and feel (except Korthia):
Bastion - Heaven / Blue
Plaguefall - Death/Green
Rivendreth - Gothic Past/Red
Ardenweald - Mystical Forest/Purple
Maw - Hell/Ash
Korthia - Hell/Ash
Zerith Mortis - Future/Pastels
Each zone feels like they have distinctively opposing elements/narratives. They each had their bases and leaders which only added to the story telling.
Hallowfall is the only zone that felt distinctively on its own two legs, the music/visuals/light vs dark theme is very strong.
Ringing deeps and Ajh’Kahet feel like another reskinned, disinteresting Zalarek Cavern’s, (which we just had a couple of patches ago). 4 Zones for an expansion launch is definitely less than we used to get so its disappointing to see 2/4 be another boring cave zone (personal taste of course) regardless of how big they are.
Some future ideas I’d like to see would be:
Void Zone, more warped and distorted the deeper you go into the zone conveying a sense of danger
Light Zone, crystals, bridges of light, white marble textures, statues etc
High Tech Zone (I don’t think they’ve really taken this as far as they can).
The maw and Oribos with that void between zones simply tank the expansions zones for me for Shadowlands. But sure I liked the other zones individually but making them 4 different content island wasn’t great.
Isle of Dorn is a Dwarven Highlands with it’s most notable feature being that Lightning Crystal Mountain and that tunnel into the Ringing Deeps.
Ringing Deeps is a series of Mines of various sorts(some filled with Molten Magma, some in dull rock and some filled with Wax Candles the last of which is the most interesting of these Mines) and Sewers and Tropical Areas(the only areas besides the Wax Candle Mines that are of interest).
Hallowfall is a Mountain Kingdom.
Azj-Kahet is a Fungal Kingdom.
Shadowlands Launch Zones in comparison are:
Bastion is Heaven.
Maldraxxus is one half Rotting Flesh and the other half Fungal Swamps.
Revendreth is Castle Dracula with one part reduced to Ruin by the Light and 2 other parts reduced to ruin over the centuries.
Ardenweald is Magical Forest filled with wonder.
The Maw is Mordor & Hades combined.
Korthia is a Dying Forest filled with Secrets being plundered by the Enemy.
Zereth Mortis is a Vibrant Garden next to a Desert.
Is it any wonder the Shadowlands Zones are so interesting compared to War Within Zones(the Crystal Mountain, Dornagol, Tropical Areas of Ringing Deeps, Candle Mines of Ringing Deeps, the “Outdoors” parts of Hallowfall, Wildcamp Or’lay in Azj-Kahet, Rak-Ush in Azj-Kahet and the City of Threads in Azj-Kahet are the only interesting parts of War Within)?