So I mainly play classic. But I said lemme give retail a shot this weekend. I do like that Gilneas starting area which I never did complete. (Quit during cata)
So made a worgen rogue and completed the Worgen starting area story. Only to find out we need to take the boat to darnassus. Wow the disappointment was so great I logged off retail.
I really thought the completion of the story was us restoring the city and then it becoming a hub for the alliance. I mean the city is in place, it seems like it’s meant to be a real hub but for some reason it’s not. Out of all the cities in the game Gilneas would EASILY be my favorite. I just love that late 1800’s London gloomy vibe to it.
Has blizzard ever commented to any reason this is not a hub? My guess is it might be a technical issue with all the phasing that goes on in that area but that’s just an assumption.
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Too close to the Undercity.
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I imagine Blizz can’t be bothered making hubs for old content. The hub is determined by whatever the latest content is.
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In-game, Darnassus still exists.
In canon, Night Elves have Hyjal and worgen have Gilneas. They just aren’t implemented as world spaces.
In theory, Darnassus could still exist considering the tree stands and it is mentioned in one of the Horde’s mission table quests.
In all cases, night elves and worgen have very far from “nothing.”
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I always wished Gilneas will be restored as a hub lol.
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The end of the starting zone story was Gilneas being overrun and plagued by the forsaken. They completely lost the territory, which is why it’s not a faction city. Now with the Undercity destroyed they could probably take it back. But for balance the Horde would have to get another city too or players would complain “Alliance bias!” and there isn’t really options there.
Also it would take development time and Blizz has other priorities. They barely give attention to the other faction cities we do have, except when destroying a couple. 
It’s as Crowngarde says. That path is kinda a spot for low level Horde and involves a small story about going in there.
It is as you say a starting zone for Worgen too as an instance.
They could probably make another instance and have it as a town you can go to and then maybe teleport to Stormwind from there but I don’t think they could make it a hub unless they pull a second Cataclysm like change (I’d imagine they’d change a ton of starting zones if they did that).
I’m super disappointed that the worgen haven’t been exterminated yet.
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I will trade Hyjal for a third in-game Dalaran!
I don’t like Hyjal 
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I’m not sure Gilneas works as a hub, seems more dungeon based like Stratholme or Gnomeregan than functional.
I’d much rather have Stromgarde. I really like both the (potential) look and the location.
Gilneas, Thearamore, Darmassas.
But we took Undercity away so I guess that’s a start
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There’s no point making a hub that nobody will ever use.
Gilneas is too far away from anything to have enough convenience to be considered a viable hub. Even if they made it a city, it would be an Exodar 2.0.
If one day we get an expansion fully set around Gilneas, maybe it will become a hub. But right now the only hubs are Stormwind, Orgrimmar and Oribos.
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I mean, it’d be an Alliance portal room location in the Northern Eastern Kingdoms. Otherwise Alliance players only have mages with portals to Old Dalaran to rely on, and you’ll need some kind of slow fall or immunity to damage to survive using it anyways.
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Stromgarde would serve the same purpose but way better.
Not disagreeing, only pointing out that any hub/capital in the Northern Eastern Kingdoms isn’t really useless, since there is plenty up there, and no quick way for Alliance players to get up there.
