This might seem like an odd post for this forum, but in another thread I noticed a couple of other people note this underwater zone as the only highlight of the terrible WoW Cataclysm.
Yes, it had the horribadly heavy use of phasing and utterly on-rails questing and unrelenting linearity of the experience, but it was different enough, expansive enough, epic enough, for me to not to notice so much.
I went to the other new Cataclysm zones – Hyjal, Deepholm etc and it all became so obvious.
One quest to kill a few things
One quest to collect a few items from corpses
One quest to collect/activate a few items from the ground
All three of these quests in the same area, a few feet from the questgiver.
Repeat this pattern a few times.
Quest to kill super-easy mini boss.
Move to newly unphased area not too far away and repeat.
I went to the forums to talk about how I liked Vashj’ir, but that the levelling in the other zones – and in the remade Azeroth – was absolutely horrible… and I found… almost no one agreed with me. In fact, they felt the opposite. People loved how “streamlined” levelling was now, and they hated the third dimension and inconvenience of Vashj’ir as the one bummer about the expansion’s new zones. The area was absolutely reviled, and Blizzard made some post commenting about how they would never do such a thing again, and a planned underwater raid was cancelled.
And then I come here and I see a few people who liked Vashj’ir.
So – I ask you – was this evidence of a real schism between people who preferred Classic and people who prefer what the game has become? I know that Vashj’ir is very non-Classic, but was there something about it to appeal to the lover of how the game used to be? Maybe the adventure vibe?
Or – am I completely wrong and most people here despised the zone?
Saw the title, which included the questions. I didnt read your wall of text, sorry. But all water levels in all games suck. Since Super Mario Bros. water world. They all suck.
I loved it. It was beautiful. I didn’t mind the linearity - we got to learn more about the Naga - even be one, for a bit - save a giant fish-thing, ride a seahorse… it was definitely my favorite of the Cata zones. Deepholm? Ugh, boring as heck.
I remember staring at the column of jellyfish stretching up into the water, entranced. Was even my screen background for a time.
I was a big fan of it. If we hadn’t gotten the speed buff and the mount though it would have been a major pain… but it was so different from anything else, and it looked fantastic. Honestly though I really liked cataclysm, and even the new zones/quests. (sacrilege right) But I’d leveled about 40 alts and was ready for the change. They lost me though because leveling became way way too easy/fast.
The stuff in the 78-85 zones was pretty fun, but everything 1-60 was just terrible. Those quests are still around today and I just don’t feel engaged by them at all.
Vash’jir is pretty great. Manages to have a highly oppressive atmosphere and feel dangerous thanks to the wandering elites. Super unique compared to other zones also. Nothing else in Cata content comes even close imo.
Miss me with those water levels fam. Don’t care what game, don’t care what they’re about, I always hate every single one of them. This one was painful to get around in and all these years later I have never finished even the second part of it.
It’s a polarizing type of zone. As some have mentioned underwater zones are generally hated. I personally found the design of the zone to be fantastic and really lament the cancellation of the raid that was meant to be in that zone. From bright and colorful to dark and creepy (the drowned reef), it was truly an original zone.
I actually have a fear of drowning so it was a zone I thought I’d hate, but I really didn’t.
Sadly I think the quests were pretty meh. Also I can understand why many wouldn’t like it. Flying is generally hated and it strongly resembles flying if you think about it. The extra dimension is hard to grasp for most too. I’d really attribute the hate to that honestly. If you removed swimming from it, it’d probably be more liked, but I think it would take away the purpose and feel very off as a result.
In spite of it being the expansion that I quit in, it’s one of my favorite zones in all of WoW.
I very much enjoyed Vash’jir and Deepholm both, so much so that when I went to level an alt from 80 to 90, I did it entirely through those two zones and avoided P(TSD)andaria. I disliked Mt. Hyjal and rarely went back if I could avoid it, never finishing it on many characters. I absolutely loathed the oversimplified leveling in 1-60 Azeroth.
People have different tastes. Some think Legion questing was great. I burned out after completing it on two characters. Some hated the vanilla Azeroth questing, and I leveled dozens through it quite happily.
Ooo! Deepholm was also a great zone. Cata had excellent leveling zones/lore IMO. I just wish they had a Bronze Dragon™ to allow us to hang out in the older versions.
![:woman_shrugging:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/woman_shrugging.png?v=6" ":woman_shrugging:")
People have different tastes. Some think Legion questing was great. I burned out after completing it on two characters. Some hated the vanilla Azeroth questing, and I leveled dozens through it quite happily.