This is not an original thread, but since I don’t see any at the moment, I’ll go ahead and restart one.
Here are mine:
I mostly liked these zones for the fact that I could have some peace and quiet murdering things of various species and races. If you did have a PvP experience, it seemed more meaningful because they were rarer. What about you guys?
Hmm… Ashenvale, Stranglethorn, EPL
These were the top three zones that just got things right. Between the graphics, the music, what you were doing in the zone, how you got there. Everything about those zones was good.
And that’s not to say there weren’t other good zones, you just asked for the top 3.
Ashenvale woulda made my top 5, I loved that place. I remember going there as a level 20-something orc warrior and having played WC3 seeing the lumber camps made me very immersed. Also grinding for those damn satyr horns and dying repeatedly due to being a noob.
Tanaris. Redridge. Duskwood
Barrens, Thousand Needles, Desolace. Such great memories questing in those zones. STV is up there too.
Looking back, I have to say at the top of the list is EPL. I did the questline that reveals Turalyon Fordring for a quest reward epic ring. (For D Ring) I imagine the nostalgia and and appreciation for that story line will be overwhelming.
After that, Feralas. I felt so excited the first time I saw a world dragon. I felt this great sense of sadness when Legion was released and the druids were linked to the portals. It brought back fond memories of spamming every random player on my friends list to come and help all these random people kill a big dragon! And then to see my first glimpse of a hive. A nice foreshadow to Ahn’Qiraj!
Last, Stranglethorn Vale… Yes, the dreaded zone of questing, gathering, Zul’gurub, and…ganking. I never felt such an appreciation for not blowing all my cooldowns every time I was attacking a mob. Stopping to eat/drink even though I was at 50% HP/MP. Flinching at every enemy bar that didn’t move with the familiarity of a scripted patrol. The joy of looting the arena treasure for the first time!
My first guild invite came from someone who helped me navigate the Kurzen compound. I never felt such appreciation for being around a max level person after vanilla.
Darkshore for sure
Westfall
Duskwood
Ashenvale, as a nub when the game was brand new and i was playing Horde, i meandered over there and i loved the music that greeted me. It just seemed like quality wise, it was a step up from Durotar and the Barrens. I like those zones too but more work seemed to have been put into Ashenvale. StoneTalon Mountains is another zone i really enjoyed, learning to play the game and running into the opposite faction on a pvp server for the first time was something else. So those would be my top 2 in no specific order. The 3rd would be Winterspring, it was one of the better made zones, but it was so far out of the way for many players that it was usually sparsely populated, so the herbs/mines would be easy pickings.
Ashenvale, Westfall and Stranglethorn.
Blackrock Depths, Zul Grub, and Ungoro Crater
As a horde player: Silverpine, STV, Ashenvale.
Western Plaguelands, Felwood, Eastern Plaguelands.
Rather sizable gap between each of them in my preference list.
Eastern Plaguelands is still in my opinion the best zone Blizzard has ever made. They ruined it in Cata, and I’ll never forgive them for the literal joke it became. A dark, dangerous, and unfriendly zone where undead horrors roam the woods and nowhere outside of Light’s Hope is safe got turned into a friendly carriage ride. Sigh.
Then I’d say Ashenvale, mostly for the nostalgia factor more so than the actual quality of the zone, though it isnt bad. I spent a lot of time here when I first started playing.
Then finally I’ll have to go with Un’goro. So many fun quests, a seriously dangerous questing experience, lots of PvP. It was great fun.
Ungoro crater was amazing. The first time you get eaten by a devilsaur and you’re like “Oh my god, this game has t-rexes?!?”
Silithus before the revamp. There was very little lore, the zone was mostly empty, and it made the whole thing so mysterious.
Mount Hyjal - The zone was finished in vanilla but never populated and it was possible to get past the barrier. It’s a shame they never did anything with it. I never got to go, they fixed it pretty early, but knowing that it was there gave it an awesome mystique. My guild leader at the time bragged that he jumped off mount hyjal and lived (Old defensive stance bug)
Teldrassil, Duskwood, and Winterspring.
Duskwood, Westfall, and Azshara.
For me, they were all very moody zones - Duskwood dark & spooky, Westfall, empty and neglected (powerfully reminded me of Stephen King’s Gunslinger world).
Azshara was always so beautiful - not a lot to do, admittedly, but if I was ever in an autumnal mood, I could go there and hang out with the dragon ghost for a while.
There are a lot of changes in retail I can roll with, but I cannot forgive Blizzard for giving Azshara to the bloody goblins.
Orgrimmar. I was filled with wonderment the first time I stepped into those gates and saw the huge city/structures and that yellow/orange skyline. Then the drums started beating and that bad a$$ Orgrimmar theme music came on. Haven’t had that feeling since.
Barrens. It really felt like some outer border town. We spent a lot of time there and the chat was always lively.
Badlands. Kargath was this really cool town… that last frontier before the end game sorta feel. I also saw that Orc ninja rogue and it immediately made me want to roll an Orc Rogue.
Special mention: Desolace for Rexxar and Dustwallow Swamp for the Horde Orgres.
Duskwood, Tanaris, and Winterspring.
Nothing takes you into WoW and the adventure than when you get into Duskwood for the first time as an Alliance player and have a plethora of build up to the elite quests. Stitches is a legitimate terror and every area has a sincere threat. It is dark, immersive, and hauntingly beautiful.
Tanaris for me is just majestic. This open and vast desert with quirky quests. The first zone with dungeon you can use your mount inside. It is so straightforward after all the zones where you have to run around endlessly. There are a few quests that of course make you run around, but at times you can just find a spot out there to grind and not be bothered for hours.
Winterspring was unique in that for most of the days originally flying over zones, everything was dark or fiery, and even the Plaguelands had this dread attached to them. But Winterspring was wholesome. Soft crunching snow, calm music, and a whole area at the South filled with elite giants that touched with an area that made you question what Blizzard had in store for it. There is an instance entrance at the very back of Darkwhisper Gorge and no one knew what it was for.
Great zones.
Tanaris
Ungoro
Silithus pre-scarab patch
Zones where I could murder things til my hearts content.