What pre-Cataclysm geographical changes are you personally looking forward to?
I for one am reeeeeally looking forward to Loch Modan regaining it’s original and unharmed dam and loch which is full of water instead of drained.
https://www.technollama.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Stonewrought_Dam_Front_side.jpg
That and the re-desolation of Desolace without all the flora.
Thousand Needles and the Salt Flats is a huge one for me. I did NOT like having it all full of water.
But even something as “minor” as the original Stormwind Park is worth seeing again.
Oh that’s right! Good ones.
Just now remembering the raceway was in the flats as well with the (iirc) Daisy Duke-esque NPC. lol
I’m just looking forward to not everything being on fire again. I roleplay a lot so you have no idea how much the cata map annoyed me, I mean the Cataclysm has been over for years and yet the barrens and ashenvale are perpetually on fire, there’s that huge tornado raging in westfall endlessly, Loch Modan is still busted after all these years even though I feel like the Dwarves would want that rebuilt pronto, AND OH BOY do I love how the majority of zones have active conflicts in them between npc’s that canonically ended ages ago. I mean am I really supposed to believe that the Gnolls have been maintaining a siege on sentinel hill for like nine years?
As for particular zones, I’d love for the Isle of Dread to be back, I loved just going there as a hunter and farming Chimaerok. It was pretty, and it felt reasonably out of the way and hidden from the rest of Azeroth. It’s a shame they removed the WHOLE island in Cata, still not sure why they did that.
The Barrens and Thousand Needles/Shimmering Flats are by FAR the places I look forward to the most.
Orgrimmar.
I have never liked New Org. I spend all my time in the Valley of Honor since Cataclysm, because it’s the closest to the Old Org experience.
Yeah, the dark metals and needless spikes everywhere just gives it a distinctly evil vibe, which I guess made sense for their Garrosh narrative but now it just feels weird. Old org felt super comfy and I’m still upset that they made it so industrial and dark.
I’ve played more vanilla than retail since cata, but Ashenvale probably upset me the most. I’m looking forward to the zones being regular places you can travel through without some imminent disaster that you have to take care of.
The old Org bank, and being able to afk on top of it.
Everything? Yeah. Let’s go with everything. I hate what Cata did to every stretch of map.
Biggest one is Orgrimmar. Glad to ditch all the unnecessary metal plates and spikes, and get back to the ramshackle city in a canyon that Thrall’s Horde built. I’m gonna make an Orc to explore it even if I don’t actually play it. I’m sure I’ll have a Horde main AND an Alliance main, though.
Thousand Needles, Shimmering Flats, Tanaris, …well, all of it! Every single zone that was changed annoys me to this day after Cataclysm. Can’t wait for that old world. They could screw this game up with every Retail feature under the sun but the old world is Numero Uno as to why I’m here.
Why they gotta do Darkshore like that? Like every sort of calamity imaginable happened to that place.
Oh, and Azshara won’t be terraformed into the Horde symbol. It’s still shaped weirdly and sticks out jarringly, but at least it’s not the friggin’ Horde symbol.
no more pandaria.
Every thing. However, my favourite aspect shall be the re-unification of the Barrens and Stranglethorn Vale as ONE zone.
?
Barrens and STV are on different continents.
This is the correct answer.
I was referring to the notion that STV was divided into “Northern” and “Southern” STV while the Barrens was divided into the “Northern” and “Southern” barrens.
End the civil war… Korean reunification is needed.
Ah, I see, I forgot STV had been divided as well and I thought you were saying Barrens + STV as one zone. I got confused!
I’ll admit, my wording of the post was poorly written.
I am looking forward to flying mounts not existing.
Being grounded completely changes the way you interact with the world and how you take in the sights.
Definitely Shimmering Flats, Loch Modan, and the Stormwind park the most. Also Azshara, since I never thought to explore that area before cata launched. And then everything else.