First time wow player, 2006, dwarf starting area, the sound of the wind, the way the moonlight hit the snow banks and no one is around. The sounds of boar walking as their feet crunch the snow beneath them. I could sit there and chill for hours in that area, so relaxing…
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Also 2006 for me. Teldrassil as a new Night Elf was absurdly magical, what a great experience…and that music, damn. Nostalgia Critical Hit right there
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I enjoyed the Celtic music of Northrend while fishing in 2008 Wrath launch.
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Finally getting my night elf to Ashenvale (in vanilla - no riding at that point) and being amazed by HOW BIG the world was.
As for storyline - Duskwood back in vanilla. You had the overarching storyline involving nefarion, with the Qiraji coming down the road and early signs of the Scourge threat - but Duskwood had it’s own storylines - Stalvan Mistmantle, Worgens, Raven Hill, Stitches! It was so amazingly well done. The story there was a storyline unto itself, with maybe an oblique connection to the bigger issues. It wasn’t about saving the world - but solving local mysteries.
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Given the vast variety of zones, I don’t think I can say there was any one time it was most ‘aesthetically pleasing’ to me. And generally, running an expansion, a zone, for the first time is at it’s most immersive to me- since it’s all NEW you have to be at your most alert, pay much more attention to spot any possibly enemy, any possible treasure, any possible obstacle in your path. Occasionally, the second or third or fourth time you run a zone, you find something new that you missed the first time, but yea, for me it’s mainly just the first time I get the most immersed.
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First time entering the world of azeroth to be honest. It all was new and foreign to me, I loved the idea of it all since it was my first time in an MMO… seeing others in the same game as me… the [bad] but oddly enjoyable graphics, cartoony or otherwise… hard to beat when you experience that.
I think for me, dragonflight is ticking some of those boxes for me with dragon riding and the look of the zones, music etc… but it’s impossible to replicate the first time back in what seemed to be tbc or something.
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Been playing since 08’but two events specially reminded me that my toon is important like crucially important and does really significant things when he’s not murdering people for gold. Going through the dark portal to fight the iron horde and watching the Azeroth forces slowly dwindle to almost none. Second, the Broken Shore legion opening scenario. Watching Tirion Fordring, the dude who shattered Frostmourne get melted by gul’dan and forsaken by the light reminded me ok he’s cool but I’m better and actually was hard to watch even as horde
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Assassinating our server-known auction house killer in his own city (Stormwind), and then proceeding to kill his city auction house
The Horde/Alliance rivalry on WOTLK Dawnbringer was fierce
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Night elf starter zone back before tbc, getting my first hunter pet and actually carrying food and bandages in my bags and reading quest text and discovering the map because the entire area was new and unexplored to me. My entire gold back then came from skinning mobs in darkshore
Doing the scary wetlands to sw journey the first time was also an experience
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I loved Suramar and still do. Gorgeous zone with a lovely city.
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Eversong is the ideal starting place for me. Between the visuals and the music, it just ticks all of the boxes. That deep cello has always been very relaxing and I can just chill there. Storm Peaks is also great.
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I used to play the Eversong Woods OST in my room so my bird could fall asleep
He was a little cockatiel lived to 21, around 17 he started having issues with anxiety/sleep and the music always helped chill em out
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The music and decadent surrounds have always made Quel’thalas really feel elven to me.
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Going to the Jade Forest for the first time. I took so many screenshots that day. The music and scenery is still my favorite of any WoW zone.
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It would have been starting for the first time in Teldrassil. I love the forest area, very beautiful. Vanilla may have been a huge pain traveling and everything took forever but for me that helped the game be more immersive.
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Getting to Warcraft 3 zones, Lordaeron in Eastern Kingdoms. It was a haunting experience the first time around.
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As many have mentioned, the starting areas. There is something very magical about experiencing your first character in each.
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The Wrathgate, the first time, when I had no idea what to expect. (I was a paladin, so very into wrecking undead and takin’ it to the lich king.)
The following siege of Undercity took FOREVER but I savored every moment of getting to that dreadlord.
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Killing things in the top of a giant tree back in spring of '05. The sound quality, the music, the environment. I got lost in a cave questing, and ended up battleing to the end and back with a random player exploring like myself.
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Threads like this are nice because almost every moment I play WoW is deeply immersive. My mind is jumping back to all these old memories and I can’t decide which one. The game is great if you approach it with the right mentality, and it always has been. Has problems sure, but at its core it is a really good RPG experience.
It’s so easy to take this game for granted.
Maybe running stratholme and scholomance in vanilla when they were current content was the peak moment for me. Trying to complete my devout set on my first priest.
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