Which expansion had the best zones?

Community General Discussion
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I’m talking purely from a look and feel perspective.

No quests, no storyline, no mechanics.
Just the art alone. The look, the music, the feel.

Which expansion had the best zones?

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I think it’s TBC. Such variety and high fantasy fun blended with some sci-fi

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BFA for me.

The environments were so rich with depth and detail. I still go there sometimes to enjoy the serenity/atmosphere.

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Honestly, TBC probably and MOP I enjoyed them visually. DF zones are nice looking though too i think.

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MoP comes to mind right away 10/10 best zones ever, I miss my farm… Then WoTLK because of the detail of depth.

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It’s a tie between Pandaland and BFA. I still love Tiragarde Sound and it’s Maxfield Parrish influence.

:cookie:

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For the expansion: BFA
Zuldazar felt like an actual jungle, for the first time in WoW the location looked/sounded real to me.

Music and aesthetic of Boralus makes me want to play Alliance.

However, when I saw the question, I instantly thought of Azuremyst Isle. My favorite place in WoW by far.

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they’ve all got some good zones. so i’m gonna say… draenor. i mean, visually, draenor looked/felt like an endgame zone. but other than draenor, i’d say MoP, if you want a pretty zone.

other than that, zandalar from bfa was pretty darn nice.

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im gonna have to say outlands i friggin loved zangarmarsh

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I agree with the guy above, all of the expansions had great looking zones

The bests for me were MoP and Vanilla. I just love the overall atmosphere.

Shadowlands and DragonFlight are at the bottom. Shadowlands had really interesting zones but i hate the way you have to travel between them, cant just walk into the next one. Dragonflight zones are just kinda boring, they were built for dragonflying

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It’s really hard to pick. Overall I’d say a tie between BfA and WotlK with MoP as an honorable mention. The atmosphere of Tirisgarde Sound, Stormsong Valley are excellent, but Drustvar takes the cake, partically the eastern side of the zone. Zandalar was gorgeous, and Nazmir felt like a fetid evil swamp, but Vol’dun although a desert had that mystery and history peaking out of the sand and rocks vibe.
Northrend was beyond gorgeous especially Howling Fjord and Grizzly Hills, it was always worth the treck to Menthil Harbor to start on that side of the map, while Borean Tundra was unique in it’s geyser fields and asthetic it was perhaps the weakest zone. Dragonblight perhaps the second weakest zone, bustill gorgeous. Storm Peaks, Zul’Drak, and Icecrown more than make up for it. Sholozar Basin was the best zone in my opinion and made titanium farming just something to relax while doing.

Would like to make an honorable mention for Revendreth. That zone is by one of my all time favorites, but not enough to carry Shadowlands.

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Legion was the best at everything hands down. nothing else comes close.

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Classic easily

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TBC for me, I just loved outlands… I’d love to go back there for an xpac honestly.

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pandaria for me

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Dragonflight and Classic for me

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Anyone saying TBC is just being nostalgic… the place is 50% empty space because it was designed around flying.

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Probably Pandaria for me, all the zones are gorgeous.

But I also really love some of the BFA zones in Kul Tiras as well as Ardenweald and Bastion.

But if you take the whole expansion together, definitely Pandaria.

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There is defiantly competition. I guess I can Rank them. Also I am factoring if I can quickly remember every zone. If I am struggling to remember each zone, then that means the ones I cant remember arent good. I wont rank Vanilla, as it is the yardstick that all expansion zones are measured. It was the benchmark. You cant compare the two faction 1-60 zones and experience, to an expansion.

  1. MoP: The zones just felt great, and there was a good progression through them.
  2. BfA: Each zone was very thematically strong. And Drustvar.
  3. WoTLK: Rose Tinted Glasses and all, but I really felt that Northrend was Strong
  4. Burning Crusade: Again Rose tinted glasses here, but there was a lot of WoW factor in TBC. The zones were large and felt good to travel through. They had a very strong thematic presence to them. Then when you got flying and it really opened up the zones, they still felt grand. I did have a great time in TBC.
  5. WoD: Skyreach and Gorgrond were really cool zones. And Draenor was very good looking and fun to explore. I just wish they didnt cut so much content from it.
  6. Legion: Good zones and a lot of them by the end. The Argus Zones fell a little flat for me. Val’Sharah and Azuna were kind of Meh. Highmountain was ok.
  7. Cataclysm: The zones were disjointed on land, and the Underwater zones were interesting at first, felt that half way through they just gave up and phoned it in. But thematically Uldum, Twilight Highlands, Hyjal, Deepholm. All good zones.
  8. Dragonflight: The zones are beautiful and large, but something feels a little lacking. Even though they are different there is something that has each feel too similar. There isnt a lot of “WOW COOL” factor to them.
  9. Shadowlands: Each zone just felt like an island. While the individual themes of each zone were good, they felt small and cramped. The travel between the zones made each feel worse. I just cant stress enough, that for me, the zones just felt small and cramped. In Bastion, pre-flying when you fall off an edge and die into nothing. Revendreth, pre-flying was not fun to traverse. Then there was The Maw and Korthia. Those two zones just bring SL way down.
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In no particular order for me, WoD, BFA, DF. And that’s heavily based on game play. Sorry OP.

TBC is in there as well because I think that was the pinnacle of RPG quest hub and explore style.

I think they’ve lost this with too many flight paths and quest aids, but it used to be you get into a town, load up on quests and head out into the unknown limited only by your bag space. You’d come back, vendor your trash, turn in your quests and that felt good.

Very recently they’ve been experimenting with not using quest aids, but I don’t think they really understand what they’re doing and why with that. Seems like they’re trying to be intentionally obtuse, there was one where they listed a location that WoWHead didn’t even have an entry for.

And a lot of drawing outside of their own lines when it comes to the map and quest helpers lately. Every patch, ok, what’s the map trying to convey to me now?

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