I have always been fascinated by looking up on the night sky while questing. I don’t know why, but the lil’ pixels depicting stars make the universe seem so much bigger to me and have always given me a sense of wonder, awe and excitement. Be it late night RP sessions illuminated by bonfires beneath the breathtaking variety of the Azeroth skies, or just landing on that perfect screenshot spot between the moon and the celestial spirals of the Great Dark Beyond, I like to think that every single WoW player has stopped for a brief moment, set their view beyond the clouds and took in a majestic scene or two.
Skyboxes are art. Thankfully, due to an incredible art team, we have been blessed with many amazing skyboxes in World of Warcraft. So, from the arcane-warped Netherstorm heavens to the gargantuan storm clouds of the Valley of the Four Winds, what are your favorite skyboxes and why?
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How do you post images like this?!
Highmountain and Darkshore are just ridiculously good.
I do wish the galaxy spiral didn’t cut abruptly when you reach certain heights, however. But when you’re beneath those peaks looking up? 11/10
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I have trust level 3 on the forums which means I can post images! I post them somewhere in Discord and then copy/paste the link in, and the forum just shows the image. I’m not as active as they probably want me to be though, so I might lose it soon :C
I spent a lot of time in MoP looking at the Sha skybox. I really enjoy it, it’s very aesthetically good while being relevant to the events that happen. I used to use it as my computer background.
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The Mac’Aree skybox is amazing
The Black Temple skybox is also interesting to me since you can see Azeroth up in the sky (for reasons that are unclear)
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Gosh, Highmountain is absolutely incredible. Really anywhere in Broken Isles is insane, well done to them for putting so much love into it!
Every time I go into Pandaria I fall in love with the sky. It reminds me of an oil painting and the music that goes along with it? Majestic. Not to mention Pandaria has some of the best art in game (do @ me on that).
As for a change of pace, I really, really love Mulgore. There’s the big Mu’sha (or White Lady, or Elune) up in the sky and stars strewn about. I love flying Taina around for the hell of it there, and the music of Mulgore makes for an amazing atmosphere. I RPed out on the Golden Plains with a friend enjoying a night-picnic, complete with the fire and Inky Black Potions. Absolutely phenomenal.
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Most of Kul TIras’ skyboxes are beautiful, but I think my favorite is Stormsong. The clouds are so puffy :]
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Still a fan of the OG Nagrand skybox. Always have been.
I never noticed that you can see frickin’ Azeroth in the Black Temple. That’s so awesome!
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Skywall.
Easily the best skybox. Coupled with the music, I could watch that s**t all day. I even tried doing a painting of it once. It’s seriously mesmerizing how they did the clouds in there.
Mine will always be Hellfire Peninsula in Outland. So infinite.
This is a really good thread. Thank you for bringing it to us.
I was reminded of the Rift of Aln (Xavius fight area in Emerald Nightmare) skybox:
Very creepy and cool
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You know, when Cataclysm first came out I thought that weird purple tentacle star thingy in the Deepholm skybox was an Old God.
And you know what? Ambience-wise, Cataclysm was very ambitious when it came to zones like Deepholm and Vash’jir (which is still the scariest place to use an Inky Black Potion in WoW).
So yeah, use an Inky Black Potion in Vash’jir and look up. There’s no cool skybox or anything, just a devouring darkness that will chip away at your soul.
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