I liked Sholazar Basin, I think that zone was good because it provided a much-needed break from all the other cold icy zones and just a simple change of scenery does wonders!
Scholazar Basin was a titan creation by Eonar or Freya I think, as was Un Goro crater in Vanilla. Thats why it is so lush and kinnda unusual for the northrend theme.
@@kristijan8518 There's even a quest that teleports you to Un'goro on the back of a titan. It's one of the last quests from the quest chain from Freya.
I love Storm Peaks. Everything about it is near perfection. The environment, the looming mountains and the fact that flying isn't just a convenience, but a requirement to move around. Not to mention the absolutely beautiful music. Definitely one of my top five zones, if not the first.
Dragonblight is perhaps the most lore-dense zone in the game. The quests and landmarks contain such important, fundamental lore for all the dragonflights, arcane magic in general, Malygos, Arthas, Aegwynn, the Scourge, taunka, nerubians, Forsaken, Scarlet Crusade, and even the politics between the Alliance and Horde. That's why I love it, plus the openness of the zone is fun to fly through.
@@Gnsd45 you know whats even more shocking? I liked Nazjatar and Vashj'ir which barely anyone liked lol also I loved thousand needles post cata too. another zone which not many liked.
@@Nightstriker995 i have only played till cataclysm and even there i didntt visit Vashj'r.... damn, talk about different tastes, i already didnt like thousand needles at all, but post cata it became my least favorite zone out there for sure :p
I always used to choose Borean Tundra over Howling Fjord to level (before Chromie time allowed me to revisit Pandaria for every single alt 😜). It's spacious in an enjoyably Barrens-esque kinda way and the quests are kinda quirky and just more my flavour. Big agree on Icecrown. That zone was a triumph of storytelling through questing and overall atmosphere.
You couldn't be more wrong about sholazar, that zone is all about being able to take a breather from the endless amounts of snow and ice, to enjoy the Hemet nezingwary quest which you just totally forgot to mention
Sholazar Basin is the best leveling zone in Northrend. It also has the best music. What makes it really stand out as amazing is that it’s a break from the northrend theme, not that it’s bad but it’s a total pallet cleanser after 6-8 levels you’re thrust into this total curveball of a zone before returning to the bleak northrend theme in storm peaks (which is a way better and more coherent zone than Icecrown) all while listening to that amazing flute.
Most UNbased Nixxiom has ever been I think. Borean Tundra? Dragonblight? Sholazar? Not Fun? Did we even play the same zones. Icecrown and Storm Peaks and Howling Fjord are fun, but to put them above the previous three? I think his beard is absorbing nutrients from his brain somewhere.
He only put Borean Tundra in the not fun category AFTER he admitted he had fun with the zone and that it can be fun because he'd get hate if he didn't hop on the BoRinG TuNdRa bandwagon.
Blizzard has said that they had plans for Crystalsong but Dalaran being there meant they had to make questing there minimal because of the lag that would have happened if players had been massed in Crystalsong. Dalaran lagged sometimes from player density without questing. Wintergrasp was the most fun there in my opinion. I remember all the players sitting in Dal hoping they would get into the battle. Best battleground ever.
i hated this BG so much lol, because on my server (idk if it was a problem elsewhere) you could get to the zone with a flying mount when there was an actual BG going on, so if one side had more players to come over from Northernd personally and not trough battleground finder, they would usually win (i still don't know if it was a bug or not, but it seemed pretty unfair though, ale one hour for BG is way too long i think :D)
Vice versa, I think Storm Peaks would have been much better without any flying mounts. The peaks would be much more imposing if you're always looking at them from below.
I would change Sholazar to fun, I really liked the quests and general theme of forgotten Titan greenhouse, which they used to test newly created animals (or was it titan watchers that did it?) And Icecrown glacier was not much fun until 3.2. There wasn't much to do, it was just a zone where Lich King still rules, we oppened few pathways but there is just too much of them. When Argent tournament came, whole zone changed to daily palyground before we finally hit LK, then it was truly fun (for me at least)
I was surprised when you said Sholazar is not memorable. It was definetly one of the most memorable zones for me when i played the original. The beast mastery quests really made it a wotlk version of Nagrand for me.
"Being on the boat, sailing between the two fjords(...)" I'm not saying one can't travel between two fjords using a boat, but that is not what is happening at the Howling Fjord. A fjord is not a cliffside, it is the actual body of water the boat is floating on between the landmasses.
I would argue sholazar was the best zone in wotlk. It had a few plots going on and all of them were arguably top 5 most interesting minor quest hooks in wow. You have the weather being kept tropical by those 5 pillars made by the titans and an evil cult trying to destroy them. You had the scourge invasion and avalanche of snow where one pillar had already been rekt that you have to deal with. You have a werewolf vs weremurloc war going on where you can pick sides. And you have a Hemet nesingwary chain. Also the zone looked great, and the music was good. And the rivers heart is one of the coolest nature spots in wow. This zones way underrated.
Dragonblight is fun for Calderra (or at least painless and necessary for blues) and the introduction questlines, but it's all Howling Fjord after that. Farshire and Thassarian chains are Alliance rites of passage.
Aside from the fact that the infiltration questline and the Pa'troll quest alone are enough to deem Zul'Drak not fun, i think Scholazar is very cool. I agree it looks odd, among all the frozen wastelands of Icecrown, Wintergrasp and Borean Tundra, but it's nice to quest in a tropical looking zone for a change, plus it makes sense because it's a zone that, much like Un'goro, has been preserved by titan activity and the fact that, well, it has negative altitude. Quests are fun too (except maybe the 60 big game hunt).
Every wrath zone was amazing. That expansion was absolute masterpiece. I’ll never forget going to Warsong hold day 1 as a kid on my laptop. Peak experience
Call me crazy, but what I loved about Scholazar basin was a music track playing in one of it´s specific parts. Path of the Lifewarden. It´s eerie and whimsical, and I love it.
Watching this video makes me realize that in retrospect, I did not like Northrend very much. Howling Fjord and Grizzly Hills were cool, but I think I'd put almost every other zone into "not fun" territory. Maybe it's just because I went alt crazy and leveled more characters in Wrath than any other xpac and got burnt out on all the zones by the end of it.
A note on Crystal song Forest. Crystal song suffered due to Daloran existing in it. I think it was stated that they did not put many quests or things to do in the zone because it would of caused issues with every one being in daloran at the same time. Which sucks because Crystal song is gorgeous and its sucks that it was not utilized.
I agree with most of what you said except Scholozar Basin. That zone is hands down the best leveling zone of the expantion. Also, many of my alts are either skinners or herbalists and back then, my druid healer/tank was my main with herbalism and alchemy. Needles to say that outside of raids an Wintergrasp, he lived in scholozar. The herb-density in that zone is well above any other zone fighting for second place AFTER scholazar B.
I like both Dragonblight and Sholazar Basin, I always enjoyed questing here. There is also a lot of interesting and unique stories for Alliance/Horde in Dragonblight
I loooove Sholazar Basin! I go there as soon as I hit level 76 every time. I know that I will hit level 77 and a half by doing the quests there and get some pretty decent blue items from the end of the longer quest lines there, perfectly setting me up to start in stormpeaks or Icecrown getting me lots of emblems of heroism for when I hit 80. Love it, quests are good and fun, gives a refreshing green tint to northrend instead of the duality of white and black backgrounds you grow used to in almost anywhere but Sholazar and Grizzly hills.
Howling Fjor is such a pain to quest throught, i still can't undestand how anyone can claim it's a better starting point then Borean Thundra. Dragonblight is also awesome; Wrathgate, Naxxramas, Arthas story, the dragon shrines, the scarlet crusade ... It's the real intro to Northrend. To this day i still don't get the gushing over Grizzly Hills, it's another forest with furbolgs and trolls. There's 2-3 funny quests in there and thats it. I've never leveled throught it and always keep it for when i have flying.
0:06 Scarlet Enclave [FUN] Agree (just fun, no comment needed) 0:51 Howling Fjord [FUN] Agree (awesome atmosphere, epic quests, badass vrykuls) 1:36 Boring Tundra [NOT FUN] Agree (aka Boring Tundra) 2:45 Dragonblight [NOT FUN] Disagree --> [FUN] (So many things to do, so much variety, so much lore relevance) 3:52 Grizzly Hills [FUN] Disagree --> [NOT FUN] (I know it is a fan favourite, but the zone just really didn't amuse me. I was also very disappointed by the "wolf cult" story line. The toilet quest was the only redeeming quality for me by this zone.) 5:05 Zul'Drak [FUN] Agree! (I know that most people don't like this zone so I'm glad you do. This might have been my favourite Northrend zone of all. I like the ice troll theme, and I really like the zone's heavy and dark theme that a once glorious empire meets its inevitable and permanent downfall - unlike comedic zones, such as Boring Tundra and Sholazar Basin.) 6:08 Sholazar Basin [NOT FUN] Agreed (The zone might be a relief for those who had enough of Northrend's cold and grim environment, but I didn't need that. The zone just too extraneous for Northrend.) 7:02 Storn Peaks [FUN] Agreed (Not exceptionally fun, but still fun overall.) 7:52 Crystalsong Forest [NOT FUN] Agreed (Nothing to do here, no comment needed.) 8:37 Icecrown [FUN] Agreed (The ultimate zone of the whole expansion's storyline, of course it is interesting.) 9:50 Hrothgar's Landing [NOT FUN] Agreed (???) 10:38 Wintergrasp [NOT FUN] Agreed (Just like Alterac Valley in good ol' Vanilla, WG never met the expectiations it was supposed to deliver.)
Storm Peaks is one of my favorite zones of all time, certainly the best in Wrath. Second for me is the upper part of Zul'Drak and I wish that part was playable while skipping the scourge part. The story of the trolls sacrificing their gods in desperation always got to me.
Yeah, a lot of zones were fun in Northrend for me. Dragonblight and Storm peaks especially. Dragonblight -specifically on the Alliance side- where we fight back against the scourge at Wintergarde Keep, discover that Muradin Bronzebeard is actually alive, put the ghosts of Arthas' expedition to rest by showing them the truth, fighting thel'zan the duskbringer -who is the reason Kel-Thuzad was able to return btw- and getting help from Bolvar Fordragon. Storm Peaks because of the titan keeper questline which was basically just an elaborate plot of keeper Loken to lure Keeper Thorim into a trap.
@@blackhawkcz1895 same here. HF is okay, great environmental design and introduction, GH is comfy but I didn't really vibe with the quests so much, ironically. Love me SB though!
If I had to choose between the Borean Tundra and the Howling Fjord ? I would choose the Borean Tundra without hesitation. The area is certainly a large expanse of plains with sometimes strange scenery for a tundra and the quests sometimes seem long but the music, the atmosphere, it is one of the best in WOTLK in my eyes. In fact, it's mostly a question of nostalgia: I set foot in this extension starting with the Borean Tundra and I only discovered the Howling Fjord much later, while flying (yeah, I didn't not even experienced the arrival at the Fjord by boat) so my memories are in the Tundra. In addition, I don't like the Fjord quests which are often badly indicated (remember the harpoon quest) and getting around in the area is quite complicated (crossing the main river without a flying mount is long). As for the music, I find it as boring as that of Grizzly Hills, I don't like the instruments used. Finally, if the Tundra is not particularly beautiful or original, the Nexus is frankly pleasant to discover (well "Corrata" or something like that).
Borean tundra is also better for powerleveling, since it has about similar quest density as HF does, but it's much easier to navigate, being mainly flat.
Back in the original Wotlk days, Wintergrasp was the one zone I never set foot in, unless the guild was raiding Vault of Archavon that week. IF we were raiding it, because on our server, it was Horde controlled about 80-90% of the time. As such, it was an annoying raid to put on the schedule, because we would never know when the Alliance would hold it and if they did, if we would get enough people together in the short amount of time we had to take advantage of it, before the next battle began and we might lose it again. Unique concept for a raid, but I didn't get to see it all that much, due to being an Alliance player on a Horde dominated server
I enjoyed Sholazar for the most part. I didn't like Zul Drak, because, if I remember correctly, the very tall people walking around who could one-hit me if they catch me off guard, but the atmosphere also just felt beyond hope. And I love all of Revendreth, so there's a comparison. Hmmm, I like Maldraxxus slightly better than Zul Drak, very similar vibe to me, but I don't feel like I'm constantly in mortal danger in Maldraxxus as I do in Zul Drak. Icecrown confused me back then. Maybe I should try it again since I've grown up a bit since I was last there.
Grizzly Hills was inspired by the Olympian Mountains in Washington State As someone who lives near the Olympian mountains I will say, yes it is a Grizzly Hills IRL. Though the trees aren't as big.
Borean Tundra MIGHT be the BEST zone the game has ever had. SO much variety in environments and stories, and tons of it extremely memorable!! Murloc suit, DEHTA, the cool quarry of nerubians around Warsong Hold, the Valiance Keep cult, farshire, the giant underwater monster to the south, omg Coldarra (!!!), the endless boats of vrykul at Kaskala (fun to grind), the scourge citadel stuff was epic, and the heartbreaking moment of marching east with the Taunka, to find their home destroyed! and there's other pretty good stuff too
I always level up in Borean Tundra, so this my favourite leveling zone at start of WOTLK (as Alliance ofc). The only part of quests that I didn't even try is the D.E.H.T.A quests. I know that you're hostile wit hthem for few minutes after killing an animal. Scholazar also is pretty nice zone just for diversity, also a good place for farming leather. Dragonblight overall is also is good zone, many different places you can visit, different quests, and yeah that's the Warcraft 3 zone. The bad thing of it maybe is because of the big road to Wyrmrest Temple (I prefer flying in Dragonblight). Icecrown for me is the quest chain with Argent Crusade and Quel'Delar quest chain, oh and Knights of the Ebond Blade quest chain also, nothing more, for me Icecrown is grey, boring place full with undead, zone where you just go to get to dungeons & raids. Storm Peaks well, good place for farming saronite/titan, also I know that in K3 you can buy things for your bike, didn't do much quests there xD Zul'Drak has dark atmosphere, but I like it, questing is enjoyable, Zul'Drak arena
Fjord Fun the same reason as in the video Tundra Not fun i also agree with the video Dragonbrigt Fun i completly disagree all bad things you mentioned are things I like here. Grizzlyhills Not Fun I hate this boring zone it's so annoying i always fall asleep playing through it. Zul Drak Fun Stormpeaks Fun Icecrown Fun Scholazar Fun
Howling Fjord - FUN Borean Tundra - FUN (disagree with the video, it is the most varied zone of all of them) Dragonblight - NOT FUN (but this is a very mild "NOT". The left and right part are fun, but the middle from top to bottom is boring). Grizzly Hills - FUN (sure, there is a lot of nostalgia speaking, but it is super iconic and the various quest lines are good lore-wise as well as gameplay-wise) Zul'Drak - FUN (good quest lines, maybe except Gymer. Nice separation into three areas: Drakuru / Argent Crusade / Gundrak) Sholazar Basin - FUN (really nice dense questing) Icecrown - NOT FUN (always chasing after the flying quest hub, long paths from and to quest areas, depressing scenery) Storm Peaks - FUN (although not an unanimous "FUN". Having to - by design - fly everywhere makes the zone a bit disjointed, and without a 300% mount takes a long time) and also: Fuck Wintergrasp
Crystalsong Forest was only so barren because it had Dalaran above it. They couldn't add quests and more to it without lagging everyone out. a real shame considering how beautiful the zone is.
Dragonblight by far is my favourite and encapsulates what my imagination of Northrend was like. The quests are interesting and there's a haunting atmosphere to the zone with a lot of strange sights. Ghosts, random Giants, Dragons, Nerubians, Scarlet Crusade, Scourge Attacks, The Forsaken setting up for the Wrathgate and all with a backdrop of snow and pine trees. On the flip side, I never found Grizzly Hills fun. Despite all its fanfare, I found it to be the least interesting of the ones I played. I think it was a little better as the Horde, but still I'd skip it if I levelled another character through Wrath
Putting Zuldrak with its bugged quests (starting ghoul chain) and awful item drop rates (water elementals) as fun but sholazar as not fun is bonkers to me. This is the first person Ive heard who didnt enjoy Sholazar. Its a lush forest with a dense population of a large variety of creatures. Its also one of the few faction wars where both sides are loveable.
I more or less agree with everything except that I think Borean Tundra is a bit closer to fun when you play as Horde. Allianceside we always called it 'The Boring Tundra', mind you. I felt Sholazar Basin was just kind of weird. Like it had escaped from some sort of George of the Jungle expansion and was hiding out in Wrath. I didn't mind it, but it just felt like it didn't belong.
strong disagree on Dragonblight, that zone is a levelling diamond as Horde atleast. From one side you're a Horde hero saving and recruiting a whole tauren race, you found out what the blue dragons are doing and sabotage their efforts. On the other side, an amazing Forsaken questline, destroying a whole city of the scarlet crusade, kill and torture them. Being an assistant to a plague doctor and help him to create a new plague able to kill both living and undead. Then you get to the Wrathgate and not only the video but also like a huuuuge scenario of freeing Undercity where you fight alongisde Thrall (when he was still badass) and Sylvanas, that fucking wrecked chaos all battle long, your character was a fucking overpowered monster and after several enourmeous demon bosses, you get to fight Varimathras. AND even after all this, you still did quests and helped the Dragon Aspects finding out who they were and they were fucking dragons ( in all senses).
I would argue that Dragonblight is 100x better on alliance than on horde, stars rest is meh but the wintergarde keep quests under naxxrammas were fantastic
Pretty much spot on for me except I liked Dragonblight and don't like the troll zone. Also I started playing WoW just before ICC was released and I guess they fixed WG because I quite liked it.
0:40 incorrect. It never gets boring. When I finally managed to make my DK for the first time way back in 2008 I ended up capping my account with DKs, just doing the whole starting area then logging off and making a new one, on another server. I didn't even know there was a character limit until this point. I actually started playing on trashmane back in 2021 *just* to redo the DK starting area again but with wrath talents/balance. I must have made like at least 6 DKs there, just doing the starting experience, deleting them and making a new one to do it again. This was my first time playing a private server since WoD was current. (I judge time based on wow patches idk what year it was)
For me, all zones were FUN mainly because of nostalgia. Except for the Storm Peaks, because I usually don't have fast flying when leveling and you need to go back and forth all the time, going around those giant mountains, and sometimes to the top and then the bottom of them, which makes it booooring. The quest stories might be fun, but you take longer to level. Crystal Song Forest isn't fun as it was neglected because of time constraints, and Wintergrasp might have no leveling experience but it's frigging gorgeous.
Wrong about Sholzar & Dragonblight. Sholzar is gorgeous from the landscape to the music. I love Hemit also. Is was also formed by Titans so it was cool! Dragonblight had the COOLEST quests and storyline. Other than those two zones being deemed unfun, I can agree with the rest.
From the get-go, it looks like our tastes are a complete opposite hah. I dislike the DK starting zone, I love Dragonblight(favorite Wotlk zone) and I much prefer Borean Tundra over Howling Fjord. Just to add, I'm a Horde player, and I've never experienced the Alliance side of Wotlk, so the experience probably differs
I loved Wintergrasp. It ended up being where I spent the most time in WOTLK. I was hoping that in BFA the Warfronts were going to be better more refined versions of Wintergrasp. Alas they were not and I haven't played Wow since.
If they had made Warfronts into PVP, it would have been as good as wintergrasp in a much less laggy manner. But I guess they didn't realize how vital the PVP scene is outside of Arena
@@BeyondDaX I agree. I've never cared for Arena that much. I always had more fun in PVP when there was an objective other than reducing another players hit points to zero.
But ya see, Dragonblight is great specifically because it's THE Northrend zone. Think about it. Borean Tundra has some nice set pieces, but overall the questing is boring. Howling Fjord is grandiose in scale because of the verticality, and the questing is amazing. Grizzly Hills is this cozy zone with a looming into-the-woods vibe. Zul'Drak is fun at times and outright monotonous otherwise, but the storylines are fun to follow. Sholazar Basin is definitely meant to break up the whole northern theme to bring you back to Kalimdor just a bit, and the final zones Icecrown and Storm Peaks are both astonishing finishers to the leveling continent each with their own significance. But this leaves Dragonblight, which essentially is the zone that has to fill in the pieces. And this zone has SO much going on, it's amazing. You've got that whole sequence with recruiting the Tanka, you have that questline with the scarlets where you have to kill the prisoners, you've got nerubians, you've got scourge in abundance, you've got a bunch of crazy Dragonblight shenanigans going on at arguably the most important set pieces in Northrend. This zone is the culmination of everything in Wrath coming together to form something timeless.
I liked Sholazar Basin, I think that zone was good because it provided a much-needed break from all the other cold icy zones and just a simple change of scenery does wonders!
agree
Also the questing in that zone was really dense and efficient.
Yes, it's the Ungoro crater of WotLK
100% agreed. It was a break from the seriousness of all the other zones. It also had interesting storylines and the exp was great!
I play the music on repeat since I visited it
Scholazar Basin was a titan creation by Eonar or Freya I think, as was Un Goro crater in Vanilla. Thats why it is so lush and kinnda unusual for the northrend theme.
Oh that completely makes sense then :O
If i remember right, those two zones Sholazar and Ungoro were experiments by the Titan keepers
@@kristijan8518 There's even a quest that teleports you to Un'goro on the back of a titan.
It's one of the last quests from the quest chain from Freya.
I love Storm Peaks.
Everything about it is near perfection. The environment, the looming mountains and the fact that flying isn't just a convenience, but a requirement to move around. Not to mention the absolutely beautiful music.
Definitely one of my top five zones, if not the first.
it's literally flying simulator, the lore behind it is cool though.
Dragonblight is perhaps the most lore-dense zone in the game. The quests and landmarks contain such important, fundamental lore for all the dragonflights, arcane magic in general, Malygos, Arthas, Aegwynn, the Scourge, taunka, nerubians, Forsaken, Scarlet Crusade, and even the politics between the Alliance and Horde. That's why I love it, plus the openness of the zone is fun to fly through.
The ambience is great, I love the music
It's also like THE Northrend people were expecting from Warcraft 3 😊
I liked Sholzar basin, was my favorite zone next to grizzly hills and howling fjord.
Same
the 3 worst zones were your favorite ones, what are the chances :O
@@Gnsd45 you know whats even more shocking? I liked Nazjatar and Vashj'ir which barely anyone liked lol also I loved thousand needles post cata too. another zone which not many liked.
@@Nightstriker995 i have only played till cataclysm and even there i didntt visit Vashj'r.... damn, talk about different tastes, i already didnt like thousand needles at all, but post cata it became my least favorite zone out there for sure :p
I always used to choose Borean Tundra over Howling Fjord to level (before Chromie time allowed me to revisit Pandaria for every single alt 😜). It's spacious in an enjoyably Barrens-esque kinda way and the quests are kinda quirky and just more my flavour.
Big agree on Icecrown. That zone was a triumph of storytelling through questing and overall atmosphere.
All of these zones were fun the first time through. Some maybe just weren't as replayable as others.
You couldn't be more wrong about sholazar, that zone is all about being able to take a breather from the endless amounts of snow and ice, to enjoy the Hemet nezingwary quest which you just totally forgot to mention
Sholazar Basin is the best leveling zone in Northrend. It also has the best music. What makes it really stand out as amazing is that it’s a break from the northrend theme, not that it’s bad but it’s a total pallet cleanser after 6-8 levels you’re thrust into this total curveball of a zone before returning to the bleak northrend theme in storm peaks (which is a way better and more coherent zone than Icecrown) all while listening to that amazing flute.
Most UNbased Nixxiom has ever been I think. Borean Tundra? Dragonblight? Sholazar? Not Fun? Did we even play the same zones. Icecrown and Storm Peaks and Howling Fjord are fun, but to put them above the previous three? I think his beard is absorbing nutrients from his brain somewhere.
Regarding borean tundra I think it heavily depends if you are horde or alliance.
As Horde I absolutely love the Zone, as Alliance not so much
He only put Borean Tundra in the not fun category AFTER he admitted he had fun with the zone and that it can be fun because he'd get hate if he didn't hop on the BoRinG TuNdRa bandwagon.
Borean tundra was boring compared to the other zones
@@theweirdguythatlurksundery8337 subjective.
@the weird guy that lurks under your bed :D says the guy who lurks under beds to get his jollies 😉
Blizzard has said that they had plans for Crystalsong but Dalaran being there meant they had to make questing there minimal because of the lag that would have happened if players had been massed in Crystalsong. Dalaran lagged sometimes from player density without questing. Wintergrasp was the most fun there in my opinion. I remember all the players sitting in Dal hoping they would get into the battle. Best battleground ever.
i hated this BG so much lol, because on my server (idk if it was a problem elsewhere) you could get to the zone with a flying mount when there was an actual BG going on, so if one side had more players to come over from Northernd personally and not trough battleground finder, they would usually win (i still don't know if it was a bug or not, but it seemed pretty unfair though, ale one hour for BG is way too long i think :D)
Zul'drak's problem is that you practically spend most of your time in vehicle quests.
Vice versa, I think Storm Peaks would have been much better without any flying mounts. The peaks would be much more imposing if you're always looking at them from below.
I would change Sholazar to fun, I really liked the quests and general theme of forgotten Titan greenhouse, which they used to test newly created animals (or was it titan watchers that did it?)
And Icecrown glacier was not much fun until 3.2. There wasn't much to do, it was just a zone where Lich King still rules, we oppened few pathways but there is just too much of them. When Argent tournament came, whole zone changed to daily palyground before we finally hit LK, then it was truly fun (for me at least)
I was surprised when you said Sholazar is not memorable. It was definetly one of the most memorable zones for me when i played the original. The beast mastery quests really made it a wotlk version of Nagrand for me.
Taming spirit beasts so nostalgic
Thank you for doing these short and sweet retrospectives! Can’t wait for the next installment!
"Being on the boat, sailing between the two fjords(...)"
I'm not saying one can't travel between two fjords using a boat, but that is not what is happening at the Howling Fjord. A fjord is not a cliffside, it is the actual body of water the boat is floating on between the landmasses.
Borean Tundra has no variety? It is THE zone with the most variety in the whole expansion.
I love the way Zul'Drak has this feeling like a 'ravaged atlantis' the questing isn't fast exp, but it's definitely immersive.
I would argue sholazar was the best zone in wotlk. It had a few plots going on and all of them were arguably top 5 most interesting minor quest hooks in wow. You have the weather being kept tropical by those 5 pillars made by the titans and an evil cult trying to destroy them. You had the scourge invasion and avalanche of snow where one pillar had already been rekt that you have to deal with. You have a werewolf vs weremurloc war going on where you can pick sides. And you have a Hemet nesingwary chain. Also the zone looked great, and the music was good. And the rivers heart is one of the coolest nature spots in wow. This zones way underrated.
Dragonblight is fun for Calderra (or at least painless and necessary for blues) and the introduction questlines, but it's all Howling Fjord after that. Farshire and Thassarian chains are Alliance rites of passage.
Aside from the fact that the infiltration questline and the Pa'troll quest alone are enough to deem Zul'Drak not fun, i think Scholazar is very cool. I agree it looks odd, among all the frozen wastelands of Icecrown, Wintergrasp and Borean Tundra, but it's nice to quest in a tropical looking zone for a change, plus it makes sense because it's a zone that, much like Un'goro, has been preserved by titan activity and the fact that, well, it has negative altitude. Quests are fun too (except maybe the 60 big game hunt).
keep pumpin those fun/not fun series outland edition next?
Every wrath zone was amazing. That expansion was absolute masterpiece. I’ll never forget going to Warsong hold day 1 as a kid on my laptop. Peak experience
I love grizzly hills
Call me crazy, but what I loved about Scholazar basin was a music track playing in one of it´s specific parts. Path of the Lifewarden. It´s eerie and whimsical, and I love it.
Watching this video makes me realize that in retrospect, I did not like Northrend very much. Howling Fjord and Grizzly Hills were cool, but I think I'd put almost every other zone into "not fun" territory. Maybe it's just because I went alt crazy and leveled more characters in Wrath than any other xpac and got burnt out on all the zones by the end of it.
I always say that map design in Wotlk not that great. I think they kinda obsessed with adding variety and thats why we have so much meh zones.
Well I guess I’m part of the 10% that absolutely prefers Borean Tundra over Howling Fjord!
Keep this Fun/Not Fun Series going I wanna see Zones from other Expansions,it's very interesting
A note on Crystal song Forest. Crystal song suffered due to Daloran existing in it. I think it was stated that they did not put many quests or things to do in the zone because it would of caused issues with every one being in daloran at the same time. Which sucks because Crystal song is gorgeous and its sucks that it was not utilized.
I agree with most of what you said except Scholozar Basin.
That zone is hands down the best leveling zone of the expantion.
Also, many of my alts are either skinners or herbalists and back then, my druid healer/tank was my main with herbalism and alchemy. Needles to say that outside of raids an Wintergrasp, he lived in scholozar.
The herb-density in that zone is well above any other zone fighting for second place AFTER scholazar B.
I like both Dragonblight and Sholazar Basin, I always enjoyed questing here. There is also a lot of interesting and unique stories for Alliance/Horde in Dragonblight
I love this series, i was hoping to get tbc first tho 😂
Borean Tundra was always my go to zone when lvling. also Dragonblight is super cool. :(
I'm really enjoying this series. I've been playing since 2004, so it's really nice to go through all the old zones.
Howling Fjord is BiS. You can't change my mind
The musical score for Storm Peaks is horribly underrated.
I will never forget trying to get Loque'nahak, days camping spawn spots. That’s the most fun, I think I’ve ever had in a game.
I loooove Sholazar Basin! I go there as soon as I hit level 76 every time. I know that I will hit level 77 and a half by doing the quests there and get some pretty decent blue items from the end of the longer quest lines there, perfectly setting me up to start in stormpeaks or Icecrown getting me lots of emblems of heroism for when I hit 80. Love it, quests are good and fun, gives a refreshing green tint to northrend instead of the duality of white and black backgrounds you grow used to in almost anywhere but Sholazar and Grizzly hills.
Howling Fjor is such a pain to quest throught, i still can't undestand how anyone can claim it's a better starting point then Borean Thundra.
Dragonblight is also awesome; Wrathgate, Naxxramas, Arthas story, the dragon shrines, the scarlet crusade ... It's the real intro to Northrend.
To this day i still don't get the gushing over Grizzly Hills, it's another forest with furbolgs and trolls. There's 2-3 funny quests in there and thats it. I've never leveled throught it and always keep it for when i have flying.
Glad to see another Zul'Drak enjoyer. I'll catch strays for this opinion, but it has the best zone music in the game.
0:06 Scarlet Enclave [FUN] Agree (just fun, no comment needed)
0:51 Howling Fjord [FUN] Agree (awesome atmosphere, epic quests, badass vrykuls)
1:36 Boring Tundra [NOT FUN] Agree (aka Boring Tundra)
2:45 Dragonblight [NOT FUN] Disagree --> [FUN] (So many things to do, so much variety, so much lore relevance)
3:52 Grizzly Hills [FUN] Disagree --> [NOT FUN] (I know it is a fan favourite, but the zone just really didn't amuse me. I was also very disappointed by the "wolf cult" story line. The toilet quest was the only redeeming quality for me by this zone.)
5:05 Zul'Drak [FUN] Agree! (I know that most people don't like this zone so I'm glad you do. This might have been my favourite Northrend zone of all. I like the ice troll theme, and I really like the zone's heavy and dark theme that a once glorious empire meets its inevitable and permanent downfall - unlike comedic zones, such as Boring Tundra and Sholazar Basin.)
6:08 Sholazar Basin [NOT FUN] Agreed (The zone might be a relief for those who had enough of Northrend's cold and grim environment, but I didn't need that. The zone just too extraneous for Northrend.)
7:02 Storn Peaks [FUN] Agreed (Not exceptionally fun, but still fun overall.)
7:52 Crystalsong Forest [NOT FUN] Agreed (Nothing to do here, no comment needed.)
8:37 Icecrown [FUN] Agreed (The ultimate zone of the whole expansion's storyline, of course it is interesting.)
9:50 Hrothgar's Landing [NOT FUN] Agreed (???)
10:38 Wintergrasp [NOT FUN] Agreed (Just like Alterac Valley in good ol' Vanilla, WG never met the expectiations it was supposed to deliver.)
Please keep making these
All of it is fun!!! *sits down nostalgic and grumpy*
Storm Peaks is one of my favorite zones of all time, certainly the best in Wrath. Second for me is the upper part of Zul'Drak and I wish that part was playable while skipping the scourge part. The story of the trolls sacrificing their gods in desperation always got to me.
I remember Howling Fjord, Grizzly Hills, Zul'Drak and Icecrown being my favourite Zones
Yeah, a lot of zones were fun in Northrend for me. Dragonblight and Storm peaks especially.
Dragonblight -specifically on the Alliance side- where we fight back against the scourge at Wintergarde Keep, discover that Muradin Bronzebeard is actually alive, put the ghosts of Arthas' expedition to rest by showing them the truth, fighting thel'zan the duskbringer -who is the reason Kel-Thuzad was able to return btw- and getting help from Bolvar Fordragon.
Storm Peaks because of the titan keeper questline which was basically just an elaborate plot of keeper Loken to lure Keeper Thorim into a trap.
I like that you don't necessarily tie XP gain to fun.
When Nixxiom mentioned borean thundra i was 1000% yes ten times! sure that the word "boring" would be mentioned.
It was so weird to find out that was what every other server called it. My low pop server was on the flip side and we called it the Howling Bored.
Honestly i didnt enjoy either of those zones, some may crucify me for this but not even Grizzlies on the other hand i was a huge fan of Sholazar.
@@blackhawkcz1895 same here. HF is okay, great environmental design and introduction, GH is comfy but I didn't really vibe with the quests so much, ironically. Love me SB though!
If I had to choose between the Borean Tundra and the Howling Fjord ? I would choose the Borean Tundra without hesitation.
The area is certainly a large expanse of plains with sometimes strange scenery for a tundra and the quests sometimes seem long but the music, the atmosphere, it is one of the best in WOTLK in my eyes. In fact, it's mostly a question of nostalgia: I set foot in this extension starting with the Borean Tundra and I only discovered the Howling Fjord much later, while flying (yeah, I didn't not even experienced the arrival at the Fjord by boat) so my memories are in the Tundra. In addition, I don't like the Fjord quests which are often badly indicated (remember the harpoon quest) and getting around in the area is quite complicated (crossing the main river without a flying mount is long). As for the music, I find it as boring as that of Grizzly Hills, I don't like the instruments used.
Finally, if the Tundra is not particularly beautiful or original, the Nexus is frankly pleasant to discover (well "Corrata" or something like that).
Borean tundra is also better for powerleveling, since it has about similar quest density as HF does, but it's much easier to navigate, being mainly flat.
The music in Storm Peaks ❤
Wintergreen would constantly dismount and kill me whenever I would accidentally touch the zone flying from somewhere else.
Had tons of fun in Wintergrasp during the battles and between battles farming crafting mats
The one exception for Borean being not fun is Coldarra- I always do that one first, and then head to the Fjords.
Back in the day my journey questing to 80 would consist off: Lvl68, Borean Tundra->Dragonblight->Zuldrak->Sholazar Basin->Storm Peaks=Ding Lvl80
Same I think, depending on if I was playing alliance or horde was the only thing different at the beginning.
I like borean tundra, as for grizzly hills, I love the look of the zone and the music, but didn't really like the quests
Back in the original Wotlk days, Wintergrasp was the one zone I never set foot in, unless the guild was raiding Vault of Archavon that week. IF we were raiding it, because on our server, it was Horde controlled about 80-90% of the time. As such, it was an annoying raid to put on the schedule, because we would never know when the Alliance would hold it and if they did, if we would get enough people together in the short amount of time we had to take advantage of it, before the next battle began and we might lose it again.
Unique concept for a raid, but I didn't get to see it all that much, due to being an Alliance player on a Horde dominated server
I spent so much time mining in Sholazar Basin back in the day.
WotLK's has got to have the best OST. All zones give me nostalgia.
Wait you can start in Howling Fjord?
Oh you poor poor soul...
Sholazar Basin is super FUN! I really enjoyed it.
I enjoyed Sholazar for the most part. I didn't like Zul Drak, because, if I remember correctly, the very tall people walking around who could one-hit me if they catch me off guard, but the atmosphere also just felt beyond hope. And I love all of Revendreth, so there's a comparison. Hmmm, I like Maldraxxus slightly better than Zul Drak, very similar vibe to me, but I don't feel like I'm constantly in mortal danger in Maldraxxus as I do in Zul Drak. Icecrown confused me back then. Maybe I should try it again since I've grown up a bit since I was last there.
Grizzly Hills was inspired by the Olympian Mountains in Washington State
As someone who lives near the Olympian mountains I will say, yes it is a Grizzly Hills IRL. Though the trees aren't as big.
I finally beat algalon on 10 man with my friends last week. I was the one doing stars, quite a heart race xD
Borean Tundra MIGHT be the BEST zone the game has ever had. SO much variety in environments and stories, and tons of it extremely memorable!!
Murloc suit, DEHTA, the cool quarry of nerubians around Warsong Hold, the Valiance Keep cult, farshire, the giant underwater monster to the south, omg Coldarra (!!!), the endless boats of vrykul at Kaskala (fun to grind), the scourge citadel stuff was epic, and the heartbreaking moment of marching east with the Taunka, to find their home destroyed! and there's other pretty good stuff too
I thought the lore behind Sholzar Basin was amazing, which made me enjoy the zone even more
I always level up in Borean Tundra, so this my favourite leveling zone at start of WOTLK (as Alliance ofc). The only part of quests that I didn't even try is the D.E.H.T.A quests. I know that you're hostile wit hthem for few minutes after killing an animal. Scholazar also is pretty nice zone just for diversity, also a good place for farming leather. Dragonblight overall is also is good zone, many different places you can visit, different quests, and yeah that's the Warcraft 3 zone. The bad thing of it maybe is because of the big road to Wyrmrest Temple (I prefer flying in Dragonblight). Icecrown for me is the quest chain with Argent Crusade and Quel'Delar quest chain, oh and Knights of the Ebond Blade quest chain also, nothing more, for me Icecrown is grey, boring place full with undead, zone where you just go to get to dungeons & raids. Storm Peaks well, good place for farming saronite/titan, also I know that in K3 you can buy things for your bike, didn't do much quests there xD Zul'Drak has dark atmosphere, but I like it, questing is enjoyable, Zul'Drak arena
What video is playing at 1:47?
Fjord Fun the same reason as in the video
Tundra Not fun i also agree with the video
Dragonbrigt Fun i completly disagree all bad things you mentioned are things I like here.
Grizzlyhills Not Fun I hate this boring zone it's so annoying i always fall asleep playing through it.
Zul Drak Fun
Stormpeaks Fun
Icecrown Fun
Scholazar Fun
Howling Fjord - FUN
Borean Tundra - FUN (disagree with the video, it is the most varied zone of all of them)
Dragonblight - NOT FUN (but this is a very mild "NOT". The left and right part are fun, but the middle from top to bottom is boring).
Grizzly Hills - FUN (sure, there is a lot of nostalgia speaking, but it is super iconic and the various quest lines are good lore-wise as well as gameplay-wise)
Zul'Drak - FUN (good quest lines, maybe except Gymer. Nice separation into three areas: Drakuru / Argent Crusade / Gundrak)
Sholazar Basin - FUN (really nice dense questing)
Icecrown - NOT FUN (always chasing after the flying quest hub, long paths from and to quest areas, depressing scenery)
Storm Peaks - FUN (although not an unanimous "FUN". Having to - by design - fly everywhere makes the zone a bit disjointed, and without a 300% mount takes a long time)
and also: Fuck Wintergrasp
I love Howling Fjord's music.
Crystalsong Forest was only so barren because it had Dalaran above it. They couldn't add quests and more to it without lagging everyone out. a real shame considering how beautiful the zone is.
For borean tundra I liked the Snowbold-Magnataur stuff a lot.
I gotta disagree with Sholazar but it's only cause the gorlocks were one of my favorite factions
Sholzar basin was really fun!
Dragonblight by far is my favourite and encapsulates what my imagination of Northrend was like. The quests are interesting and there's a haunting atmosphere to the zone with a lot of strange sights. Ghosts, random Giants, Dragons, Nerubians, Scarlet Crusade, Scourge Attacks, The Forsaken setting up for the Wrathgate and all with a backdrop of snow and pine trees.
On the flip side, I never found Grizzly Hills fun. Despite all its fanfare, I found it to be the least interesting of the ones I played. I think it was a little better as the Horde, but still I'd skip it if I levelled another character through Wrath
3:53 swear I heard Rizzly hills, I don’t know if nixxiom is aware of his own Rizz
I love love LOVE Sholazar.. maybe it's the huntard in me because of all the rare pet spawns there.
Oh no, I am also a huntard. Is this why I also like this zone?
@@luvhair255 Welcome to Sholazar! We have: Reptar, Magcial Ghost Kitty and the bird from Rio!
@@chloramite567 Rio was released in 2011...otherwise yes, I love that stupid other stuff :D
these videos: FUN
Just started playing wotlk classic, and ITS FUN, last time I played wow was BC when it was released, tried retail, but thats like a mobile game
i always like howling fjorde, but tbh borean tundra is a secret beauty, xp wise for sure, grizzly is pretty sexy
Putting Zuldrak with its bugged quests (starting ghoul chain) and awful item drop rates (water elementals) as fun but sholazar as not fun is bonkers to me. This is the first person Ive heard who didnt enjoy Sholazar. Its a lush forest with a dense population of a large variety of creatures. Its also one of the few faction wars where both sides are loveable.
I more or less agree with everything except that I think Borean Tundra is a bit closer to fun when you play as Horde. Allianceside we always called it 'The Boring Tundra', mind you.
I felt Sholazar Basin was just kind of weird. Like it had escaped from some sort of George of the Jungle expansion and was hiding out in Wrath. I didn't mind it, but it just felt like it didn't belong.
strong disagree on Dragonblight, that zone is a levelling diamond as Horde atleast. From one side you're a Horde hero saving and recruiting a whole tauren race, you found out what the blue dragons are doing and sabotage their efforts. On the other side, an amazing Forsaken questline, destroying a whole city of the scarlet crusade, kill and torture them. Being an assistant to a plague doctor and help him to create a new plague able to kill both living and undead. Then you get to the Wrathgate and not only the video but also like a huuuuge scenario of freeing Undercity where you fight alongisde Thrall (when he was still badass) and Sylvanas, that fucking wrecked chaos all battle long, your character was a fucking overpowered monster and after several enourmeous demon bosses, you get to fight Varimathras. AND even after all this, you still did quests and helped the Dragon Aspects finding out who they were and they were fucking dragons ( in all senses).
I would argue that Dragonblight is 100x better on alliance than on horde, stars rest is meh but the wintergarde keep quests under naxxrammas were fantastic
Can you do a what your favorite World of Warcraft city says about you please?
Wintergrasp was my favorite pvp and good place to farm herbs quick
Every single zone in WoTLK is fun an unique, I just wish Crystalsong had seen some more time.
I had like 4-5 level 80s back in the day and i for some reason never leveled in howling fjord.
Pretty much spot on for me except I liked Dragonblight and don't like the troll zone.
Also I started playing WoW just before ICC was released and I guess they fixed WG because I quite liked it.
0:40 incorrect. It never gets boring. When I finally managed to make my DK for the first time way back in 2008 I ended up capping my account with DKs, just doing the whole starting area then logging off and making a new one, on another server. I didn't even know there was a character limit until this point. I actually started playing on trashmane back in 2021 *just* to redo the DK starting area again but with wrath talents/balance. I must have made like at least 6 DKs there, just doing the starting experience, deleting them and making a new one to do it again. This was my first time playing a private server since WoD was current. (I judge time based on wow patches idk what year it was)
That's really autistic dude
Grizzly hills might look good and have banging music but i absolutely hated questing there.
Icecrown Glacier is saved by the Argent Tournament and other later content if you ask me. It was a not fun zone for me.
For me, all zones were FUN mainly because of nostalgia. Except for the Storm Peaks, because I usually don't have fast flying when leveling and you need to go back and forth all the time, going around those giant mountains, and sometimes to the top and then the bottom of them, which makes it booooring. The quest stories might be fun, but you take longer to level. Crystal Song Forest isn't fun as it was neglected because of time constraints, and Wintergrasp might have no leveling experience but it's frigging gorgeous.
I had an opposite preference on most of these lol. Guess I’m weird. I think efficiency plays a big part in a zone being “fun” for me.
Wrong about Sholzar & Dragonblight. Sholzar is gorgeous from the landscape to the music. I love Hemit also. Is was also formed by Titans so it was cool! Dragonblight had the COOLEST quests and storyline. Other than those two zones being deemed unfun, I can agree with the rest.
From the get-go, it looks like our tastes are a complete opposite hah. I dislike the DK starting zone, I love Dragonblight(favorite Wotlk zone) and I much prefer Borean Tundra over Howling Fjord. Just to add, I'm a Horde player, and I've never experienced the Alliance side of Wotlk, so the experience probably differs
I leveled only in the not-fun zones in this video xD (only zul dark is exception)
Best place is ashenvale
I loved Wintergrasp. It ended up being where I spent the most time in WOTLK. I was hoping that in BFA the Warfronts were going to be better more refined versions of Wintergrasp. Alas they were not and I haven't played Wow since.
If they had made Warfronts into PVP, it would have been as good as wintergrasp in a much less laggy manner. But I guess they didn't realize how vital the PVP scene is outside of Arena
@@BeyondDaX I agree. I've never cared for Arena that much. I always had more fun in PVP when there was an objective other than reducing another players hit points to zero.
seaweed people 🤣🤣
But ya see, Dragonblight is great specifically because it's THE Northrend zone. Think about it. Borean Tundra has some nice set pieces, but overall the questing is boring. Howling Fjord is grandiose in scale because of the verticality, and the questing is amazing. Grizzly Hills is this cozy zone with a looming into-the-woods vibe. Zul'Drak is fun at times and outright monotonous otherwise, but the storylines are fun to follow. Sholazar Basin is definitely meant to break up the whole northern theme to bring you back to Kalimdor just a bit, and the final zones Icecrown and Storm Peaks are both astonishing finishers to the leveling continent each with their own significance. But this leaves Dragonblight, which essentially is the zone that has to fill in the pieces. And this zone has SO much going on, it's amazing. You've got that whole sequence with recruiting the Tanka, you have that questline with the scarlets where you have to kill the prisoners, you've got nerubians, you've got scourge in abundance, you've got a bunch of crazy Dragonblight shenanigans going on at arguably the most important set pieces in Northrend. This zone is the culmination of everything in Wrath coming together to form something timeless.
And I just realized I haven't even talked about the wrath gate, which I mean, need I say more?