Breakfast Topic: Worst designed zone in the game
by Dan O'Halloran 
Aug 25th 2007 at 8:00AM
I generally don't like to post negative questions, but I think we all have a story here. Player Mementomori of the Dethecus server kicked off the discussion by picking Desolace as the worst zone in the game. He cites a badly placed graveyard and lack of decent quests. Its only redeeming value is being of comparable level to Stranglethorn Vale, so it's a good place to avoid that overrun zone.Popular vote getters are Un'Goro (which gets my vote with those damn dirty raptors plus being so far away from Alliance cities), Azshara and Swamp of Sorrows. Even a blue threw in his two cents. CM Drysc's vote went to Shimmering Flats. Great to look at, not much to do. In fact, that seems to be the theme of most of the complaints about zones: visually appealing, but lacks significant content.
What about you? What do you consider the worst zone in the game? And why?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Kryptonls Aug 25th 2007 8:06AM
It has to be as have been mentionned in the article: STV or Azshara. As for Outland, (which I am surprised you haven't mentionned!) would be Blade's Edge pre-patch.
Those insanely long corpse runs only to be killed upon arrival, and the quests at Toshley's for Alliance just generally seemed really pointless. As did the ones at Sylvanaar too, imho.
Thank goodness post-patch and Blizz sorted those out, and the addition of the quests in Ogri'la and the Skyguard outpost make the place so much better. :)
Argent Aug 25th 2007 8:23AM
i know people like to bag on desolace a lot (and the bit about the GY being in a bad spot is certainly true), but it's actually quite a nice zone to supplement STV with. quest design is pretty good, imo -- lots of quest, most not too terribly hard. i usually made it a point to grind out the quests in desolace as a way to move through the 35-45 stretch efficiently.
shimmering flats probably is right up there, in terms of worst designed zone. what few quests you do get there are of the long and annoying kind, which really didn't help.
otoh, had blizz given people the opportunity to buy a rocket car mount upon hitting exalted steamweedle cartel, i probably would have changed my mind quick. :)
in all reality, i think aszhara really is the worst zone in the game atm -- the whole zone was just half finished and never completed, it seems (witness that weird naga wave quest you can't complete down in one of the canyons.)
there's a handful of quests for the zone, plus a bunch of 'go here, fetch some stuff, come back' quests they put in later, getting around the zone is kinda hard (duke hydraxis anyone?) and getting ther eused to just plain suck (easier now with the ratchet/ashenvale#2 FP.)
Hurakan Aug 25th 2007 8:31AM
Everybody knows Azeroth is the worst designed zone.
Rodrígo Aug 25th 2007 8:38AM
I hate the Hinterlands. For Alliance, fortunately, they doubled the quests by adding a Draenei questgiver who has 3 quests.
Seriousely, whats wrong with Un'goro? Grab a mithril casing, jump down with Noggenfogger and Hearth back 2 hours later with completely Un'Goro finished...
oshin Aug 25th 2007 8:38AM
Im finding it funny that most people are slating my favourite zones, azshara and STV were my top favorites. Desolace is really bad for quests until you find all the hidden ones (or cheat like me and get a guide). Shimmering flats is worth a level at least, thanks to the number of tightly packed quests.
I think the main reason i like azshara is that fact its abandoned, and on a pvp server it makes a nice change from high traffic zones with alot of ganking going on.
I think my most hated zones would be swamp of sorrows or dustwallow, there quests are poor, they are dismount nightmares and they are very drab.
Talludora Aug 25th 2007 8:41AM
I would argue that Shimmering Flats isn't a too badly designed zone. If you are a person who doesn't mind grinding, Shimmering Flats is for you. All you have to do there is pick up the quests and kill everything you see.
I took a buddy to the zone for the first time recently and he loved it. I'm not really crazy about it because I hate to grind (Doing it has my Holy/Prot Pally was a real pain) but he was happily grinding moments before I dragged him to SF.
As for bad designs...Un'Goro wins. Everything takes forever to do in that zone...and before they put the FP...Forget it.
Raziel Aug 25th 2007 8:50AM
In all seriousness, I'd say Azshara for all the reasons stated above.
But my personal choice? --- Silithus.
Why? One word. sandlol
Dan Aug 25th 2007 8:54AM
My opinion of Desolace would vastly improve if they added a flight path at Ghostwalker Post, or whatever the name is. All the running around you have to do there is painful when you don't yet have a mount. The vast number of underwater quests, at least on the Horde side, is an issue too. They should offer an early quest reward that gives you something like the Nagrand cherries, I think they were called, that give you 30 minutes of underwater breathing.
A flight path in Shimmering Flats wouldn't hurt either.
4STR4STALeatherBelt Aug 25th 2007 8:50AM
Tough call, I'd have to say Desolace. The Horde Flight Path is a pain to get to without dying at the level you start the zone. Very poor design.
Horrible quests, horrible looks, just a horrible place.
Dipstick Aug 25th 2007 8:51AM
Desolace is not too bad, although there is a lot of legwork involved.
My personal vote would be for Azshara - such a huge zone with loads of potential but sadly ignored.
Ashenvale also annoys me a bit, it's big but seems empty at the same time.
Hellbena Aug 25th 2007 8:51AM
Azshara is definitely the worst zone in the game. People go there for 1 of 3 (or 4 if you're a mage) reasons.
1) You're new to the game and decide to go off exploring or got lost in Ashenvale.
2) To do the level 50 questline that leads to Sunken Temple.
3) To go look at or kill Azuregos.
4) To do your Polymorph: Pig quest.
As stated by Argent, the zone has very few quests to it's name and any noteable NPC are on the opposite end of the zone from where you enter, so you better hope your hearthstone is up by the time your done with those NPCs.
And then there's that sheer cliff you have to worry about. It splits the zone in half and if you slip over the edge, there's only 1 or 2 places to get back up, and you never end up close to one of those points unless you jumped off on purpose.
Dan Aug 25th 2007 8:55AM
Stonetalon Mountains seems almost entirely pointless, at least for Alliance...
xdiesp Aug 25th 2007 8:57AM
Aszhara is breathtaking beautiful, but there's nothing to do there. Too bad, what a waste...
xdiesp Aug 25th 2007 8:59AM
I humbly suggest adding racing, or gambling, or arcade minigames in the underused areas of Old Azeroth.
RogueJedi86 Aug 25th 2007 8:59AM
Am I the only person who realizes that Shimmering Flats isn't a zone, merely a sub-area within the Thousand Needles zone? For Alliance, Thousand Needles is worthless, but that could be due to it being a Horde-favored zone.
I have some unfavored zones, but nothing I think was just poorly designed. All the zones are designed well enough. The only problems are lack of flight paths(Alliance for Badlands, and Stranglethorn Vale), flightmasters in obscure areas far from anything in the zone(Nijel's Point in Desolace, both the Alliance and Horde flightmasters in Azshara), or just lack of quests. Nothing that can't be fixed by adding a few quests, or moving flightmasters around.
Zghuk Aug 25th 2007 9:19AM
Worst region?
stone talon... long ways to the f*cking graveyard, long travelways...
Other regions should have more quests like the badlands, desolace, 1000N, tanaris.
When I had a wish, I would say 1-58 = no grinding. Grinding is the most boring thing in game, especially if you are heal class like priest and have no CC like shamans.
Questing should be better rewarded with XP!
btw: I really liked the dustwallow marshes (as horde player), but the redesign will be good.
CountChocula Aug 25th 2007 9:21AM
I'm surprised nobody mentioned The Barrens... it seems like everyone and their mother hates Barrens chat. I, for one, am always refreshed when I get to the Barrens, because it's better than whatever Trade spam there is in TB or Org.
My vote for the worst designed zone is Dun Morough, because that's where the gnomes are! LOLOL
Terrant Aug 25th 2007 9:21AM
I would say Dustwallow Marsh or the Badlands, which I'm surprised no one's mentioned. I never know where I'm going in that zone.
I personally love Desolace, though - goblins! trolls! kodo ghosts! demons! - so what do I know?
lordfrikk Aug 25th 2007 9:25AM
Desolace is usually very annoying due to a fact that you don't have mount at the time you're doing quests there and the zone requires a lot of walking.
I personally love Un'Goro because you can do all quests in quite a short time and get few levels off, quests aren't hard and at that time you have mount.
Worst zone for me as member of the Horde is Stonetalon Mountains... I quested there only with one of my toons, and I'm not coming back ever. It's so boring and lengthy.
Zghuk Aug 25th 2007 9:25AM
by the way:
Aszhara has a bunch of good quests (for horde at least), dont underestimate this. the demon quest series from blasted lands, the funny (kissing and more) quest from BRD, the class quests (pig spell, yeah).
But you can see how much isnt developed. What's about the aszhara crater? even when it's not a new pvp bg it should be have a meaning. and whats about the quest line with the TIMBERMAW furbolgs and their hold?
need more from this! why not a new lvl 50 instance? or even lvl 70! There is a big gate at aszhara! need more lore from timbermaws!