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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: Favorite Outland zone
by Alex Ziebart 
Aug 10th 2008 at 8:00AM
I'll completely agree that a lot of the locations in The Burning Crusade don't match up to our favorites in WoW Classic, but there are places I enjoy. Zangarmarsh is by far my favorite zone. No contest. It's the only zone that really gives me the feeling of "I'm on an alien world." It's something I wouldn't see on Azeroth. The blue tones, the giant mushrooms, the strange marsh creatures. It blew me away my first time running through it. It really was a different world there.
Outland was a bit too heavy on the futuristic sci-fi, but I think Zangarmarsh hit the right tone. What did you all think of Outland? Do you have a favorite zone? We're all eager to move on to Northrend, but is there a zone you'll miss when we're all idling in the frozen north instead of on Draenor? What did you like about it?
| Hellfire Peninsula | |
|---|---|
| Zangarmarsh | |
| Terokar Forest | |
| Nagrand | |
| Blade's Edge Mountains | |
| Shadowmoon Valley | |
| Netherstorm |
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast Topics, Expansions, The Burning Crusade
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 4)
svenhoek Aug 10th 2008 3:13PM
Nagrand is my favorite, but for a while it was Blades Edge. Theres just something about seeing mountains of spikes with dragons impaled on them. Then I did some quests there and the scenery started to wear off on me.
Michael Aug 10th 2008 3:50PM
Nagrand's nice, but Zang is far and away the nicest part of Outlands. Of course, I'm prejudiced by the fact that I'm an herbalist on my main and that's the greatest place ever for gathering herbs.
haust Aug 10th 2008 3:52PM
Nagrand is way too humanly familiar for me. Sure the zone is cool but not exotic enough for (yes I know there are pieces of land floating in the air).
Terokar Forest has something really strange I like :)
songur Aug 10th 2008 4:07PM
Hellfire: Epic style, but rather bare/desertlike (... I know it has to...).
I actually liked the non-horizontal landscape.
Also, I like that it's hilly.
As many, I wish the colourpalette was a bit more varied,
like old Azeroth knows how to do.
Parts of old azeroth suffered from too unvaried colour palette
e.g. desolace, badlands. But BC has worse problems of that kind.
Terrokar: I only like the Auchindoun part (The style of Auchindoun for some reason hit me well).
I don't like the other foresty bits - actually because it doesn't feel proper foresty enough!
Again colour scheme too unvaried. The perfect measure for this is ashenvale,
which I find godly in its lush (AND VARIED!) forestiness!
This I feel as a general lack in BC: There is not enough jungle/tree stuff :-(.
- it's too 'open'.
Zangarmarsh: In general I like it a lot; I only wish for more varied palette/not only blue.
I know parts of it (SW/NE) have different colours, but I want it mixed, not separated.
Blades' Edge: I do like lots of it (a bit more forest!), and a bit more varied palette.
Though it does get barren/deserty a lot. And I like that it's hilly!
Nagrand: It's hilly, it's green. It has a varied palette. I'm happy...
Netherstorm + Shadowmoon valley. My least favorite. At least they are hilly :-).
But too sinister/bland and unvaried. I know they do contain variety, but...
it just isn't experienced that way.
As others have said, Azeroth has loads more atmosphere; BC/Outlands seems a bit rushed.
But I guess it has to - Azeroth must have been a gargantuan task, that BC would
have no chance of matching (albeit BC has a gazilion "fetch me x of y Q's"...).
In general, I hate the music in outland. Hellfire is OK, a bit azerothian.
Zangarmarsh + terrokar can also be OK-ish, but ... compared to Azeroth music, it's... rubbish.
Some of it sounds like empty barrels crashing (literally, no figure of speach).
Other than forest, I really miss oceans in Outland. Not having oceans
makes it feel like an indoors stage-thing. I guess I have a craving to be surrounded by oceans.
Also, I really wish flying was more restricted. Heavy winds, lethal dragons
(that you'd have no chance of combatting - only fleeing from).
I don't like that you can fly everywhere like a 3d-editor movement.
I also wish flying consumed some sort of resource, or maybe 'exhausted' your flying mount.
Any sort of reducttions that would make flying seem special, but still nicely useful,
to be used for "important travel".
The special feeling of flying is quicly lost, when it's "penaltyless"/costs nothing.
Xirifus Aug 10th 2008 4:08PM
This one is so easy:
Nagrand. With floating islands, giant diamond-thingies and Hemet Nesingwary, its best zone at outlands. Ever.
MRkity Aug 10th 2008 6:03PM
Overall nagrand was the best outland zone because it didnt look outland-ish.
My favorite real outland zone imo was zangramash.
Zakk Aug 10th 2008 6:47PM
Between Nagrand and Zangar.
Zangar had some nice quests, but those damn Naga kinda ruin it for me. I've always hated fighting Naga, for some reason. The strange thing about Zangar, though, is that I love doing a little bit at a time. I always remember it as a crappy zone and dread finishing HFP on all my characters, but when I start playing in it, I wonder why I thought of it as I did. Then after a while, I just can't wait to get out. So I go to Terokkar, and then crave Zangar. If I alternate between Terokkar and Zangarmarsh, I end up liking Zangarmarsh a whole lot more than I would if I went through it in one shot.
Nagrand is super pretty, but there are a lot of BIG kill quests. I don't mind kill quests when it's about 15 or 20 kills (I actually kind of like them), but the 50 kills needed for The Twin Clefts of Nagrand was a little nuts. And not to mention the grand total of 180 kills (plus 4 elites) from the Nesingwary stuff. I still usually end up with no more quests far before I would expect it, though, so it must not be *too* bad.
I voted for Nagrand. There may be a lot of boring killing, but time still seems to fly by in that zone. Plus it's one of the best looking zone in WoW.
Ozain Aug 11th 2008 3:50PM
I never liked Hellfire, Shadowmoon or Netherstorm. They are too barren and the lack of trees annoys me.
My favourite has to be Terokkar Forest, I love the general feel of it, it's so beautiful to look at, I always liked the music for it aswell.
But on the whole, Azeroth wins in Zone ambience and looks. Outland has cool areas, but it was too alien and sci-fi for my liking. I prefer the more natural feel of Azeroth Zones such as Loch Modan, I think they call it Gothic Fantasy or something.
Draenors Aug 10th 2008 10:08PM
I didn't played before TBC, so I didn't have time to experience all of Azeroth though I have been going back to the old world several times.
But I really like Outland. It is supposed to be a shattered world, but it is very beautiful in my opinion.
Like everyone else (almost?) I had to vote for Nagrand as my favorite zone. The green grass landscape and the trees. The sky that is nice and blue sky with a few clouds, but also has the usual planets and space-stuff that we know from HFP. The floating islands. Awesome!
The other zones are also pretty cool. I really like how the meteors are falling down from the sky in SMV and making that awesome green flash. And the completely red sky (with planets and stuff, too!) in BEM. And Netherstorm is the ultimate sci-fi/space zone.
So overall, I think that Outland is a pretty cool place. Hope Northrend will be just as nice.
Milktub Aug 10th 2008 11:58PM
I'm surprised that Nagrand has such a lead. Yes, it has a load of quite simple quests, all nicely packed. Yes, it has that pastoral beauty that reminds me of my early levels in Mulgore. But it seems like less of a zone than "this area that you grind through a few levels" ... sort of like STV.
HFP is my choice. It gives you a good start in Outland, both in shoving gear at you to compete in this new world, as well as a quick into to the story involved.
SMV is number two for me, since it too gives you a whammy of story.
Netherstorm is too "goblin/consortium" for me, and both of those factions seem too separated from the story for me to really be happy.
Zang and Terokkar are about the same level for me. Decent stories, and good packs of quests.
BEM would be a winner, except that travel there just sucks until you have a flyer, and by the time you have a flyer, most of the quests and rewards are trivial.
his2cents Aug 11th 2008 8:59AM
Nagrand to me reminds me too much of classic wow (which btw was boring as hell :P)...
Blades edge... ahh the scenary pisses me off all the time....
Terokar- the most boring place in the world. /golfclap for that zone
Shadowmoon- Really like the "shadowy" look of it, everythings dark and scary :P and ofc you get to a quest hub right at the begining that pretty much leads you through the whole zone
Netherstorm- Same as shadowmoon. Really cool palce to be in but its gets sort of boring after some time seeing the same color over and over and over again.
Helfire peninsula- Man this palce is great. Remember first time walking through the dark portal just to see the join forces of the alliance and the horde (that alone seems scary) fighting against gigantic dragonlike creatures? Then flying around to HH or that horde place thats gets bombarded with huge fireballs every 30 minutes or so (not sure if that happens with horde too) Then ofc you have those huge demons walking around the eastern edge with everything in flames. Then as you enter the temple of telhamat it got a bit boring. but besides that love this zone
Igarashi Aug 11th 2008 3:17PM
Zangarmarsh was definitely pleasing to look at after coming from HFP...but Nagrand takes the cake!
Sl0th Aug 11th 2008 6:18PM
Nagrand. Its a nice break after visiting the bleak Hellfire Peninsula, the dreary and fungal Zangamarsh, and the endless woods (Well, mostly endless. You go straight to bleak once you hit the Bonelands.) of Terokkar Forest. Nagrand is wide, green, full of life. And the floating islands give it just alien enough of a feeling to be part of Outland without wrecking the ambiance.
Nagrand is a brief respite before trekking off into Blade's Edge, Shadowmoon Valley, or Netherstorm.
PurpleHater Aug 11th 2008 10:28PM
I've always felt that Netherstorm was too purple - lol. It's one of the reasons why I didn't like EotS.
Merri Aug 12th 2008 1:13AM
I want to retire in Nagrand. Maybe train up a gronn or two and start a clefthoof ranch.