Breakfast Topic: What's your most memorable moment of amazement?
by Josh Rose 
Oct 21st 2010 at 8:00AM
Many of us get jaded playing WoW. We get burned out running the same raid for months on end as we wait for new content. We feel there is no reason to do instances anymore because there is nothing more to be gained -- or with the new expansion on the horizon, we think, "Why bother? I'll replace the gear with quest blues and greens leveling to 85." We spend a lot of time QQing about how there is nothing we need to do or want to do, or how we are bored with the current aspect of the game.
However, we have all had our Oh wow, that was awesome! moments -- those moments that bring us back to why we play this game and why we pay 15 bucks a month to keep doing so. I have had my fair share, usually a couple in each of the iterations of the evolving world that is WoW. The first one had to be Ragnaros. At level 60, getting to Ragnaros and watching him just erupt out of the lava pool all gigantic and epic-looking ... He is still one of the most impressive-looking bosses with one of the best deaths in the game; it is kind of a shame you can kill him with just one or two people now.
The Burning Crusade's high point to me was Mount Hyjal. I loved the Caverns of Time. I felt it was a great gaming invention to allow you to experience content from the old RTS Warcraft games in a WoW manner; being a part of it was a great idea. Also, Archimonde was a seriously great fight. Wrath has had a couple of memorable moments for me. Ulduar was a huge high point. Yogg+1 or +0 was such a truly difficult and exciting fight. And finally getting to fight Arthas -- that was a very well-designed fight, even in normal mode without the buff when it was actually difficult.
What moments in World of Warcraft have left you amazed? All the bugs, server downtimes and trolls be damned -- this made up for all of it. What instant made WoW all worth it for you?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 9)
niko Oct 21st 2010 8:08AM
First time I left Teldrassil to head to Auberdine on my first character, a female nelf warrior.
That flight completely blew my mind. The reaction I had to sheer size of the world still stands out as one of my most memorable moments in the game.
Simandl Oct 21st 2010 2:13PM
I felt the same way on my first char, a human mage! I used to watch the flights just to see all the areas I would one day explore.
Mesta Oct 22nd 2010 11:18AM
So many amazing moments. Here are a few that stand out...
- Being a NE and taking the trek through the Wetlands and Dun Morough and then seeing IF for the first time -- Wow!
- First time stepping into MC and seeing the 2 huge giant orange dudes.
- First time seeing Ragnaros emerge from the lava.
- World Dragons in Vanilla
- Riding by the Dark Portal Pre-BC
- Stepping through the Dark Portal into Outands for the first time
- The Outlands sky
- Taking my first flight as a Druid at 67 in Nagrand
- Flying over Zul'Drak the first time seeing the Giant dude walking around -- and just the layout of the zone is cool looking...
MusedMoose Oct 21st 2010 8:08AM
Exploring the world (...of Warcraft) usually gets me; one of the great things about Hallow's End is traveling all across Azeroth to see as much of it as possible before everything falls down and goes boom. I remember descending into Un'Goro crater for the first time, after the flat deserts of Tanaris, and being amazed at finding this jungle just around the corner. Also: Netherstorm. Just... Netherstorm. I can't wait to do all the quests there for Loremaster, the entire zone is incredible.
As for dungeon-based stuff, I can count the first time I downed VanCleef with a PUG, way back in pre-AQ days in vanilla. Five hours to get through the dungeon, wiping and learning how to work together as we went, learning how to play my class in ways I'd never had to learn before. When we brought that bastard down - first try, though the tank did die - it felt like we'd all accomplished something truly, truly epic. At level 19. ^_^
Nowadays, with all that I've heard and read about Cataclysm, it sounds like Blizzard has planned all kinds of epic moments for us as we work our way toward level 85. I can't wait.
JustPlainJim Oct 21st 2010 9:26AM
I have to agree with you on this one. Just exploring the world.
There were moments when I was grinding quests for Loremaster and I had to stop and look around. The world is beautiful, even back in the old vanilla content. The time and effort Blizzard must have put into the game amazes me.
Schadenfreude Oct 21st 2010 8:08AM
I far prefer games where you can play as a non-human as opposed to regular old humans, so when I first started playing WoW I made a character of nearly every race (even the hated elves!) except humans before I tried one.
Their intro cinematic hit me like a ton of bricks; more specifically, those first few notes of the Stormwind hymn poured out of my speakers and a little tear came to my eye.
My highest level Alliance character is still only 21 though. ;)
Odiee Oct 21st 2010 8:11AM
I played Warcraft 1, War 2 + exp, War 3 + exp. And I did that in a span of 10+ years.
When WoW first came out and I first saw it at my friends house. And he showed me some of the places from these 3 games in the game world. The feeling of "It's alive" was nothing I ever felt before. Finally I was able to live and act in the world of those 3 games that marked my childhood.
I'll never forget that.
Rapskallion Oct 21st 2010 10:51AM
I never took the opportunity to play the original RTS Warcraft games, unfortunately. But the more I read about the lore of this universe the more I wish I had the experience you did. Seeing a relatively controlled environment essentially come to life must have been quite the rush.
I estimate I get a vastly reduced feeling of that when I read a new Warcraft novel and hear about something in game (like the caravan of orcs decimated by Deathwing when he saw them leaving Grim Batol and abandoning his captured enemy, Alexstrasza) and actually going to eastern Wetlands and seeing it in game.
Pseudo-Smart Oct 21st 2010 8:14AM
Vanilla: Getting my first character to 60 was the most memorable moment, I can still remember exactly where I was. Also the first time I stepped into ZG and everything contained inside it.
BC: Finding the guild I'm currently with on a run of Mechanar was the most memorable. Followed by meeting Khadgar, brought me right back to the original Warcraft series. After that the raiding of all the 10 man instances for the first time.
WotLK: Stepping foot into the Howling Fjord was amazing, I still think that zone is one of the most amazing in the game.
Meeting all the lore figures and main characters from other games has been memorable too, I'll have to remember to take a screenshot with certain ones before they get poisoned etc.
Banished Oct 22nd 2010 9:27AM
Silly things really - Believe it or not, I really liked the seige of Ulduar. It felt quite smart riding into battle with a group of friends in some delapidated engines of war.
I liked the entrance of Sapphiron just before Kael'Thuzad. A skeletal dragon animating itself from a pile of bones = cool.
One of the moments of awesomeness is when my first character emerged into Deathknell and took his first faltering steps through the starter quests, made it out to Brill, then started exposing parts of the map and you think to yourself - "OMG this game is BIG!"
Seeing the phases carved into the rock at Thandol Span took me back a bit.
The first time we downed Gruul (it was our first guild 25), was epic - I was actually scared when we were doing that.
Those are just a few.
Xantenise Oct 21st 2010 11:18PM
The first time I realised how big this universe was, was when I took a boat from Darnassus to Darkshore as a level 9 druid, then looked down the coastline and saw it fading into the distance.
Epic.
Paul S Oct 21st 2010 8:16AM
As a relative latecomer to the game I loved the first trip through the Dark Portal into the Outlands. Someone in the group I was with then told me as i hit the outlands to look up. Loved the sky out there, still do :)
MusedMoose Oct 21st 2010 8:39AM
Definitely with you on that one. I'm an altaholic, so it was a long time before I got any alt to 58, so Outland was bloody amazing to me. I still like flying around there over anywhere in Azeroth. Nagrand is my mage's home. ^_^
Bikhai Oct 21st 2010 5:42PM
Latecomer here too. I got ganked on the way through the Dark Portal the first time. :| So... it was memorable I suppose, but for all the wrong reasons.
ROB13 Oct 21st 2010 8:17AM
When I first stepped into Orgrimmar. I started as an Undead Warlock, and quested through most of Tirisfal Glades and some into Silverpine Forest. I have been to Undercity, but overall I wasn't very blown away. It was tightly packed together, it has a weird shape and I got lost all the time. My brother then started playing a bit after me, he messages me saying, "I'm on a Zeppelin to Undercity" and that just blew my mind. He was a Tauren, so he should have started somewhere on the other continent. And a zeppelin? What the heck is a zeppelin? I run outside to see this Tauren fall from the sky and die. After a laughing fit, I ask how he got here, and we go up the zeppelin tower, and there it is. A ship that can sail on the clouds! One capable of bringing me to lands so far away! At that moment I think I finally realized how big this world I stepped into really is. I first thought it was rather small, judging by how I easily ran through the starting zone in under an hour.
But it got better once I arrived at Orgrimmar. I. was. in. awe. I stared up at the massive gates, walked inside and my mind was blown to smithereens. There were more players here then I have ever seen in my life! Players wielding epic gear, rare mounts and other exciting treasures! And running through the entire city I could see so many interactions of players, so many new sights! The entire time I didn't even know there was a trade chat, so maybe that helped a bit. But it was amazing, there were so many new things to see and do in this new land other then my boring old homeland of Tirisfal. Heck, I actually think I did the Orc starting quests when I didn't know that greyed out quests granted no experience.
Vagrant Oct 21st 2010 8:19AM
I'm torn between the start of my wow life or the end...
I've always really enjoyed the new-ness of things, never having seen the entire land, every little walk a surprise, every new level exciting. SO one of my greatest moments probably was when i got to level 10...and this npc told me to go out into the scary woods and get a pet. It brought a bright gleam to my face.
The other part is probably me rising to be more then i thought i could be. Here I was at 80, in a casual dying guild. I got to 80 but to say I was confident and ready for more, no. I thought I was too bad at this all to even ever do heroics, already decided i'd never would enter one. And then some friend, future guild mate, convinced me to come along into a 25 man raid of OS. For someone who lacked confidence even in normal dungeons, fighting this big huge dragon was a pretty amazing thing and my first steps into the whole raid business (and by now confident in what he can and can't do :))
Michael Quinn Oct 21st 2010 8:19AM
First time I took a gryphon and realised I was flying over real players playing the game, rather than just a "cut scene" - that blew me away.
Chetti Oct 21st 2010 9:15AM
This blew me away too. WoW is the first MMO I've ever played, so I didn't know what to expect. When I took off the first time, I thought it was cool. I didn't realize the things I was flying over were in real-time until the first time I took off right after someone else, and realized I could still see them flying in front of me, I thought that was the greatest thing.
Sir Broose Oct 21st 2010 9:33AM
You beat me to it. That was also an amazing moment for me. My first toon - a human warrior - taking his first gryphon ride from Stormwind to Lakeshire - and I was able to look down into Elwynn Forest and see real players in action. The scenery was buzzing by smoothly, and I could still click on players below me and see their name, stats, health, cast bar, etc, all in real time. I actually called a friend who didn't play and told them about it, because I was so amazed.
Janaan Oct 21st 2010 4:14PM
Mine is also flight related. My first gryphon ride over the Burning Steppes and Searing Gorge around level 30-35 or so was amazing. I looked down and saw all these giant spiders that I knew would eat me alive with one hit, and I resolved to one day be able to beat those spiders. Guess where I went questing around level 52 or so? That's right, Burning Steppes and Searing Gorge.