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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast 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 7 of 9)
StClair Oct 21st 2010 1:09PM
Yes. This. Thank you.
I've been searching for "just one moment" - I have so many, being an avid explorer and all - and this is it. (And I did it as a human (female) paladin, so.)
Bistromath Oct 21st 2010 11:23AM
Killing Ragnaros for the first time in vanilla. Pre - BWL... everyone screaming on Vent (or was it even Teamspeak back then?)... pretty amazing.
Also, going through the Dark Portal at midnight on release day, and being one of the first to lvl 61 on my server. Yep.
Pythagos Oct 21st 2010 11:27AM
I can remember three distinct points with extreme clarity.
My first character ever was a night elf. I didn't really know what I was doing, and I quickly abandoned it and started an undead warlock (the guy I was playing with was horde and he chastised me for starting an alliance on that server). As I wandered through Tirisfal Glades, I thought "man, this place is huge!" I was about level 12 when I discovered Silverpine Forest. It was probably 6:30pm server time when I wandered out of the gloomy dreariness of Tirisfal Glades out into the open sky of Silverpine Forest, and I'll never forget how it felt to see the real sky without the clouds.
Later on with that warlock, I got a quest to go to "Orgrimmar". Not knowing what this was, I asked my friend and he said it was on "the other continent". I remember thinking "there's another CONTINENT?" because I had thought Tirisfal Glades was huge! When I finally discovered the other continent, I felt so small.
The most epic experience I remember early on, though, was going from Desolace to Feralas. It was about 3 in the morning, and I had been in Desolace for days (leveling was slow and I didn't know what I was doing about half the time). As I crossed over into Feralas, I went over a bridge with a waterfall to the side, and I turned the camera to look at the waterfall and FELL OFF THE BRIDGE because I was so taken aback by how gorgeous this zone was.
Those were my really early moments of "wow!" (no pun intended), but a fourth deserves honorable mention because it affected me in almost as great a way ... when Wrath first came out, two of my friends and I picked up our copies at midnight and leveled straight through the weekend (I slept for eight hours once; one of my friends slept for eight hours twice). I was a healer, one of them was a tank, the other a DPS, so we would go do the new dungeons as soon as we could, and we did them without knowing any of the strats ... we did Gundrak at 72, haha. That was the most fun I've had playing WoW, including the very beginning.
Bearygarcia Oct 21st 2010 11:32AM
Battle for the Undercity. Absolutely epic.
Windhorn Oct 21st 2010 11:35AM
Might be something small,
Yesterday I was in WSG going about my business, no one was even close to me. I was heading toward the battle and accidentally hit "2" instead of "W" and to my surprise, frost nova revealed five rogues that were just out of the range to stun me. So I blinked and hightailed it out of there.
rabbit Oct 21st 2010 11:35AM
My second day in WoW--A Night Elf Druid as my first character and I had finished the starting quests, so it was time to see what was a little further down the road. As I ran up the ramp in Darnassus, I saw a fully decked out warlock on his dreadsteed sitting sideways in front of me like something from a Frazetta poster. The city,the music, the lock and his fiery steed...nothing in the NE starting area had prepared me for this sensory overload. I knew that I had to be a warlock and that was that. My poor druid is sitting in Darnassus still to this day. I can't delete him.
Daniel Oct 21st 2010 11:45AM
My first gryphon ride.My first boat ride.The blood elf starting zone.Training my first pet at level 10(and the quest,which is now gone due to starting pets :( )Getting my first mount at 32 (I was so proud.P.S I don't really like the mounts being at level 20 now,feels to early for me to have a mount)Stranglethorn Vale (I got in secretly without doing a quest chain,just swam a little gap and started asking my guild if I could manage 4 enemies at once)And WoW in general.
Varda Oct 21st 2010 11:46AM
The mention of Dragonblight brought back a moment for me. When WOTLK first opened I brought my Human Paladin to the Borean Tundra on the boat. After questing there for awhile I decided I wanted to check out the Howling Fjord. In order to fly from one side of Northrend to the other (this was before I got cold weather flying) you had to get all the flight paths in between. So my pally set off on an epic journey across Northrend.
It was great! My pally had to outrun all sort of mobs (she was quite surprised upon riding into a fort full of Scarlet Onslaught!) but the best was when she got to Wintergarde Keep. She didn't come in the "safe" way. Instead she rode straight up through a bunch of Scourge. But did they take my brave Level 71 Paladin down? Heck no! She stood and fought them! Right up to the gates of the Keep itself! It was so grand!
Then she kept going and had to fight off Orcs near Conquest Hold before finally getting Valgarde in Howling Fjord, where legions of Vrykul awaited her!
I love the fact that you have to travel and explore the world in this game. Too many other games just port you here and there and you never feel as if you are part of a greater world. Not so in WoW.
In fact, I think the biggest mistake was when they made the ship go from Darkshore to Stormwind instead of making you go to Menethil and traveling to Stormwind via Dun Morogh and Ironforge. Those were the days! I still remember having to get through that tunnel filled with level 20 Orcs as a level 4!
StClair Oct 21st 2010 1:12PM
An epic tale indeed! My pally salutes yours.
linda.polin Oct 21st 2010 11:53AM
The very first time I got on a gryphon, drifting out of Stormwind, it took my breath away. I have 5 years of "OMG!!!111!!" screenshots of moments like that, but the very first one was the first gryphon ride.
Angrycelt Oct 21st 2010 11:56AM
Started with the first opening cinematic. Wow.
First gryphon ride.
Getting lost in Stormwind. I'd never played a MMO with a city so big.
Coming up from Kharanos and looking up to see Ironforge.
Looking out over the Stonewrought Dam.
First time seeing Orgrimmar.
First time seeing the sun rise over Thunder Bluff.
Paladin charger quest.
Druid epic flight form quest.
The music and ambiance of Karazhan. (datamined those audio files out to the iPod)
Pamela Redpath.
Sully Balloo.
The Blackrock Depths entire Marshall Windsor/Onyxia/Lady Prestor storyline. That RP walk into SW is still a sentimental favorite.
The numerous tragic stories in Duskwood.
The torched city of Stratholme. (and then seeing it whole in the CoT culling quest)
Going into Black Rock Mountain and seeing the statues, chains, and circling dragons.
First time in Alterac Valley battleground.
Ragnaros rising (and falling).
Coming around the corner and seeing Aerie Peak for the first time.
First time in ZG (before troll instances became repetitive).
Walking through the Dark Portal.
First enemy city raid.
First flight on my own flying mount (druid flight at 68, baby) and going EVERYWHERE in Outland.
The music and boat ride into Howling Fjord.
The Wrathgate storyline and cinematic.
Literally saving the world at the end of Ulduar.
Finally downing Arthas.
So many many more - my screenshot folders are huge (and backed up so I don't lose anything)
biggjudicem Oct 21st 2010 11:56AM
two words:
Wrathgate Cinematic.
4 more words:
The battle for undercity
That thing made all my years of WoW worth it.
sabriel Oct 21st 2010 1:31PM
While I had been a fan of games and online games for many years, Warcraft was still my first. I began as a night elf and spent quite a lot of time in the good ol' woods and along the shores. It never even occurred to me that there was so much more to the game.
Then I reached a point where it was time to expand my horizons and someone took me on the long long long long long run to Ironforge. The ship over was kinda nifty. Then the run through the swamps avoiding alligators and spiders.
... but then you get that first glimpse of the massive stoneworks of the gates of Ironforge and I really felt like a country bumpkin finally coming to the big city for the first time.
roseclown Oct 21st 2010 12:07PM
The quest in Sholazar Basin where you ride on the back of a ancient war machine, stone statue, and help it destroy the scourge forces that are invading.
HELL YEAH.
Eyhk Oct 21st 2010 12:16PM
Before heroic modes, aoe tanking, 3D zergs, ZA mount runs, or even publicly known defense/hit caps, there was the Stratholme 45 minute Baron run. At 60 with mostly dungeon blue gear, the Strat 45 was pretty much the ultimate test of 5 man group skill. I remember memorizing the exact pulls in the exact order in order to accomplish the run.
A couple of friends from my guild and I got together, a warrior tank, mage, hunter, holy paladin and holy priest, and set about doing the task. We failed a couple times by aggroing extra mobs, eye of naaxramas, etc, but we got the rhythm down and did a final showdown. Elixirs and buffs up, mana users alternated sitting down to drink while the others kept pulling, warrior and holy pally both chain pulling mobs, LOSing, shackling, carefully walking a fine line in order to avoid aggroing certain groups, and using every trick in the book to shave time. Finally we got to the slaughter house with 10 minutes to spare, everybody shouting in vent that we got this, spirits high, and then the warrior tank gets locked out. Holy paladin tanking, mana users drinking while hunter pulls the next and the next, another frantic race to kill the aboms, twiddling our thumbs waiting for the skeleton guardians to come out, and FINALLY engage Baron with maybe a minute to spare. We down the boss, save the damsel in distress, and all get our dungeon set upgrades. That fight was probably the most adrenaline pumped frantic 45 minute constant action I've ever been in, requiring much more skill than anything I've done before or after.
Since then, our guild has fallen apart and all of us have gone our separate ways, lost our mage to a fatal car accident, and some left the game, but when I think of WoW, that Strat 45 run is the moment that comes to mind and I'll never forget it.
azcatryo Oct 21st 2010 12:44PM
For me, it would have to be when my guild had finally reached Kel'Thuzad at the end of Naxx well before Ulduar. The fight was going well but I think one of the healers missed a heal on the off tank late in the fight when the adds that show up were hitting him pretty hard. (The healer was probably frozen) Needless to say they hit him hard enough to take him out of the fight. I was on the verge of losing hope when our main tank picked up both adds (before they could kill anyone else) and Kel'Thuzad and we were able to just barely kill him for our first clear of Naxx. Looking back it was pretty epic at the time, but now it wouldn't be too hard to accomplish. There are many other moments of course, but that is the one that truly sticks.
Matt Oct 21st 2010 12:47PM
For me it was when I got my first character to 80. For me it was the best way to get to 80. I had my dwarf warrior do a quest in the storm peaks, where I have to go find Brann Bronzebeard and then we fly out of this place on his plane with all of these npcs trying to kill us and then when it's all over, all three Bronzebeards are reunited after such a long time! Then when I handed in the quest I became level 80. Best way for a dwarf warrior to become level 80, reuniting the Bronzebeards! It was amazing!
StClair Oct 21st 2010 1:14PM
Absolutely right (and well done!). I try to arrange appropriate "big dings" for all of my characters.
sclark1138 Oct 21st 2010 1:20PM
The first time I took a flight path through Ashenvale (pre-BC) will always stand out in my mind. Just how amazing the scenery was, just so well done. Also the Wrathgate cinematic, was amazing. Also, it's really dumb, but the Crusader Bridenbrad questline really touched me
Chris Oct 21st 2010 1:24PM
The epicness of the best 5-man dungeon in all of WoW... Black Rock Depths. Hands down.