Breakfast Topic: What starting zone bores you?
by Amelia Ramstead 
Oct 29th 2011 at 8:00AM
When Cataclysm dropped, most of the starting zones got a major revamp. I made a point of at least trying most of them, just to see the changes. Prior to Cata, my least favorite starting zone was the Human zone, followed by the Dwarf/Gnome zone. It just felt like there wasn't much involved, and the quests were, well, kind of generic. Suffice to say, my Human and Dwarf/Gnome characters never really got off the ground.
I came back after Cata dropped to see what had changed. While the Gnome and Dwarf area had seen major changes, I still didn't enjoy it that much. The Human area still wasn't doing it for me either. I think I need to accept that I'm just never going to have a high-level Human character! Horde-side, I always found the Troll and Orc starting zones boring. The stories just didn't grip me, and I found myself not caring about the characters.
What about you? Any starting zone bore you to tears? Have quests you thought were completely ridiculous? Leave you with a burning hatred for all members of that particular race and everything they stand for? Are there any that you used to like and feel like Cata completely screwed them up?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
restodr00d Oct 29th 2011 8:04AM
Goblin starting zone, 'nough" said. Its the longest starting zone of them all you even get the achievment of 100 quests completed...
Love goblins but that starting zone stops me for having a lot of them.
urf Oct 29th 2011 9:23AM
Really? When I did the goblin starting quests I was totally enthralled, smiling the whole time and thinking, wow, this is maybe the most entertaining solo content ever by Blizzard.
The worgen stuff I didn't like so much. There were still a couple of phasing bugs when I did it, and maybe they were just out of ideas. It kinda fell short, especially right after doing the amazing goblin zones. The quests are a lot more somber in their tone than the goblin ones, I guess it's more difficult to make "serious" fantasy fiction interesting than the crazy and humorous bits.
Killik Oct 29th 2011 9:35AM
Doing the Goblins once is amazing. Doing it twice? Like someone telling you the same joke over again and no way to interrupt them.
Ashlar Oct 29th 2011 9:45AM
@urf You miss the point - the goblin starting zone is crazy fun - the firs time. Problem is, it takes forever, is extremely linear and you are stuck there the whole time with no options to switch zones, so the reply becomes a grind. its the fact its long and linear that kills it.
Not wanting to repeat the Goblin starting zone keeps me from rolling a second goblin.
tulipblossom Oct 29th 2011 9:50AM
Yeah, I have to say I sort of agree. Don't get me wrong, I actually think the goblin starting zone is quite awesome. It's hilarious and really fun the first couple times around. But, after you've already experienced it, it just ends up feeling very long and tedious when leveling alts.
I love love -love- the work that went into that starting zone. I think it's got to be one of the best in the whole game. But, it is a bit long, for sure. And, after you've gotten your fill of it, it just feels like a chore, in a way. But, everything about the zone itself is so cool and I give massive props to the blizz team for all their amazing effort and work.
SamLowry Oct 29th 2011 9:51AM
Same could be said for Gilneas, but in the end you're left with even less because the goblins at least have a teen-level zone to keep adventuring in. Worgen get the promise of a climax to their storyline that never comes.
Cephas Oct 29th 2011 9:54AM
I ran two goblins through and I loved it both times. There's stuff you get to do there that you just can't do anywhere else in the game. Mulgore, on the other hand, is still full of exceedingly dull and uninteresting kill and drop quests that make you run all over half the zone to and from Bloodhoof village. Try doing that more than once without getting bored to tears. It's only saving grace is that you can just run to Thunder Bluff and get the heck out of there, which admittedly you can't do from the Goblin zones.
Chetti Oct 29th 2011 10:42AM
I thought the goblin starting zone was fun once, but yeah.. the length of it has me not wanting a second one. The worgen area was ok, kinda sad that the story wasn't finished unless you roll an undead and run that one. Which, is awesome. My undead was intended to be a character I tossed away after level 15 or so, or left to collect dust and play when I got tired of my main. But she has since become my main. I loved the starting area, and leveling a shadow priest has been lots of fun.
What I don't like, or should I say, like least, about the goblin and worgen starting areas is that they were developed to ONLY be seen by baby goblins/worgen. Once you finish, you can't go back there. You escape both as they get destroyed/taken over. I really liked the layout of Gilneas, it would have been nice for it to be a city that could be visited. Though it makes sense that the Worgens don't get to keep it since, they ran from it.. and while leveling an undead, you do more quests in part of gilneas than worgens do. What I thought was interesting, is that while you're doing quests as an undead, you see the baby worgen doing their thing.
wizardofnos Oct 29th 2011 11:04AM
I didn't like the goblin zone at all. It was interesting for about 5 minutes. I hated the way all the roads were and riding around in the vehicles was just not my thing at all.
Jyotai Oct 29th 2011 2:13PM
@Chetti:
Blizzard assumes everyone plays both factions.
Many of us do, but many more don't despite paying $14.95 a month for it, they only use $7.47 of their subscription.
So a -LOT- of people don't know that the Worgen story picks up in Silverpine with a level 10 Undead, telling the same tale from the other side's POV, plus further.
Even worse though is the horde players who keep asking what happened to the Goblin Trade Prince despite the fact that he's standing RIGHT OUTSIDE OF ORGRIMMAR.
- Look at the map of Azshara... his house is even labeled on the zone's map, and Horde players still keep asking why he was removed from the game after the Goblin quests...
Noyou Oct 29th 2011 3:18PM
Agree with you resto. The 1-5 part was too silly, the 6-12 was as boring as any starter area can get. I had a couple goblins planned but stopped and deleted the second one before he could get through it again. That being said, I do think goblins are very interesting and like them a lot as a race to play. So, if they ever let you opt out of the area, I would probably roll another one. The other thing I will say is, the toon you play largely contributes to how fun the starter zone feels. If you play a hunter, just auto shotting mobs is a good time. While many other classes give you 1 button to press (yes Paladin I am talking to you) with no ranged options. So in that case, the starter area might seem a lot less interesting no matter what.
evoxpisces Oct 29th 2011 3:18PM
I kind of agree...I absolutely love the goblin starting zone, but I've played through it about 20 times and it just boils down to being annoying and it is the longest starting zone by far. I'm pretty tired of Durotar also, if only because I've experienced it so often.
awall Oct 29th 2011 3:38PM
Have you been to the pleasure palace, though? He isn't there. It's likely the result of having betrayed a large number of Goblins who are now considered some of the strongest heroes on Azeroth. :-)
As to no climax to the Worgen zone, the plaguing of Gilneas is pretty much the climax of that story. After that, a Worgen player isn't involved in the conflict until much later when Gilneas becomes a battleground. Make sure you hit up Darkshire and the rest of Duskwood if you want some more Worgen centric early questing experiences.
blazenor Oct 29th 2011 4:59PM
@ awall
That's the problem with the Worgen starting, to get the ending you need to play the Horde while just playing Worgen feels very lack luster. Just a little prove that Blizzard gave a little more love to the Horde, even the Goblin story seems to carry over unlike the Worgen.
Grumpy Wow Guy Oct 29th 2011 8:12AM
My least favorite starting area is the Tauren starting area.
With that said, I do not like the changes that Cata brought to many starting areas
Cephas Oct 29th 2011 9:46AM
That's interesting to me because I didn't like the Tauren starting zone specifically because so little of it got changed. The vanilla Bloodhoof Village quests are almost all still there. They make you run all over half of the zone for uninteresting kill quests and drop quests. If anything it could have benefited from more changes.
Jack Mynock Oct 29th 2011 9:59AM
I don't see how anyone could like the tauren starting area. It's huge and has you constantly running long distances. It doesn't help that tauren *seem to run so slowly. It was by far the worst, imo, before cata, and other than a handful of quests right at the beginning and a few at the end, it hardly changed at all with the revamp.
lazymangaka Oct 29th 2011 10:52AM
I was really excited when I rolled my first post-Cata Tauren and saw that the starting area was different. Then I got through the first five or so levels, if even that, and suddenly I was right back in what was essentially an unchanged pre-Cataclysm starting zone. Needless to say, I was rather bummed out and got out of there as quickly as possible.
Malnore Oct 29th 2011 11:10AM
It's not just that you seem slow. It's also the endless grass plains so you're going nowhere slowly.
Tonho Oct 29th 2011 2:26PM
I'm not sure if it's just my love for Tauren or what, but I loved the new starting zone.
It perfectly suits the Tauren with it's slower pace and broad, rolling landscape. I know for most WoW players, "slower pace" is worse no matter what the reason is, but for me, it fits perfectly for Tauren. I see how people could dislike that aspect of it though.
Also, the death of Greatmother Hawkwind (coupled with Cairne's death) really got me emotionally invested in the zone.
When I finally got the quest to kill the Quilboar chieftan, I happily did it several more times than was needed :)