Favorite Zones
 

This is something I've always been curious about. I always ask the people I know (in game or out of game) who play wow what their favorite zone/dungeons/raid is. So just curious what people here like. So here are mine (it is really hard to only choose one for a few catagories so I'll list a few sometimes).

Favorite Zone: Hands down Azshara is my favorite zone in the entire game. I don't really know why but I feel like it has a lot of things going for it. I like the atmosphere, and it is one of the best zones in the game for just riding around and exploring. I like the feeling of being way off the beaten path. It also has a few "secret" (not really), areas that were cool to find. I remember the first time I found and got teleported up to that mages tower. Way back right after release when he was just sitting there with no purpose (at least for alliance). I get teleported up to this secret tower and see this guy with these complete cool shoulders with spikes (not that cool looking now but everything was plainer looking then), and showed all my friends. That was awesome. I definitelly believe that it is the most under-utilized zone in the game though. As a zone it has a huge amount of pottential which blizzard just did not realize. No quests, no instance, very little lore. And yet all of these people and places ripe for extra content. Always wished more was done with it.

Favorite Dungeon: Deadmines. It was fun and had everything you'd want in an instance. A rare spawn, a set to collect, good drops off the final boss, fun encounters, and a great laid back learning experience. BRD is a close second for very different reasons.

Favorite Raid: I have two. I really liked BWL. When it first came out it was awesome. It was better than MC on so many levels. Even going back I feel nostalgia for it. The class trinkets and more unique loot and itemization was cool too. And of course Naxx. It really was blizzard's masterwork, and that is enough said.

Instance you would most like to see as a heroic: There are two, first is the deadmines. It would be a very very fun heroic. Re-experiencing it would be awesome. The second is BRD. Now that most of us know it, we could show newer people around and that would take one of the main complaints out. Re-addressing a few of the nagging anoyances would make this worth doing 50+ times imo. It has the potential (if done right) to be mind blowing. Epic, great lore, non-linear and chose your encounters (the latter is always a plus imo), and with retuned quests to level 70 (and maybe added ones too) and all and all I would absolutelly love to see this one done well above all other things.]

Favorite Faction: Bloodsail Buccs. What can I say, I have 2 admirals. I would be set for life if blizzard added new bloodsail content for exalted and 70. Even just a tabard (come on), and a title ("Admiral of the Fleet _______" or something).

Favorite Boss: There are many good bosses in wow. A lot are good for a lot of different reasons. To choose a few I would have to say, Jandice Barov, Valathahk (or however you spell that summonable ubrs boss), Baron Rivendare, Kirtonos (summoning him was really cool early on), and finally Raz Frostwisper (the questline is mindblowing).

Favorite Questline: The Raz Frostwisper line. It does everything right. The invisible residents, the length and challenge, and finally the reworked encounter.

Sorry about the number of things I just thought of other things I liked and wrote them. Anyhow answer whichever you like, explain your reasons or don't. I guess I am just looking for opinions. Curious what people really liked and didn't. How much is shared and how much is preference. And finally very curious about the amount of favorite things in BC or pre-BC.

Also I have redone pretty much all of this since the expansion and with 70s so I believe it isn't that much nostalgia.

Favorite Zone: Duskwood, I like the dark questlines with their obvious twists :)

Favorite Dungeon: BRD, for obvious reasons explained in another thread aswell. If I wasnt so tired I would provide a link.

Favorite Raid: End of Naxx and Karazhan to be honest. Naxx because it felt very well done, Karazhan because of the multitude of events.

Instance you would like to see as a heroic: BRD, without doubt, the best dungeon ever made.

Favorite Faction: Consortium, I was fascinated with everything that involved ethereals in the start of TBC and farmed up exalted with these very quickly.

Favorite Boss: C'thun, not because of the lore, but because it felt like the first movement coordination fight, it was wonderful to be one of the first 10ish guilds completing phase 1 before the tactics we're "known".

Favorite Questline: Alliance Onyxia Prequest, it's a long and fun experience! Almost worth rolling alliance because of it. Same with the Mor'ladim questline in Duskwood.

Favorite Zone: Loch Modan / Blade Edge Mountains

Favorite Dungeon: Scarlet Monastry / Auchenai Crypts

Favorite Raid: Onyxia and Karazhan

Instance you would like to see as a heroic: Gnomeregan

Favorite Faction: I had reputation grinding, so basically none

Favorite Boss: Vaelastrasz

Favorite Questline: The blue questline from the Ahn'Qiraj prequest

Favorite Zone: Thunder Bluff got the biggest "wow" moment when I just started playing, I kinda liked Orgrimmar too, none of the alliance cities really got that for me, but I played horde first so that might be why. Beyond that I don't really know about a favorite zone.

Favorite Dungeon: SFK, without a doubt. Would also consider it the one I'd like to see as a heroic, I just loved that dungeon.

Favorite raid: without a doubt Naxx. BWL was a close second I guess, it was well designed from a full dungeon point of view, but other than Nefarian the bosses didn't hold interest for me enough to consider it as good.

Favorite Faction: Fuck rep grinds, they're all terrible. Brood of Nozdormu is probably the least terrible because it's easy and done in a raid.

Favorite Boss: Four Horsemen, as a tank there's nothing I liked more. Kel'thuzad was a close second, and Twin emps third, but Horsemen were just so much fun to tank.

Favorite Questline: The tablets quest in Azshara horde side. I dunno if it's been changed since I first did it like a few months after the game first came out at most, but it was easy to do, gave way too much experience, and made me laugh at how easy it was.

Favorite Zone: Duskwood. I really love the atmosphere and the quest lines in the zone. I've probably taken over six characters through there now and have never really been bored of the zone.

Favorite Dungeon: Undead Strat. Back in the day I did over 70 runs to get my pally his lightforge legs. I would usually just take a random group of IF people late at night and do a run. I would see if I could get everyone to clear it faster then my previous clears. It was always a lot of fun even though I had been through the place tons of times.

Favorite Raid: Naxx is still the best done raid instance that I have seen.

Instance you would like to see as a heroic: Deadmines. Van Cleef and Smite would be fun to see on heroic.

Favorite Faction: Netherwing has been fun. I just started it a few days ago. Other then that I don't enjoy faction grinding too much.

Favorite Boss: C'thun. This fight took us forever to do, but was very rewarding in the end. Every week it was a blast to do. Complex and required everyone to do their part. Last December raiding on my server pretty much died. While sitting around bored I started making a PuG for AQ40. I never thought we'd make it too far, but we ended up one shotting C'thun. One of my best memories in this game.

Favorite Questline: AQ Scepter Quest. It had a lot of unique steps and provided something for an entire guild to do.

Favorite Zone: Nagrand

Favorite Dungeon(s): Mara purple and inner, Old Hillsbrad, Black Morass

Favorite Raid: BWL, it was very difficult in the beginning so it really taught me how to heal on this shaman.

Instance you would like to see as a heroic: Mara

Favorite Faction: Argent Dawn, it was the first rep I really ever came across and grinded 3/4 through revered simply through AoE farming Felstone Field with mages

Favorite Boss: Vael, its such an adrenaline pumped fight for a healer.

Favorite Questline: Varadris questline at the Black Temple.

Favorite Zone: The Plaguelands for Lore, Un'Goro Crater for eye-candy

Favorite Dungeon: Razorfen Downs or Sunken Temple

Favorite Raid: AQ40, without a freaking doubt. I must be one of the only people in the world that just thought that raid instance was the best ever. There is no fight that is dull or unoriginal, think about all of the fights in there, there was nothing really like them throughout the game. Naxx was pretty awesome too.

Instance you would most like to see as a heroic: Shadowfang Keep. As alliance I never got to run it until I was 60, but it really is a spectacular instance. Sunken Temple - another fantastic instance that never really got the credit it deservered

Favorite Faction: Argent Dawn. So much everything with it. Same reason I love the Plaguelands.

Favorite Boss: C'thun, Razorgore, Nefarian,

Favorite Questline: Blue Scepter Shard

I guess I'm a sucker for nostalgia, but to be honest, the instances in The Burning Crusade were nice, but they seemed too loot orientated. Kinda like BRD, while we hated the instance while we were there, looking back on it they seemed awesome. While in TBC the instances seemed kinda forced.

Favourite zone: Felwood. It had a sickly atmosphere, loads of content ( Whippers, Herbs and lots of other things ), and loads of PvP between various farmers and levelers. I could spend hours a day there just farming herbs, fighting other players, and picking Whippers. Second would be Winterspring, so much potential, so beautiful.

Favourite dungeon: BRD, without a doubt. Alot of painful memories of farming, but it still strikes me how amazing that dungeon is in content, lore and experience. I ran through it with friends so many times I knew it inside out at one point, and I still found there were things I had missed. The quests you do there feels truly epic, and the fights actually makes sense.

Favourite raid: AQ40. I hate bugs, and love killing them. I liked the lore supporting it, and I loved the bosses. Twin Emperors is a fight that really made my heart pound so hard I felt it in my ear-drums. It was an awesome instance, sadly riddled with people whining about it, and waiting for Naxx.

Heroic instance: No particular preference, unless they'd flesh them out a bit more. If so, all of them.

Favourite faction: Consortium. It's so cool to be introduced to a faction that openly admits being rather unscrupulous, willing to go to great lengths to make money, and rewards you handsomely. I'm really looking forward to seeing more of these people in the future through the added questlines.

Favourite boss: Onyxia. Be it the shortness of the fight, the lack of trash or the general feel, I still find the whole thing so amazing in so many ways I won't bother counting them. Also supported by one of the better questlines in the game.

Favourite questline: The Scythe of Elune that you find in Ashenvale. The quest is early levels and sends you running around "half the globe" in search of this mad priestess that summoned Worgens into our world. I am really hoping for a continuation of this questline in some form, as it's the most exciting and interesting questline I can think of, and one I always revisit on alts to enjoy once again.

Favorite Zone: The original AV. Cheating a little I know and many would disagree but the original feel of it zoning in for the first time - a large scale battle between the factions, large range of possible options (troops to summon, upgrades, wing commanders etc) really gave the place a great feel in the early days. Mix of questing and PVP particularly appealed and gave it a great immersion factor to me at least. Lost the magic pretty quickly once it became apparent just how easily the zone got bogged down and just settled down to point farming but the initial concept, though pretty damn flawed, was great even if the potential wasn't really recognised. By contrast all the other BGs have felt like a deliberate game rather than a conflict between two factions.

Favorite Dungeon: SFK - great atmosphere, not too trash heavy, distinctive and with a bunch of lore backing it.

Favorite Raid: BWL/Karazhan for different reasons. BWL for the large epic scale and far more interesting design than MC (and better flow than AQ40 I felt). Karazhan because it's got a great variety of raid encounters/roles that particularly favour utilisation of previously non raid abilities (disclaimer here: never saw much of Naxx, haven't done any 25 man raiding in TBC so really just saying I feel Kara's up there with the best of the pre TBC raids I've seen).

Instance you would most like to see as a heroic: SFK again - same reasons as above.

Favorite Faction: Quite liked the handling of the Mag'har - good lore tie ins, never felt like I had to grind faction and a great finisher (Thrall event) for completing a fairly hefty number of quests. Not personally very rewarding loot wise but a well done piece of gameplay.

Favorite Boss: Nefarian stands out from the pre TBC bunch, particularly since it had a real guild accomplishment feel to it, learning it over a couple of nights and then having everything come together in what upon reflection was one of the highlight's of our guild's raiding (we were a little variable in quality). Got quite a liking for some of the Kara events though, Opera, Chess and Aran in particular for being different without being too frustrating.

Favorite Questline: The AQ40 sceptor chain. Only ever got to do bits of it myself and it certainly had its flaws (green shards especially) but the variety, epic feel and utilisation of out of the way and otherwise unknown spots was a real selling point to me - real shame it wasn't made more accessible at some stage.

Favorite Zone: In Azeroth, Ghostlands. Amazingly well-designed zone that emphasized just how horrible the zones put into original WoW generally were. The faction gave you a sense of "completion" when you had all of the quests done in a way that even Outlands zones never achieved.

In Outlands, Nagrand. The stuff with the Mag'har was really cool and the zone had very few quests that weren't either a blast or just efficient.

Favorite Dungeon: Caverns of Time: Durnholde. This zone has all of the cool features of BRD without its many, many flaws, if you ask me. Well-paced, but with lots of room to play around. Even nice features like the level 20 bears. :)

Favorite raid: Naxxramas, even though I only ever got to do Razuvious and try Anub'rekan a few times.

Instance you would like to see as a heroic: Shadowfang Keep. Fun, interesting locale, and implemented a lot of the "tricks" of BC instances - fast way to run out, etc.

Favorite Faction: How about my least favorite? Cenarion Circle, since it was so incredibly horribly implemented as a solo/group quest faction and so largely unimportant for the actual raid instance that gave faction with it.

Favorite Boss: Vaelastrasz the Corrupt, almost certainly. Sure, raid stacking could trivialize it, but who cares? It was chaotic, it was fast-paced, and it really gave you a sense of the power behind the dragons.

Favorite Questline: The Thrall questline in Nagrand. Best questline ever - apart from having to go to the hellhole that is Auchindoun Crypts.

I'm an orc at heart.

Favourite zones: Hellfire Peninsula (and Durotar). The Mars-like terrain; the uncompromising brutality of the aesthetic; combined with rather interesting quests is wonderful. I definitely feel that this developer tends to start out bigger than they are able to maintain. So the first Horde area and the first BC area have more depth than they were able to give to later zones. Or they used their best material first. Or something. As a world pvp fan I also have to give a nod to Stranglethorn Vale and its bastard offspring, Nagrand.

Favourite instance: SM Cath. It's like beating up all those annoying Human Pallies one crosses swords with posting on the WoW boards and Bur-ing at you in Warsong Gulch. I also, for obvious reasons, love CoT: Old Hillsbrad.

Favourite raid: I'm going to be unfashionable enough to say Zul Gurrub. Both for the aesthetic and for the fun of helping new raiders get started. I've done more epic encounters but there was always something very fresh about ZG. I hope Zul'Aman recaptures that feeling.

Favourite Faction: Horde

Favourite boss: Thrall

Favourite questline: The Fordring story in the Plaguelands

Maybe a zone nobody expected
 

Zone: Early on I loved Loch Modan, but after leveling a few characters on a PvP server, the dark horse - Desolace! Horde or Alliance, this is a great place to avoid the nonstop gankage of STV... (So maybe I like it because of cognitive dissonance) Also your first rep grind :p

Instance: RFC - I just love having an instance that low lowbies can go to - slowly leveling an alt with a friend who can only play a couple of hours a week, and I wish so badly we could just go to RFC instead of the month or so it will take to get to deadmines range. I also think horde gets a little advantage having one more instance in which to learn class roles...

Favorite Zone: STV - I love everything about it, and it covers from level 30 to 50 pretty well, you first enter and get a 'Welcome to the Jungle' quest from Nessingway, it's awsome. I'f only they added a flight path to the alliance north base. PvPing is fun, but can be ruined when a horde of 60's camp the hunter's camp, A Lot of quests that send you all over azeroth, aswell as a heap of STV contained area quests.

Favorite Instance: Dire Maul North/West - Such great loot in these zones, Tribute was such a cool idea, and dancing ogres! West was good aswell because the prince was such a badarse, lots of skippable bosses, secret boss, and 'The Mind Tap Runs' lots of great memories from Dire Maul. Lets not forget the bosses that spawn in the arena, do a yell and cause 10 groups to zone out of there instance for the Phat blues.
Zul'Furrak comes in a close second.

Favorite Raid: Hard to say, I loved the bosses in AQ40, but the trash was just to much, coupled with the bosses only dropping 50g for 40 people, it was hard to motivate people to clear to the bosses. I loved the bug mounts, OMG NEED RED ONE!

I'd say i enjoyed the early days of MC the most, just because it was the first early raid, 40 people in greens and blues of the eagle downing Lucifron was awsome. Before decursive came around everyone has like 3khp and having to be dispelled manually from lucifrons curse, not to mention trying to get down there before the dogs respawned! A weeks effort to attempt to kill magamadar was well worth it.

Favorite Faction: Stormpike Guard

Favorite Boss: Vael

Favorite Quest: Also Fordring 'Fordo' Questiline, we used to use the last part of this quest over and over to grind hearthglen with a badarse LvL63 Elite at your side.

Zone? I'd have to say Zangarmarsh is my favorite, but I also love Wetlands, Winterspring, Blade's Edge, and Loch Modan.

Raid? Even though we didn't get too far in it before TBC launched I'd have to say Naxx, by far.

5-man? Too many to pick just one. I really like Underbog, Mana-Tombs, Sethekk Halls, and Dire Maul.

Boss? I *really* like Anub'Rekhan for the sheer mechanics of the fight. I just enjoyed that one. Ragnaros still wins the "omgawesome!" award, just for being the first truly epic raid encounter.

Faction? Skyguard was a pretty enjoyable grind. I finish it over a week ago, rushing to a point, but it didn't burn me out or anything. I just like fighting bird people :D

I definitelly loved SFK. To me though it is a little lower on the totem pole than VC. I think the pirates probably do it. The rare spawn in SFK drops a lot better though. The rare spawn in VC only drops BoE greens (or maybe BoP, don't remember). The rare spawn in VC though is either really frigging rare or very likely just mistaken for a regular mob most times. I tried to keep the numbers down but I think I liked a lot of the early dungeons. RFC is just too early though. The drops aren't good enough and don't last long enough to make it worth it in any way shape or form seeing as you can be easily high enough for WC in another few hours of leveling. BFD is definitelly a cool place but I feel that it is a little bit forgotten partly because of it's difficulty. It really is the first instance that has challenging stuff (a more accurate description is the first instance you can't act like a total dumbass in). I can't tell you how many noobs, flush with their triumph in VC with 2 cruel barbs (you get the picture) have wiped a group by clicking those frigging torches. I always say "Don't click the fires/braziers/torches/whatever" and someone always does. Then half the time they tell me that they knew I just wanted the loot and they were too smart to fall for it. After the group wipes of course. It also took a bit longer than the earlier ones and had more trash. I think they interduced some stuff that they would have been better served saving another 10 levels in the way of difficulty. Because the average Joe dipshit at level 27 or w/e isn't ready to handle that instance. This was especially true nearer release. But all in all for whatever reason I liked almost all of the lower level pre-BC instances and a lesser percentage of the nearer to max level ones.