I've always enjoyed comparing Blizzard's early concepts for their worlds in Warcraft to their final iterations in WoW. To that effect, I recently saw this map of Draenor from the manual for Warcraft 2. It's very amusing to me to spot both the similarities and differences with the Outland we know:
The general topography is there. And plenty of landmarks are present. We've got our Dark Portal, Hellfire Citadel, Auchindoun, Blade's Edge mountains. The Shadowmoon clan is in its rightful spot. At the same time no marsh in what would become Zangarmarsh. And Deathwing somehow got himself a home away from home in there. All in all, cool stuff and a neat glimpse at the past.
With all that in mind, this got me thinking, how would I rate the Outland zones? Below are my rankings, but feel free to list yours to compare and see if there's general consensus on what's good and what sucks there.
- 1 - Nagrand
To no one's surprise, this is my favorite Outland zone. The atmosphere is fantastic and puts you in an adventuring mood right away. To my knowledge, it has the first ever iteration of the Ring of Blood, which is a perennial favorite - fight a series of bosses with a party, get a good leveling weapon, feel like you're actually playing an MMO. The Nesingwary quest chain is also there. While generally, WoW is more about directed quests, I've always been partial to the Nesingwary stuff as a chance to relax, turn the brain off and just grind for a bit. Not so much that it becomes tedious, but a nice change of pace to the usual.
- 2 - Hellfire Peninsula
The starting zone. It's downright iconic. Be it for the endless ganking around those early quests to collect wood and gears, or the rapid progression of gear where quest greens and ez dungeon blues elevate your power to new heights. The whole zone feels very Warcraft.
- 3 - Zangarmarsh
I've always been partial to rainy moist zones. It's a very chill location with a cool atmosphere, quests that chain together neatly, a lot of new stuff for both WoW and Warcraft with those sentient plant things, and a lot of Naga content to keep it familiar. And for such a watery zone, not too much swimming, which is always nice.
- 4 - Terokkar Forest
I used to really no like this area. Not even sure why now. Having refreshed my memories of it during the Classic run, I'm significantly more positive. It does have some nasty low drop rate quests, but overall it has a lot of fun stories running through it, and if you're an Herbalist, that's where you get them Terocones, an easy way to make some nice gold.
- 5 - Netherstorm
It's not higher because as a late-game TBC area, it goes heavy on the assumption you'll have a flying mount. Also, the demon areas are annoying. But other than that, there's plenty in there to like. Crazy goblins, Ethereal quest lines, those cool biodomes, and some inventive quests.
- 6 - Blade's Edge Mountains
I like the bits with the ogre canyon. Other than that, it's too segmented, a real pain to navigate, whether you're flying or riding. And it's where they stick Rexxar to ingloriously do nothing for the rest of WoW.
- 7 - Shadowmoon Valley
I feel like they either were running out of ideas by this point or kept back some content to add in future updates, but to me this whole zone feels like the TBC version of Desolace. Not much fun to do, annoying enemies and tunnels where you get lost.
Nagrand is great. Nesingwary chains are always satisfying. The zone itself is very pleasant to be in with its nice blue sky and all the animals. It's mid-range in terms of levels, so you can do a good stretch of your leveling there. Ring of Blood is great for a chunk of experience, good rewards, and breaking things up. And who doesn't love a good talbuk mount?
I love the atmosphere in Zangarmarsh too and I usually do as much questing there as possible. I have a distaste for visually orange zones like Hellfire, but the zone is so solid that I'm willing to deal with it every time. It's a good introduction to Outland, good quest density, etc.
Netherstorm is an interesting place with a nice variety between the bio-domes, goblin town, Tempest Keep and so on.
The other zones are kind of bleak and I usually find myself trying to complete what I need to do there and move on.
The ghost town is really flavorful too.
Time to rename Barrens Chat into Elwynn Chat. Though then we'd be inviting all the goldshire inn roleplayers.
