I agree SW needs another update but the likes of Ironforge need a revamp before SW gets updated again.
I would love to see it become a major city again with portals to all zones like SW has.
I would personally prioritize Stormwind, since it’s the capital of the whole faction.
But yes; a big Ironforge update could make it an amazing place. I always wanted it to have sprawling alleyways and mazes of stairs and streets going really deep down into the ground.
In a perfect world all the capitals would be updated.
I always use Ironforge as my old world hub as everything’s much closer together within the city. Not sure if I’d want a revamp …
I’m also unsurprised at the number of people wanting the ‘old’ version of places. I suppose most of it’s nostalgia, but very few changed for the better.
A lot of the old zones mentioned are simply better than their upgraded version. Teldrassil was erased. It’s sister zone, Ashenvale was “butchered” by horde interference and a giant volcano. The only other zone in the game that captures the same calm, magic and “forest full of secrets” feeling is Feralas, but it has a different colour palette. Blizzard never managed to recapture that in any other zone that made later - possibly because of lack of relation to the nightelves.
I am hoping we will see changes to this in the future, but I really do not want another Val’sharah. Val’shara was busy, too open, colour palette was very standard and the ambience/music wasn’t very calming. Mentioning this because people keep comparing Val’sharah to Ashelvale and Teldrassil, but I never saw any of that magic there. Val’shara is just it’s own place, it was fine, but to me no Ashenvale/Teldrassil. The druid class call however, did caputure some of this magic. I think the key element here for me is tree houses/architecture, caves, waters/streams, a lot of trees. Not so much open space. Colours are also mainly darker, but with happy colours in between(like with ashenvale’s shades of green and purple, with bright spirit like blue here and there - wisps and similar details that makes “magic” sounds when nearby.
Liking these zones isn’t nostalgia - the zones just hit my soul as a person. I do have a few other ones as favourite zones too, but for different reasons. I am also a huge fan of nightelven lore, so obviously I am bummed we lost their core zones in the game. Feralas is mainly a horde area on classic, and Azshara nobody really had. I do like that they made use of the zone on retail, but it sucks that such a soothing autumn like zone went to polluting goblins when they destroyed the two other soothing nightelf alike zones too, and the last one I mentioned(Feralas) was already mainly a horde zone.
I have hopes of seeing a new world tree in the future, but my fear is they yet again won’t be able to capture the magic that was Ashenvale and Teldrassil.
That said, I love running around Dun Morogh, hearing the crunch of snow under boots, and soft, tinkling, soothing music.
Winterspring also evokes that feeling of space, quiet and the natural environment. (Not Everyuk or Northrend - too many goblins and scourge which clash with the setting)
It is very pretty. Levelling a belf hunter running wild and free through the woods in bare feet, pet at side, magic !
Whatever we got or end up, hopefully there will be options for accessing banks and mailboxes without crossing continents each time.