What starting area you dislike the most?

Probably the Troll and Tauren ones as I never really cared for their lore.

Well, I think I disliked the Worgen and Gnome starting zones most, to be honest.
On the other hand, I mostly like all the other zones, with maybe the Troll, Goblin, Dwarf and Pandaren ones taking precedence.

And what’s this about new players being forced into ‘Exile’s reach’? I thought we get to choose where we want to start our new characters. :thinking:

Me too.

No story, no atmosphere, no identity.

It is very well designed to teach a few - but not many - of the basic lessons to a new MMO player; I’ll give it that.

But compare those to feeling the experience of a new Undead, understanding the situation they have been resurrected into, or a new Tauren, with the strength and background of serene plains disturbed by invasive enemies, or … a Goblin, yearning for his lost Hot Rod and Executive Assistant. :stuck_out_tongue:

All of this is lost in Exiles’ Reach.

I don’t consider it a good trade.

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I really wish Blizzard would read these things and take it into consideration.

Please don’t force new players into Exile’s Reach!

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Goblin is my least favorite. Kezzan feels like a different game, there’s almost no normal combat. Instead there are QTEs, a stealth section, driving and vehicle combat in a game that sucks at both. Should have thrown in an escort mission and a sewer level to complete the “bad game design cliches” collection. Not that any of it was difficult, it just felt gimmicky and pretty bad as a tutorial for a player’s first few levels.

The second island is better, but still has above-average emphasis on gimmicks. I’ve done it 3 times and every time I hated the rocket boot part with the zombies. It ends with another lame vehicle combat section, fighting alongside Thrall just to hammer in the incongruity with what you expect from WoW.

I feel bad for the people who put this together presumably hoping for something more fun and varied, but it really is the worst starting area in terms of gameplay and also the worst as a tutorial for new players.

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Any of the ones that got an update I don’t like anymore. They’re all funnels with the exact lineup of mobs and objectives to get you through the quests which is a bit boring, gnome is quite literally a funnel. Same goes for humans and orcs as in all the mobs are tied to a quest at some point but if I want to I can just go grind orcs instead of doing my wolf quest.

Goblin is probably at the top though, that’s just an interactive story with minimal focus on playing your character.

I guess it’s the first part of the Goblin one. When you go to the second island it becomes alot better.

North of barrens. Constant reminder of horde bias and the butchering of night elf lore

You mean Azshara? That’s not a starting area, smartass.

For me it’s the Draenei starting area and TBC expansion in general. They never got upgraded, tedious dated quests with the worst drop rates in WOWs history.
To this day I will reject any quest involving a random drop from moths for fear of triggering PTSD.:cold_sweat:

Yeah I struggl with the Draenei one too. Doesn’t flow well like a lot of the other starting zones do. I think it’s beautiful and love the zones but the entire quest line puts puts me off.

Gnomes would probably have to be my favorite. Partly because I love the entire zone around there and that I just love Gnomes.

I know the Worgen one can be buggy but I actually really enjoy the quest line. It’s always a bit of fun really.

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I absolutely detest the Goblin starting zone - its story and design are great! But it takes SO LONG.

I tend to start new alts when I get home from work as I work late, with the intention of doing a levelling binge on my next day off. The Goblin starting zone is, for some reason, the only one I can’t clear before I have to go to bed. Even the Worgen one moves faster and they’re supposed to be the same length!

After a certain point I also can’t stand the Draenei and Blood Elf zones, again usually because of length. I’m a BfA baby so one of my favourite parts of levelling alts is seeing all the old zones I didn’t get to see growing up. I don’t want to be stuck in the race starting zone for half of the levelling process, come on!

It’s one of the reasons I’m glad Exiles’ Reach got introduced, even if it does feel a little out of place.

I don’t really have a favourite, though. Maybe Tauren as they’re my favourite race? But I really think all of the old starting zones have a certain charm to them.

Completely oppisite of what you think here I like the pandaren starting area its my favorite the story the music the entire peace and tranquil life thing.

My least favorite is the goblin starting area the enitre greedy bastard vibe you have there It also started my hatred for their trade prince gallywix and you need to eventually bring him back into line bla bla bla who cares they should have just kept them as npc’s not as playable race

I dislike the gnome starting zone now.
But it’s probably because I’ve made millions of gnomes.
I’ve probably seen it at least 20 times more than second place.

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Draenei and belf. Dated, TBC drop rates and frankly not that interesting. Bloodmyst isle is a complete eyesore even if the exp is good.
Orc as well. Durotar is such a bland zone.

I actually think the panda one is very well done. Logical pace, good mix of quests, decent storytelling, cool environment. I suspect many people can’t divorce their irrational hatred of pandas from the zone and that if you replaced the pandas and Asian thematic with belf or another generic elf they’d probably hail the zone as the best questing experience ever.

Draenei, Night Elf, Blood Elf, Worgen…

basically any starting area that effectively forces you to be there because it’s so distant and locked off from the other world, Durotar and Elwynn are perfect because even though they are old they seamlessly flow into the greater world so you can just drop out of the ‘‘starting zone’’ whenever you want

Night Elf. Easily.
Maybe i’m slightly more traumatized than I would normally be if I didn’t make a night elf in classic WoW and try to leave the tree early. Orc could be a close contender otherwise. But I still disliked it before then.

Worgen is probably my favorite, but Blood Elf is the most well rounded for me.

Exile’s reach for me. It’s just a rotation tutorial with some meh forced story that is all over the place and a little solo dungeon that’s only one room cut out from Highmaul.

They could’ve updated the already existing starting areas with rotation tutorial instead of this. There are some starting areas that i don’t really like, but that’s mostly because of how they look or annoying quests (worgen one is pretty bad), but at least they give us a backstory about the race we are about to play.

Exile’s reach totally shouldn’t be the first experience for new players.

I didn’t like Exile’s Reach, I thought it was too linear and over hand holdy… expected it to be a bit more open, show new players that there is a bit of merit in going off on your own… and considering the first thing it does is tell you how to use a mouse and keyboard I think it goes a bit too far in some places :smiley:

I’m in a love hate relationship with the goblin start zone, I think its really fun, but also wish I could choose to leave it a bit sooner sometimes, mainly for also being too linear.

I love the blood elf start zone, it is personally my favorite! (#updatesilvermoon)

I really don’t like Gilneas, largely because it can be (used to be?) incredibly buggy. Next in line would probably be the Pandaren starting zone, simply because it’s not very interesting.

And just so it’s not entirely negative, I’ll say that Eversong Woods still slaps. Such a good starter zone, but that might be my bias towards TBC quest design showing.