Boralus. I thought it was such a cool pirate city so full of tiny streets and mpcs and stuff.
Dalaran is just magical and special.
The third one I wouldnt know. Stormwind? Suramar?
Least one is Oribos by far. I hated it with passion. Ugly, uncomfortable,.weird, awkward, inaccessible…
Ogrimar is disgusting as well.
Dornogal is the best
Oribos was the worst
For convenience, it’s Dalaran, hands down, compact, everything accessible, perfect.
For atmosphere, Darnassus (I love the Night elven style, as is probably obvious from my posting character), and Boralus (For both being a usable city and having a definite theme)
As for capitol cities i hate, Oribos, for having all the atmosphere of a shabby train station, and Orgrimmar, the visual appeal of a construction site, and the difficulty in finding stuff.
Best ones: Dalaran, Thunder Bluff, Stormwind
Worst one: Oribos
Best cities at the momment are probably Surumar, Boralus and Dazar’alor in game. They all look and feel like actual cities whilst retaining a distinct astehtic and layout. Surumar is annular and may of been partly inspired by the great harbour of Carthage, the circular central dock reminds me of it. Boralus is a spawling market town built into a seawall doubling up as a naval port. Dazar’alor is a temple city complex amalgamated from the numerous places of worship to the various gods/loa. All of them have plethora of npcs too to make them feel alive.
Valdrakken is very vertical and is divided into the various flights quarters. But, I don’t think it is as good as those 3 in terms of feeling like a city somehow.
Worst cities are the vanilla/tbc ones which feel dated and/or empty by comparison.
I’m most comfortable in Ironforge, Thunderbluff, and Zuldazar. I have a lot of fond memories of Ironforge from back when it was the heart of the Alliance. Thunderbluff is also a wonderful place to hang out with very convenient amenities. And Zuldazar… *starts to hum the theme from The Mysterious Cities of Gold*
Undercity. It’s literally a toilet and a bit of a pain to escape from on a flying mount. I also dislike Oribos as it is literally Prince Vultan’s throne room from the 1980s movie, Flash Gordon, and the lack of Brian Blessed makes me sad.
Favourite cities:
Boralus - beautiful atmosphere, best city ever made imo.
Undercity - once you know how to navigate it’s the best thematically.
Stormwind - entering those gates for the first time with the music is epic.
Ironforge is 4th place for me, a big bastion in the mountainside with lava rivers will always be cool to me!
Least favourite:
Oribos - designed to keep you traveling longer with annoying parts without mounting and a portal to get to the FP. Also everything looks the same so I always get lost.
Ogrimmar - As a mostly Horde player I’ve been here so many times, but I still don’t like the heavy Orc-ish design.
Zuldazar - I like the effort that went into creating it and can understand people who like playing trolls might adore this, but it’s just one big maze without any logic.
4th place: Suramar. - Love the idea and the race, hate actually playing there. The guards and the sneaking around gets on my nerves. Such a shame
I love Dalaran because it’s compact and both factions are present.
I love Silvermoon, it just needs a facelift really. The game has moved on and it’s been stuck out there on it’s own along with the Exodar.
I disliked Zuldazar as a capital hub because it was too spread out. So bad we had to have a flightpath to the boat to go to missions. It was just too disjointed. In contrast the bulk of things you needed in Boralus was all close together.
silvermoon is awesome . i like stormwind too
Love Dalaran, even though in any sort of reality it wouls just be the noisest hot mess.
Valdraaken feels most like a living breathing city i think.
Hate org and undercity
I always loved Shattrath City and its music.
Boralus feels like home. I am from port city too…
Valdraaken is just a trash. Too big, everything far, a lot of empty, unused space etc.
Obviously made by designers without any experience in architecture and city planning.
The same for Oribos. It’s just a bad joke.
Overall? My ranking goes like this
Neutral?
Oribos
Shattrath and Dalaran suck.
My favorite 3 would be like this:
1- Silvermoon (if it gets a facelift)
2- Stormwind
3- Dalaran
Best
#1 Stormwind. It’s a nicely designed city, has excellent music that fits the fanction and what it’s trying to convey. Generally speaking Stormwind, all versions, are very well designed both from a useability view and a thematic view. It feels proud and bustling, like it really could be a melting pot of various allied races.
#2 Thunderbluff. Nothing really particular about it, it just is nice. Not very useable and rediculously out of the way but it fits the Tauren and very much portrays them as they were originally presented.
#3 Teldrassil. What they did with the ash paintjob was just marvellous.
(ok seriously it was a nice city when it was still a thing)
Worst
#1 Ogrimmar. It’s never really moved past just being a hole in the ground. Now it’s a hole with spikes, which doesn’t represent the current horde at all either so it hasn’t even kept up thematicly. Is it useable? yeah it’s convinient to use as a player but does naff all else.
#2 Undercity. It’s a sewer. And again hasn’t kept up thematicly. If they actively showed the surfice being reclaimed more than it’d probably be better but ultimately it’s still a nothing place.
#3 Ironforge. It’s just a very bland, very dark circle.
None of them tickle my fancy.
It’s more a case of least bad than fav.
I just want to say that I dislike Valdrakken for how low and choppy the framerates are in there. I hope the new city in TWW won’t be as bad.
The Forsaken left Lordaeron behind already. Makes no sense to reclaim the old city really.
Best city:
Alliance: Ironforge and just a step behind it Stormwind.
Horde: Thunder Bluff.
Neutral: Dalaran.
Worst city:
Alliance: Would’ve been Darnassus, but since it is no more - Exodar
Horde: Orgrimmar, Zul’dazar
Neutral: Oribos - a hub it definitely is, but hardly could be classified as a city.
It’s a tough question, since there’s a lot of good memories associated with certain capital cities…
Overall, I suppose on that basis my favourite would be Silvermoon City. It’s very quiet these days on my server but years ago it was bustling with activity courtesy of all the role-players. I met some great people there, some who I still talk to all these years later.
Suramar, Darnassus and Boralus deserve special mentions. I like them a lot as well.
My least favourite would be Orgrimmar. I don’t like the aesthetics and it’s annoying to navigate.