This is a post that I've kind of been meaning to write ever since the expansion launched, but I wanted to take all the quests into consideration as well, and it took the husband and me some time to actually get through all the side quests, one weekend play session at a time. Then other things came up that caused me to delay publishing this... but with the expansion's first new patch zone on the horizon, I figured it was way past time for me to actually get this out.
In Dragonflight, Blizzard decided to mix things up with their zone design compared to previous expansions, designing the environment and content with flight in mind from the beginning. This was something they had never done before, but in terms of the zones' general feel, they were relatively conservative. Personally, I kind of got the impression that they were trying to earn player goodwill by creating zones that were reminiscent of a "best of" of some of the most popular zones. The rolling green hills of the Ohn'aran Plains reminded me of Nagrand, and the Azure Span definitely had some Grizzly Hills vibes. The Waking Shores were somewhat unique in their particular combination of biomes I guess, but in general, I'd describe the overall vibe of the Dragon Isles as "Remember all the places in WoW you loved in the past? This is similar, just bigger."
In War Within with its underground theme, the zone designers had to be a bit more daring, and it shows.
Isle of Dorn
First off, am I the only one who keeps wanting to call this place "Khaz Algar"? I know that's the name of all the zones combined, but in my head I keep wanting to use that name and Isle of Dorn the other way round. Anyway...
This is probably the most conservative of TWW's four launch zones, as it's basically a bunch of green hills. I don't want to downplay the designers' efforts and how they tried to add distinction to different sub-zones (the forest with the giant elite bees is definitely one to remember and navigate carefully), but at its heart this zone recalls other dwarven settlements such as pre-Cataclysm Loch Modan and the non-destroyed parts of Twilight Highlands, just with more of a titanic twist in the architecture.
It also houses the expansion's main hub, the Earthen city of Dornogal, which is very open and inviting. (My only problem is that with all the buildings looking kind of blocky and similar, I often forget where I am when I log in and need to open the map to orientate myself.) I think this was an intentional choice as the other zones have us descending into increasingly uninviting territory underground, so there's always an aspect of "coming up for air" to returning to Dornogal.
Story-wise, the zone is all about the Earthen, which I thought were going to be very boring but actually turned out to be quite interesting in my opinion. They have this theme of being machine-like and mostly speak in kind of robotic voices, but the ones that have broken free of their programming/"directives" talk in a more animated way. Also, for being this robotic people strictly bound by ancient traditions, they also have a surprisingly... twee side. There's this village called Rumbleshire whose vibe somewhat reminded me of a hobbit town, what with being sent out to look for lost rock-sheep and the like.
The Ringing Deeps
The first zone you enter as you descend down the Coreway is the Ringing Deeps, and I think this is probably my least favourite zone so far. It's still solid, but I don't consider the scenery particularly pleasant and it doesn't really have a strong unique vibe either. Of all of the underground zones this one's probably the closest to feeling like "Zeralek Caverns 2.0", just with more browns and greens instead of blues.
The dominant theme of the zone is more Earthen, who are even more robotic than their cousins upstairs and look after the ancient titanic machinery, but at this point I was just kind of like... "okay, whatever". The devs did what they could with that theme but it just didn't grab me. All the areas are more mines or ruins, and tend to feature different types of annoying wildlife including "that one area with the elites where nobody goes unless the big world quest is up", which is another thing that feels very Zeralek 2.0.
Hallowfall
This is the zone that everybody's been talking about even since before launch and I can see why. Despite being underground, it kind of pretends to be an overground zone by having a sea shore and a fake "sun" in the sky in the form of the giant crystal Beledar, which alternates between glowing with friendly yellow light and taking on a voidy, dark purple hue. I've got to admit I initially didn't get what all the hype was about because I originally only witnessed this change during the storyline, so I genuinely thought it was just a one-time event for that... but no, once I spent more time in the zone, I realised it happens on the regular and it's always awe-inspiring to hear the bells ring and the music change as the sudden darkness descends - or the relief when Beledar lights up again. It's kind of funny actually because even in its "dark" state the zone doesn't really get that dark... but all the other environmental changes combined can really send a chill up your spine.
Aside from that, I think a lot of the zone's appeal comes from its resident faction, the Hallowfall Arathi. When I first heard about these guys being a long-lost expedition, I thought they were from the Arathi Highlands... but no, apparently they're from the Arathi Empire somewhere else on Azeroth where we haven't been. An interesting example of how the game can actually make up wild new lore after twenty years but people won't mind as long as it superficially looks and sounds like something they think they already know. I can recommend this Platinum WoW video on the subject if you want to learn more.
What makes the Arathi appealing (in my opinion) is that they subtly recall beloved parts of the original game. The theme of helping farmers on the frontiers reminded me of the original Westfall even if the context was quite different, and the fact that the Arathi are basically an army of paladins wielding the light and have constructed all these grandiose buildings kind of portrays them as what the Scarlet Crusade could've been if they hadn't gone evil. I get why people dig that!
I also do like this zone both for gathering purposes as well as its general look and feel, though I've got to say that for me it really suffers from its positioning, in the sense that it's the zone that's effectively the furthest away from the capital (while Azj-Kahet is another level down, you immediately get a direct portal to Dornogal when you arrive there in the story, making it much more convenient to travel to and from than Hallowfall).
Azj-Kahet
You even get to freely walk around their capital, the City of Threads... which I've seen some people compare unfavourably to Suramar, something I don't know how to rate as I didn't play during Legion and I assume that questing through Suramar in Chromie time doesn't have quite the same level of threat to it. The City of Threads isn't that bad to traverse, largely thanks to flight, but even if a disapproving guard does catch you and throws you out, it's mostly just kind of amusing. Personally I'm happy with that though - I appreciate that this endgame zone isn't overwhelmingly dark and hostile, but still a place where you can quest without feeling like you'll have to fight for your life at every given moment.
I'm not sure how I'd rank these four zones, other than that Ringing Deeps would be last. All the others each have their own unique appeal that I appreciate, despite not being a huge fan of the underground theme. In general, Blizz have tried hard to make things fit the themes of verticality and being underground as much as possible while at the same time really downplaying those very same features, if that makes sense. All three underground zones are huge and well-lit so never feel that oppressive, and there are "slipstreams" that easily allow your flying mount to ascend from a deeper zone to a higher-up one without having to worry about vigour. (Something I totally didn't manage to figure out by myself and hadn't even noticed until someone else told me.) It's an interesting design and just about works for me right now, though I do wonder how I'll feel about it after spending the next twelve months mostly underground...
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