Sacrificed to the Lava… Thank God!

Change is coming.  Whether you like all the upcoming class news floating around, there are still things to be happy about.  You know what I’m talking about: the quest-lines that seem to peter to nothing, the zones that seem empty of life but require your urgent presence, and that stuck up inn-keeper who lets the rats in at night, but denies it in the morning.  Die in a fire.  Seriously.  So what am I looking forward to seeing drop off the planet?

… and a Batch of Ooze

A horde side quest, BoO requires you to kill slimes in Un’Goro Crater, pick up samples, return to the Undercity, and test their purity.  You can not test the slime gunk in the field to see whether you actually have the right composition of slime in your pack–that would be cheating!  You need the Chemist to test the authenticity of your research, which generally means you spend at least two trips to and from Un’Goro picking up slimes.  DIAF Chemist Fuely!

A Dark Threat Looms

Oh my!  Dark Iron Dwarves are plotting to destroy the dam in Loch Modan!  You know what happens at the end of this 7 quest chain that leads you traipsing to the Dun Modr and back again?  The keg fizzles slightly. That’s the dramatic end?  Slight fizzling?  Did someone pop a coke?  You know what–I hope you incompetent guards DIAF.  Why you couldn’t just launch the underwater bombs through the big freaking faces and blow up those pesky gnolls on the other side is beyond me.  Idiots!

The Swamp of Sorrows

I’ll admit it–the Swamp has come up a bit–got a dungeon added (hey, I remember these things) and a few more quests.  All good stuff.  Except I hate the swamp.  The quests are boring, the locale is depressing, and the best part of the whole map was the elite, yes elite dragonkin roaming around the Sunken Temple.  Are they dangerous anymore?  Nope… all that patrolling and they’re about as vicious as a kitty with no claws.  And lets not even talk about the weird “dude” in the cave. Itharius won’t talk to you unless you have the Chained Essence of Eranikus, and even then, he sends you on some half-assed quest chain that peters into nothingness.  And then suddenly re-appears in Northrend a lord.  What is with these weird dragon-folk?  This zone can burn!

Lost in Battle

War’s a bitch, eh?  Another horde side quest of ill-repute, the finding of Mankrik’s wife by a first time character is often met with frustration… perhaps a little well deserved quest dropping by those who can’t be bothered with following all the shiny exclamation points.  But for the die-hard do-gooders, the ones who want to finish every quest, and for crying out loud, who wants to tell a war widow, “Sorry about the bad luck chum, but I think a scavenger must’ve taken her off somewhere, because I sure as hell can’t find her.”  Way to feel like a hero, eh?  I hope Mankrik and his wife get sucked into the vortex that is the Cataclysm, and rest in peace.  Forever.

I mean, you can’t even get his wife to come back to life and survive the trip to town.  Loser.

The Plaguelands

What’s that you say?  I voted this one of my favorite zones!!!  Well, true.  I did, and they are.  Yet, there comes a time when all good things must come to an end, and lets face it, the plaguelands seems rather pointless when 60’s are rarely found in Azeroth.  The Outlands beckons with better loot, faster experience, and the LFD tool will happily shuttle you directly into HFP dungeons.  Unless you’re working on reputation grinds for meaningless factions OR just like the lore, the plaguelands, two wonderful fabulous zones of storyline progression geared for end-game 60 players is just not what it used to be.  Much better to fight the Scourge in new battlegrounds, where steps are actually being taken against the new injustices, rather than focusing on those pesky old bags o’ bones in the dated and no longer needed zone.  While I’ll miss my memories, I look forward to more progressive minded content that doesn’t require me to visit for formalities, but without any real purpose.

Memories

I’ll always cherish my time in and around Azeroth.  I’ve grown a lot in the time I’ve played this game, as a person and a character (or several…. hey, I’m making a point here).   I gotta say, despite my love for old things, I’m glad Azeroth is getting blown up, reconfigured, and face-lifted because World of Warcraft has grown too–the philosophy and general direction of the game has shifted and flexed as new players continue to flood in, and old players continue to hang around and refine a game they enjoy.  All that being said, I hope the fire burns hotly and consumes those things I like the least so that bigger and better things can take their places.  While I could have continued in this vein for 10 or 20 or probably even 50 or 100 quests, zones, and events, I decided to limit myself so as to not flood the market!  In your own personal catalogue of gotta-gos, what tops the list?