1. My best moment in vanilla WoW was the first time I'd ever ran Ragefire Chasm. Being as new to MMOs as I was, it was immensely intriguing, and I will never forget the great times I (somehow) had in there.2. Getting my epic mount. The Frostwolf Howler is the best mount, ever. I'd like to see its polygon count increased, one day.3. Joining my first guild. When I started out, I was naive as all hell, and had been level 13 when a level 37 invited me to his guild. I clicked accept.4. Fast forward a month; I'd been in the guild for a while, and needed some money to buy something. I asked, and the one who invited me (now 43) gave me 2 gold, and said that I wasn't obligated to repay him.5. Going through SM Library and getting the Deadman's Hand on my first run. No joke. My first epic was one of my longest lasting, also.
My contribution won't be a popular one, but it's MINE... and it's just one:Mid-Barrens - In the early 1.x days when all of us "low level PvP'ers" would have 1-2 hour long wait times for WSG to pop (pre-x-realms), we would meet in a specific out of the way hilltop plateau and duel with our opposing faction counterparts. Once word got out that we were meeting there, we would get wiped by 60's who were, ironically, in hour long queues for AV. As expected, this resulted in us logging our mains in the area and occasionally expanded our low level duel parties into full blown 60 world PvP.
1. Blackrock Depths. This is my favorite instance because of the sheer size, depth, and options given. Yes back in the day it was TOO big to most people, but that's the beauty of it. Multiple paths, optional bosses, events... An amazing instance. I wish WoW had more instances like it.2. Deadmines. The first instance I ever did. Excellent lore, excellent layout. Anyone who has seen the movie "The Goonies" has fond memories of Deadmines.3. Duskwood. One of the more fun zones to quest in. A spooky setting with an expansive graveyard, and plenty of undead to destroy. It even had an outdoor raid! All it needed was a 5man instance and it might be the best zone in the game.4. Ragnaros. I admit that I never saw the Ragnaros fight in Vanilla. I didn't see it until WotLK, but even then I felt how epic it was when Ragnaros Burst up into view. Awesome moment. Too bad I wasn't able to see it at it's peak.5. Uldaman. As an instance, Uldaman ranks high on my list. But the two key elements in the instance are the Map Room event, which is a nod to one of my favorite movies, and the final boss Archaedas. In vanilla WoW, that boss was insane. High level, and the fight involved a LOT of adds. One of the better low level boss fights in WoW.Junk
1. Playing dungeons with my RL friends and all nuking the mobs that were higher level then us, and laughing like hell when we pull the entire room and died.2. Trying to escape a Mograine pull in SM Cathedral. (see 1)3. Zul'Gurrub - After getting very bored and tired of taking ages doing bosses in Molten Core, Zul'Gurrub was a nice more casual raid that I loved playing, and loved the fact raids got even smaller.4. Favourite non-60 instance must of been Deadmines for the pirate cove ambience and the door + cannon puzzle. I'd love to see optional wings/bosses/areas to instances that you must solve a puzzle. (e.g. The staff of light in Uldaman puzzle)5. Old school Alterac Valley was epic, now it feels incredibly watered down and a zerg-fest. An hour long Tol Barad with hard to kill NPCs would bring back the bacon.
My particular favorites:
Ooooh Memories.
1. The first time I leveled through the unexplored Azeroth. Even if it was almost four years ago I still remember glimpses of when I struggled through Thousand Needles on my warlock, killing harpies for hours, wondering if I'd ever become one of the almighty level 60's.2. Exploring Un'Goro Crater. I don't know why, but the place held so much mystery and anticipation for me. I used to sneak into the zone when I was 20-10 levels below, just for the excitement. I died so many times...3. When the achievment system arrived I quit raiding and doing heroics for a few weeks. I finished Well Read, World Explorer and lots of other time consuming achievments. It was a nice break from gear farming and it kinda of revitalized the game experience for me.4. The epic battle of Stranglethorn Vale. I died so many times by alliance hands and paws that I hired (not literally) my cousin, who back then had a 60 shaman, as bodyguard. We rummaged through the forrest, killing alliance on sight. It was a glorious time.5. When I finally hit end level I finally could explore the content fully. It was an awesome ego boost to be able to help people for a change.
1. My first experience with Alterac Valley. I was a gnome warlock at the time, and "growing up" during the AQ patch on a vicious PvP server, I had come to view Alterac Valley as holy ground for PvP. My first battle in Alterac Valley was a 6-hour long war of truly epic proportions. I witnessed the wing commanders messing with Horde footing along the path leading up to Stormpike, I rode alongside the Alliance mounted forces, and I even got to help summon Ivus the Forest Lord. We lost, but hey, it was an experience that I still remember to this day.2. The Dreadsteed of Xoroth questline, again as my gnome warlock. Being a poor, gold-less noob, it took about a month to grind up all of the materials and money required for the epic questline. Quite a few guildies were bribed in this process. Venturing into Dire Maul West with a group of people who had never done the quest, let alone the wing of DM itself, was quite a fun time. We reached Immol'thar, downed him, then began the summoning quest. It was a pretty intense fight itself, keeping everyone on edge. Definitely worth the time spent on it.3. As people have probably mentioned, another memorable questline was the one involving Marshal Windsor in BRD. Poor guy just wants to escape! 4. Upper Blackrock Spire. This may just be the nostalgia speaking, but before TBC and then the Jenkins title, this instance was quite a fun accomplishment. At the appropriate level and build, it was hell on my guild trying to get through it, even with 10 people. Tanks were conflagrated, hunter's attempting to kite were smashed into the floor, and curses were yelled into vent. But when Wyrmthalak went down, man you felt like you accomplished something.5. Gnomeregan. This instance is not memorable for a good reason. No, it's memorable because of the hell it put its group through. One false move near a bugged wall and BAM!; too many mobs, instance wipe. And don't even get me started on the Dark Iron Land Mines. You know what I'm talking about.
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Tirisfal Glades. This place was where I leveled my first character, and was introduced to the game. The quests and atmosphere there amazed me, and it became a zone very close to my heart.Shadowfang Keep. I can not begin to count the amount of times I ran SFK. It was my first instance, and I would always run it again and again; not just from wanting the drops there, but also because it was such an awe-inspiring place to me.The original Alterac Valley. Though so many despised it, due to the sheer length of its battles, I always enjoyed it. Turning in so many things, such as blood for summoning Lokholar, armor scraps to upgrade the guards, and others; and seeing the results turn the tide of the battle. It seemed like you could make a real impact on how everything turned out, not just due to how good you were at killing others as is the case with today's battles, but also due to your diligence with the tasks given to you.The Hall of Legends. Earning my way through ranks from repeated battles, and gaining entry to such a sacred place was a very memorable part of my original WoW experience. The rewards there really made it feel like I was special, and still I use my old rank title in which I gained access to the Hall, Stone Guard, to this day.The Dreadsteed of Xoroth quest chain. It seemed like such an amazing adventure, going through trial after trial, from dungeons to zones far away, and to be rewarded in the end with a Dreadsteed. The final part of the quest chain was such an epic climax to a long adventure, and it was an unforgettable part of playing WoW.
5. Encounter. Onyxia. I never got to experience her with the pain that must have been 40-man raiding, but the wipe animation was the first WoW-related meme to which I was exposed by the people who introduced me to the game. Having been in so many 25-man PuGs of her level 80 version and seen them all crumble at the time of her Phase 3 landing insta-fear-cleave-breath, I can see how much of a headache she must have been at level 60.4. Zone. Silithus. Silithus is brilliant because I hate it. Every time I go there to level Mining or to pick up some Thorium, I am faced with the Silithid hives. Everything about them makes my skin crawl: half-formed Silithids pushing out, twitching, from their glowing egg sacs which light up the cavernous, sprawling innards of these vast areas of land; the areas of land that seem to be alive themselves with insect-like spikes shooting out of the ground, giving the impression that, if you intrude within this remote, dangerous, intelligent insect kingdom, the ground will close around you and devour you whole; the way the wasp-like warriors twitch as they fight and twitch even more as they fall dead. Few things creep me out -- Silithids are one of the things that do.3. Quest. Mage Summoner. I have a feeling that no one else is going to think of this one, because no one really realises or remembers how powerful is the reward from it. The quest itself is pretty dire -- before ground mounts were available at level 20 it would be a very long trek to get you from fairly central Ashenvale all the way down to the appropriate hill in the Northern Barrens just to kill one annoying, add-summoning Forsaken mage. But what do you get out of it? A one-use-only Paladin bubble, usable in any circumstance except Arenas. Those 10 seconds could be used to save a wipe on a difficult boss, or, to go a stage further, to be the last alive with a raid progression boss -- maybe even Arthas himself -- at a mere 1%, allowing you to survive long enough to get the killing blow of the guild first kill of that boss.2. Zone. Tirisfal Glades. My first character was an Forsaken Priest. She still exists, in a state of semi-retirement on a completely different server, logged out in one of the banks in the floating Dalaran of Northrend -- a completely alien environment compared to her humble origins in Deathknell. Tirisfal Glades is a drab, grey, depressing place: the absolute perfect mood in which to raise a Forsaken character. The grass is still green, in contrast to the completely (un)dead Plagueland regions, but the seemingly perpetual state of fog and the half-dead forests mean that you barely notice any scrap of life except for the human farmers and crusaders whom you set about destroying. Combine it with the nature of Forsaken characters throughout Azeroth, with 90% of their dialogue written in a wonderful tone of pure, baleful sarcasm and obvious apathy, and it's difficult not to appreciate how brilliantly designed this starting area is.1. Instance. Gnomeregan. Few people love it, but I am one of those who does. It's fairly large, but not the horrible, tortuous, sprawling maze that one faces with the likes of later instances such as BRD -- in short, it is a good length of instance. What makes it first choice, though, is the style and enjoyability of the whole place. The humour of engineering-based concepts in general, from the gnome and goblin races themselves to the backfiring machines they create, has always had a far-away appeal for me -- by "far-away" I mean that I'd never want to be an engineer myself, because of the arduous task of trying to level it, but I love the way Blizzard makes it comical even to observers. The whole feel of the zone is captured perfectly in those little Alert bots, with the most awesome voice-over of any minor enemy NPC in the game -- although, a second-choice to these is also found in Gnomeregan in the form of the death sound of the Mechano-Tanks.
1. This would have to be the time I created my first toon. My poor old troll hunter that is long gone because I rolled on the wrong realm. This was my first time playing an mmorpg so I was as happy as a kid during Christmas. Trying to figure out everything, I saw a couple of other players and I began whispering them endlessly in an attempt to make friends until I got whispered back "Reported noob"...../cry, that was the first time someone called me a "noob". I managed to get my hunter to level 9 until I got a call from one of my friends telling me I had rolled on the wrong realm. I deleted him soon afterward but I havent forgotten him, or the times we had.R.I.P. Bardok, level 9 troll hunter.2. This would have to be when I got my first mount. I was so happy too. I rode on that mount for hours, just exploring the lands, and jumping into oceans, and then re-mounting to explore more lands. Yes, my level 56 shaman riding his level 40 mount because I was so poor it took me 16 levels of grinding just to afford it. I cried when I hit 60 and found out how much the epic mount and training was worth.3. This would have to be when BC was released and the first thing I did after I finished downloading it was try and go through the dark portal. Ahh, the constant disconnects because I had cheap internet and a cheap comp. I was able to log on for 10 seconds at a time, moving inch by inch until I got d/c again. I did this for about 2 hours until I finally managed to cross over. As soon as i did, all I could see was my health drop down quickly as I realized a team of allies were camping the other side of the portal. It was a long night.4. My favorite old school instance was Zul'farrak. I loved the fact that the instance allowed mounts inside of it. But my favorite part of the instance had to be the "stair event". OMG when I saw all those trolls that were waiting for us at the bottom of the stairs I nearly crapped myself. And then suddenly, one by one the trolls began running up the at us. The coolest thing was that the npcs we just rescued were helping us so it was like we had a team of 10 heroes. After we bashed away at the trolls we got down to the bottom and then suddenly the allies we gained turned against us and now it was a 5v4(the goblin ran off). We gave them a good ass whooping and went on our way. To this day I still enjoy that event.5. This would have to be the first time I went into a bg. It was WSG and I was so confused about what we had to do to win. I ran into the middle of the field, blasting away at the allies with my lightning bolt. After a couple minutes in the middle, I notice this guy come running out of the alliance tunnel with a flag on his back and a group of alliance chasing after him. They end up tearing him to pieces as the rest of us watch in fear. After a while, I decide to go into the alliance base and give this flag running a shot. I got the sprint buff, ran in, grabbed the flag and ran out before anyone saw me. As soon as I got out of the tunnel, I popped my ghost wolf and ran for my life. I was able to cap the flag and I was so happy. It felt like I won the Super Bowl.
1. I still cannot believe just the immense universe WoW was when I first played. It was so overwheling (in a very good way) that I just really wish I had still felt today! Every single thing I did or looked at was just tons of fun. I had so much fun in the beginning and it will never be the same. I really wish I could go back in time! Ahh the nostalgia!2. I loved remembering the fact that I would look up to people that were even level 30. It seemed so hard (and kind of was) - you cannot really tell how long it was now that it is so much easier - to level! It took me quite a while to level.3. Meeting new friends. I loved meeting and talking with new players. It was just so much fun to do anything in the game in the beginning. I really wish I had stuck with my original server when I started so I could have kept more in-touch with all the friends I have made! I am trying to find them at this point but cannot seem to get a hold of many of them :(4. Music! I love the WoW music. It still brings me joy today. I did originally play Alliance for some of my "beginning" and then moved to Horde. Whenever I log on to an Alliance and here the Night Elf or Stormwind music; any music for that matter, I choke up a bit and it immediately gives me the memories of when I first started. I think this is because it is still the same. While the atmosphere of the higher level and items are changed and a lot of other things are too, the music is still like it was in the beginning.5. Finally, I just want to re-iterate this :P I loved the beginning. I wish so much that I could go back. It had a wonderous feeling that I bet so many of you can relate to. It was my first MMO and in fact one of the first games that I actually had a great feeling of passion for. I plan to level an Alliance to 80 before the expansion so I can experience all the old content before it vanishes. I REALLY will miss the old world :*(
1. Shadow Fang KeepSFK was the first truly intriguing instance, for the lore as well as the MOBs. "Werewolves! Cool! Oh ****! It wants to eat my face!"2. The Dead MinesVC was awesome mainly because of all of the pirates. Who doesn't like pirates, especially Murloc pirates?3. Stratholme (Dead + Living)The lore revolving around this place was just amazing; plowing through hordes of undead just made it better! As for Live Strath, the number of Orbs that slipped through my fingers was just frustrating! I never did get that Crusader chant...4. Onyxia"Ony Wipe Animation" was my life. Need I say more?5. Naxx 40The fact that they made it a 10 man, the easiest in the game, seems to be a gesture of mercy as well as humiliation...
1. Warlock mount quest. It took every aspect the game had to offer- dungeon crawls, spending money, grinding, questing, investing time. Ending with an epic battle. I'll miss it for sure. (If they get rid of it)2. The Barrens. When anyone asks me where to level, I always say, 1-10 starting zone, 11-25 Barrens. It's a beautiful place, I've never been to africa, and it makes me feel like I've been to Africa. Even with Barrens chat, I still love leveling there. I'll miss it.3. Dancing Troll Village. Yes, I've been there- I'm not saying when or how I got there- but I chose this one because I've gotten close, but it won't be special once someone can fly down into it, that's if they even leave it in. It was a lot of fun, and it made me smile getting down to it.4.The Battle of Darrowshire It's an amazing chain, and it represents how doing a lot of work, can yield all but nothing. But it was the lore behind it, not the actual rewards as to why you would do such a thing.5. Old World (As its come to be known) When I ask in guild if they've tried out Mara, or if they wanted to head over and take a crack at ST, and they go, What are those? One pathetic instance someone asked me (being level 67) where SFK was and what it was like so they could run a lowbie through it. I know SFK is going to be there- but I'm going to feel like an old vet when Cataclysm comes out, and no-one remembers Dire Maul.
1. Back when I started the game and was a complete newbie, I stumbled across the Warsong Gulch NPC in Darnassus. Of course, I had no idea what, or where, that would take me, but I figured, what the heck. And, although now, I guess I could say I sorely dislike that BG, back then, seeing all the people standing ready, arming themselves for a fight, clashing mid field in glorious battle and pushing through the oncoming horde to the flag...that was such an epic moment for me, even if I WAS level 10 with greys and died every 10 seconds. 2. My first actual instance, which was Deadmines. I remember hearing from a friend who was playing with me at the time that there was this place somewhere where ALL the enemies were elites. I kept thinking "WOW, that must be quite a dangerous and epic place to go to!" Thinking back, sure, it seems silly, but back then, it was incredibly amazing seeing that instance I've heard so much about for the first time, and actually being able to finish it. Oh, and let's not forget, getting stunned by Mr. Smite for the first time. That was fun.3. Seeing a Druid walk by with the full Dreamwalker set on, or at least all the visible parts. I had no idea just how cool the armor would look later on, I just had what I had seen or owned on me as reference. And then, in Ironforge, I stumbled across that fateful Druid, who made me strive to become great at my class to be able to attain what seemed to me as the greatest honor I could achieve.4. The first Nefarian kill I got to participate in. That was the first boss that I really considered epic, I guess because, apart from being a giant fire breathing dragon, it was something where you really needed all those people to focus on what they were doing, and work together. That, and, the fact that I did not own an Onyxia Scale Cloak at the time...sooo when he landed, and cast his Shadow Flame...I burnt to a crisp. Couldn't help but laugh and stare in wonder.5. Getting a Stormrage Cover. It was among my first epics, one that, to me, identified me as a Druid somewhat. A Druid with enough skill to take down a major boss and receive rewards from it. It felt great to get one, I still keep it as a memento. Besides, it has antlers. What else would you want?