Extra Special Guest Post

Remembering Westfall
By way of introductions

Hiya! My name's Grimmtooth; I have a blog, which is how I first met Mr. K. It's a long story, but the upshot is that, through that blog, my guild found a tank (and friends), and K found a new home. From the moment he first ripped off his shirt and hollered IT'S CLOBBERING TIME, BISHES as he flung his Captain America at Marrowgar, we knew we had found a soulmate.

So what ya doing over here, Grimm?

Glad you asked, odd voice in my head!

This blog post marks K's 200th, and he did me the very great honor of asking me to contribute a guest piece to help commemorate that occasion. When asked what kind of post he had in mind, he thought about it and then replied that he thought that it would be good to consider our favorite zones, the two of us, here in the twilight before the Cataclysm changes everything. I thought that was a great idea.

So let's get started!

The runners up

There are actually so many lovely zones to choose from, but right off the bat I'm going to rule out anything on Kalimdor proper, because my stars and garters, they hate us over there. Ferelas gets extra points for the fail that is the ferry to Feathermoon.
Outland and Northrend are ruled out for now since they're not going to get the whammy, though if they were, Nagrand and Zul'drak would be in the running.
Looking at what is called the Eastern Kingdoms, here are the contenders and why they didn't make it.

• Plaguelands (both) – I love the lore. I have less love for the FP placement, though WPL improved moderately a couple of patches ago, in that respect.

• Loch Modan – if not for the unfortunate placement of the lone flight point, this would have won, hands down. The Valley of Kings was my blog header for years.

• Duskwood – another favorite, yet again the flight point just makes it a pain for everyone. And that big empty subzone in the middle means you go around for just about anything. Still, it was close.

• Stranglethorn – even with all the annoyances that this zone produces, it will live forever in story and song. Honestly, it would have made the cut if it wasn't for the fact that we're all sick of looking at it after around 20 or so levels.

And the winner is

Westfall comes perilously close to being knocked off the list due to the location of its sole flight point, but only if you fail to realize that Sentinel Hill really isn't in the southern end of the zone – it actually is kinda central to the zone.This is the first serious zone you hit as a newbie human, and eventually I ensured all my toons hit this zone up when appropriate. So much to see and do and so many rewards! Here are a few of the high points for me.

• Practically serves as a second flight point for Duskwood – a lot easier to fly there and hike over to Raven Hill than it is to go overland from Darkshire.

• No serious travel obstacles. You don't have to go around things like lakes or big empty subzones with elite green dragons in them. Going from quest hub to quest hub is pretty much a straight line.

• Central to the theme unifying the four southern Alliance zones (the Defias).

• This is likely where your caster's first wand will drop.

• Great for skilling herbalism, fishing, cooking, tailoring, and mining!

• The first instance (by design) that Alliance toons will see, Deadmines sets the bar high and holds up well against stiff competition.

• Murlocs! Lots and lots of murlocs! I swear, by the time you finish this zone, "Mrrrrrglgrlgrlglrgl!" will set you right off.

• Just about a perfect fit for the target level, though some quests are a little antiquated now.

• The chicken!

• The Messenger – one of the few times you see your fellow players playing cooperatively and calling him out when they see him.

• Escorting the Traitor
  – one of the few escort quests I appreciate – once you start the quest, just call out that you're inbound and you'll likely find nothing alive in Moonbrook by the time you get there. I imagine this would be different on a PvP server since Horde can probably grief you.

Looking forward to after the Cataclysm, I know this zone gets some love. I think they finally finished putting that roof on, and possibly they ran out of Murloc eyes. The Twilight guys also appear to have blown it big-time in the mines. But, otherwise, this zone looks to remain a central part of Alliance questing.

Hopefully, changes to Loch Modan will make that zone as central to the Dwarven story as this zone is to the Human.
PS. Next post will be my follow up - K