Having leveled a toon out of every starting area to at least 20, it's hard not to notice that some areas make it a lot easier than others. I don't mean the general ease of leveling per se, but just how fast the time seems to fly by. For all that a certain percentage of the playerbase frowns on RP on non-RP servers, most peoples' favorite quests do have an element of RP to them, or at least the RP sense of being fully engaged with the world. And in that respect the Draenei starting zones are, in my opinion, unparalleled. If I had to rank them --
1. Draenei: Hands down the best starting area.
2. Human: Very good selection of quests and the first glimpse into the long, winding Defias subplot.
3. Undead: I have to bump the Forsaken up if for no other reason than the creepy introductory bit and the guy right outside the crypt who shrugs, "We almost threw you on the fire with the others." These people mean business and they're really the only Horde race pre-BC that had a clearly defined sense of purpose. Some of the beginning quests are also heartbreaking.
4. Blood Elf: This could just be a bit of bias that's the natural result of the Blood Elves being in a very different place mentally than the Draenei are as BC begins, but there's a sense of detachment with them that just doesn't work out as well. Still, good history and lore in their 1-20 quests, and The Lady's Necklace is an undeniable whopper.
5. Tauren/Night Elf: These are somewhat similar to each other in that each has a few good moments but nothing really outstanding. If you play a Druid there's a little nod to the existence of Druids on "the other side" and this little quest is still one of my favorite in the game.
6. Orc/Troll and Dwarf/Gnome: These really seem to stand out the least. For all I know I'm ranking Tauren/NE ahead of them just because my main is a Druid, but there weren't many moments leveling in these areas that left much of an impression.
I am now faced with the prospect of taking yet another Draenei out into the cold, cruel world of Azeroth. Maybe I'll just roll another one....
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
3-19-2008 @ 5:13PM
Dotixi said...
Love your post and I completely agree that the Draenei have the best starting zone. Lvling seems faster and the rewards (loot and rep) are awesome compared the the rest (even the BEs).
Though I have to disagree with you on the RP thing. There's a huge difference between my character being emersed in the rich story and me pretending to be my character in said rich story. I love the lore/quest-storylines but I don't ever pretend to be in them...maybe it's just me though. :-)
Have a good evening.
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3-20-2008 @ 9:31AM
jrb said...
couldn't agree more. quests, and the story that goes with them are nice, but at best, you only read it the first time through. also, you're out of the start area in just a few short hours
i prefer to rate races on how annoying their emotes are, and how they are to play.
for example, i find the foresaken voices horrible. not creepy, just horrible, but the gnome, human, dwarf, and orc emotes to be the funniest from start to end game. it's also worth considering how annoying to your opponent in pvp your character will be, in which case gnome wins hands down. :D
3-19-2008 @ 5:13PM
Drago Dracini said...
The Undead and Draenei have the best starting areas and quests. Along with looking really freaking awesome. And the Undead are also REALLY close to Undercity, and in turn, Orgrimmar. ;p Automatic win.
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3-19-2008 @ 5:21PM
Minnow said...
My list would be:
1. Belf
2. Forsaken
3. Draenei
4. Nelf
5. Orc
6. Human
7. Tauren (because I always seem to take much longer to reach "nextzone" level.
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3-19-2008 @ 9:20PM
tripdream said...
Did you put the Night Elf area on your list as a joke or were you serious? Between the absurdly long walks to Farnassus and literally all points around the tree, it simply takes far too long to really get anywhere with any amount of speed. Walk outside of Darkshore and it doesn't get any better, either. Sure it's pretty, but I'm not at an art gallery I am here to play a game.
3-19-2008 @ 9:23PM
Minnow said...
It's not so much the quests in Teldrassil/Darkshore - its more the atmosphere I like. I agree some of the quests are horrible walking quests but where arent there any of those?
3-19-2008 @ 5:25PM
Eternalpayn said...
Undead is the best, In my biased opinion... I hate Taurens' spot. Draenei and Blood Elves are great areas, too. I hate the looks of the Blood Elf area, makes my eyes bleed, but the quests are fun enough.
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3-19-2008 @ 5:25PM
Kadathwack said...
It's really hard to beat the Draenei zone in terms of the quests offered. I'm always drawn back to Mulgore though. My first character was a Tauren, so that was the first area of the game I went through. It holds a special place.
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3-19-2008 @ 5:31PM
simplehiker said...
Being an Alt-aholic I have leveled about 14 toons to level 20+
Hands down with out a doubt Blood Elfs are the fastest, most streamline race to level with unmatched rewards in loot. Not to mention the great Flight paths in place and the portal to Undercity. You level very quickly to 20 and come out with some very nice equipment.
When I first rolled Ally I chose Draenei because of such a great experience with the other expansion race. I was very disappointed with the area design and all the walking involved for the quests. You also have the great headache of getting around to the rest of the world for weapon training and to pick up recipes.
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3-19-2008 @ 6:55PM
Ryan said...
Yea, but Ghostlands gets real old real quick.
3-19-2008 @ 7:16PM
Dotixi said...
I think you have confused the Draenei starting area for the Orc one.
3-19-2008 @ 5:35PM
nobbie said...
I personally would rank both the Draenei and Blood Elf starting areas on top of the list since both are definitely a step ahead of every old area - quest-, lore- and atmosphere-wise.
I like the Draenei areas for their peaceful, esoteric touch (India and buddhism come to mind) and the Blood Elf areas for their sheer beauty; especially the Ghostlands are just fantastic. A red-haired, beautiful Blood Elf huntress with a mist-like Echeyakee (the spawned white lion from the Barrens) deep in the blueish Ghostlands - that's the best toon picture I have seen so far during the 3 years of WoW.
From the old areas, Tirisfal Glades and Silverpine Forest (horde) are my favorites, closely followed by Duskwood (alliance). The rest of the starting areas have character too, but none of them has a similarly dense atmosphere. As in the Ghostlands, creepiness and romance ftw here! ;)
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3-24-2008 @ 5:57PM
Farseer Lolotea said...
I've played one blood elf (okay, two...but the first one got deleted very early); and I've noticed that you can scarcely breathe in Eversong without leveling. I've played six draenei, and it's comparable.
There's no starting area that I particularly dislike, with the possible exceptions of Tirisfal (too gloomy) and Elwynn (too boring). Mulgore and Teldrassil require a bit too much running around, but are tolerable.
3-19-2008 @ 5:38PM
Milktub said...
I'll admit I don't really pay attention to lore early on. Until I reach about the mid-20s, I'm more interested in just blowing through the quests as fast as possible.
So for me, the best starting area has to do with how it looks. And that's why the Tauren starting area wins for me. Blue skies, rolling green hills ... I always miss Mulgore when I have to leave it.
On the other side ... I hate the Draenai starting zone. Too red.
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4-22-2008 @ 11:54AM
Hot$auce_Magik said...
I agree. I just hit 20 with my draenei. I was REALLY getting sick of all the red. It was screwing up my custom UI as well since some of the features are a reddish pink.
My first character was a tauren and as much running as was involved, I always miss stampeding over the lush green grass of mulgore.
3-19-2008 @ 5:41PM
Calaana said...
I'd go Draenei, Belf, Tarruen myself... but I'm not a big graveyard fan, so the second half of the belf zone doesn't really do it any good here, and mulgore's so damn big... if it was my first toon then it might be awesome but when you just want to level something... egad!
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3-19-2008 @ 5:54PM
infection said...
Hands down the troll/orc area loses. Quest that makes you swim to that island over and over again, going in tunneled areas with harpies that you can't escape from.
Just the worst zone of all.
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3-19-2008 @ 5:55PM
Sean Riley said...
I'd also agree with how fan-dabby-dabulous the Draenei starting area is -- For roleplayers it's even more of a fantastic zone, filled with drama and stuff to do. But I think you're overlooking the orc zone, which has some of the neatest early quests in the game (you gotta love the bash peons on the head quest), a nice sense of build with the troll village right after it (neatly tying the trolls and orcs) and, of course, the Rock Totem for shamans, which is a fantastically done bit of journey.
Also, if you're sneaky, you can visit Ratchet at level 1. Always good!
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3-19-2008 @ 5:58PM
Hurode said...
I love the Draenei start areas. Simply, they were done right. Quest Rewards were done well (especially the quests where the reward is either cloth boots, leather boots, or mail boots - why can't all zones be like that? Offering a leather belt, a cape, and a plate chestpiece as the possible rewards of a quest doesn't make sense to me), the areas are just beautiful (I wasn't 100% fond of the ugly red in some spots, but I think that was kind of the point), and it's just a blast to go through. Finally clearing the zone and going through the final cutscene, for the entire zone to know that YOU saved an entire people, is just a great experience.
Besides that, I love the Blood Elf starting areas, especially Ghostlands. I don't really like any 10-20 zones besides Bloodmyst and Ghostlands very much (I haven't really done Darkshore or Loch Modan), though Tirisfal Glades, Elywnn Forest, and Teldrassil are suberb.
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3-19-2008 @ 6:18PM
arcady0 said...
Draenei have the best starting zone, but its very easy to simply delete and start over at level 20 because frankly, the moment you leave their island you feel no connection to the rest of the Alliance and the places you have to run past are full of Night Elves - usually played by some very annoying players...
Blood elves have the same player base as Night Elves, and I just can't get past how annoying it is to have to deal with the other people. I've managed to get two toons past level 20 out of there, but one of them got deleted not long after. The other's a paladin, so at least she -had- to be a BE.
I love the atmosphere of the tauren zone, but yeah - its too spread out and doesn't have a centralized theme to it.
No real opinions on the others, save that Echo Islands is a lot of fun for trolls, but only lasts maybe 2 levels, if you stretch it.
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