Community Project: Areas and Exploration

Welcome to the second blog post in the “Warcraft Community’s Top Things To Do Before WoD” series! Today, we are talking about the loose subject of “Areas and Exploration”. If you’re looking to journey to far (and not so far) off places… this is the page for you!

Easter eggs

This was another fairly popular topic within the community suggestions. These little nuggets of joy are not, in fact, chocolate goodies, but references to the outside world or inside jokes which are found in-game. I, alongside much of the community, LOVE to go and find these eggs. My favourite is probably the house from the film “Up”, found off the coast of Jade Forest…

…but some are as simple as the city guards responding to your /salute or your companion pets idle animation of lying down if you’re still.

See below for information so you can go and find them!

• I can highly recommend a blog by Navimie which focuses on the pop-culture outside references: Hidden in the Open in WoW
• @elepheagle’s blog post written for this project describes the “Riches of Pandaria”
• WoWWiki
• WoW Insider

The Lorewalkers

We are going to put this in here, as we think it is the best way to explore the whole of Pandaria (and access the lore!) once you reach max-level in MoP. Of course, you could do it on your ground mount for a more “immersive” experience, but it’s just as beautiful (and quicker) from the air.

The Lorewalkers are a reputation faction introduced in MoP, who focus, as their name suggests, on the Lore of Pandaria. Their reputation grind is the easiest to start you off: as you explore Pandaria, you stumble across their scrolls of lore.

Each one counts towards a set, which in turn when handed in, awards reputation. You can read our own detailed post here.

Faction Capitals

Levelwhimsically (click for the original post!) recommended visiting the opposing faction capitals and as an Alliance-only player, I think it’s a fantastic idea. The best way to go about this is rolling a little alt and go explore. The easiest would be:

• Stormwind —> Human
• Orgrimmar —> Orc or Troll

Of course, there are other capitals to explore… roll a Tauren and go and visit the particularly quirky  Thunderbluff, or a Night Elf and the beautiful city of Darnassus. Whichever you choose, you will have a confusing but satisfying hour.

Navimie also wrote an excellent post about Dalaran. You should read the original post as she is so passionate about it: “Dalaran is not merely the city of magic – the place is MAGICAL!  It’s full of wonderful little secrets and references”. 

What she recommends to do, among others, is to go and visit Windle Sparkleshine after 9pm who is responsible for lighting the lights of Dalaran. You can buy a “Windle’s Lighter” off him (for a nominal fee of about 50s) when he’s finished which enables you to go around the city and light the lights that he missed. It was such a fantastic 10 minutes of my play time and I can’t recommend it enough.

Eversong woods

I’m putting this here because Haenlic was so passionate about it, I couldn’t miss it out. I’ll quote directly. ABSORB THE ENTHUSIASM!

“The atmosphere in Eversong Woods […]  is so relaxing.. it’s so beautiful! I always finish EVERY quest there to stay there as long as possible.

I could stand there for hours just listening to the music while doing other stuff.”

The Whispering Forest

Click here for our full post.

Up in Tirisfal Glades, there lies a strange ring of mushrooms in the forest. If you wait patiently, Faerie Dragons start to appear. When there are a good crowd, magic happens and the forest comes to life.

If you haven’t yet experienced this, you must. It was fleeting and beautiful.

Festivals

I was going to write about the Wanderers Festival before Erinys’ blog post about her 3 favourite things cropped up. We both agree that this little festival is a wonderful way to spend an evening… you can read my more detailed description here. You also get an achievement for going – winwin!

One of my other favourites is the Darkmoon Faire – pets, mounts, games, free profession skill-ups. What could be better?

How about Pirate’s Day, where you can dress up like a pirate and drink rum all day? Or Day of the Dead, celebrating the Mexican festival of the same name, where you can earn a rather wonderful Macabre Marionnette pet? How about the more romantic Love is in the Air event – where you can daub yourself with perfume and defeat the Crown Chemical Co whilst smelling divine?

The other world events in WoW are very fun. I know lots of people moan about the grind and the need to do them for the meta achievement, but we both really enjoy them. With achievements, pets and rare mounts up for grabs… how can you resist?!

We hope this page has given you some places to go and re-discover. The contributors to this category came across as particularly passionate.

As LeeAnn so perfectly puts it:

“Exploring, the endless potential for discovery.

You can run through an area 700 times and on 701 you think, “Oooh, I never saw THAT statue/ building/ big ass monster about to eat me before!”

 

Contributors__________________________________________________________________________________________

• @blockrates via twitter
• Navimie
• Haenlic
• @elepheagle
• levelwhimsically
• @missunderstoodw
• LeeAnn
• Erinys