Shimmering Flats, etc.

[Xanthippe]

I was down there today on my little warlock - for the first time since just after launch.  When did they turn off the racetrack stuff?

I liked the whole idea of the goblins racing the gnomes, and being able to help one side win, and so on.  I guess the chatter was a little constant, which could be annoying throughout 1000 Needles, but it should at least be on near the racetrack.

I walked all through the little horde zones - 1000 Needles, Stonetalon, Barrons, Desolace - and realized that the horde have plenty of areas to xp in peace in.  Why the Alliance tends to focus only in Lakeshire, Duskwood and STV is beyond me.  There's some alliance activity in Wetlands, Hillsbrad and Arathi too, but not as much.

Maybe it's just my server, but it was like this on my old server too (pre-transfer).

I like the underutilized zones.

[Strazos]

Whether it's a PvP or PvE server tends to make a difference.

[Jayce]

I walked all through the little horde zones - 1000 Needles, Stonetalon, Barrons, Desolace - and realized that the horde have plenty of areas to xp in peace in.  Why the Alliance tends to focus only in Lakeshire, Duskwood and STV is beyond me.  There's some alliance activity in Wetlands, Hillsbrad and Arathi too, but not as much.

Proximity to civilization and availability of quests, I think.  At least that's so in my case.

Wetlands has a small crop of quests around 25ish (murlocs, dead fleet) and another closer to 30 (the excavation).  The greenwarden series is OK, but I tend to avoid it now because he's so hard to find, and there is too much aggro out where he asks you to kill.  The zone is also too big.  Running back and forth between Menethil and anywhere is a long haul pre-40.

Arathi suffers from the lack of an inn. Southshore has too much of a run to and from Alterac.  There isn't much else to work on there except maybe the Naga and murlocs and the odd Syndicate quest.  Desolace is a much better place after 30 IMO.

That said, STV doesn't have a serviceable inn really (BB is a long run), but it's close enough to Darkshore to make it not too painful, and the quests are plenteous.

[Rithrin]

I walked all through the little horde zones - 1000 Needles, Stonetalon, Barrons, Desolace - and realized that the horde have plenty of areas to xp in peace in.  Why the Alliance tends to focus only in Lakeshire, Duskwood and STV is beyond me.  There's some alliance activity in Wetlands, Hillsbrad and Arathi too, but not as much.

Its like why Horde don't go to Duskwood and Lakeshire to XP. Sure, there's stuff there but its a pain in the butt to get there and not Horde friendly. I took one character to Thousand Needles once as Alliance, but only because I wanted to do the quests there for the Goblin rep. Otherwise its much, much easier to stick in the areas surrounding Stormwind and Ironforge.

[Kenrick]

I was down there today on my little warlock - for the first time since just after launch.  When did they turn off the racetrack stuff?

I didn't even know that ever existed... I played from April to June and it was never anything but a deserted race track.

[Soln]

was there last night actually, finally turning in the crash helmets and picked up the ZF quest for Gahvilla.  I hear the races are on, but I was there at night.

[Phred]

The race track stuff is still Yelled out by the npc and the races still go on. But the yells aren't zone wide anymore, which is sad cause it added color to the zone. The current yells seem to be very position sensitive. I've heard them but can't say exactly where in the flats I was when I heard it. I think you can hear it over by the pits though.

[Fordel]

They need to make some sort of racing mini-game out down by the flats. Take the Tonks from the the fair and make WoW's version of Mario Kart or something :)

[Xanthippe]

Death match!

[jpark]

I walked all through the little horde zones - 1000 Needles, Stonetalon, Barrons, Desolace - and realized that the horde have plenty of areas to xp in peace in.  Why the Alliance tends to focus only in Lakeshire, Duskwood and STV is beyond me.  There's some alliance activity in Wetlands, Hillsbrad and Arathi too, but not as much.

Its like why Horde don't go to Duskwood and Lakeshire to XP...

No no no.  You alliance guys don't get it.  Horde zones are cool - period.  Long live Brill!

The horde is also the custodian to the best damn instance in the game - Shadow Fang Keep :)

[Strazos]

Pfft, when I was Horde, I went to Duskwood and Lakeshire plenty...but that was to gank people.

[Rithrin]

No no no.  You alliance guys don't get it.  Horde zones are cool - period.  Long live Brill!

The horde is also the custodian to the best damn instance in the game - Shadow Fang Keep :)

That I agree to. I always tried to get people to run SFK with me when I was leveling alts, but... no one wanted to.

[caladein]

Pfft, when I was Horde, I went to Duskwood and Lakeshire plenty...but that was to gank people.

I never understood Lakeshire... "Hey, it's just like Westfall, except you can get ganked!"

[Xanthippe]

Pfft, when I was Horde, I went to Duskwood and Lakeshire plenty...but that was to gank people.

I never understood Lakeshire... "Hey, it's just like Westfall, except you can get ganked!"

Except it's not.  It's the zone between Westfall and Duskwood, in terms of quest/mob level. The preferred human route tends to be Elwynn -> Westfall -> Lakeshire -> Duskwood -> STV.  It's so popular, in fact, that it's quite common to see nightelves, dwarves and gnomes as well.

[Dren]

Pfft, when I was Horde, I went to Duskwood and Lakeshire plenty...but that was to gank people.

I never understood Lakeshire... "Hey, it's just like Westfall, except you can get ganked!"

Except it's not.  It's the zone between Westfall and Duskwood, in terms of quest/mob level. The preferred human route tends to be Elwynn -> Westfall -> Lakeshire -> Duskwood -> STV.  It's so popular, in fact, that it's quite common to see nightelves, dwarves and gnomes as well.

Yep, gained 3-4 levels there very quickly on non-elite quests.  Hell a couple quest just had you jump in the water and fetch stuff.

[Jayce]

Pfft, when I was Horde, I went to Duskwood and Lakeshire plenty...but that was to gank people.

I never understood Lakeshire... "Hey, it's just like Westfall, except you can get ganked!"

Except it's not.  It's the zone between Westfall and Duskwood, in terms of quest/mob level. The preferred human route tends to be Elwynn -> Westfall -> Lakeshire -> Duskwood -> STV.  It's so popular, in fact, that it's quite common to see nightelves, dwarves and gnomes as well.

Yep, gained 3-4 levels there very quickly on non-elite quests.  Hell a couple quest just had you jump in the water and fetch stuff.

I never liked Lakeshire, but Westfall is de rigeur for Alliance.  So many great quests there, and of course the Van Cleef chain.

[Dren]

Oh, I didn't like the zone.  I just said I got a lot of levels there post WF.  Yes, WF was one of my fav's.

[Merusk]

Lakeshire sucks, to be sure, but it's still better than Ashenvale with its murlocs and naga and Dun Mordor with those fucking troggs.

I hate troggs more than I hate Murlocs.