Runas broke my damn heart when I did it the first, second and third time (yet to do it the fourth). So well-established withing maybe an hour of questing, and it doesn't feel like a bullshit death or killing off a character for no reason. I hope we somehow interact with him in the future, maybe as a ghost or while timetravelling.

"All non-combatants were evacuated" Until we get to Siege of Orgrimmar and find out that he captured the evacuees and tortured them.

Runas is voiced by such a great voice actor, the same actor voices Havi. His most notable voice work was Winnie the Pooh. Oh, he also was the voice of Lorewalker Cho.

Ah, Runas the Shamed, only quest line to make me genuinely tear up, fucking good line.

Not gonna lie, when I played Legion, the Runas questline made me cry at the end haha

WHY DID YOU REMIND ME ABOUT RUNAS?! Now I'm sad again :(

Tirisfal, Plaguelands... I believe they should have been up there. The whole "I was a human before dying and now even my own people reject me" was one of the most interesting recurring plots in the game, not to mention that the constant connections to Warcraft 3 lore (Arthas ) add extra nostalgia and depth. I think one of the questions to be asked in order to decide these things would be... "if Blizzard made a Warcraft 4 or a WoW2, how much of World of Warcraft would you want to consider canon and what parts do you think should be scrapped?".

F for respect for Runas... his is one of my favorite chains in the whole game. I legit felt bad that I couldn't do more to help him in the end.

Because this is primarily Horde dominated I'll give some recommendations for the Boys in Blue. Westfall: Coming off the heels of a great victory against the Lich King has left Stormwind in figurative ruins, the common and lower class people of Stormwind have become stricken with great poverty and homelessness ravishes the land. The zone may over exaggerate typical homeless stereotypes a lot but it gets a good general feel. The zone contains the backstory for the Deadmines instance as well as characterization for Rogue Order Hall follower Vanessa VanCleef and SI7 operative Amber Kearnen who you'll come across again during Alliance questing in Pandaria and get a feeling of why people really get ticked off with how they handled her in Legion. The progression of the zone is told using an extended CSI Miami reference, if you like CSI Miami or cheesy cop shows it's definitely a must see. Duskwood: It's dark, it's creepy and it's still a good zone, purists might write it off for taking away the initiation rites of dying to Stitches and neutering the Stalvan chain but the zone is still really good. You take the role of a new night watch guardsmen for Duskwood who after the Northrend fiasco is severely light on guards to protect them from the undead horrors of the zone. As you help the nightwatch secure the town to let the people continue living in peace you'll come across a Worgen storyline of a small group attempting to help the Feral Worgen roaming the zone to have a chance at a normal life, it also continues the storyline of a minor character from the Gilneas starting zone. It's still a really good zone after the changes and if you like the Jekyll and Hyde aspect of Worgen lore you'll like the additions they made to the zone. Darkshore: The Night Elves are very suddenly coming to grips with their curse of mortality since Warcraft 3 destroyed the World tree to defeat Archimonde. Sure this is a very standard zone and doesn't have excess death compared to other zones but it's new ground for the Night Elves, the overly detailed descriptions of your character coming across the dozens of dead Night Elves at the start of the zone as you scramble for survivors is definitely a very powerful hook to the zone and I'd recommend reading each one you can find. You also come across Malfurion, this is pre FireLands so he's not the whiny bitch that you know in Val'Sharah yet. The zone for me is powerful enough since you're coming across mass death which again is nothing new for a WoW zone but it's happening to the Night Elves which is a new experience, you get to see these long standing immortal guardians suddenly come to grips with loss and death, seeing their totem pole of pride crack underneath them definitely makes the zone worth looking at. Ashenvale: It's Night Elf vs Horde, a very standard faction war zone but Nightsong is the background music used for a majority of the zone making it definitely a good place to level because Nightsong is a really good song, honestly that's it, it doesn't do anything amazingly amazing aside from it's background song. Redridge Mountains: Do you like Rambo and similar cheesy 80's action movies? Level in this zone.

I think Grizzly HIlls/Zul'Drak questline with Drakaru should be on this list. How we find him as a prisoner, free him strike a bargain,go through a dungeon only to be betrayed by him, him destroying ZUl'drak and we going undercover to work for him again and take him down from the inside. The whole experience is amazing. Hyjal also deserves to be on this list, the whole awakening of all the wild gods, Aviana,Goldrin,Tortulla,MAlone and even Cenarius was amazing .

22:31 garrosh's best moment ever

Sylv: Lordeaeron belongs to the Forsaken - always and forever. Anduin: Hold my beer.

The only reason why I go to Silverpine forest is to hear Garrosh call Sylvanas "Bitch".

Ebonhorn is the only black dragon that matters

11:45 ok who named their pandaren girl “HatsuneMikuX”

Runas i hated him at first, but by the end i was in tears for him.

The Best leveling path for a new player is to just make an undead basically. Also as to the horde bias thing. I have leveled though all of the Alliance zones for 1-60 stuff. The standouts are Duskwood, Redridge and the Southern Barrens. A lot of people say Ashenvale is top tier as well but I dont agree personally. I kinda forgot to add duskwood to the honorable mentions but it was almost in the top 10, but I removed it at the last second for some reason. I honestly dont remember why, I think I might have just accidentally deleted it from my shortlist and just forgot about it. Duskwood is top tier for sure. As for Alliance side questing from 61-110, I have done very little of that. So my horde bias will show through more for the higher level zones. But 6 of the 10 on the list are neutral. And of the 4 horde only zones I mentioned, even die hard alliance only fans would agree that 3 of them are great picks. The only one I think would be controversial would be frostfire ridge, which I probably could have substituted for Duskwood tbh.

Great list hiru! I agree with all on the list myself! Silverpine's great and I haven't even played it that much. I personally love Borean Tundra most, but that's possibly due to nostalgia.

The thing that makes Runas all the greater is he's voiced by Winnie the Pooh's voice actor Jim Cummings. Just listen for Tigger in his voice. Ah heck you've actually probably heard this guy in other works hundreds of times before.

Great....Still nobody found me

RUNAS! I kneel every time I level through the zone

I love Runas quest line because it really plays out the story of “just because they’re an addict doesn’t mean they’re a bad person”. As someone who has a family that’s been torn apart by addictions it really hit home.

So... Garrosh did nothing wrong?

This was actually a very helpful video for me , i've been playing the game for a long time but never did most of the zones in this video.

Runas is my favorite storyline by far, I really loved the character and felt so much at the end.

This video was amazingly made, I have never felt so much emotion over wow questing

So glad to see my favourite zone on this list. Dragonsblight. From the quests to music to, the in general frozen waste. I love that place so much!

I am glad you added Runas onto this list, he was one of my personal favorite Legion characters & I always sit through his final words every time I did the story in that zone. I even went as far as to name my Nightborne after him.

LOL can’t say Boring Tundra was my favorite but that was mostly because I fell in love with Grizzly Hills. Didn’t have as great of a story but the Enya-like music was so calming 😁

Horde always have the best quests!

i love Searing gorge anf burning steppes, you disguise as dark horde and sabotage their plans and searing gorge is purely for Lunk and you will know why :)

I cried when Runas died, such a beautiful redemption to his character and a bittersweet death

Voice actors for some of these awesome characters: Runas : Jim Cummings (also Lorewalker Cho, Tong, ..) Garrosh: Patrick Seitz Saurfang: Alan Shearman Baine Bloodhoof: Jamieson Price Tharondis: Max Mittelman Krom'gar: 404 only found conspiracy theories by Jessie Cox Jaina: Laura Bailey Chris Metzen: Almost everyone. At least everyone in classic. Klaxxi Paragon Hisek: Todd Stone Nazgrim: David Lodge Sylvanas: P.J. Mattson Wrathion: Aaron Phillips Vol'jin: Dave Fennoy Y'Shaarj: Frank Welker *Darin DePaul* Warchief Blackhand, N'zoth, Trade Prince Gallywix, Battlelord Gaardoun, Eredar Summoner Males, Azuregos, Shadowlord Slaghammer, Jergosh the Invoker, Grand Artificer Romuul. (Also Reinhardt in Overwatch, Revenant in Apex Legends and Ardyn Izunia in FF15 game and movie) (the guy is amazing and made the best parts of Blizzcon)

I found your channel like yesterday, and i REALLY makes me miss WoW...I logged back in ONCE since I left the game before the Siege of Ogrimmar...I lasted all of 30 seconds before logging back out. I've been playing since rhe first week or so of BC. I was and still am well and truly burned out. But your videos make me remember what i loved about wow. So thank you.

I always start weeping when I do the Runas questline. Especially after doing the suramar quests knowing if i knew sooner, Runas could've been saved..

I think I've done all these. I'm just going to have to play them all over again to make sure. Great list!

That final bit with Runas made my heart break..... it still does whenever i go through Azsuna

Glad to see Silverpine on this list. I got started on WoW with a undead character in the free-to-play mode and seeing silverpine and talking to Slyvanis after playing Warcraft 3 before WoW was pretty cool.

Awesome vid as always Hiru. Keep up the good work. I'm surprised more Northrend zones didn't at least get nods though, especially Icecrown when you do the Illidan vs Arthas quest. That's one of my personal favorite quest chains. But again, great video Hiru, thanks for keeping the content coming!

nice up to the production value-keep it up!

Every time I level a character, I always go through Eastern Plaguelands for Fiona's Caravan

Oof am I the only one who loved ghostlands lore & feels like it should be talked about more?

lol dat arcane mage action bar

the Runas questline was my favorite in legion, I've done it four times now and I'm still enjoying it. it's simply amazing and broke my heart into a million pieces but I absolutely love it

Duskwood, Western & Eastern Plaguelands, and Zul'Drak are also definitely up there for me. Blizzard just does creepy zones so well. Anyways I'd love to see this done for classic zones considering we're so close to release.

Love it! It makes me remember how much i miss WoW i can't wait for classic

I like the new look Hiru. Great Job!

Frostfire Ridge was great the first and maybe second time going through the zone but as I got into my fourth alt, it was horrible.

I love levelling in Silverpine. My first character I actually ever went anywhere with (I started late... sue me) was a worgen. I loved that side of the lore, and while levelling one of my many Horde characters I ran into that side of things and I was internally screaming and practically fawning over everything the entire time because I absolutely *loved* it.

That's a nice addon you've got there, a lot more immersive for questing and story telling.

Sylvanas:even saying his name makes my body quiver in rage proceeds to say Arthas every chance she has

Badlands always gave me vibes as a kid. Coming back to kargath after some quests and being in the middle of eastern kingdoms felt so far away as a horde. Loved the aesthetic

Something neat that I do like with the Badlands, that I feel are worth a mention: a little quest that has you do two mini puzzles. They have little to do with lore, but are still neat. It's different from the norm and has a teeny bit of Titan lore (more like minor trivia). I had honestly hoped that there would be more quests like this. Also wanted to point out that the only reason Jaina was able to evacuate Theramore is because she was warned ahead of time, by Baine (acting pretty much on his own and against Garrosh). Also the only reason Garrosh delayed in dropping the bomb was to cripple the Alliance navy. He was waiting for a fleet to arrive (I honestly think he expected a larger fleet). He wasn't attacking a military target, as Theramore was a peaceful port town, led by an ally of the Horde (at the time Jaina was friendly toward the Horde and traded with them). He wanted all of Kalimdor, for the Horde only.

R.I.P. Runas. May your hunger finally be satiated and find peace my friend.

Runas story is just too sad :(

Jade forest was great. Had a great soundtrack for questing, and its exploration getting ontop of peaks and getting the views looking out.

I remember making an Undead and doing light RP with him. He did the first maybe 4 quests in Silverpine before I skipped it and going to Hillsbrad because I as a player love Gilneas and the Worgen and felt really bad doing the quests. So I played it off as my toon seeing the war on Gilneas as pointless, unprovoked aggression from Sylvanas. So when Commander Belmont asked for the report, despite being the only one with crucial information about the Gilnean Worgen forming an alliance with the Silverpine Worgen, I with held the information reporting instead that Belmont's scout who helped retrieve the info died having learned nothing.

Those last lines of Dialogue are for some reason, so moving, they bring me to tears. I don't know if its the voice acting, or the tragedy of his death. I think the helplessness of his passing, and the brevity of the character adds a lot to his character. In any case, every time I finish the questline and listen to those final lines, it affects me the same way. I love it. Rest in peace, Runas. Your sacrifice touched the hearts of many.

I totally agree. I did Silverpine Forest many times, with almost every horde character of mine and never got bored. of course it tastes the best whe you're leveling a forsaken there! victory for Sylvanas!

Really enjoyed this video! Do you have a recommendation on best way to level & experience all the best quest chains/zones? I see you are using the Zygor guides. Should I do the Loremaster one if I want to experience it all?

Runas and Orkus' quests broke my heart when I first did them. Right in the feels. Farondis is an awesome and underrated character. It would be nice if they used him in the future, but I doubt they will since he seems to be just zone-specific.

I'd love to see you make a video like this for Classic and Burning Crusade zones. They might not have been as "polished" as some of the later expansions, but some still told memorable stories, maybe more memorable than their Cataclysm counterparts. With BC Classic newly released, it would be good timing too.

The story with Runas made me tear up when I played through the zone the first time.

What I loved so much about Aszuna was how it foreshadowed future content.

I like this list, this is a very good list.

MY dudes can anyone point me to the mod he's using for more cinematic quest text?

What about the Muradin questline in Storm Peaks?

Funny thing I just finished silverpine completely from start to finish just before watching this and I have to agree. I actually realized I was at the end of the questline and was quite disappointed it didn't keep going.

Questing in Val'sharah is quite good too, from recruiting the druids to finding Mal'Furian to killing of Ysera and finding Maiev was pretty good imo. Talador and shadowmoon valley(draenor) quests are worth a try too. Also the entry quest for Draenor is amazing. Also I enjoyed questing in BFA as both horde and alliance and Drustvar is quite a unique area and I died a few times while questing there by the saurlisk with their stacking poison.

Hyjal for sure #1 imo. Icecrown, twilight highlands are up there too. Shadowmoon valley too. Desolace was fun too.

Hyjal? Icecrow? Plaguelands? Desolence? Storm pecks? Ashenvale? Felwood? Need this for honorable mention

I loved the klaxxi storyline one of my favourite zones from MoP.

I love the story of Runas the Shamed!!! He is such a lovable character and I tried not to be upset when he died.

as an alliance player, one of the best lore zones of all time has to be the western plaguelands, especially post cata. it's there that you start to really see the consequences of the lich king dying, and start to see both the humans struggling to retake their homeland and the forsaken struggling to push the alliance back from lordaeron. also, if you're a fan of death knights, you'll get to see thassarian and koltira in there as well. neat!

Roses are red, Azsuna has good leveling Thank you, my friend, for letting my last few hours mean something:(

The Red Ridge Mountain was the first one I did where I was emotionally involved with the team. I actually had to pause and think about the events at the end. I don't want to spoil it for someone who hasn/t done it, but this is a quest chain that I have repeated with alts, make sure I do it when leveling new characters.

as a primarily Alliance player who was simply leveling an alt in Silverpine, it’s the zone that gave me a lot more respect for Sylvanas and the original nuance of her character. I really wish Blizzard hadn’t done her so dirty in BfA

I personally recommend classic [ 'classic' ] nagrand. It's a bit of a grind at first but eventually you'll find a half draenie/orc blade master which starts the Garrosh redemption/origin storyline will start up, along with the demonhunter in the west and the oshu'gun/Auchaudine crypts narru storyline. It's my favourite for all those plus just the marvel that that zone was back in the day.

Feel like duskwood shoulda been on there

What quest giver addon is that? Pretty dope cutscenes!!

Hillsbarad quest line is my absolute favourite. Every horde toon I make has done it. Jenny!!

Hi, just dropped in to say: Horde bias!

I'm surprised Vash Jir (spelling?) wasn't mentioned. This zone told a major story of the Naga and was a totally unique zone being underwater.

Could you please share the soundtracks used in this video? I particularly wish to know the piano track playing at around 15:18, when you talk of that Nightborne (Runas?) finally succumbing to corruption and dying. It has a nice anime-ish (Tokyo Ghoul) vibe to it and the coupling of the context and music was just beautiful.

I did dread wastes while levelling in Legion, and its my favorite zone in the game. I delayed actually getting to the legion content and spent extra time in the dread wastes rather than moving on to warlords of draenor leveling.

12:28 - OH, the feels. I started sniffing the moment I heard Runas again. I was literally dumbstruck as the quest ended and I spent several minutes just staring to the void.

What setting allows you to see the quests in cutscene esc text? I’ve only seen it in the log. Is it a setting or an add on?

Western plaguelands is p fun too with the whole Thassarian vs Koltira thing, having two former allies in a previous expansion being forced to fight against each other

>best zone >helping the undead ??????

yes that silverpine speech from Slyvanas definitely makes it seem like she is in league with the Jailer /s

As per my usual way with how I read quest text, I skipped to the end. Great video (I'm sure).

What is the name of the quest addon that you use? The one where it turns all cinematic and stuff when you turn in quests?

What is the addon that you are using for the quest text to appear like that ? It pretty awsome.

OG Shadowmoon Valley had amazing quest lines.

How do you get the 'cinematic' feels from questgivers? What Mod is that, it looks awesome!

I'm suprised that Val'sharah wasn't on the list. Ysera's storyline broke my heart way more than Runas ever could.

Did you do quests in Uldum? Specially those with Harrison Jones? For me they were hillarious :)

thank you for breaking my heart all over again by playing that Runas bit I dint need it anyways

What is the addon you are using that makes the quests cinematic-like ?

Man, legion had some of the most heart wrenching stories in it :