Even if I feel that Gorgrond does not come together as a whole to deliver a very strong story, it does feel like a zone that hits the vibe right for exploring and adventuring. It is a really diverse zone that transitions between thick jungle, deep caves, rocky desert, and steaming hot springs. There is cool story stuff there, where you're teaming up with Rexxar to take on the Iron Horde as they exploit the resources of the land.
If you take Highmountain as a very general point of comparison, yeah, sure, the story flows better but what are the memorable quests and locations? Its feature is elevation, but it's actually a very flat zone when it comes to where players quest, as each hub plays out in a fairly unremarkable space. It's the "highest mountain" on Azeroth, but the ascension to the peak is just so dull compared to Kun-lai Summit. Even WoD's Nagrand felt like it made greater use of elevation with its climbs to peaks, and the hidden treasure locations that required glider runs to lower points.
The core of Warlords has really strong zones. Shadowmoon Valley, Spires of Arak, Frostfire Ridge are all great, with Nagrand ranking in as pretty good. Legion has four leveling zones and half of them are somewhere between not good and bad. As a whole it is the expansion that feels the least ambitious with its zone concepts and that's just a huge mark against it for me.
It also houses three very distinct dungeons and what is probably one of the best raids this game has ever seen. There are definitely Legion zones that I would consider a step down from it, even for all its inadequacies.
If you take Highmountain as a very general point of comparison, yeah, sure, the story flows better but what are the memorable quests and locations? Its feature is elevation, but it's actually a very flat zone when it comes to where players quest, as each hub plays out in a fairly unremarkable space. It's the "highest mountain" on Azeroth, but the ascension to the peak is just so dull compared to Kun-lai Summit. Even WoD's Nagrand felt like it made greater use of elevation with its climbs to peaks, and the hidden treasure locations that required glider runs to lower points.
The core of Warlords has really strong zones. Shadowmoon Valley, Spires of Arak, Frostfire Ridge are all great, with Nagrand ranking in as pretty good. Legion has four leveling zones and half of them are somewhere between not good and bad. As a whole it is the expansion that feels the least ambitious with its zone concepts and that's just a huge mark against it for me.