10 Vanilla Zones You Were NEVER Meant To See | World of Warcraft

[@WillEmmo]

Click this link sponsr.is/WillE and use my code WILLE to get 25% off your first payment for boot.dev. That’s 25% your first month or your first year, depending on the subscription you choose.

[@skrypthobbies]

You're close to the money with Aszhara Crater. The real missing zone here is Timbermaw Hold at the base of Mount Hyjal. Logically this would extend all the way up inside Mount Hyjal to the entrances between Felwood, Moonglade and Winterspring. The Furbolg are the most underdone and neglected race in Azeroth.

[@qsxmirage7274]

naga please

[@VelvetSkyye]

@@skrypthobbies I mean, the entrance there was still in vanilla. There was just an object in the way of the doorway.

[@clintmcbride7830]

​@@qsxmirage7274Naga have had extensive expansions to their lore and they have been an integral part to many patches and whole expansions. Furbolgs...... Yeah. Not even close

[@eydis9554]

6:16 Fun fact, you could actually get here during Season of Discovery. In Phase 2, an item could drop from Gnomeregan called Aragriar's Whimsical World Warper. It would teleport you to a random location with 4 hour cooldown. There was a very small chance it would teleport you here, but once it did, you basically got a debuff that said: "You are not suppose to be here" and kicked you out.

[@MikeyJ232]

Yep, there’s a lot of unfinished places tucked away in an inaccessible part of the client. You can do some exploring if you setup a 1.12 repack and use GM commands to break boundaries

[@Fremder5]

holy shit thats awesome

[@godlygamer911]

You have always been able to get here since day one and until this day...

[@treeaboo]

You've always been able to get to that one, you just have to take a very long route swimming around the coast behind Stratholme to get there.

[@iesdise]

12:43 this place was intended to test how holes in the floor geometry work. Outland was supposed to come out in vanilla. Outland was supposed to be a huge floating space rock. You had to be able to fall from it and into space. However, if you look at any terrain from the bottom, it's see through, because it's only one way texture. So this place was meant, to test covering up the terrain with object while you fall, so you don't see through the ground. That's what the spheres and rocks are for. In the end, Outland just ended up being a REALLY high mountain, so they didn't have to deal with this. :) Easy.

[@McStumpy9331]

Me and the wife met while raiding Karazhan 17 years ago. Just a classic tale of a Tank and a Healer, met on line, moved two states and have been Raiding Life ever since. Karazhan will always hold a special meaning to us.

[@marz_mitzi]

you are so fucking cool. edating during a raid

[@ProfGlitch]

​@@marz_mitziback in the day tons of people were edating during raids. male:female player balance was much closer to even back then compared to now

[@Miixx-yi6rk]

Bros Karazhan dropped an epic girlfriend, he needed and won

[@Dark_Jaguar]

I remember finding that hidden dancing troll village and partying there for a bit with a couple friends just before the servers shut down for the cataclysm patch. Unfortunately, I didn't "wake up" back in that village and everyone came in at a handful of preset spawn points, but still it was fun.

[@Tibainium]

According to Mark Kern, the Emerald Dream was originally going to be a massive questing zone for characters that were dead. You would even meet dead heroes like Anduin Lothar. There was also no thing as spirit healers and the Shadowlands, they originally wanted to use altars similiar like those in WC3 to revive your character.

[@mr.moonthegoon4178]

That would have been so strange, but an interesting idea. You die in reality and go to the dream, you die in the dream and return to reality

[@talmbout7779]

i always ran up to those as a ghost and wondered why i did not get rez'd lol

[@mikeoxlong3676]

That sounds AWESOME

[@Geshmaal]

And instead of that we got Shadowlands!

[@morthaine7389]

After TBC, the blood elf zones don't actually get added north of EPL. There's a portal there and some terrain that looks like what goes on the other side, but the actual zones are located on the Outland map, far to the east. There used to be ways to cross the void there. Likewise, Azuremyst and Bloodmyst isle are out in the void in Outland as well, and the boat to and from them leads to a loading screen.

[@Arenumberg]

This made them inaccessible if you hadn't purchased TBC, though I'm sure it wasn't the only reason they did it that way. Probably a lot to do with how world servers and load sharing worked back in the early days. Im curious if there was any TBC content that was similar to this.. we know about things in Wrath that didn't make it like Azjol-Nerub, but not much in relation to TBC, though.. given how much of TBC finished up some classic stuff, maybe there was less time spent on things that didn't pan out.

[@demithianarghal7298]

I remember accessing the emerald dream by accident when acting as a GM on a private server, I was working on a hearthstone for emergency recalls and stumbled across it. Became my testing spot for the longest time.

[@StarsingerOG]

It's amazing turtle wow used almost all of those zones.

[@chefck518]

It's amazing a turtle wow player is worried about regular wow

[@SelbstmordZweig]

xD

[@clintmcbride7830]

​@@chefck518no it's not. They love to come here and act like their stolen game is worth playing.

[@Mattiks12]

@@chefck518sounds a lot like you’re worried ab what he said???

[@OneMinutePast]

As far as how people found the Outlands stuff in deadmines, the process of getting there was a lot easier than the way you did it. Early in vanilla a mage could just blink through the exit instance portal, run around the corner and it was just an open hole to jump out of. Then you just angle yourself, slow fall, and you’re there.

[@Rax1145]

its crazy going back to seeing videos like this with zones being incomplete after having played through them in alternate realities.

[@OrionTheAussie]

I was glad i had the chance to actually see all this stuff myself back in vanilla. Except the emerald dream.

[@SteaksOnSpear]

Location 12:45 is located inside the Deadmines instance, in the big room with the ship, you can fly up with GM commands through the cavern and you get to that place

[@ArakkoaChronicles]

Fun fact about the "north of Stormwind" mini-zone, it was at one point meant to be the point of Deathwing's re-emergence into the world - hence the big-ass crack stretching all the way across the continent out of it - and why he perched atop Stormwind, he was taking in the sight of how the world's changed. He was said to be beneath Grim Batol in the books so it made sense he'd burst out of the ground somewhere in the general vicinity, but I guess he was actually so far down he was in another plane of existence?? (Deepholm)

[@bullwhiz650]

Thanks for providing the "Classic+" team with more content to potentially put out.

[@godlygamer911]

HAHAHAHAHAHA Classic+ yeah... any day now I'm sure

[@tangoalpha9955]

They damn sure can’t do it independent of online opinions such as this. Classic team is an embarrassment now, work on it seems to be handed down like a punishment.

[@godlygamer911]

@@tangoalpha9955 It's because nobody cares about it. It's not what makes the money. It was a big deal during shadowlands because shadowlands was terrible.

[@Mufireael]

Love the intro, those shots from Vanilla combined with The Shaping of the World theme sparks my passion and excitement for Warcraft, once again. =) Thank you mate, appreciate you!

[@tynao2029]

Loved that feeling in Classic ascending the Mage keep towers, never knowing what lore or uncovered history you might find

[@Integrawr]

Thanks for doing the legwork and researching these types of things, its always a treat to know that other development teams ALSO worked hard on lots of stuff that never made it to release.

[@Ravenousjoe]

I found that farm when I was playing SoD when getting the slowest pet for a 2H Melee Hunter build. It was fun walking around those mountains, especially as a Tauren.

[@DeviousWizard]

This OG cut content is what I want to see in Classic. It can even contain gear sets that fix/make viable certain specs. Heavily doubt this happens. Maybe if TWW keeps tanking

[@StrangeScaryNewEngland]

You never mentioned under Stormwind. I remember getting under there in the early 2000's with a group and we were all pretty low levels. If I recall, it was difficult to get into.

[@zenFX350]

Also in original vanilla, if you stood on one of the benches while a mage polymorphs you, you fell straight through to old ironforge

[@kilroy6547]

the emerald dream we got felt so disappointing.

[@Planetdune]

11:45 That wasn't any sort of miracle. Private servers allowed players to host their own copy of the game on their PC and noclip through walls. Thus it was easy to locate "unused hidden" places and work out methods to get there in retail.

[@TheRealCeeJai]

Looking at a lot of this content that eventually got finished and released for TBC (even the stuff that really had nothing to do with Outland, such as Kara and the whole CoT instances), it becomes very evident that TBC took the descriptor of 'EXPANSION PACK' quite literally, as it was just literally expanding on stuff they couldn't get to in Classic. It wasn't until Wrath and Cata that 'Expansion Pack' for WoW began to mean essentially an entirely new game and near-complete and total obsolescence of what came before. Bolstering this (and a little off-topic), I recall hearing devs talk about how it was hotly contested to carry over reputations from factions like the Cenarion Circle and Bronze Dragonflight that would have a significant presence in TBC. This would have rewarded players who did previous content but, obviously, it was ultimately decided to create splinter-faction reputations instead.

[@VelvetSkyye]

@TheRealCeeJai I mean that much is obvious. The caverns, raid portals, and black morass all existed in the game. Just the fact atiesh literally ported you to Kara and the entire crypts were done, textured, and had interactable objects and ambience tells you that Kara was supposed to be in vanilla, the alpha version of Kara not withstanding Hell redoing the entire tower throughout vanilla is probably why it was never added until tbc

[@TheRealCeeJai]

@@VelvetSkyye You're almost there, but you're not quite getting my point. It's not just CoT and Kara. Almost *everything* in TBC was stuff they wanted in base Classic but didn't have time or resources to get to before shipping, including Outland itself AND a level 70 cap. Now, contrast that with how expansions shifted to much smaller slices after this and how much content has never been finished, just abandoned. Now, imagine what WoW would be like if every expansion also included content from previous expansions that wasn't finished on time: if we got the Emerald Dream, proper, in WotLK; if we got the entirety of the Northrend nerubian underworld opened up in Cata; if Legion had brought Farahlon, etc. It's disappointing to me that so much has been thrown aside through the years, just to be abandoned. I feel something was lost with the smaller, focused expansion slice paradigm. That's a much finer tip to the point I was trying to make. P.S. - Also, it hasn't been until pretty recently in WoW that players who have played through older content (either when it was current or catching up later while leveling through it) have been rewarded for doing so, or that NPCs would react to your character as if they remembered them from some previous exploits. Wrath really began that "fresh start" mentality with some of the decisions made, instead of making it feel more like a continued, connected journey. But you can see the groundwork in TBC through decisions like the splinter-faction reps instead of using the rep bar from the last time you met that faction.

[@jordanread5829]

Even the Dragon Isles were going to be in vanilla according to early zone maps. Although they would've been different to what we ended up getting in Dragonflight.

[@pflegerich]

I played on the EU server Gilneas in vanilla and was really surprised to find a gate to Gilneas in the world and then not be able to get through it...

[@NeverThatx2]

Statue at 15:20 oddly enough resembles the jailer when he goes lifeless at the end of his boss fight after we defeat him. The arbiter early rendition before they knew they were gunna go in that direction?

[@Bedonkabonk]

2:40 In Classic, I DCed once while flying and ended up dismounted over the farms in the hills above Wetlands.

[@regnn]

3:35 there is also a way to clip like this using the window in the building between the throne and the Military ward.

[@marcusmoore2578]

I was always interested in the goblin zone to the west of stonetalon. Wasn’t sure what it was intended for though.

[@evilbee94]

This video is dope! Deffo make a part 2

[@spaceballs999]

I remember climbing a mountain over by Iron Forge, and got to a battle area, where a bunch of not real npc's were fighting. I think it was an area you can only fly over. I also didn't play wow much, so I don't actually know if you cant actually reach this area or not.

[@AdrienChassard]

me a turtle wow enjoyer. Indeed! some nice quest in this zone

[@Shokisan1]

🐢 is 🐐

[@Vallith]

Would love to see a part 2! Great video, as always WillE.

[@phantom0456]

There’s more leftout Vanilla zones in this video than you can shake your WillE at!!!

[@talmbout7779]

LOL again

[@BigFredMachine]

The third instance in the caverns of time is not Hyjal. It was supposed to be something different as there are elven ships at the entrance, probably well of eternity or something. Hard to tell exactly cause that's the only instance of the three that had no map in vanilla.

[@Litepaw]

Anyone remember Reznik's exploration content way back whenever? Good shit for 10 year old me 😂

[@kentikeef]

deadwind pass and "huge zone" do not belong in the same sentence. its the smallest zone in classic.

[@BigTerpz]

Private servers around bc/wotlk were epic. The GM servers were super interesting

[@MikeyJ232]

You should setup a 1.12 repack and explore some hidden unfinished zones with GM commands

[@ugoboom]

i thought thats what he always did, how he was able to show off multiple expansions' talents before the classic version came out. hes also flying in these 1.12 shots

[@jotaaonetwo4178]

WoW Alpha classic waiting room

[@ttvitsmevigi]

Yes part 2 please!

[@Jollyman432]

you forgot gm island, programmers island, designers island, south seas Islands & troll village, hyjal, behind stormwind oldtown behind the closed gate and lots of more cool places

[@CatholicJedi]

“What if Turtle WoW existed?”

[@blenfz]

They have to pretend that TWoW doesn't exist to make these videos

[@DivineBanana]

What's turtle wow. I know it's a private server but what's so special about it? Not asking in a sarcastic way, genuinely curious because I hear so much of it.

[@BeckettEdwards-zs5lq]

It’s one of the best Vanilla + private servers that you can play on and could be argued that they are doing even better that Blizzard itself They have a ton of new content as well as new races and better balance between what type of character you pick

[@DivineBanana]

@BeckettEdwards-zs5lq bro what's funny is I see my comment from a month ago, and now I play turtle WoW, already got a 60 warlock 😂 agreed man best version of classic out there.

[@marz_mitzi]

what's the black top at 11:49?

[@Snowshill]

it goes far deeper than you know, wrath for example wasn't meant to end for a good two years more than we got, almost everything in cata was meant to be over several wrath patchies

[@kanor13]

I totally believe it but do you have a source for this? Would love to learn more

[@VelvetSkyye]

Its the same source for how nearly every single expansion other than mists, wod, and legion was supposed to be in vanilla.​@kanor13

[@godlygamer911]

@@kanor13 They don't, it's all 20 year old rumors

[@Cashinn_Outt1754]

Legion was actually supposed to be a patch for TBc too

[@ugoboom]

and hidden in the files of tbc and warth, was a Sunwell loading screen with the WotLK banner. This suggests was meant to be a starer WotLK raid, but it had to get moved up to tbc, and that explains why we got hastily slightly revamped Naxx in wotlk.

[@vali.s5109]

There's a team that made Gilneas, Emerald Dream, Black Morass, Karazhan Crypts all into vanilla content (most of them made from 0), it's a private vanilla+ server that u might know (Tutel wow)

[@manoqueenz]

Tutel wow, that’s quite an original name

[@annastasijaspellman2536]

Pretty sure that most of these zones/places have been opened on Turtle wow. Plus new ones.

[@annastasijaspellman2536]

The city of gilneas is in turtle wow. It's an entire mid to high level questing zone... Yeah turtle wow is the best version of wow

[@Boredonthejob]

Great video as always. I'd love a part 2.

[@talmbout7779]

those old skool devs LOOK COOL

[@SaarimaaSauli]

Emerald Dream was so damn lame in Dragonflight, I'm not even counting it as the real zone.

[@cabrondemente1]

I'm still mad that Shadowlands got an expansion while Emerald Dream only got a patch.

[@godlygamer911]

Not really sure it matters what you do or don't count...

[@eldonhector]

Lmao what did you expect ? Whole expansion ? 💀

[@Ryder385]

It’s retail, and it’s lame.

[@hunlepto2239]

@@eldonhector About a zone that was mentioned a thousand times in lore and is supposed to be a whole different plane of existence? Of fucking course.

[@rubenmiller926]

Man if they made that kara old model apvp area like gurubashi arena

[@JohnGamingFuntime]

those things in the emerald dream that you didnt know about are dream catchers

[@TheRealCeeJai]

I don't think he was talking about the dreamcatcher part specifically, but the entirety of the structures they're embedded on the top of.

[@talmbout7779]

they still look ed really out of this world even from a 2000s people's imagination

[@TheAngelRaven]

For Classic+, The Emerald Dream could be 4 subzones using the portals in on Azeroth, leading to a mega-zone from portals within each subzone. Just an idea.

[@godlygamer911]

What Classic+ lol?

[@matthewkeating-od6rl]

Great vid

[@johnnykeys1978]

Yes the final product was unfinished and buggy - but blizzard executives got heaps of money, so that was a sacrifice they were willing to make.

[@realmiker]

Wish I could still play

[@Ryder385]

Part 2 please

[@TuskaWoW]

bring the Azshara Crater to wow please :)

[@Yellowtoxin]

Hope we get a new zone in Ban’ethil barrow den

[@Soulstoner93]

I love you WillE ❤

[@MercedbyCisco]

So the emerald dream in sod was just a half ass green ashenvale

[@Hamond1989]

Part 2 Part 2^^

[@Zhienerich]

The zone north of EPL was Labared Dragon isles on concept map for wow, with a lvl 70 raid on it. also, Dragon Isle is the name given for location of the giant squid temple from collector edition art book, and ingame asset.

[@idkidgaf]

some pretty sus bot comments in here.

[@MikeyJ232]

it’s been the Wild West here lately

[@doubleb3813]

Literally every KZbinr I watch has a lot of bot comments

[@nexusobserve]

global air cylinder wheels

[@mr.moonthegoon4178]

Gibberish name No pfp Yup, this is a bot post

[@JohnRhinoTheThird]

One of them bots gave me pink eye

[@markuslc1888]

part 2 pls

[@christophermccutcheon2143]

Jeez you got a lot of hate for this one. Feel like i probably know them but i tuned in in case there was one i didn't know.

[@adamparker1504]

Hi WillE love your content but I need to understand why so many are wanting tbc servers back ? I thought Wrath was the pinnacle. I get why everyone loves Vanilla. But tbc servers why ?!

[@leonardpimentel5865]

this is what they should do for classic plus. Keep classic classic. But they can fill out and complete all the stuff that they didn’t fill out and complete. Without going to a bunch of other worlds. Without adding pandas or any of that nonsense. No disrespect to people who like playing pandas.

[@volume709redemption]

Hey Will! How long do you think you can keep “re-skinning” the same video content about a game that has had the same game-content for 20 straight years? Just impressed by how you go on about the same shit every time I make it 5 mins into your videos. Seems like this is just AI generated content it’s so monotonous and repetitive.

[@emanuelbandrabur5338]

Part 2 plx

[@danielgarlock2074]

Old Tauren Feral Druid here, long out of the game though I love revisiting via YT. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Emerald Dream was a Druid only leveling quest I thought - I went there to meet some half-elk centaur who granted flight form or aquatic form I thought.

[@blayhawson2425]

That would be the Moonglade! 😄

[@danielgarlock2074]

@@blayhawson2425 ahhh tyvm😀 still finding my way back.

[@Followtheham]

Love this

[@yungvino9379]

If you had a stepdad in IT with a personal server tower, you know gm island was the most boring thing in Vanilla PS compared to finding stuff like this.

[@kerrytking]

Coulda sworn Madseason posted this exact video

[@christophermccutcheon2143]

Please, it was done 1000 times before Madseason and you watched every one of those. You'll watch the next 1000 as well until you clock your nostalgia-bating. I'm here to see if there's any I don't know. Skipping over the ones I do know

[@kerrytking]

@@christophermccutcheon2143 I actually didn’t watch madseason’s or this one. In fact, I didn’t even read your whole comment 😂

[@MoonTurky]

When people say *Nobody is playing cata classic*, they where not lying,,, Not a single dungeon or raid group, servers with 12 people online, what the actual sam hell is going on?

[@sayrebonifield4663]

As a casual with a family and a career, who has solo played WoW about 4 months every other expansion for the last 15 years and am now have the best time ever with delves in the game, even considered attempting to learn to engage with M+? I certainly think it has an audience, but all indications are that it is designed to be rewarding to, at most, 10% of the player base. There isn’t even a viable way to learn that content. Not to mention how add ons are constant confession highlighting the failure of the UI. M+ is t just a waste of time and energy, it is a trap. Anything that take that much effort to “get good” at needs to pay me, a lot. I pay Blizzard to provided me with a fun, engaging fantasy.

[@WorentFelix]

like 2 times they lost a pvp BG for DOTA like Style, and Emerald Dream... PSSS... 1000 reason for hate DF.

[@nashonator8544]

What? 6:57 tough twister

[@SotnekronOfficial]

As someone that played WoW everywhere, TurtleWoW did the old world justice.

[@Shokisan1]

💯

[@biohazard3554]

Too bad Blizz are too busy making mounts and fairy wings crap to care about what their players want

[@baguda2040]

Not to kill the magic but most of these places were “discovered” by the dev team who made it originally. They never got to finish their projects but they knew it was still in the game and they know where it is at

[@RoraxPlays]

believing that this stuff would be expanded upon in a vanilla+ is hard cope

[@christophermccutcheon2143]

Haaaarddd cope. I like it though. It keeps the sweats on classic cos they think it'll be updated someday lol. Which creates a MUCH healthier player environment on Era. So let them cope. The longer they stay on Classic the better

[@Muranight]

​@@christophermccutcheon2143 u talking about era and classic like they are two different things

[@christophermccutcheon2143]

@@Muranight they are two different things lol. Classic is Vanilla. Era is Cataclysm for the moment. There are 3 versions of the game now. Classic, Era and Retail.

[@Muranight]

@@christophermccutcheon2143 lol no, era is vanilla lmao

[@christophermccutcheon2143]

@@Muranight the part of the launcher is split retail and "cataclysm: classic", and you can then pick there between "Cataclysm", and "WoW: Classic" which is Vanilla. Era is Cataclysm. Classic is Vanilla. You can also play Classic Hardcore on the Classic Vanilla servers... You can also play Classic: Season of Discovery on Classic Vanilla servers, as these are both modified versions of Vanilla... Classic is Vanilla. Era is Cata.

[@easycake3251]

OG Blizzard Team made a full game + another half on top of nearly finished content that was never released. Did the SoD team use any of it ? Nope. Far easier to just copy paste from SoM and pretend its a new experience.

[@VelvetSkyye]

Black Morass was finished. The entire zone including the dark portal was in vanilla. It also included a winding tunnel through a void to make it look like theres a dimension you had to walk through to get to the past point in time.

[@DavidBarryOfficial]

Sauce?

[@bojangle]

@@DavidBarryOfficial Look up Hayven Games channel. Lots of exploration on there and he shows off the Black Morass as it was in vanilla. (also RIP Hayven)

[@VelvetSkyye]

@DavidBarryOfficial the source is its literally in the fucking game

[@StrobeFireStudios]

how can a company not finish a product in time, when it's a BRAND NEW product with no real expectations? just make it and then release it. like, who cares if it's late. it;s a new game. wait??

[@Nijos254]

They had to money. They were paying development costs while making the game, they had to make money back eventually or they would run out of money

[@user-tr3wg7qd6h]

hell yeah

[@Jenartik]

content that manages to make british food look exciting in comparison

[@TheRomanoLV]

Haha fuck that's rough

[@nienospokoloko]

feels forced just to make sponsored video

[@nexusobserve]

low effort video and you made rent off it

[@Chocho5983]

why are you recycling content bro?

[@first001]

Dying channel and a dying game. Millennials are too old now.

[@christophermccutcheon2143]

Nein. You have a warped perspective. Are you a classic player? I'd wager you are. Sweats have ruined Classic. There's no 2 ways about it. Retail is still strangely active... But I play Era and there is a crowd of regular players. Some swap between Era and Retail, like they play retail but come for Era stuff like it's seasonal with the patches. What's actually happening is that Era and Classic have settled into their audiences, while Retail is somehow maintaining a fairly decent player count. At any rate, WoW isn't dying. It's just we play it differently now. Except the Classic Sweats who still bully each other like it's 2004, except worse cos now they have mods and stats to back up the shit talking.

[@galeitiaa]

170k subs...I don't think his channel is dying, jealous much?

[@DivineBanana]

Bro you doomers have been crying "wows dead" for over a decade now and we're still here lmao

[@DaveDavis-f9w]

Christ, you're reaching for content these days.

[@General12th]

If you don't like what he has to say, feel free to unsubscribe.

[@AJarOfYams]

I like these trivia videos

[@idkidgaf]

@@General12th audacious of you to think he was subscribed to begin with.

[@General12th]

@@idkidgaf I can only hope he was. The alternative -- that he stumbled on a random video and decided to spend precious seconds of his finite life flaming it -- is far worse.

[@Frostgnaw]

@@General12th I mean, his class videos for vanilla were great and then the phase content after that was nice as well. Now Willie has just turned into every generic WoW content creator.