We took a look at Zuldazar, the first zone in WoW: Battle for Azeroth for the Horde.
After we quested through the Alliance areas in the beta of World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth in recent weeks, we have now repeated the process for the Horde. We give you a first impression of what you will see in Zandalar and whether the Horde can keep up with the good impression of the Alliance areas.
Dazar’Alor – A city as big as Suramar
As soon as Horde players arrive in Zandalar, they enter the gigantic city of Dazar’Alor. And gigantic is truly gigantic in this case. The massive pyramid that forms the center of the city allows players to look across the entire area.
The city, with an active harbor, a large marketplace, many walkable buildings, and plenty of NPCs going about their daily business, strongly resembles Suramar. Blizzard has taken the beautiful design of a city from Legion and transferred it to Troll architecture.
But other aspects also remind one of Suramar. In many areas of the city, there are enemies and NPCs that are hostile to us. This is because all the existing Troll tribes come together in Dazar’Alor. Not only the Zandalari and Darkspears are present, but also the Gurubashi, the Amani, and all the other Troll tribes that one has encountered in 13 years of World of Warcraft.
A vibrant, exciting city
What I particularly like is how much there is to discover in Dazar’Alor. In one corner, you can find the troll vendor Gaunah, who sells “Vol’jin’s Totem of Indomitability” and explains that Vol’jin would still be Warchief if he hadn’t forgotten his totem. In another location, there stands an ogre selling “designer stones” – gray stones of no value but with funny descriptions.
In another place, you find an unremarkable heap of scrap that imposes a mysterious debuff on players in the vicinity – allegedly there is a “strong presence” nearby. Only a click on the scrap heap reveals Jani, a Loa, who collects scrap and whose shrines are these scrap heaps.
In the slums of the city, many troll children run around, stealing from passersby and then fleeing quickly. With a little skill, you can find out that they serve a “Mr. Nett” who forces them to do this work. This is reminiscent of real problems in German cities.
And all of this is just the capital, where a large part of the quests take place. Zuldazar itself is incredibly beautiful but might seem a bit claustrophobic to some players. The dense canopy of trees that blocks out sunlight can create a feeling of anxiety for some.
The story is quite convincing. Much revolves around blood magic and voodoo, but especially the interesting Loa, the god-like beings of the trolls, are well-designed and well-woven into the story. Basically, it revolves around the troll king Rastakhan and his daughter, Princess Talanji. They try to maintain peace in the city and figure out who the advisor is that is playing false. To avoid spoilers, we won’t go into more detail for now – you can play it yourself in a few days.
The first area of the Horde promises that Zandalar is just as beautiful as Kul Tiras in the Alliance. Whether this is still the case in Nazmir and Vol’dun will be revealed here in a few days.
