This evolution guide serves as an archive of anecdotes, trivia, and other interesting facts about the many game design shifts World of Warcraft had during the long years between its alpha stage and now. Some areas were cut before being released, game balance was completely overhauled several times, Cataclysm wiped the state clean on two continents.

The game itself started as a rescripted modification of the Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos engine,[1] and the project was already started in 1999, 3 years before the eventual release of Warcraft III itself. Before the game's release, RPG books such as Lands of Conflict had already mapped out and described part of the content that was to appear in World of Warcraft in the years after.

However, time has a tendency to warp memories and old websites can die down, and as such some of these facts can't be proven with references anymore, so take any "citation needed" statement with a grain of salt. Note that this list was compiled from the works of many users, and each of them should be thanked for their efforts. Still, the topic is immense, and more researches/updates on this article would be warmly welcomed.

Game mechanics

Combat

While not necessarily harder, the combat system back then involved more number-crunching than presently, with more secondary stats and less streamlined itemization.

Abilities

Buffs

Death

Altar of kings at Goldshire.

Altar of Storms model.

Health and mana

Natural regeneration for health and mana was at that time much slower and most people had to bandage, eat and drink after killing a few mobs. It was originally impossible to eat and drink at the same time but this was changed in a patch after release.

Mana regeneration itself was affected by the five second rule until Cataclysm, which prevented a character's mana from regenerating five seconds after casting a spell. Healers often took turns at main tank healing so some could regenerate mana outside the rule.

Magic and resistance

Mobs

At release mobs usually had comparatively more health and did more damage than now; you could fight a couple of them but pulling a whole group often meant death. Dungeons and elite areas usually required crowd control in order for the adventurers not to be overwhelmed.

Vanilla World of Warcraft was fond of adding elite level 60 mobs surrounded by bodyguards at the end of some quest chains, like the Twilight Prophet, Demetria and the Crimson Courier.

was fond of adding elite level 60 mobs surrounded by bodyguards at the end of some quest chains, like the Twilight Prophet, Demetria and the Crimson Courier. Though they still do in vanilla zones, mobs had the tendency back then to flee when low on health. While the idea may sound more player-friendly than a mob fighting to the death entirely, the fact is that these fleeing mobs often aggroed new enemies toward the player while running, making closed areas like caves and buildings harder.

Many elite areas previously existed until they got removed in patch 2.3.0. Andorhal, Hive'Regal, Tyr's Hand were among them, and after the patch, the mobs inside these areas lost their elite status. Other elite mobs in normal areas, such as Mor'Ladim and the Sons of Arugal, were eventually nerfed as well.

Up until a later patch of The Burning Crusade, most mobs in front of dungeon entrances were actually elite as well. Getting inside a dungeon was already a task in itself.

Weapon skills

Inventory

During the early years of the game, inventory space was much more limited than now.

Paper doll before to be streamlined.

Miscellaneous

At release, many "quality of life" features were yet to be implemented.

Achievements

Auction houses

During the beta, each major city had its own special auction house but due to technical reasons they weren't linked, instead of all of them being linked like today.

For the release, Blizzard decided to consolidate them: the only Alliance auction house was now in Ironforge, the only Horde one was now in Orgrimmar, and the only neutral one was in Gadgetzan.

In patch 1.9.0 Blizzard introduced the linked auction houses feature. All the capitals got back their auctioneers, but their item pools were still separated by factions. It wasn't until patch 6.0.2 that all of them were finally merged together.

Bank

At release there were no guild banks, so most guilds used low-level characters to store everything the guild needed.

There was no Reagent Bank either.

Companions

Fashion

Flight paths

Green exclamation points showing a new flight master is nearby was only added in patch 2.3.0.

Flight paths were originally not connected, so you needed to pick the next stop each time you landed.

The flying mounts in mainland Quel'Thalas were giant bats instead of dragonhawks until patch 2.4.3.

Between patch 4.1.0 and 5.2.0, most flight paths were learned automatically when a character became the appropriate level to use them, but it was removed to encourage exploration.

Looting

You originally had to loot each mob manually instead of being able to loot all mobs at once in a radius like currently.

Looting a chest or a boss originally did not bring up the loot roll box when in a group and people used to /roll manually for the rights to one, though this was later changed since it was possible to ninja loot items when other members of a party needed them more.

Until loot rolling became restricted on class and specialization, it was very common for hunters to roll on everything because they were the class which could use the greatest variety of gear.

The UI couldn't originally tell other players who was able to loot each mob, so this led to many "Loot the core hounds!"-like yells.

Patch 3.3.0 introduced the option to roll to [ Disenchant ] enchanter was present in the group.

enchanter was present in the group. Personal loot didn't exist until Mists of Pandaria .

. Patch 8.0.1 made personal loot the default option for groups, removing all other loot systems (and with them the ability to roll to disenchant gear).

Mail

At release, most cities had only one mailbox. Sending mail to alts wasn't instant, and there was also of course no [ Guild Mail ]

The ability to send Bind to Account items to alts on other realms was only introduced in patch 5.4.2.

Names

The developers originally planned to include a way for players to obtain last names for their characters.[6]

Swimming

The breath timer was originally one minute instead of three. Quests that required you to go underwater didn't give you water-breathing buffs as well.

Forsaken players originally had no breath meter, then they got one again but longer than other races, and [ Touch of the Grave ]

Quests

Quest design was less streamlined and cinematic than currently due to the lack of phasing and scenarios. Furthermore, many high-level questlines forced players to travel back and forth all over the world in order to complete them, and before the addition of quest markers, some quests like [20] Lost in Battle and [60] The Ancient Leaf were notorious for their cryptic directions (or lack thereof). The adventurers were originally treated more like anonymous mercenaries by NPCs, it was only in Wrath of the Lich King that they started to be recognized for their deeds. Cataclysm completely revamped the quests of the two original continents in order to bring them more in line with modern quest design.

Riding

Mounts were originally handled by players in a more "personal" way, mainly because they were rarer and harder to acquire. Players usually kept to one mount and for a long time.

Time and monetary investment

At release, it usually took much longer to do things compared to now. Leveling up was longer, reputation grinding was harder, money was sparser.

Experience

Money

At release money was much less abundant than now, and as such gold sinks were rather different. As an example, it was almost universally impossible to immediately buy a new mount when you reached the required level cap if you were playing alone.

Specialization

At release you could respec your character for a monetary fee, but each time you respecced, the fee would become bigger and bigger, until it became capped to a 50g limit in a patch.

Dual speccing was introduced in Wrath of the Lich King to help with this problem, until Legion finally permitted players to freely switch between all their specializations.

User interface

Alpha user interface.

World of Warcraft's user interface was designed to be simple and easy to understand, similar to Diablo II.[12] While already customizable, at release the UI lacked several features that now seem essential:

Social

Blizzard originally envisioned that players would be able to learn the languages of other races—including those of the opposing faction—though not easily. [3] [6]

The in-game Calendar was introduced in Wrath of the Lich King .

. Real ID and cross-game chat using Battle.net was only introduced in patch 3.3.5. BattleTags were introduced in Patch 5.0.4 and the ability to appear offline in Battle.net was finally added in October 2017.

In addition to other perks for guilds, the developers originally planned to include "Guild Dungeon Instances". [6]

Before Cataclysm, guild management was very bare-bone. No news feed, upcoming events, ability to search from the professions, etc. You also needed ten signatures to create a guild instead of five. The expansion pack also added guild advancement, which could reward many different guild perks as you leveled the guild up. Because of this, many smaller guilds had to disband, and alts were constantly bombarded with guild invites, so Warlords of Draenor removed guild advancement and trimmed down guild perks.

World content

There were originally no phasing, cross-realm dungeons/zones/battlegrounds, scenarios or sharding. If someone of the same server was in the same region as you, you were able to see him, and likewise, you could only see people of your servers running around. Because of this, worldwide content like bosses and events were more common, leading to massive instability and/or chaos in some cases.

Blizzard started adding cross-server content with the battlegroups in patch 1.12.0. They were groups of realms whose players could face each other in Player vs. Player matches. Battlegroups were eventually phased out so players from any realms in the same continental zone could play with each other.

World bosses

World events

Races

Common

Blood elves

Demons

Before Warcraft III really solidified, Chris Metzen envisioned demons as shapeshifters who used magical illusions and deceit,[20] and this version of demons was initially planned to be a playable race in classic World of Warcraft alongside naga and goblins.[20][21] According to Johnathan Staats, this was likely a relic from when the Burning Legion was planned to be a playable race in Warcraft III.[21] However, as Warcraft III developed, the demons got a lot more brutish, and on the development side, having a shapeshifting race proved too expensive as it would effectively entail making a whole additional race with its own animation sets in addition to the base race. Thus, playable demons were cut from classic WoW.[20]

Draenei

Since the wait for the draenei race announcement was so long, Blizzard joked about wisps being the new Alliance race. The draenei leaked a few days before being actually finally announced, and their strange appearance led to some people thinking that they were wisps which had somehow possessed eredar bodies.

There exists unfinished assets for female Broken.

Dwarves

Forest trolls

The original models of forest trolls were originally just reskinned jungle trolls, but they were updated in The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King.

Forsaken

The Forsaken almost didn't make the cut as a playable race in World of Warcraft due to the designers' animation workload and limited resources. [23]

due to the designers' animation workload and limited resources. The Forsaken racial mount was originally intended to be a demonic horse called a nightmare instead of the skeletal horse. [24] [25] Even after release, Executor Zygand and Deathguard Lundmark rode felsteeds until their mounts got changed to skeletal horses in a later patch.

Even after release, Executor Zygand and Deathguard Lundmark rode felsteeds until their mounts got changed to skeletal horses in a later patch. In the alpha they were simply known as "Undead" instead of "Forsaken". [22]

Forsaken player characters were originally classified as Undead instead of Humanoids, so they could be targeted by [ Exorcism ] Demons.

Demons. Before the introduction of Gutterspeak in the beta, they were able to speak Common. [25]

In order to represent the political tensions within the Horde, the Forsaken originally started out as neutral instead of friendly with the other races of the faction. The blood elves broke that rule because of their shared friendship, and the goblins and pandaren also later ignored it.

instead of with the other races of the faction. The blood elves broke that rule because of their shared friendship, and the goblins and pandaren also later ignored it. Up until Cataclysm they couldn't be hunters.

Gnomes

Goblins

Goblins were initially envisioned to be a playable race for World of Warcraft but got cut along early. [20]

but got cut along early. Many goblin NPCs already existed at release but they had different models. Both their male and female models could already be equipped with many different armors and weapons however.

Their addition as the next Horde race was leaked by Hallow's End masks.[27]

Humans

Jungle trolls

Jungle trolls were made playable late in the development of the vanilla alpha. [1] This is why they didn't appear in the original cinematic and had their capital city lost to Zalazane. In the alpha, they were also simply known as "trolls" instead of "jungle trolls". [22]

This is why they didn't appear in the original cinematic and had their capital city lost to Zalazane. In the alpha, they were also simply known as "trolls" instead of "jungle trolls". Jungle trolls couldn't originally become mage in the alpha, but this was changed in order to balance the number of available classes within the Horde.

The female trolls were notorious for having been revamped between alpha and beta - they originally looked much more feral and were slouched like their male counterparts. [1]

Up until Cataclysm they couldn't be druids or warlocks.

Naga

Naga were initially envisioned to be a playable race for World of Warcraft but got cut along early.[20] According to Mark Kern, the naga were Chris Metzen's favorite race and the one he regretted cutting the most.[13]

Night elves

Up until Cataclysm, night elves couldn't be mages.

Ogres

The original ogre model looked chubbier and slightly more inane, but they were updated a few months after release. Since then, new ogre models were created or updated in several of the following expansion packs.

They were announced as a joke race in 2004. The way Cho'gall is played in Heroes of the Storm is reminiscent of that joke.

Orcs

Up until Cataclysm , orcs couldn't be mages.

, orcs couldn't be mages. There exists unfinished assets for female fel orcs.

Patch 8.0.1 introduced the possibility to have a straight back for orcs.

Pandaren

The Burning Crusade Alliance pandaren player race model, shown at IntendedAlliance pandaren player race model, shown at BlizzCon 2011

Originally the two The Burning Crusade races were supposed to be blood elf and pandaren.[7] Blizzard eventually decided to scrap the idea because they thought it didn't really fit the concept of the expansion pack. This is why the The Burning Crusade announcement trailer only mentions blood elves and it took 6-7 months after BlizzCon to announce the draenei. See also History of pandaren in Warcraft.

Tauren

Worgen

Zandalari trolls

Others

Blizzard have considered making drakonid a playable race, with Tom Chilton stating in 2009 that "We always looked at those and said, oh that would be a pretty cool player race - it would be cool to play as one of those guys. There's not a lot there as far as, where did they come from and what are they? But they are in the world and it wouldn't be completely inconceivable that a player would end up being able to play that, and we could continue to expand on the depth of that race and that sort of race." [28]

Before the introduction of the mastiff model in Cataclysm most dogs and hounds used hyena or even wolf models.

most dogs and hounds used hyena or even wolf models. Before the introduction of the new eel model in Cataclysm , they used the mana wyrm model instead.

, they used the mana wyrm model instead. Before the Cataclysm revamp of Kalimdor, several silithid mobs used less-than-threatening models, like crabs or beetles, as was the case of the Silithid Protectors or Silithid Creepers.

revamp of Kalimdor, several silithid mobs used less-than-threatening models, like crabs or beetles, as was the case of the Silithid Protectors or Silithid Creepers. Before Battle for Azeroth, saurid were called "compies" and used small red raptor models instead.

Classes

Common

Death knights

Demon hunters

Druids

Hunters

Before release

Hunters were inspired by the Headhunter, Ranger, and Huntress units from Warcraft III . [29]

. The Marksmanship and Survival talent trees were respectively named "Ranged Combat" and "Outdoormanship" at some point.

[ Feign Death ]

During the beta, hunters used focus as their resource system and played completely different from the release version of vanilla. Focus would regenerate whenever the hunter stood still, but while this made them very unique, it ended up not being particularly fun, especially in a game with a lot of emphasis on movement in both PvP and PvE. The designers eventually gave hunters a mana bar instead and relied on their ranged combat and pets to distinguish them from other classes.[29] The focus bar was eventually re-added in a different form in Cataclysm.

Vanilla

Legion

Mages

Monks

Light force and dark force, as depicted at BlizzCon 2011

Paladins

Priests

Rogues

Shaman

The shaman was a combination of the orc caster units from Warcraft III : the Witch Doctor, the Shaman, and the Far Seer. The designers struggled somewhat with the previous lore's portrayal of orc shaman as powerful warriors who wielded shields and weapons, since they wanted shaman to stay distinct from World of Warcraft 's warriors but not be as powerful. They settled on portraying World of Warcraft 's shaman as "mage fighters", with the emphasis on "mage" first and "fighter" second. [29]

: the Witch Doctor, the Shaman, and the Far Seer. The designers struggled somewhat with the previous lore's portrayal of orc shaman as powerful warriors who wielded shields and weapons, since they wanted shaman to stay distinct from 's warriors but not be as powerful. They settled on portraying 's shaman as "mage fighters", with the emphasis on "mage" first and "fighter" second. Shaman originally didn't have totems at all. This made them less interesting to play than mages and other casters, so the designers incorporated the totems from the Warcraft III Witch Doctor. One early approach was that each totem spell could be cast separately, but this led to players using up to 8-10 totems in every single combat and leaving them everywhere they went, which became a problem especially when there were multiple shaman in an instance group. Another approach was to have only a single totem, but this was too far in the other direction and made it feel like the class only had a single spell gimmick. The designers finally settled on basing the totems around the four elements, which felt like a right mix between the two approaches and also fit with the existing shaman lore. [29] At release, shaman had access to many more totems, many of which were eventaully merged, and there was no adapted UI to handle them. They eventually got a Totem Bar but lost it after. Shaman also had to physically carry the totems themselves in their bags until special relic totems were created.

Witch Doctor. One early approach was that each totem spell could be cast separately, but this led to players using up to 8-10 totems in every single combat and leaving them everywhere they went, which became a problem especially when there were multiple shaman in an instance group. Another approach was to have only a single totem, but this was too far in the other direction and made it feel like the class only had a single spell gimmick. The designers finally settled on basing the totems around the four elements, which felt like a right mix between the two approaches and also fit with the existing shaman lore. At release, shaman had access to many more totems, many of which were eventaully merged, and there was no adapted UI to handle them. They eventually got a Totem Bar but lost it after. Shaman also had to physically carry the totems themselves in their bags until special relic totems were created. At release, the shaman class was originally Horde-only, being restricted to orcs, trolls, and tauren.

Shaman had a talent in the Enhancement tree that allowed them to equip two-handed axes and maces, but each time they did a talent respec from Enhancement they lost all weapon skills for them.

The Enhancement tree also had a couple of tanking talents/spells, although they were eventually nerfed and later patched out.

When they started, shaman could wear leather armor but only gained access to mail armor after reaching level 40.

Shaman had weapon enhancements such as [ Flametongue Weapon ] [ Rockbiter Weapon ] [ Windfury Weapon ]

Warlocks

Release succubus, updated a few months later.

Warriors

Other

Necromancers were considered as a playable class in vanilla, alongside death knights. [29] They were considered again for Wrath of the Lich King and were envisioned as ranged casters who used abilities like "corpse explode", but ended up getting rolled into death knights. [34] [36]

They were considered again for and were envisioned as ranged casters who used abilities like "corpse explode", but ended up getting rolled into death knights. The runemaster was a planned class that was scrapped early in vanilla's development.[36] According to John Staats, the runemaster was replaced by the druid,[45] while according to Kevin Jordan it was replaced by the warlock in the role of a "freak class" that deviated from standard RPG tropes.[30] Runemasters were considered again for Wrath of the Lich King and were envisioned as a rogue- or monk-type melee class who wrote runes on their bodies to give them different physical powers. A lot of the runemaster's features ended up getting rolled into death knights and later, monks.[34][36][46]

Professions

During the game's original development, the designers made a distinction between professions and "minigames" like Fishing. While professions were planned out early on, minigames had to be implemented using extra code, and as a result there were several planned minigames that didn't make the cut to the final game.[47]

Common

Archaeology

Archaeology was originally supposed to be heavily linked with a feature called Path of the Titans.

In the alpha, [ Find Minerals ] [25]

The following mining materials were never released: Froststeel, Blacksteel, Azurite.

Mining took more than one cast to pick up everything from a node, but still only gave one skill per node.

Mining Picks were originally required to mine.

Skinning Knives were originally required to skin.

During the alpha this was a profession used for making campfires (in basic and bright varieties) and torches. [25] These torches were used for scouting - the graphical engine was a bit different, and darker area such as Duskwood were really "dark". Torches were used to increase visibility in those darker areas. Many NPCs in Duskwood still hold torches in their hands. Up until Cataclysm , nights were darker than now, even if they were still brighter than during the aforementioned alpha stage. The [ Inky Black Potion ] patch 7.2.0 can bring back darker nights!

These torches were used for scouting - the graphical engine was a bit different, and darker area such as Duskwood were really "dark". Torches were used to increase visibility in those darker areas. Many NPCs in Duskwood still hold torches in their hands. Jiming reuses an unused ID originally called World Survival Trainer <Survival Trainer>.

Survival Skills were intended to use fewer of the aforementioned skill points than other professions.

Other professions and minigames

Items

Zones and storylines

Original alpha/beta zones

The game was originally planned to launch with around 6 major continents.[12] This was eventually downscaled to only two: the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor.

Original planned continents, including Kezan (originally labeled as Undermine ) and Nazjatar

Dragon Isles

In early game design docs, they were intended to be a high-level zone north of Lordaeron.

Emerald Dream

Kezan

In the original design docs for the game, way before even the alpha, Kezan and its capital Undermine were to be the main travel hub between the continents of Kalimdor, Northrend and the Eastern Kingdoms. Nazjatar also appeared on the same maps.

Vanilla zones

Arathi Highlands and Arathi Basin

Files of a winter version of Arathi Basin were introduced in Warlords of Draenor, only to be actually used in patch 7.2.0.

Azshara

Vanilla Azshara map.

In vanilla, Azshara had very little quests because Blizzard had designed it with a terrible layout, and they realized that too late. They thought most people would hate it so much, so they just didn't bother and left it for future expansions.

The scrapped Azshara Crater battleground was originally intended to be there, at Forlorn Ridge. It was a big battleground, similar to Alterac Valley, with opposing night elf and orc bases facing each other among giant dragon statues.

Hippogryphs in Azshara used to drop more money than any other mob in the game, so it was usually farmed by bots 24/7.

While the wreck still exists, there were a few NPCs and quests related to the Horizon Scout.

Badlands and Uldaman

The Badlands were originally a landlocked area that was quite empty. Kargath, however, was the Horde base closest to Blackrock Mountain, and as such was used as a travel hub for raiders.

Blizzard stated at BlizzCon 2010 that they planned on splitting Uldaman in two, with the first half ending in the Ironaya encounter, and the second half beginning at the back door where the Obsidian Sentinel is located. This plan never came to fruition.

Barrens, Razorfen Kraul and Downs

Blackrock Mountain, Molten Core and Blackwing Lair

Blasted Lands

Darkshore and Blackfathom Deeps

Very early in planning, Blackfathom Deeps was once planned to be in northern Darkshore. [59] A building identical to Blackfathom Deeps' entrance can still be found in the Ruins of Mathystra.

A building identical to Blackfathom Deeps' entrance can still be found in the Ruins of Mathystra. Shatterspear Vale was originally only a scenic easter egg that could be seen from the hippogryph when flying to or from Nighthaven in Moonglade.

Deadwind Pass and Karazhan

In the vanilla alpha Karazhan was originally planned to be a vanilla dungeon named "Medivh's Tower". It also had a different appearance.

The then-unnamed crypt behind Karazhan has been here since the vanilla release but was only made partially accessible in Legion .

. When The Burning Crusade was originally announced, Karazhan was then intended to be released in a patch before the expansion pack as a prelude to the events that would lead to the opening of the Dark Portal. It was to have 10-players and 20-players raid elements. [60]

was originally announced, Karazhan was then intended to be released in a patch before the expansion pack as a prelude to the events that would lead to the opening of the Dark Portal. It was to have 10-players and 20-players raid elements. The The Burning Crusade Karazhan raid was supposed to have a flight path on the upper levels of the tower. There are actually gryphon roosts on one terrace, but they serve no purpose besides being a reference to the The Last Guardian novel.

Karazhan raid was supposed to have a flight path on the upper levels of the tower. There are actually gryphon roosts on one terrace, but they serve no purpose besides being a reference to the novel. When you stand inside Karazhan you can see an abandoned village near the tower, but the village doesn't exist in Deadwind Pass. Since instance maps are usually made from older outdoor maps, it means that village existed at one point but was removed from the game's world.

There was originally to be a questline to reveal the fate of Keanna through her facet.

Up until patch 7.1.0, there was a quest chain to summon Nightbane in Karazhan.

Desolace and Maraudon

At release Rexxar originally roamed Desolace and Feralas, but he was replaced by Rokaro when the beastmaster left for Outland. Rexxar was often hard to find because of his roaming, so Rokaro was put in Shadowprey Village.

Maraudon was added in patch 1.2.0 and was the first dungeon to be added in a content patch.

Before Cataclysm the area was completely barren of plant life except for a bit of grass on the coasts.

the area was completely barren of plant life except for a bit of grass on the coasts. The area was originally home to the Gizelton Caravan, which was removed in patch 5.0.4.

Dun Morogh, Ironforge and Gnomeregan

Ironforge with multiple floors.

Just near Dun Morogh is Newman's Landing, which (anecdotally) was used as an area where Alliance characters were dropped upon creation before the intro video started. If you stood at a certain spot you could notice level 1 characters appearing for a brief instant before they disappeared.

Ironforge was, in the alpha, by far the largest city in the game because it had two floors instead of one; the one that exists today is smaller than the original version. Old Ironforge was also already visible in-game as a basement that also included the Deeprun Tram.

Instead of being the gnome starting zone like today, Gnomeregan was originally just the tram station of Ironforge, accessible through an elevator, but Blizzard turned it into an instance in the beta and separated it from the dwarven city. Since the dungeon was hardly accessible for Horde players a goblin called Scooty could build a transponder to teleport there.

There was originally a funny quest in Gnomeregan called [30D] [30D] Data Rescue

From vanilla up until Cataclysm Ironforge Airfield was a popular spot for explorers despite being inaccessible.

Ironforge Airfield was a popular spot for explorers despite being inaccessible. Before Cataclysm, a major event happened in Dun Morogh so the gnomes could retake Gnomeregan: Operation: Gnomeregan. This led to Gnomeregan becoming the new gnomish starting zone instead of Coldridge Valley.

Durotar, Orgrimmar and Ragefire Chasm

Duskwood

Stitches and Mor'Ladim were real dangers for unfocused players.

Dustwallow Marsh and Theramore Isle

At release, the zone was much emptier. Varian Wrynn was a prisoner of the naga in Alcaz Island, and it wasn't until patch 2.3.0 that the zone was revamped with more quests and quality of life features such as roads. Varian was removed from his prison in the same patch, but a big quest chain was added to investigate his original disappearance from Stormwind. The quest chain was updated in Wrath of the Lich King when Varian was added back to Stormwind Keep, but wasn't updated again in Legion despite Varian now being dead.

Alcaz Island was later planned to be made into a scenario. Some doodads and buildings of the Twilight's Hammer were found there.

The Dustwallow revamp was worked on since The Burning Crusade beta.[62]

Eastern Plaguelands, Stratholme and Naxxramas

Naxxramas flying over Stratholme.

Beyond the Slaughter Square raid portal.

Alpha Stratholme satellite map, with the necropolis at the end.

Elwynn Forest, Stormwind City and Stormwind Stockade

Feralas and Dire Maul

Hillsbrad Foothills and Alterac Valley

Dalaran dome.

Hinterlands

During the conception phase for the game, the area was originally meant to be called "Aerie Peaks".[65]

Loch Modan

Stonewrought Dam was originally intact, and the Loch was full as a result.

Searing Gorge

Silithus and Ahn'Qiraj

Silverpine Forest and Shadowfang Keep

There were level 25 elite mobs called Sons of Arugal, which had a much higher level than Forsaken players in the area, and were a real threat to them.

Pyrewood Village was originally inhabited by the Moonrage pack of worgen. During the day they were human and friendly to Alliance adventurers, and during the night they were worgen and hostile to everyone.

The Greymane Wall originally had a different model, and many Lordaeron refugees were blocked there. Among them, Wallace the Blind could sell his wares to both Horde and Alliance, presumably because of his blindness.

Stranglethorn Vale and Zul'Gurub

Swamp of Sorrows and Temple of Atal'Hakkar

Tanaris, Zul'Farrak and Caverns of Time

Teldrassil and Darnassus

The island upon which the world tree Teldrassil was built was called "Kalidar" in early concept art and advertising. [3] It seems that now the island has taken the same name as the tree and there is no distinction between the two anymore. There also exists an unused battleground map called Kalidar. The area has a MOBA-style design, with three separate lanes in a forested area. There are some neutral buildings, such as a scout tower, a goblin laboratory, three mine entrances and several forest troll huts.

It seems that now the island has taken the same name as the tree and there is no distinction between the two anymore. Until the return of Malfurion Stormrage in Cataclysm, Fandral Staghelm was the regent of Darnassus in his absence, and was considered a racial boss in certain patches during Vanilla (like Archbishop Benedictus).

Thousand Needles

Before the area was flooded there was a very unique area here, the Mirage Raceway. There were goblin and gnome pit stands, and drag cars that were racing against each other.

Tirisfal Glades, Undercity and Scarlet Monastery

Old Scarlet Monastery before being split into four instances.

Before release, all wings of the Scarlet Monastery were once a single instance, but they were split into four because it was too big. The wings were again changed in Mists of Pandaria , this time to two. Up until a first Cataclysm rework, the Monastery still was one instance, it was just that you couldn't get to the other sections from one another.

, this time to two.

At release, the Bulwark area was only a measly barricade, with plaguemist tinting the sky like in the nearby Plaguelands.

Undercity was originally meant to be a ruined human city, but the designers at Blizzard eventually decided to create an undead-themed toolkit and to use it instead. [1] It was also originally called "Necropolis" in early concept maps for World of Warcraft . [67] [68] The quest [10] [10] Delivery to Silverpine Forest

It was also originally called "Necropolis" in early concept maps for . The quest The city originally had a second floor but it made things harder to navigate, so it was eventually left unused. The second floor can still be accessed with a flying mount, however.

Similarly, the Ruins of Lordaeron area was originally mostly inaccessible before Cataclysm and served only as a reference to the Warcraft III campaigns.

Un'Goro Crater

The area was originally full of references to Nintendo: Linken, Dadanga, Muigin, Larion.

There was also no flight point in the region until patch 1.11.0.

Western Plaguelands and Scholomance

In the original World of Warcraft alpha, Scholomance was apparently supposed to be a non-instanced elite area, [56] but the developers made it so big and good that they decided to make it an instance instead. According to its assets, Scholomance was originally called the "School of Necromancy" and the "Ruined keep crypt". [69] In the Warcraft RPG, the "School of Necromancy" was said to be under Andorhal, but the "Ruined keep crypt" name is a direct reference to the keep of Caer Darrow.

alpha, Scholomance was apparently supposed to be a non-instanced elite area, but the developers made it so big and good that they decided to make it an instance instead. Andorhal at release was originally an elite area shaped more like its Warcraft III incarnation, with walls and denser building placement.

incarnation, with walls and denser building placement. Before Cataclysm the area was more similar to the Eastern Plaguelands, with plaguemist tinting the area with a yellowish-gray color. The farms were all abandoned, Andorhal was only Scourge-held ruins and Hearthglen was a bastion of the Scarlet Crusade.

Westfall and Deadmines

Moonbrook was originally occupied by the Defias Brotherhood. It is noteworthy because of the infamous Defias Pillagers, which for a long time were statistically the standard mobs which were killing the most adventurers. The Defias Messenger was also roaming a huge part of the area, and when someone saw him it was common courtesy to warn other players who were looking for him.

In the original concept for the Deadmines, Ironclad Cove was an open air area instead of a cavern.[1] Blizzard finally went with an enclosed area and added an exit gate for the boat north of Yojamba Isle.

Wetlands

The Dragonmaw Gates were originally part of the region instead of the Twilight Highlands. It was protected by Axtroz and other members of the red dragonflight.

The Dragonmaw clan members were originally green orcs instead of grey orcs like now.

The Burning Crusade zones

Outland was originally planned to be accessible from level 54 and above,[70] which later got changed to level 58.

Storylines

It was originally said that the various dimensional gateways in Outland would eventually be opened to explore other planets, and maybe find Turalyon and Alleria Windrunner. [60] A similar idea was finally implemented a decade later, with the Invasion Points and patch 7.3.0.

A similar idea was finally implemented a decade later, with the Invasion Points and patch 7.3.0. The initially planned setting for WoW's first expansion was not Outland, but rather the South Seas on Azeroth. However, due to server limitations, the developers were unable to add more zones to the existing Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor and instead decided to use Outland for the expansion, as it would be on a separate realm.[71]

Blade's Edge Mountains

Eversong Woods and Silvermoon City

Ghostlands and Zul'Aman

Hellfire Peninsula and Hellfire Citadel

Vanilla Hellfire Peninsula promotional screenshot.

Original Hellfire Peninsula satellite map.

Wallpaper depicting Outland.

Isle of Quel'Danas, Magisters' Terrace and Sunwell Plateau

Sun's Reach was captured by the forces of the Shattered Sun Offensive over a lengthy, one-time quest chain.

On the original raid layout of Sunwell Plateau, there was supposed to be Scourge buildings and mobs during a part of the raid. [74]

Sunwell Plateau's original loading screen had a Wrath of the Lich King watermark, indicating that it might have at first been planned for the next expansion pack.

watermark, indicating that it might have at first been planned for the next expansion pack. Sunwell Plateau was the first raid to have locked gates which opened over a set period of time on all servers.

Nagrand

Shadowmoon Valley and Black Temple

Terokkar Forest and Shattrath City

Zangarmarsh and Coilfang Reservoir

Inside the Underbog, there was a naga called Overseer Tidewrath. When you'd reach the top of the staircase and were able to see him, Ghaz'an would start climbing up the platforms to go and eat the Overseer. If you reached him in time and killed him yourself instead of Ghaz'an, you would be rewarded with nice loot.

Wrath of the Lich King zones

Lands of Mystery RPG Northrend map. Early layout, identical to theRPG Northrend map.

Miscellaneous

A skiing feature was planned to be included. [75]

Undead naga were originally planned to appear. [ citation needed ]

Anub'arak was to have a bigger role.[76]

Azjol-Nerub

It was going to be the first subterranean zone.

"Buildings, temples -- a look and feel very similar to Naxxramas, since the nerubians are where the Scourge stole that architecture from". [77]

There would have been wall-climbing mounts. [61]

That plan was dropped and developers split the zone into two dungeon instances, Azjol-Nerub and Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom.

Borean Tundra

There was originally supposed to be a storyline here about the naga melting the ice caps.[78]

Crystalsong Forest

Dragonblight

Blizzard said that we might one day see more Sanctums in the Chamber of Aspects.[79]

Howling Fjord and Utgarde Keep

Icecrown and Icecrown Citadel

Grizzly Hills

While more speculation than anything, it seems the objective of the [74] [74] Close the Deal Scythe of Elune, but the story surrounding the Scythe was eventually fleshed out in the next expansion pack instead. This could be similar to the story of Ashbringer being hinted at in Vanilla but then completely retconned later.

Storm Peaks and Ulduar

Wintergrasp

The area was supposed to have aerial combat, which was removed before release. Promotional screenshots about aerial combat can still be seen on the Wrath of the Lich King box.

Zul'Drak and Gundrak

The main keep of Gundrak is never visited. The presence of a huge snake tail at the Tomb of the Ancients led to people speculating that it was meant to be part of another wing.

Cataclysm zones

Early layout.

Storylines

Darkmoon Island

The island was added in patch 4.3.0.

Deathwing Scar

Below Dun Morogh and above Elwynn Forest there was an unclickable and completely empty area. Before Cataclysm was released, Blizzard intended this to be the area from where Deathwing would enter Azeroth from Deepholm, but shortly before the release they decided Deathwing would enter from the Maelstrom instead. Today this area is just filled with water. It is possible that the Scar of the Worldbreaker is a remnant of the Deathwing Scar area concept. Initially, Deathwing would emerge here and have made his way to Grim Batol, where he would bisect the mountain (currently seen from within the dungeon, but not externally).

Deepholm

The zone was originally internally named "Deephome", like in the Warcraft RPG.[69]

Gilneas and Gilneas City

Mount Hyjal

Twilight Highlands and Grim Batol

Uldum

The Twilight's Hammer cult was initially concepted to be present in Uldum, having three camps there.[93] In the live version of the game, the cultists have no presence in the zone.

Vashj'ir and Throne of the Tides

Mists of Pandaria zones

Early layout.

Storylines

Isle of Thunder

The island was added in patch 5.2.0 alongside the Isle of Giants. A placeholder still exists on the overworld of Pandaria but cannot be reached by normal means.

There existed a Troves of the Thunder King scenario that was removed but eventually returned in Legion.

Jade Forest

Krasarang Wilds

The Operation: Shieldwall and Dominance Offensive forces were added in patch 5.1.0, and until then the NPCs only said that their respective fleets were still traveling to Pandaria.

Timeless Isle

The island was added in patch 5.4.0.

Townlong Steppes

There exists files for an unused battleground called "Defense of the Alehouse". The layout - three lanes, two bases, etc. - was extremely reminiscent of a MOBA map. Each base housed a pandaren brewmaster that was to be killed in order to secure a victory. There were a few boss NPCs scattered around different parts of the map which gave buffs when killed: a sha monster, a tiger, a mogu and a sprite.

There was also another cut battleground, "Heroes Through Time".

Defense of the Alehouse battleground.

Unused "Heroes Through Time" battleground map.

Vale of Eternal Blossoms

Wandering Isle

Warlords of Draenor zones

Early layout.

The Draenor satellite map during alpha.

The Draenor world map during beta.

Miscellaneous

Storylines

Ashran

During the alpha Stormshield and Warspear were only intended to be PvP outposts instead of capital cities. The Ashran island itself was way smaller and had a Colossal skeleton.

Farahlon

The zone was planned to appear in alternate Draenor until it was eventually merged with Gorgrond during the beta.

It is known from lore that the Laughing Skull Orcs should have been dwelling here instead of Gorgrond.

Concept arts for creatures called the Farah and the Fara exists, indicating that Farahlon was probably named after them.

There was to be a mine area called Blightstone Quarry.

The zone still appears on maps being depicted in-game, such as at the Lunarfall Shipyard, except its location is usually covered with an item like a hat or a spyglass. It can also be seen on a strategic map at Skysea Ridge.

Frostfire Ridge

The area was originally known as "Frostwind Desert".

Bladespire Citadel (previously known as Bladespire Fortress) was originally intended to be the Horde capital for this expansion pack.

Gorgrond

Nagrand and Highmaul

Concept Nagrand map.

The original concept for Nagrand had more main-universe locations such as Kil'sorrow as an ogre fortress and what would become future Garadar.

In the beta, Kargath Bladefist was set to survive his encounter, with him kneeling in defeat before fleeing away with a hand gushing of red blood, his bladefist removed.

Shadowmoon Valley

Purge of Grommar.

Spires of Arak

Pinchwhistle Point was originally called "Venture Cove" during the beta, indicating the Venture Company might have been intended to play a role there.

Rivett Clutchpop was to appear in the area along with his niece Kimzee Clutchpop who was later renamed into Kimzee Pinchwhistle.

Talador

Shattrath City was originally intended to be a raid area,[107] maybe the "missing tier" between Blackrock Foundry and Hellfire Citadel. Since Hellfire Citadel was retooled[108] to feature demons instead of the Iron Horde because the Foundry was already about them, the Shattrath raid could have been the "demon" raid that was originally intended to close the gap.

Tanaan Jungle

Earlier concept arts indicated that there was supposed to be an area called the Chronal Spire which would have been located in this zone as the original gateway to Draenor, but ultimately this idea was replaced by the Iron Horde creating their own Dark Portal and connecting it with Azeroth's one. The spire's location was replaced by Zangarra even though some elements there remain.

Tanaan Jungle was originally planned to appear at release instead of in a later patch. Pre-6.2.0 assets indicate that the zone was also originally intended to be released pristine instead of fel-corrupted.

One idea for destroying the Dark Portal was originally to use a mana bomb, as seen in [90] [90] Tanaan 01: Front of the Portal

Zangar Sea

Legion zones

Storylines

Azsuna

As stated by the developers, the Broken Isles regions were intended to be done clockwise, Azsuna was thus originally intended to be the starting zone. This is still nowadays evidenced by the fact that this the only zone that introduces the player to the Burning Legion - the main foe of the expansion - their first objective in Azsuna being to face them in Faronaar. It is also the first zone to mention the player's artifact directly and multiple times, when Archmage Khadgar asks the hero to "put that artifact of [theirs] to use" since they just retrieved it from an acquisition scenario, and when the yelling demon Mortiferous exclaims "That weapon will not save you. How can such a tiny thing prevail against the might of the Burning Legion?". Azsuna is also where the players are first introduced to the Illidari, the newest faction introduced in Legion, who have just escaped from the Vault of the Wardens, Azsuna being thus a direct sequel to the demon hunter introduction scenario. Azsuna accomplishes its goal of being an introductory zone by presenting the good variety of enemies that are to be encountered later in the Broken Isles: are thus encountered for the first time the naga, the nightborne, the withered, the enemy faction (Alliance or Horde), and the demons. It's also the reason why all profession quests start with sending the hero to Azsuna, even though one can choose to start questing elsewhere. Finally, players can find the letter announcing Sylvanas' soon arrival to the Broken Isles during Azsuna questing which proves that the events of Azsuna couldn't have happened before those of Stormheim, since there she has already landed and set a base of operations.

Broken Shore and Tomb of Sargeras

Class Halls

Dalaran and Violet Hold

The Violet Hold dungeon was originally described as featuring secrets never before uncovered, origins of the Kirin Tor and the world. The in-game dungeon offers nothing of the sort. However, the version of the Violet Hold displayed during [110] [110] In Defense of Dalaran

When Argus appeared in the sky, scared citizens and doomsayers were added to Dalaran. Reinforced guard patrols and many animations were added all over town to react to the event, such as terrified citizens running around, draenei citizens rejoicing at the possibility of finally seeing their homeworld back, vendors being scared of looters, long lines at the banks for withdrawals, the city's clinic being overwhelmed by sick patients... These events were removed a few weeks after the release of patch 7.3.0.

Highmountain and Thunder Totem

Thal'dranath still appearing on in-game maps.

Suramar and Suramar City

At release, Suramar City was not under attack yet, and the Nightfallen rebellion quests were only gradually unlocked with time.

With patch 7.3.5 the uninstanced Nighthold was updated to reflect the new post-Legion lore and the introduction of allied races.

Stormheim

Geographic assets for the area are in a folder called "araknashal," hinting that the zone may have been intended to be called Arauk-Nashal like the The Frozen Throne location.

Thal'dranath

It was originally supposed to be a future zone to be introduced in a later patch, but Blizzard felt that yet another zone riddled with ancient night elven ruins and corals was boring. Thal'dranath was scrapped and its name was reused as the original lore name for the Broken Shore instead.

The zone still appears on maps being depicted in-game.

Battle for Azeroth zones

Storylines

Island expeditions

The Auric's Angels team were previously named "Jaina's Angels".

The Headhunters were originally depicted as including a forest troll member.

An empty map for Plunder Isle was added during the beta, but never created.

Stormsong Valley

Warfronts

An unnamed Southern Barrens warfront was experimented upon early during the expansion's development.

Shadowlands zones

Ardenweald was originally planned to be part of Bastion, thus splitting the zone between a light, heavenly side and a dark, celestial forest side. However, the developers eventually decided that the latter idea was unique and interesting enough to deserve its own separate zone.[121]

To join a battleground, you needed to be at the entrance portal of that battleground, because there were no battlemasters in capital cities. After the introduction of battlemasters, Blizzard stopped adding physical entrance portals to battlegrounds in the world. After long years of service, most battlemasters were finally removed in Warlords of Draenor .

. Battleground groups weren't formed automatically upon joining, so it was an "INV PLZ" spamfest during the first minutes. If you were not grouped you could help kill enemy players yet get no honor to kill from it.

Before it was changed, hunters and warlocks would resurrect without their pets in battlegrounds, so they had to resummon them each time they died. There was also no buff that reduced the mana cost of your spells after you resurrected.

In battlegrounds, the range of "participating" in kills was much larger. You could earn credit for kills made in the middle, while still in the spawn area.

Battlegrounds originally did not award experience at all. When Blizzard introduced experience gain in the battleground, twinks complained.

Marks of Honor were rewarded for participating in battlegrounds.

Realms and connecting

At vanilla release and in the following months, due to overcrowded servers, players very often experienced the infamous loot lag. You would get stuck in the loot position from looting pretty much anything, even using gathering professions.

If you disconnected, there was a high chance you could not log into your character straight away. Instead, you would get an error message stating "A character with that name already exists", because your character was not yet logged out. It could take several minutes before you were allowed back into the game on that character. If you would log into another character, you could see 'yourself' still online.

You couldn't initially have both Horde and Alliance characters on a PvP server.

There was no Character Transfer service, so if you wanted to play on another server, you had to reroll, no matter how geared your characters were. It was initially not possible to transfer a character from a PvE server to a PvP server. Blizzard said many times that they wouldn't make it possible, but they eventually caved in.

You could originally just straight-up launch the game like any other executable. You had to patch the game through the Blizzard Downloader, and the Blizzard Launcher was only added in patch 1.8.3, being eventually replaced by the Battle.net Desktop app in August 2013. There was originally no unified Battle.net account. In vanilla and for some time after, it was also possible to manually install patches. The Battle.net brand itself was retired on March 23, 2017. The desktop Battle.net software was renamed Blizzard App and things such as the Battle.net Shop were renamed from Battle.net to the Blizzard name format. On August 14, 2017, however, Blizzard announced that after listening to feedback from their players they had decided to retain the Battle.net brand and incorporate it into their logo as "Blizzard Battle.net".



Gallery

Maps

Miscellaneous

Computer Gaming World 2001 article

Human alpha models compilation 1

Human alpha models compilation 2

Original gate to Darkshire

Promotional images

2015 #WoWHistory Event

Videos

See also