I forgot about that but yea your right that was pretty unique back then... u enter the dungeon from a secret entrance into underground mines, end up on a pirate ship hidden in an underground lake, and leave thru a back entrance thru the sewers pipe
Probably 3 of my favorites. Crossing the chains to get the BRD was such a different idea. The progressive entrances to Dire Maul around the arena. The main negative to Classic dungeons is so many of them required going through a whole other dungeon just to get to the entrances, and it's not like there was dungeon finder to warp you in. My last addition would be the Nexus from WotLK. The way that hold area is built is cool, and how the entrances are stacked inside.
I always thought that the Warden’s used owls not only for the fact of how quiet and efficient they are as predators, but because they are nocturnal. So kind of in a way they’d be an extension of Elune. That’s also why I think the night elves use sabers as well. Since they’re fierce predators but also typically hunters of the night.
Owls and Sabers (more specifically night sabers) are in fact symbols of Elune's will. In a couple of mount descriptions and pet descriptions there is flavor text that states that Elune blesses these animals herself, and they are sacred symbols within the culture of Kal'dorei. I assume that it was a natural progression as well, as the Dark Trolls the Kal'dorei evolved from already were using these mounts/companions.
There's also that jade Owl spirit that Tyrande could summon all the way back in warcraft III, I always thought it was a minion/representative of Elune because of the nocturnal connotation
not only that but even with the current expansion the first time you go in the dungeon it is with the dungeon finder and the first time you see the entrance is when you do M+
The whole owl thing has some tangential connection to Elune. Moonking are owl-like, sentinels use them as scouts, wardens use them as "watchers", Tyrande with all her owl stuff, etc.
Yea, just like early bird vs night owl, owls have a natural connection to the night and the moon. Plus they are known for being great hunters with very good eyesight, sharp and long range. Makes sense the Sentinels use it for their symbol and mascot
Deadmines was definitely my first dungeon. And since WoW was also my first MMO, I had no idea what a dungeon was lol. I went in there following a quest and got shredded, thinking "why are these enemies so dang strong, how am I supposed to beat this and do the quest?" After talking around I had someone explain what that place was, and did it correctly. It was also the first guild I joined lol.
Vashj'ir is one of the most underrated zones. I never got all the hatred for it. I love it, it's completely unique in all of WoW, it's beautiful and it's got an amazing story ❤
I agree; it's just a cool zone overall to explore. The underwater setting endows everything with a sense of mystery and there's all sorts of intricacies to discover and the verticality that results from the ability to swim makes it interesting in a way that pretty much no other area in the game is. Not to mention that it just has some uniquely cool things like those giant shell monsters that you can go inside of, or the whale shark swimming around, the entrance to the abyssal maw etc.
I agree. I loved questing there in Cata, and while it did take a bit of getting used to, navigation wise, I did really enjoy it and appreciate the time and effort that went into it. Maybe playing in when it was current content gives a different feel, as to go back to it now, or to do it as Chromie time, the experience (at least to me) is VERY different. Glad I am not the only one with positive feels for the zone
If you played Cata in the day, you would have understood. At the start of Cata, you had 2 starting Zones to pick from: Mount Hyjal and Vasjir. Underwater zone with horribly slow progress, and Mount Hyjal with FLYING in Old Zones for the first time. A lot of Vasjir players were then left behind by poor choice at the beggining and, thus, hated the zone. And it became tradition.
@@markovidakovic8157 I did play Cata in the day, including the Beta. Disliked Hyjal questing, went straight to Vashj'ir with my main at midnight on the 7th of Dec 2010, and with 90% of my characters since (well, until they abandoned the old levelling system in SL). Played through the whole zone, then went on to Deepholm, hit 85 with the rest of my raid, many of whom had done Hyjal. Not everyone who doesn't agree with you is a noob.
@@markovidakovic8157 "If you played Cata in the day, you would have understood" I immediately picked Vashj'ir as my first zone the day Cata launched, sir, and I loved every minute of it. The biggest hurdle is that it requires actual three-dimensional awareness, which a lot of people don't have and don't want to learn. I only played Hyjal as my first zone on a single character, because it was boring comparatively.
The Wardens probably use the Owl Iconography everywhere because back in Warcraft 3 one of the main Night Elf abilties were sentry Owls, they had a hero that could make a controllable unit owl scout and another that could stick them onto trees...Back then Maiev's faction was called 'The Watchers', that in mind with how the scout/recon/vision units for NEs were owls is probably why the two are linked. They are tasked with watching over and seeking out threats, the Owl is very symbolic of that for the Night Elves. They are later called the Wardens but the owl iconography was still probably drawn from that Warcraft 3 'Watchers' era, especially seeing as those vaults were built back when they would have been known as that.
there is also the fact owl are well known to keep their eyes on you at all time no matter the angle once they spot you... Wich fit the idea of prison wardens.
Aww, no Blackrock Mountain? Those huge dwarf statues holding enormous chains that you have to run across and risk falling in the lava...good stuff, man.
Sunken temple, brd, and gnomer were the best for me. It was the mystery that got me with those places. And when you got inside you were entranced in an adventure
Gnomer in classic is so good because it really lets you have a feeling of progression as you're playing. You level a dwarf or gnome in Dun Morogh and see the entrance and try going down this huge place only to be driven out by super high-level mobs. Then you find out that you can actually enter this place and see what it's all about around lvl 32-38. I guess the most similar feeling is walking into The Stockades early in Stormwind, but you can just walk out and be in the capital again, it isn't a grand adventure to get there and back.
@PlumZaplook totally agree. St and brd are hidden progression gems as well. Going to a random lake and seeing a temple and the elites drive you out. Brd you have to work your way through a quarry and descending into the heart of a mountain full of dwarves
Waycrest Manor is one of my favorite dungeons ever just for the aesthetic. It looks so amazing, the art team really out did themselves for the entire Drustvar zone. One of the only good things to come out of BFA tbh.
Zul Farrak was also the first dungeon that let you ride a mount inside the dungeon. I would like to acknowledged the Scarlet Monastery where you had to complete the Library dungeon to get the key to access two other dungeons.
Blackfathom Deeps was my first dungeon experience, first one most Night Elf players would gain a quest for. The entrance of it isn't the most obvious place, but for similar reasons to the Wailing Caverns, it's practically an adventure getting to the instance itself. And seeing Naga and Satyr's just working together to make your life hell getting to the dungeon, as well as all the quests you load up with for the place, it's very likely the earliest point in the game that you start getting bits of lore in relation to the Twilight Cult and the Old Gods. On the surface you're just wandering some broken Night Elf ruins, but the caverns beneath start getting more vast toward the instance. And after actually doing the dungeon, knowing it leads to a big underground temple that also hides away a Hydra that was just hinted to be far from an ordinary Hydra. And after changes were made to the dungeon in WoD, all the lore is much more obvious and on the nose now, particularly since at that point the only Old God left we knew about was N'zoth. But it was a pretty grand mystery before that, and the first glimps of Old God stuff before anyone even came close to questing in Silithus. But as for the entrance, that remains unchanged even after Cataclysm and the Warlords revamp. It's still a cool wander around Night Elf ruins, leading to a hole in the ground, leading to a maze of caverns with a mix of mobs that, up to that point, had no reason to be mixing as far as you knew.
Same story for me, my first dungeon was not deadmines but blackfathom deeps. I played alliance, your classic night elf warrior, so if you stuck to the normal quest chains in night elf territory then it was the first dungeon you run into. But it was also a sunken temple in is own way. You had to go underwater to find the cavern opening, with Naga to fight on the way to try to find the actual instance portal. It was a mission to just get there, much like deadmines, until u can just skip s and run past them all. I loved BFD dungeon as well, pretty big dungeon with multiple bosses and loot, even a hidden underwater boss with that nessie type Dino, the annoying twilight cult with a whole event near the end, all the wipes from mobs running away and bringing extra mobs, or the 4beacons that noobs kept clicking causing wipes lol. As a prot warrior I ran it a bunch, sometimes for fun just to help newbiez even if I outleveled it already. BFD holds a special place in my heart. And certainly counts for unique entrance that was tricky to get to and gave you hints to the types of enemies you would face inside.
Hair-pulling note: the original Caverns of Time map did not have anything notated on the map when you got down to the primary hub. So way back in the day when people needed to run the Black Morass dungeon to get keyed for Karazhan, you would have to use text to describe to your party members which entrance to run towards (since mounts didn't work down there originally). Great video, I very much enjoyed your commentary and tidbits of info!
My fav entrances by expansion: Vanilla - Dire Maul (Kalimdor) it is more of what I expected of a dungeon. A place overrun with creatures drawn to some ancient power. A former school now a deadly death trap. Zul Gurub (EK) I'm guessing these raid entrances were meant to be an achievement all their own. Now it's a relic of ancient days. BC: Magister's Terrace So many BC dungeons were clustered together but had no real signage of what led to what. MT was straightforward breath of fresh air. One dungeon with a simple entrance. LK: Utgarde Keep - More than anything it sold you on the campaign. Like "Welcome to Northrend" here are some of the monsters you'll be fighting. Cata: Vortex Pinnacle - just really pretty. I like the sky/cloud motif. MoP: Temple of the Jade Serpent WoD: skip Legion: Court of Stars BFA: Waycrest Manor SL: Tazavesh DF: Azure Vaults
Deadmines and Zul'Farrak are the two dungeons I remember the most from vanilla. Maybe because I did them a ton. Personally, I think a lot of the vanilla dungeon entrances are excellent in conveying what you're about to experience
While these are raid entrances instead of dungeons, my personal favorites are the Onyxia's Lair, Northrend Naxx and Icecrown Citadel entrances. So iconic.
I watched you doing research live for this video. Was amazing fun 3:30 I also suggested Waycrest Manor because it's my favourite dungeon entrance in the game. So happy you added it to the list
12:38 The name Oribos and the infinity symbol associated with the zone are also based on the ouroboros. In fact in City of Heroes, Ouroboros was a time travel themed zone with a symbol where the snake forms an infinity symbol instead of a circle, as seen on the badge (achievement) from doing a mission involving time travel that you needed to access the zone.
From your top 10 list crendor, my top picks would be: 1. Wailing Caverns for horde players 2. Deadmines for alliance players Those two dungeons are basically the first dungeons horde and alliance players both set foot in when they were beginners just starting out in wow, learning about wow for the first time.
I think my favourite has to be Shado-Pan Monestary. I loved seeing that building, very cool like mountain ninja temple vibes. Since you've done Dungeon entrances, will you do raid ones?
@@crendor If you do a raid one, I recommend Serpentshrine Cavern. You gotta swim in a lake, down a pipe, and emerge in a cavern where you jump into a waterfall to zone in. Frickin' awesome. I loved that one.
Blackrock depths?? Where it at? That was an iconic dungeon entrance, running into the mountain and seeing the lake of lava with a floating island, climbing down the chains to the mining site before coming up on the prison block of Blackrock mountain. Even has a ghost quest giver inside the tomb chained above the lava. Amazing area, totally absent from the list :(
As always, Crendor comes in with the pointless top10 right as I am getting ready for bed. His voice is my lullaby and ambient sounds add to the vibe. ❤
I enjoyed the convenience of the Dungeon Finder when I played WoW but the fact that I don't remember the entrance to Maraudon shows you can miss out on a lot of exploration with such conveniences. I visited Deadmines primarily as Horde characters and if I remember correctly it's quite an ordeal just to get there. I'm most familiar with the Wailing Cavern Entrance because about 75% of my Characters have been Tauren and the Barrens was my old stomping ground. When Classic WoW started up I naturally ended up there. I don't even bother to do the dungeon often but the cave leading to the Cavern usually gets visited.
Caverns of time would probably be in my top 3 too! One of the aspects I like about it is the inclusion of some of the old WoW models, including an ancient (alpha?) dwarf that I don’t think you can find anywhere else in the game.
I loved vashjir when cata came out... Never understood the hate for it, i thought hyjal was actually so boring in comparison... Leveled one character through hyjal and like 20 through vashjir 😂
This is a really cool idea for a list. It would take me a long time to come up with my top 10 dungeon entrance list because there's so many that are really cool imo. One off the top of my head that I've always liked was the outside and lead-in to Sunken Temple; it feels like a mini dungeon in-and-of itself-- it kind of has the vibe of a forest temple that you would find in a Zelda game.
Shoutout to Blackrock Mountain for housing BRD, UBRS, LBRS, and Blackwing's Descent. It's a whole mood where you just gotta go, 'Yup, Black dragons and Dark Iron dwarves and lava. Let's do this'
For me Caverns of Time should be number 1 and number 2 would've been The Serpen Shrine Cavern entrance in Zangar Marsh. The fact that you had to swim under water and almost drown to get there if you weren't careful (there were no water mounts back then) and then you reach this lush cavern that is the entrance to many dungeons was pretty unique.
Its been ages since i had bothered to watch any wow content. This video had me feelin some type of way. I remember those long evenings running Zul'Farak. That was when dungeons were likr mini raids
Stormstout Brewery will always be my favorite dungeon. Every time I tanked it and stood in the beer spouts and got drunk (the trash pulls before the final boss) when doing it. Fun fact, when your character is drunk all the mob levels will be two levels lower than your own but not really. Being drunk makes the mobs LOOK weaker than you, but they are not. Crendor may not have known, but in vanilla Deadmines was a trial just to get to. ALL the defias from moonbrook to the dungeon entrance were ELITE. So if you wanted to do a DM run back in the day, you legit had to spend 30 - 60 minutes fighting your way down to even GET INTO Deadmines...
omg zul’farrak was my FAVORITE duņgeon along with hellfire ramparts back when i started playing. i was too young to really understand the game so i wasn’t gearing. i just ran through those two dungeons over and over. i loved arathi basin too even though i was trash at pvp
I will always vouch for Vash'jir. I love that zone, and I love being there- probably because I played through it as a priest, so I didn't need to worry about being lined up to attack things XD
The first time I did Deadmines was shortly after the OG launch and it was not only the first time I experienced instanced content in an MMO, it was the first time I'd heard the term "instance".
They probably use owls because owls are PERCEPTIVE, which is thematic with a group of crime-fighters. Owls are als symbolic of wisdom due to being associated with Athena in Greek mythology, iirc. Blizzard probably leant into that. On another note, the Vault of the Wardens is such a WTF from a lore-perspective. You know how in Warcraft 3, Maiev is completely shocked to find the broken isles as she is chasing Illidan? Yeah, then WHAM, suddenly she supposedly had a massive facility of fellow Wardens stationed here for 10,000 years, that she completely neglected to contact when trapsing across the broken isles. Great job, Blizz. GG.
I ran a ton of Deadmines in Vanilla, and I exclusively played Horde, so Idk what you're talking about lol. It was a far trek, but it was super fun to get to, and the items were great, and the visuals and story was awesome.
Just in case anybody wants to know about the mushrooms and coral; coral is actually considered an animal, and each coral is made up of many of these tiny animals. And these tiny animals then hold another organism in their body to use light for energy. And mushrooms are in a class of their own as, well, mushrooms. But I'd say they are aesthetically 100% the same~
The wardens also often refer to themselves as "the watchers", and owls are very often portrayed as a silent watcher in wow. Thats their relationship between the wardens and owls. Its vague, but kinda fits... kinda... i think.
Thank you for the video! Zul Farrak is one of my favorite dungeons. Maybe you can make a sequel too 10 dungeon entrances or top 10 dungeons and add Shadowfang Keep. Shadowfang is my personal favorite low level/revamped dungeon I still go to it just to mess around sometimes. So maybe if you do a sequel video you can add that to the list.
Looking back to when WOW started, it seemed like we had a lot more time to be exploring and leveling different characters and do all of these dungeons a few times each. I'm just surprised you didn't address the entrance to Blackrock Mountain and how you had to find all of the different dungeon entrances within it.
Fun fact: The Sahara desert in Africa (the largest desert in the world) like Tanaris used to be very lush... iirc it basically changes climate between being very lush and desert every few tens of thousands of years or something like that...
Maybe those owls are a reference to the Owls of Ga'hool, and Ga'hool sounds like a fancy way to say Gaol, which is a old fancy word for Jail. So maybe they're the Owls of Jail.
They have owl iconography because their old faction name was "The Watchers" and owls are known to watch their prey. like the wardens watch their prisoners.
Sunken temple comes to mind, or the drak’thar one or whatever its called in northrend. shit even gundrak lol. so many incredible ones. hard to choose! make a part two perhaps
ya as an alli the deadmines gets more hype not so much for it but the town/mine that gets associated with it, and that all 3 places have changed not just a lot but also many times.
The greatest gift an older player can gift to itself is to not look stuff up on the internet and figure things out, the greatest strength of what WoW was back in the day IS that nobody knew anything. And I wish I were there to see it, but I had to grind my 4% a day on Lineage 2 lmao.
I would be down for a crendor style WoW lore breakdown for some things. Don't even play WoW but I'm sure there's some stories in there that would be nice to hear through a thick chicago accent
i feel like owls are just symbolic with the night elves, much like night sabers. i know there's a pet vendor in Darnassus that sells little owl pets, so there's that too.
NGL, it took me 4min to realize, your not talking about pointless Dungeon Entrances but Top Dungeon Entrances in a "Format" called "Pointless Top 10" . Damn... I was already about to type a comment about them actually being pretty cool x'D
Not only are owls stealthy, they are also frequently associated with education and knowledge. Because they can hunt even small prey in the dark, put together with the variations of alumni (a = absent, void of; lumni = light; alumni are the ones who search for knowledge in the dark without a light of their own), owls are often related with sages and teachers Source: my country has specific degrees for educators and I'm a biology teacher
my first dungeon i went into was some type of cavern with a non linear progression forgot what it was it was like under water cave thingy. second one i went to with actual people was shadowmoon burial grounds. i loved the dark and purplish ghosty vibes. also first one with people so nostalgia.
I loved the Deadmines exit. Something about coming out a different way than you went in was pretty unique back then.
i do to. the dungeon itself was cool to run as well
I forgot about that but yea your right that was pretty unique back then... u enter the dungeon from a secret entrance into underground mines, end up on a pirate ship hidden in an underground lake, and leave thru a back entrance thru the sewers pipe
Blackrock Mountain (and specifically BRD) + Sunken Temple entrance zones are amazing too. And the secret Dire Maul entrance north of Camp Mojache.
I'm a big fan of the Sunken Temple entrance.
Was surprised blackrock mountain didn't make the list for sure.
Am surprised both are missing. I somehow forgot about Blackrock Mountain as well somehow though. ST is legendary IMO.
Probably 3 of my favorites. Crossing the chains to get the BRD was such a different idea. The progressive entrances to Dire Maul around the arena.
The main negative to Classic dungeons is so many of them required going through a whole other dungeon just to get to the entrances, and it's not like there was dungeon finder to warp you in.
My last addition would be the Nexus from WotLK. The way that hold area is built is cool, and how the entrances are stacked inside.
EXACTLY the 3 ones I thought of
Didnt expect to learn some Owl facts from a pointless top 10 but then again what should I be expecting anymore 😂😂
It’s self-defeating it’s own purpose because now it’s no longer pointless
Expectations are not needed here.
yeah that shit blew my mind
It was nice to hear (cute actually). Shows how he cares about the details. Love a dude who enjoys environments and nature!
I always thought that the Warden’s used owls not only for the fact of how quiet and efficient they are as predators, but because they are nocturnal. So kind of in a way they’d be an extension of Elune.
That’s also why I think the night elves use sabers as well. Since they’re fierce predators but also typically hunters of the night.
I just assumed owls fit because they sit in the dark watching over. Like a warden kinda does.
Owls and Sabers (more specifically night sabers) are in fact symbols of Elune's will. In a couple of mount descriptions and pet descriptions there is flavor text that states that Elune blesses these animals herself, and they are sacred symbols within the culture of Kal'dorei. I assume that it was a natural progression as well, as the Dark Trolls the Kal'dorei evolved from already were using these mounts/companions.
There's also that jade Owl spirit that Tyrande could summon all the way back in warcraft III, I always thought it was a minion/representative of Elune because of the nocturnal connotation
Wardens are part of the Watchers.
Owls have big eyes and are nocturnal
Yea, makes sense for both owls and sabers since they are nocturnal predators with very sharp eyesight
Side note, dude you could totally do another top 10 dungeon entrances, like 11 to 20 vibe cause I thought about it and there are sooo many good ones
I agree.
Sfk lowkey goated
Sadly we barely see those entrances anymore with group finder. But this video is a good reminder of them.
Ya it sucks. I much prefer spamming LFG and then waiting for people to go to the summoning stone. But at least I can stare at the entrance :)
you can always go there yourself if you do m+, since almost nobody goes to the summ stone i have to fly there
not only that but even with the current expansion the first time you go in the dungeon it is with the dungeon finder and the first time you see the entrance is when you do M+
I'm glad they're cycling old dungeons into m+ now, gives some reason to see the old entrances.
@@alihordaold dungeons that are vanilla, BC, WoTLK, or Cata never had m+ at all.
The whole owl thing has some tangential connection to Elune.
Moonking are owl-like, sentinels use them as scouts, wardens use them as "watchers", Tyrande with all her owl stuff, etc.
Yea, just like early bird vs night owl, owls have a natural connection to the night and the moon. Plus they are known for being great hunters with very good eyesight, sharp and long range. Makes sense the Sentinels use it for their symbol and mascot
Deadmines was definitely my first dungeon. And since WoW was also my first MMO, I had no idea what a dungeon was lol. I went in there following a quest and got shredded, thinking "why are these enemies so dang strong, how am I supposed to beat this and do the quest?" After talking around I had someone explain what that place was, and did it correctly. It was also the first guild I joined lol.
Lmao the same thing happened to me. When I got warped into the dungeon I just thought "Huh... That was weird"
Vashj'ir is one of the most underrated zones. I never got all the hatred for it. I love it, it's completely unique in all of WoW, it's beautiful and it's got an amazing story ❤
I agree; it's just a cool zone overall to explore. The underwater setting endows everything with a sense of mystery and there's all sorts of intricacies to discover and the verticality that results from the ability to swim makes it interesting in a way that pretty much no other area in the game is. Not to mention that it just has some uniquely cool things like those giant shell monsters that you can go inside of, or the whale shark swimming around, the entrance to the abyssal maw etc.
I agree. I loved questing there in Cata, and while it did take a bit of getting used to, navigation wise, I did really enjoy it and appreciate the time and effort that went into it. Maybe playing in when it was current content gives a different feel, as to go back to it now, or to do it as Chromie time, the experience (at least to me) is VERY different. Glad I am not the only one with positive feels for the zone
If you played Cata in the day, you would have understood. At the start of Cata, you had 2 starting Zones to pick from: Mount Hyjal and Vasjir. Underwater zone with horribly slow progress, and Mount Hyjal with FLYING in Old Zones for the first time. A lot of Vasjir players were then left behind by poor choice at the beggining and, thus, hated the zone. And it became tradition.
@@markovidakovic8157 I did play Cata in the day, including the Beta. Disliked Hyjal questing, went straight to Vashj'ir with my main at midnight on the 7th of Dec 2010, and with 90% of my characters since (well, until they abandoned the old levelling system in SL). Played through the whole zone, then went on to Deepholm, hit 85 with the rest of my raid, many of whom had done Hyjal.
Not everyone who doesn't agree with you is a noob.
@@markovidakovic8157 "If you played Cata in the day, you would have understood"
I immediately picked Vashj'ir as my first zone the day Cata launched, sir, and I loved every minute of it. The biggest hurdle is that it requires actual three-dimensional awareness, which a lot of people don't have and don't want to learn. I only played Hyjal as my first zone on a single character, because it was boring comparatively.
The Wardens probably use the Owl Iconography everywhere because back in Warcraft 3 one of the main Night Elf abilties were sentry Owls, they had a hero that could make a controllable unit owl scout and another that could stick them onto trees...Back then Maiev's faction was called 'The Watchers', that in mind with how the scout/recon/vision units for NEs were owls is probably why the two are linked.
They are tasked with watching over and seeking out threats, the Owl is very symbolic of that for the Night Elves. They are later called the Wardens but the owl iconography was still probably drawn from that Warcraft 3 'Watchers' era, especially seeing as those vaults were built back when they would have been known as that.
You nailed it.
there is also the fact owl are well known to keep their eyes on you at all time no matter the angle once they spot you... Wich fit the idea of prison wardens.
Aww, no Blackrock Mountain? Those huge dwarf statues holding enormous chains that you have to run across and risk falling in the lava...good stuff, man.
The level of detail crendor is going into on these is incredible.
I quit WoW years ago so it's extra pointless for me watch this videos. Still do though, all the time
You did the right thing
I also quit years ago, but I'll always love the world in WoW.
Samsies.
I've literally never played it but this type of non-content is excellent and well worth watching even without any knowledge behind it🙂
Omg same!
Sunken temple, brd, and gnomer were the best for me. It was the mystery that got me with those places. And when you got inside you were entranced in an adventure
Gnomer in classic is so good because it really lets you have a feeling of progression as you're playing. You level a dwarf or gnome in Dun Morogh and see the entrance and try going down this huge place only to be driven out by super high-level mobs. Then you find out that you can actually enter this place and see what it's all about around lvl 32-38. I guess the most similar feeling is walking into The Stockades early in Stormwind, but you can just walk out and be in the capital again, it isn't a grand adventure to get there and back.
@PlumZaplook totally agree. St and brd are hidden progression gems as well. Going to a random lake and seeing a temple and the elites drive you out. Brd you have to work your way through a quarry and descending into the heart of a mountain full of dwarves
BRD or LBRS/UBRS was great to me if you get to include traveling up or down the chain.
I love your attitude about stuff Crendor. The world is indeed pretty damn cool when you take a quick second to relax and notice it !
What about "pull, pull, pull!" Just so players can AFK to watch cat videos.
Waycrest Manor is one of my favorite dungeons ever just for the aesthetic. It looks so amazing, the art team really out did themselves for the entire Drustvar zone. One of the only good things to come out of BFA tbh.
Zul Farrak was also the first dungeon that let you ride a mount inside the dungeon.
I would like to acknowledged the Scarlet Monastery where you had to complete the Library dungeon to get the key to access two other dungeons.
Blackfathom Deeps was my first dungeon experience, first one most Night Elf players would gain a quest for. The entrance of it isn't the most obvious place, but for similar reasons to the Wailing Caverns, it's practically an adventure getting to the instance itself. And seeing Naga and Satyr's just working together to make your life hell getting to the dungeon, as well as all the quests you load up with for the place, it's very likely the earliest point in the game that you start getting bits of lore in relation to the Twilight Cult and the Old Gods. On the surface you're just wandering some broken Night Elf ruins, but the caverns beneath start getting more vast toward the instance. And after actually doing the dungeon, knowing it leads to a big underground temple that also hides away a Hydra that was just hinted to be far from an ordinary Hydra.
And after changes were made to the dungeon in WoD, all the lore is much more obvious and on the nose now, particularly since at that point the only Old God left we knew about was N'zoth. But it was a pretty grand mystery before that, and the first glimps of Old God stuff before anyone even came close to questing in Silithus. But as for the entrance, that remains unchanged even after Cataclysm and the Warlords revamp. It's still a cool wander around Night Elf ruins, leading to a hole in the ground, leading to a maze of caverns with a mix of mobs that, up to that point, had no reason to be mixing as far as you knew.
Same story for me, my first dungeon was not deadmines but blackfathom deeps. I played alliance, your classic night elf warrior, so if you stuck to the normal quest chains in night elf territory then it was the first dungeon you run into.
But it was also a sunken temple in is own way. You had to go underwater to find the cavern opening, with Naga to fight on the way to try to find the actual instance portal. It was a mission to just get there, much like deadmines, until u can just skip s and run past them all.
I loved BFD dungeon as well, pretty big dungeon with multiple bosses and loot, even a hidden underwater boss with that nessie type Dino, the annoying twilight cult with a whole event near the end, all the wipes from mobs running away and bringing extra mobs, or the 4beacons that noobs kept clicking causing wipes lol. As a prot warrior I ran it a bunch, sometimes for fun just to help newbiez even if I outleveled it already. BFD holds a special place in my heart. And certainly counts for unique entrance that was tricky to get to and gave you hints to the types of enemies you would face inside.
Hair-pulling note: the original Caverns of Time map did not have anything notated on the map when you got down to the primary hub. So way back in the day when people needed to run the Black Morass dungeon to get keyed for Karazhan, you would have to use text to describe to your party members which entrance to run towards (since mounts didn't work down there originally).
Great video, I very much enjoyed your commentary and tidbits of info!
My fav entrances by expansion:
Vanilla - Dire Maul (Kalimdor) it is more of what I expected of a dungeon. A place overrun with creatures drawn to some ancient power. A former school now a deadly death trap.
Zul Gurub (EK) I'm guessing these raid entrances were meant to be an achievement all their own. Now it's a relic of ancient days.
BC: Magister's Terrace
So many BC dungeons were clustered together but had no real signage of what led to what. MT was straightforward breath of fresh air. One dungeon with a simple entrance.
LK: Utgarde Keep - More than anything it sold you on the campaign. Like "Welcome to Northrend" here are some of the monsters you'll be fighting.
Cata: Vortex Pinnacle - just really pretty. I like the sky/cloud motif.
MoP: Temple of the Jade Serpent
WoD: skip
Legion: Court of Stars
BFA: Waycrest Manor
SL: Tazavesh
DF: Azure Vaults
Always loved running up to Shadowfang Keep and crossing the bridge/drawbridge to get to the gate
I, too, love Zul'Farrak. It's definitely my favorite troll dungeon. I'm glad someone's giving it some well deserved love and recognition.
idk I understand the dungeon love, but the entrance is nothing special compared to so many others.
Deadmines and Zul'Farrak are the two dungeons I remember the most from vanilla. Maybe because I did them a ton. Personally, I think a lot of the vanilla dungeon entrances are excellent in conveying what you're about to experience
While these are raid entrances instead of dungeons, my personal favorites are the Onyxia's Lair, Northrend Naxx and Icecrown Citadel entrances. So iconic.
I watched you doing research live for this video. Was amazing fun
3:30 I also suggested Waycrest Manor because it's my favourite dungeon entrance in the game. So happy you added it to the list
Thanks Nixiom. Another great video.
12:38 The name Oribos and the infinity symbol associated with the zone are also based on the ouroboros.
In fact in City of Heroes, Ouroboros was a time travel themed zone with a symbol where the snake forms an infinity symbol instead of a circle, as seen on the badge (achievement) from doing a mission involving time travel that you needed to access the zone.
Blackrock mountain will forever live rent free in my head as one of my favourites, along with the Tempest Keep dungeons
Ricky put that down! Your parents might let you do that at home, but this is my class. Stop it! - brought me back to my childhood.
From your top 10 list crendor, my top picks would be:
1. Wailing Caverns for horde players
2. Deadmines for alliance players
Those two dungeons are basically the first dungeons horde and alliance players both set foot in when they were beginners just starting out in wow, learning
about wow for the first time.
I think my favourite has to be Shado-Pan Monestary. I loved seeing that building, very cool like mountain ninja temple vibes.
Since you've done Dungeon entrances, will you do raid ones?
I actually almost put Shado-Pan on the list! It was the one that barely got beat out. And I might do raid at some point.
@@crendor If you do a raid one, I recommend Serpentshrine Cavern. You gotta swim in a lake, down a pipe, and emerge in a cavern where you jump into a waterfall to zone in. Frickin' awesome. I loved that one.
Blackrock depths?? Where it at?
That was an iconic dungeon entrance, running into the mountain and seeing the lake of lava with a floating island, climbing down the chains to the mining site before coming up on the prison block of Blackrock mountain.
Even has a ghost quest giver inside the tomb chained above the lava. Amazing area, totally absent from the list :(
Great video, you should do a raid entrance version as well!
As always, Crendor comes in with the pointless top10 right as I am getting ready for bed. His voice is my lullaby and ambient sounds add to the vibe.
❤
Watching this video makes me realize I don't think I've seen a dungeon entrance since cataclysm
I enjoyed the convenience of the Dungeon Finder when I played WoW but the fact that I don't remember the entrance to Maraudon shows you can miss out on a lot of exploration with such conveniences. I visited Deadmines primarily as Horde characters and if I remember correctly it's quite an ordeal just to get there. I'm most familiar with the Wailing Cavern Entrance because about 75% of my Characters have been Tauren and the Barrens was my old stomping ground. When Classic WoW started up I naturally ended up there. I don't even bother to do the dungeon often but the cave leading to the Cavern usually gets visited.
Zul Faraak is definitely my favorite dungeon. Tons of nostalgia from that place. (plus those darn swords LOL)
Pandaria made a massive effort to have the dungeon/raid locations as part of the main world, one of many reasons it’s my favourite expansion
I've got a thesis presentation tomorrow and this is the perfect thing to take my mind off things and help me wind down so I can get some sleep
Caverns of time would probably be in my top 3 too! One of the aspects I like about it is the inclusion of some of the old WoW models, including an ancient (alpha?) dwarf that I don’t think you can find anywhere else in the game.
I loved vashjir when cata came out... Never understood the hate for it, i thought hyjal was actually so boring in comparison...
Leveled one character through hyjal and like 20 through vashjir 😂
I am a mycologist who mainly studies truffle mycelium and i can confirm with 100% certainty that coral is, in fact, just underwater mushrooms.
You are the hero I wanted to see :D
Surprised none of the blackrock mountain dungeons are on here, BRD would have been my number 1.
8:24 No, not all. The turtle remained. The turtle spirit could not be broken. The turtle mind could not be tainted.
This is a really cool idea for a list. It would take me a long time to come up with my top 10 dungeon entrance list because there's so many that are really cool imo. One off the top of my head that I've always liked was the outside and lead-in to Sunken Temple; it feels like a mini dungeon in-and-of itself-- it kind of has the vibe of a forest temple that you would find in a Zelda game.
Ah yes, the entrance to deadmines. The town above had the Defias Pillagers that cast Fireball and ranked as some of the most dangerous mobs in game.
I LFG'd stormstout it the only thing in MOP ive ever dune. I just followed my group around and did my Rouge-ish thing.
Shoutout to Blackrock Mountain for housing BRD, UBRS, LBRS, and Blackwing's Descent. It's a whole mood where you just gotta go, 'Yup, Black dragons and Dark Iron dwarves and lava. Let's do this'
For me Caverns of Time should be number 1 and number 2 would've been The Serpen Shrine Cavern entrance in Zangar Marsh. The fact that you had to swim under water and almost drown to get there if you weren't careful (there were no water mounts back then) and then you reach this lush cavern that is the entrance to many dungeons was pretty unique.
Its been ages since i had bothered to watch any wow content. This video had me feelin some type of way. I remember those long evenings running Zul'Farak. That was when dungeons were likr mini raids
Deadlines and BlackRock were my favorites back in the day. Just the scale of the pre entrance. The danger of BlackRock too haha
2:33 Wardens use owls because they're nocturnal, obviously.
Stormstout Brewery will always be my favorite dungeon. Every time I tanked it and stood in the beer spouts and got drunk (the trash pulls before the final boss) when doing it. Fun fact, when your character is drunk all the mob levels will be two levels lower than your own but not really. Being drunk makes the mobs LOOK weaker than you, but they are not.
Crendor may not have known, but in vanilla Deadmines was a trial just to get to. ALL the defias from moonbrook to the dungeon entrance were ELITE. So if you wanted to do a DM run back in the day, you legit had to spend 30 - 60 minutes fighting your way down to even GET INTO Deadmines...
I'd like to see pointless animals along with cool animal facts for the real life ones.
omg zul’farrak was my FAVORITE duņgeon along with hellfire ramparts back when i started playing. i was too young to really understand the game so i wasn’t gearing. i just ran through those two dungeons over and over. i loved arathi basin too even though i was trash at pvp
Turning right at the ZF entrance and hoping there wasn't the other faction hanging out.
I will always vouch for Vash'jir. I love that zone, and I love being there- probably because I played through it as a priest, so I didn't need to worry about being lined up to attack things XD
The first time I did Deadmines was shortly after the OG launch and it was not only the first time I experienced instanced content in an MMO, it was the first time I'd heard the term "instance".
His #1 pic is exactly, in every meaning, the Dead Mines for The Horde.
10/10.
I'm just glad they added dungeon labels to the map! It was so darn confusing. Trying to figure out which instance was which back in the day
Mauradon is such a underappreciated dungeon. Back in vanilla it was near impossible to find a party for it.
They probably use owls because owls are PERCEPTIVE, which is thematic with a group of crime-fighters. Owls are als symbolic of wisdom due to being associated with Athena in Greek mythology, iirc. Blizzard probably leant into that.
On another note, the Vault of the Wardens is such a WTF from a lore-perspective. You know how in Warcraft 3, Maiev is completely shocked to find the broken isles as she is chasing Illidan? Yeah, then WHAM, suddenly she supposedly had a massive facility of fellow Wardens stationed here for 10,000 years, that she completely neglected to contact when trapsing across the broken isles. Great job, Blizz. GG.
waycrest was one of my fav dungeons for m+ loved it wasnt the same everytime you entered
I ran a ton of Deadmines in Vanilla, and I exclusively played Horde, so Idk what you're talking about lol. It was a far trek, but it was super fun to get to, and the items were great, and the visuals and story was awesome.
I didn't expect to love this episode but here we are. Great facts my dude, pointless top 10 lore bits from zones??
Blackrock Mountain! It still is one of the coolest locations I've seen in a video game.
MOTHERLODE!! has fun entrances too, Gallywixes boat sets the mood very well for the dungeon.
My most memorable dungeon entrance is BRD, it's such an excellent dungeon.
Just in case anybody wants to know about the mushrooms and coral; coral is actually considered an animal, and each coral is made up of many of these tiny animals. And these tiny animals then hold another organism in their body to use light for energy.
And mushrooms are in a class of their own as, well, mushrooms.
But I'd say they are aesthetically 100% the same~
Aw man.. I was hoping for Stratholme for us WC3 nerds lol
Happy Wailing Caverns made the list, was my first thought on seeing topic for this top 10
The wardens also often refer to themselves as "the watchers", and owls are very often portrayed as a silent watcher in wow.
Thats their relationship between the wardens and owls. Its vague, but kinda fits... kinda... i think.
Surprised to not see scholomance, stratholme and halls of valor, but hard to argue with the list.
The content we didn't know we needed to know about but definitely did!
Thank you for the video! Zul Farrak is one of my favorite dungeons. Maybe you can make a sequel too 10 dungeon entrances or top 10 dungeons and add Shadowfang Keep. Shadowfang is my personal favorite low level/revamped dungeon I still go to it just to mess around sometimes. So maybe if you do a sequel video you can add that to the list.
Looking back to when WOW started, it seemed like we had a lot more time to be exploring and leveling different characters and do all of these dungeons a few times each. I'm just surprised you didn't address the entrance to Blackrock Mountain and how you had to find all of the different dungeon entrances within it.
No Sunken Temple? That entrance and lore is super good
the door in vault of the wardens always reminded me of the Mines of Moira from LotR
Fun fact: The Sahara desert in Africa (the largest desert in the world) like Tanaris used to be very lush... iirc it basically changes climate between being very lush and desert every few tens of thousands of years or something like that...
Sunken Temple is kinda great as well, just known as sunken temple because it's a ..sunken temple, even though the dungeon is not called that.
Zul'Farrak definitely deserves #1. Loved the temple battle and the Hydra boss!
There are also some BIG claw marks just outside of Wailing Caverns
Owls were used by Night Elves in Warcraft 3 too, like on the trees as scout + Tyrande has a Owl - could be something from back then?
Maybe those owls are a reference to the Owls of Ga'hool, and Ga'hool sounds like a fancy way to say Gaol, which is a old fancy word for Jail. So maybe they're the Owls of Jail.
They have owl iconography because their old faction name was "The Watchers" and owls are known to watch their prey. like the wardens watch their prisoners.
I wish when you do dungeon finder you start outside the entrance or you have to travel to it because you miss so much cool theme and story
I can completely agree on all of these.
I love Waycrest Manor's first Resident Evil game vibe.
Sunken temple comes to mind, or the drak’thar one or whatever its called in northrend. shit even gundrak lol. so many incredible ones. hard to choose! make a part two perhaps
Drunk Pandas, a must explore.
ya as an alli the deadmines gets more hype not so much for it but the town/mine that gets associated with it, and that all 3 places have changed not just a lot but also many times.
The greatest gift an older player can gift to itself is to not look stuff up on the internet and figure things out, the greatest strength of what WoW was back in the day IS that nobody knew anything. And I wish I were there to see it, but I had to grind my 4% a day on Lineage 2 lmao.
I would be down for a crendor style WoW lore breakdown for some things. Don't even play WoW but I'm sure there's some stories in there that would be nice to hear through a thick chicago accent
u should show map where these are too. great video!
i feel like owls are just symbolic with the night elves, much like night sabers. i know there's a pet vendor in Darnassus that sells little owl pets, so there's that too.
NGL, it took me 4min to realize, your not talking about pointless Dungeon Entrances but Top Dungeon Entrances in a "Format" called "Pointless Top 10" .
Damn... I was already about to type a comment about them actually being pretty cool x'D
Not only are owls stealthy, they are also frequently associated with education and knowledge. Because they can hunt even small prey in the dark, put together with the variations of alumni (a = absent, void of; lumni = light; alumni are the ones who search for knowledge in the dark without a light of their own), owls are often related with sages and teachers
Source: my country has specific degrees for educators and I'm a biology teacher
my first dungeon i went into was some type of cavern with a non linear progression forgot what it was it was like under water cave thingy. second one i went to with actual people was shadowmoon burial grounds. i loved the dark and purplish ghosty vibes. also first one with people so nostalgia.
Was the first one by chance Blackfathom Deeps?
@@Macroman595 i just looked up the video for it since i havent been in there much since. but yes it was indeed that one XD
i completely agree with all these choices