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| it was hard to find an old map without words or farming paths on it |
The Hinterlands has a lot of trolls, but it's also pretty dwarvish. Aerie Peak is right at the entrance, and the two guardian named gryphons at the entrance to the zone are only hostile to horde players.
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| they wouldn't stand a chance, now |
Simply going into Hinterlands required that you could sneak past or kill these two tough level 40 guardians, and the path led you directly into the alliance town, where a patrolling dwarf guard may have very well found you if you didn't immediately step off the paved path, directly into the mobs and monsters of the zone.
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| what did I ever do to you dwarves anyways |
As a horde player, it was an accomplishment to be able to get in to The Hinterlands, and when you did, you were rewarded with a very quest-dense area.
It's worth mentioning that The Hinterlands is connected by foot to another zone, Western Plaguelands, but as a leveling character, you probably weren't venturing into a level 40 zone from a level 52 zone.
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| spooky |
There were a lot of cool things about The Hinterlands. Of course, it was home to one of the Emerald Dream portals, where you could fight one of the dragons of nightmare...
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| welcome to Seradane |
It was also infamous for having a lot of quests that started in zones all the way across the entire world, notably Witch Doctor Uzer'i's quest that started in Feralas to collect a grocery list full of things, several of them being located here. You also got the [Ancient Egg] to summon the Avatar of Hakkar in Sunken Temple, aka Temple of Atal'Hakkar, erected in Hakkar the Soulflayer's name. You know, the one in Zul'Gurub in Stranglethorn Vale. The lore did a lot of running around, too.
Very significantly, the [Sacred Mallet] was found here, which was used all the way in Tanaris in Zul'Farrak, to summon Gahz'rilla. Why is that so significant, you ask? Killing Gahz got you a rare and elusive trinket, [Carrot on a Stick]. Trinkets were in short supply in Vanilla - you would usually go until 60, and possibly several months into 60 if you had bad luck, without getting two viable trinkets. Everyone level ~40 and up had a carrot (and sometimes nothing else) until the Blackrock Spire levels.
Speaking of Blackrock Spire, I'm pretty sure there was a quest that connected to LBRS, here, too.
Basically, you had to come here a lot in Vanilla, for several reasons. It was an oddly specific place.
It was also one of the few places to get [Ghost Mushrooms], which has since been changed after The Shattering, and you can't get them here at all.
All the travel quests aside, The Hinterlands was one of my favorite zones to level in, mostly because of Jintha'alor. The zone had a lot of simple quests that could be done at once, along with a good helping of high experience rewards from the Jintha'alor quests, since they were elite group quests.
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| I must have seen these stairs a million times |
It was also a very significant zone for one very particular quest reward. Speaking of trinkets, The Hinterlands rewarded one of the few lower level trinkets that was actually worthwhile, [Rune of the Guard Captain]. Most melee classes and hunters could go for awhile with this trinket before replacing it.
The Hinterlands is still a cool place, but I find that, since I'm usually starting on Kalimdor, I'm not really over on that side of the world, and I usually just dungeon grind right past the level range. Jintha'alor still has quests, but they are no longer group quests and can be done solo. I'm sure the sheer density of the quests in the zone still provide a good spot to get a ton of experience quickly, but leveling is so quick as it is.
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| shrug |
It may seem like a weird spot to have so many memories, but because of the large number of quests and high experience gain, Jintha'alor was always a stop for anyone leveling an alt. As far as I can remember it was still a popular place to group for, or at least ask for a runthrough, up until WotLK.
A lot of guildies and friends would ask for run throughs, just like any given dungeon. It was unique in this aspect, as it was not an instance. It was always neat to me that there was this open world place in a more or less random zone with big group quests. Of course, the state of the game now doesn't support these kinds of areas anymore.
Jintha'alor was not refined enough to become an instance, so in The Great Undertuning, it was demoted to a regular old questing spot, with boring weak baby mobs, and simple, smaller, shorter quests.
The dragons are all gone in Seradane.
No one needs any more ancient eggs or sacred mallets.
But this idiot still can't keep his lunch under control.
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| get yourself together it's been ten years |
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