Hello, everyone, I'm Grimm the Goblin, and today, I'm going to be ranking the Legion
Class Order Halls.
Please keep in mind that my like, or dislike, of an order hall says nothing about how much
I like that class's gameplay or its lore.
As I'm judging these, I'm primarily looking at two factors.
Aesthetics and layout.
What that really breaks down to is a series of questions.
Does it look good?
Does it fit the class fantasy?
And where are the areas that you use most often in relation to one another.
As a side note, I'm also looking at whether or not you can mount and whether or not you
really need to.
That's not to say I think we should be able to mount in every order hall.
It's a matter of size and speed.
If everything's close together, there's really no need to mount.
I will not be discussing the order hall campaigns themselves, although followers will occasionally
get a mention.
There is no need to worry about major spoilers.
With that out of the way, let's begin.
Number.
Twelve.
Mage.
Hall of the Guardian.
I'm gonna give it to you straight.
I don't like this place.
The biggest problem with this order hall is its layout.
It's all spiral staircases inside of sweeping staircases, and it's hard to get around,
but I'm going to get back to that in a minute.
I promise.
Aesthetically, it just does not stand out.
Yes, Dalaran was, and is, the obvious choice for the location for an order hall for mages,
but that means it's just not going to stand out in an expansion where absolutely everyone
is based in and out of Dalaran all the time.
That said, the appeal of Dalaran itself is that it's bright and airy.
This place is dim and kind of stuffy.
And while there are a lot of nice, little details, little details don't fix systemic
problems.
Getting back to the layout issues, as promised, there's that massive divider in the middle
of the downstairs hallway.
Normally, that wouldn't be a total deal-breaker, except for one problem.
The troop recruiter for Tirisgarde Apprentices or Kirin Tor Invokers is on the opposite side
of that divider from your mission map.
Generally speaking, I think it should be easy to get in and out of your order hall.
You should be able to stop by, switch over your missions, upgrade your artifact, and
leave.
The layout of The Hall of the Guardian just, unfortunately, it doesn't allow for a quick
stop.
If someone's waiting for you for a group or if you just really want to get back to
questing, you need to be able to get in and out pretty quickly, and this order hall just
fails that test.
One of the things I really do like about this order hall is that it's very refined.
There's a library and a little art gallery.
There are also a lot of nifty little magical instruments upstairs, and that's really
cool.
It's nice to have.
The upstairs of this order hall is actually pretty nice.
There are some really nice views from the upstairs gallery, and the upstairs is set
up well.
The problem with these nice views is that they are nicer from upstairs than they are
from where they're actually overlooking downstairs.
The downstairs is where this order hall fails.
While I do like the enchanted library, I would've preferred something neater.
I mean, they really just left a bunch of paper on the floor.
I was hoping it was going to look a little bit more like the one in the Dalaran inscription
shop.
There's no doubt that this place is genuinely magical in appearance, and that is ideal for
a mage.
But nothing compensates for the massive failures in getting in and out of here.
It's a problem.
It really is a problem.
And that's unfortunate.
Number Eleven.
Rogue.
The Hall of Shadows.
My reason for ranking this order hall so low on the list is mainly disappointment.
I was hoping for a rebuilt Ravenholdt or perhaps a little hidden cave near Booty Bay.
Instead, we got more Dalaran.
And everything I said about Dalaran not standing out in a Dalaran-centered expansion...
It's just as true with the Hall of Shadows as it was for the Hall of the Guardian.
This particular order hall has access to a lot more vendors than most, which is kind
of interesting, except that a lot of them don't really sell things you need.
There's also an extra Black Market Auction House here, and, while access to another Black
Market Auction House might be a nice feature for some, I don't personally know anyone
who uses it so extensively on a rogue, in particular, that this is some kind of necessity.
My other big issue with this order hall is that, while it feels fine for subtlety and
assassination rogues, it's an awkward fit, at best, for the newly rebranded outlaw rogues.
If you look here at Fleet Admiral Tethys, he looks really out of place because of the
use of the Dalaran tileset.
We do get our own bard, though.
How neat is that?
As I go through the little tavern area, I'd like to discuss the layout a little bit.
While it certainly doesn't have the navigation issues of the Hall of the Guardian, the Hall
of Shadows does have some issues in this regard.
It's very crowded.
While the bar is a nice touch, it's a very, very small order hall, and it benefits from
not actually being able to mount.
If you were able to mount in here, it would just be wall to wall mounts, and chances are
that you wouldn't be able to get anything done because the map and the forge would be
blocked.
When I said I was looking at whether or not you could mount and whether or not you needed
it, that is exactly what I meant.
In this case, mounting would actually get in your way, it would actually detract from
this order hall, so it's actually a good thing that you can't.
There's some nice little detail here with the Forsaken Royal Apothecary Society, but,
as I said before, a lot of this order hall feels like it was designed based around assassination
and subtlety rogues and not outlaw rogues.
Overall, it's crowded, but not impossible to navigate.
The recruiter for Bandits or Defias Thieves is a little bit far from the recruiter for
the Bloodsail Pirates or Uncrownded Duelists, but it's not a huge issue because it's
small.
The bigger issue is that it's designed based around two out of three specs, and that's
to the exclusion of the third spec.
There are only small nods to outlaw spec, and, considering that was the big deal that
they totally changed combat into outlaw, that's kind of disappointing.
Oh.
You can walk the plank, though.
You can totally do that.
Wheee!!!
Number Ten.
Hunter.
Trueshot Lodge.
Much like The Hall of Shadows, one problem with Trueshot Lodge is that it is very small.
Because it is partially outdoors, it does end up looking larger than it actually is,
but it is, in fact, quite a small order hall.
Troop recruitment is outside with Squads of Archers or Unseen Marksmen near the targets
in front of the building and Bands of Trackers near the stable master.
While I'm aware that most marksmanship hunters run without a pet, having a stable master
is very much a necessity for survival and beast mastery specs.
Aesthetically, Trueshot Lodge is very much a night elf compound with a tauren tower and
a small Gilnean camp.
While that is to be expected in the Broken Isles, it does not reflect the totality of
the hunter class, which can be played by all races.
I am, though, incredibly fond of the music in this particular order hall.
I think it's shared with Highmountain as a whole, but that's not a bad thing.
It's good music.
It's lively.
It's engaging.
It's just kind of a pity that it was put in such a dull area as well.
Highmountain as a whole is quite a nice zone.
Trueshot Lodge, not so much.
My biggest issue with Trueshot Lodge isn't the skew toward night elves, though.
It's the use of space.
It makes sense for a hunter lodge to include outdoor areas, however the use of space is
very awkward.
While I'm aware that artifact research isn't such a big deal anymore, having it behind
the building always felt like it didn't belong or didn't really fit.
And, yet, at the same time, there's a ton of unused space on one side of the building,
and the map area inside of the building is often crowded and feels cramped, given the
popularity of the class.
Overall, in my honest opinion, Trueshot Lodge looks a little bit dull.
It certainly isn't the prettiest place in the world, and it doesn't really stand out
among the places visited in the Legion expansion.
And, while it is nice to have most of the things you use regularly in close proximity
to one another, there is such a concept as too small of a space and too much of a good
thing.
Looking back at
the natural areas Azeroth already had to offer, such as Grizzly Hills and parts of Mount Hyjal,
and some of the locations where hunter trainers can be found, for example the Cenarion Enclave
in Darnassus or Farstriders' Square in Silvermoon City, and other locations within Highmountain,
such as the Fields of An'She and Pinerock Basin, and looking over at The Dreamgrove,
Trueshot Lodge just seems bleak by comparison.
As I said, though, the reason that Trueshot Lodge ranked relatively low on my list is
that there are large amounts of unused spaced and then a bunch of things crammed into a
small space.
I do love the hunting trophies inside of the lodge proper, and it does have a wonderful
view.
I'm just sorry that I filmed at night, so you can't really see it that well.
Number Nine.
Warlock.
Dreadscar Rift.
Dreadscar Rift is a functional order hall with aesthetics that suit its class perfectly,
so why isn't it at the top of the list?
Simply put, wasted space.
One detail I love about Dreadscar Rift is that each different type of demon has its
own little space.
There's an imp mother to spawn in your imp troops from her fel pit.
There's a meat pit for your felhounds.
And there's another area for your voidlords.
It's almost like they tried to make the pet demons comfortable.
Dreadscar Rift is basically three levels somewhat stacked on top of one another along a twisting
path, but you would be forgiven for mistakenly thinking that there were only two levels because
there's very little on the bottom level apart from a bed with a few succubi around
it.
Another issue I have with Dreadscar Rift is that some NPCs are a little bit difficult
to find.
The quartermaster, in particular, completely blends into the area around her.
She's in this central area, so let's play a little game of "Where's Gigi?"
Yes, that's her name, Gigi.
Good luck spotting her before I walk right up to her, unless you play a warlock and already
know right where she's standing.
Do you see her yet?
Because she's right there.
See my point?
Just a head's up, I'm about to discuss the class hall campaign a tiny bit.
There aren't too many spoilers.
I promise.
Dreadscar Rift is an order hall you have to fight to earn.
It's not just a base of operations.
It's not somewhere that you retreat to or a place that was empty when you found it.
Or a place where they just hand you the keys and let you in.
You have to earn control of this place, which makes it feel like you've put a lot more
into it as a player than some of the other order halls.
Oh, and it's nice to be saluted on the way up to the forge.
And that forge itself?
There's a demon heart on a chain.
Warlocks have the coolest things.
Overall, Dreadscar Rift is a pretty functional order hall with an appearance that really
suits its class, but it does have some wasted space at the bottom, and it can be so dark
that some NPCs can be lost.
It's not bad, not by a long shot, but it does have its issues, and there are definitely
a few order halls that are a lot more impressive.
Number Eight.
Priest.
Netherlight Temple.
Unlike many previous entries on this list, this order hall has a functional layout.
Everything you're likely to need on a regular basis to get in and out quickly is right in
the center.
Unlike the Hall of Shadows, which seemed to be designed primarily for assassination and
subtlety rogues with only small nods to outlaw rogues, shadow priests are not excluded from
Netherlight Temple.
The concept is very much shadow to the left of me, holy to the right.
Here I am, stuck in the middle with disc.
That said, the aesthetic is extremely draenei, and one of the artifacts is also extremely
draenei.
Yes, I know that the draenei have a major story arc this expansion and that they have
strong lore connections to the naaru and that the priesthood is very important within their
society, however, draenei do not define priests as a class, nor are they the most popular
race for player priests.
Many races within Warcraft lore have prominent priesthoods within their societies.
Yes, the draenei are one, but so are night elves.
Night elves have the priesthood of Elune very prominent within their society, yet we're
looking at Netherlight Temple, not a larger Temple of Elune, and my question is why.
I understand why priests did not get a human-type cathedral.
That was either going to go to the paladins or the priests.
The paladins got it, so the priests had to find something else.
Given the diverse priesthoods of Azeroth, that something else was almost certainly going
to be heavily skewed toward a particular race, no matter which race was chosen, but I'm
curious as to why draenei, in particular, were chosen, as opposed to, say, night elves.
To me, Netherlight Temple looks like it shares art assets with the Auchindoun dungeon and
other draenei areas from Warlords of Draenor.
I'm curious whether or not Netherlight Temple was mostly made out of existing art assets.
They did, however, seemingly make a concerted effort to represent the other priesthoods
among the NPCs and to include some of the more rarely seen gear sets as well.
For example, a set consisting of gear from Siege of Orgrimmar and Blackrock Foundry is
seen on a lot of draenei.
Many humans and dwarves are wearing tier three, and there are trolls walking around in Loa-Binder
Robes.
Sadly, though, some of these looks cannot be replicated by players.
In particular, some of the Priestesses of Elune are walking around with a crescent moon
headpiece that is actually a leather item from druid tier eight, as are the robes worn
by the tauren sun priests.
The outfits on the NPC priests, though, they will make the transmog addicts among you jealous.
Overall, Netherlight Temple is a functional order hall that balances the full spectrum
of priest specs nicely in its design.
And it does look good, but its looks are still skewed toward a particular race, and that
race just so happens to be one of the two playable races that dominated the aesthetics
of the previous expansion.
Something I'm sure some players are a little sick of looking at.
It's definitely not terrible, but it's also far from jaw-dropping.
Number Seven.
Death Knight.
Acherus, The Ebon Hold.
The original Acherus seems to be the prototype for all of the other order halls, a bit more
so than Peak of Serenity and far more so than Moonglade, and it really would have been a
disservice to the class if another building had been chosen or if Acherus had been revamped
beyond recognition.
The order hall largely retains its Wrath-era layout with upgraded textures and a few new
features like the map table and the soulforge to make it viable for Legion content.
Downstairs, there's still a corner for each spec.
Frost, Blood, and Unholy.
And this level of familiarity is nice.
As I said before, it would have been a mistake to put Death Knights anywhere other than Acherus.
It just feels like home, and that's really what an order hall should be.
Home.
As a side note, I have tried not to film too many spoilers for the order hall campaigns,
but one glance at the class follower list spoils a lot in this case, and my followers
just happened to be standing around my order hall and not out on missions while I filmed
the tour.
If you've played a death knight for a long time, or, actually, if you have quested through
Dragonblight, Icecrown, or the revamped Plaguelands on any class, you are going to recognize some
of the NPCs here.
While I absolutely love the aesthetics of this place and could not imagine any other
home for the death knights as a class, I do take a major issue with the layout.
Specifically, I take issue with the fact that troop recruitment for Ebon Knights or Ebon
Ravagers is upstairs near the Soulforge and Rune Forges, rather than downstairs near the
map table and the Ghoul and Geist recruiter, and that makes for an inconvenience that causes
a major delay when trying to set up missions and leave.
Aesthetically, though, it suits the class perfectly.
Just as it did during Wrath.
It didn't need an overhaul, just a small upgrade, and I'm glad it stayed true to
its original form.
Another nice bit of detail is that the Soulforge fits in wonderfully right between the two
runeforges that were already there.
As I said, it wasn't so much changed as it was just upgraded a little bit, and that's
fine.
That's what it needed.
If I were judging the order halls based entirely on aesthetics, counting form over function,
Acherus would definitely make my top three, however, I cannot overlook the inconvenient
location of one of the troop recruiters.
Overall, Acherus benefited a lot from leaving well enough alone and does not feel overcrowded
or cluttered.
Acherus suits its class very well.
It's delightfully gloomy, as it should be.
Number Six.
Warrior.
Skyhold.
I hope you like rose gold and wine red.
Me?
I don't.
And your opinon of the aesthetics of this order hall is really going to depend a lot
on how much you like, or dislike, that particular color combination as well as how much you
like, or dislike, the knotwork art style that it shares with parts of the Stormheim questing
zone, the Halls of Valor dungeon, and the Trial of Valor raid.
The layout of Skyhold is one of the best.
All of the weapon stuff is in one corner, and all of the mission stuff is in another
corner.
I have no complaints in that regard.
You can use ground mounts to get quickly between the two, which makes it very easy to come
here, do your business, and get back to whatever it was that you were doing before.
There's also a convenient transport system right in the middle that allows you to travel
to any zone in the Broken Isles instantly and drops you in the major quest hub in that
zone for free.
You get the transport points automatically as you quest, unlike the mages' zone portals
or the hunters' eagle flight network, both of which cost order hall resources to select,
and come at the expense of another talent in the order hall tree, and also drop you
in less logical locations.
Why, yes, that is a val'kyr who exists solely to drop you off at Shal'aran or Thunder
Totem whenever you feel like it.
Joking aside, I'm just not thrilled with where they've taken the class fantasy, and
the appearance of the order hall is a manifestation of that.
I know warriors have always been bland compared to other classes, and I'm quite aware that
a lot of major NPCs are either dead or are unavailable to be a part of the order hall
for other plot-related or faction-related reasons, but that leaves the order hall absolutely
dominated by an unplayable race, and the sudden change from footsoldier to viking is a pretty
big one to have to swallow.
Skyhold is a perfectly functional order hall, and I'm sure that some people like the look,
even though I, personally, do not, but it just doesn't feel like it belongs to the
warriors that have been seen in the game up until this point, and that's a really big
issue for me.
Order halls were announced as a sort of a home for the class as a whole, and Skyhold
just does not feel like a home for the warriors, at least not the warriors we've had up until
this point, and that's the main reason it ranks relatively low on this list, despite
being one of the most functional order halls in terms of layout.
It's pretty epic.
There's no questioning that.
It's just whether you love or hate the change.
Number Five.
Demon Hunter.
The Fel Hammer.
Before I really get started on the hall itself, I just wanted to say that I absolutely love
this little glide down to the portal.
I'm inclined to be a little more charitable toward the aesthetics of order halls that
have more interesting entrances than, say, the predictable mage teleport or the very
dull priest portal because I consider the entrance to be a part of the order hall as
a whole.
Much like the Hall of the Guardian, the Fel Hammer was not really destined to stand out
against the rest of this expansion.
Too much of the Broken Isles is covered in Legion fel-goop and eredar ships for this
place to really look different, but in this case, that's kind of alright.
This is, after all, the new class.
It's the big deal this expansion, so it's pretty much expected that their order hall
would be more in line with the overall art style than, say, some of the others might.
Also, unlike The Hall of the Guardian, the Fel Hammer doesn't really suffer from particularly
severe layout issues.
Troop recruitment is close to the map and the quartermaster.
The forge is all the way downstairs, but it doesn't significantly detract from everyday
in and out business, and you can get there pretty quickly using the glide ability.
The space is completely used, so there really aren't any large, empty gaps making it look
half-finished or half-full like Trueshot Lodge or Dreadscar Rift.
Frankly, I was a little bit surprised that demon hunters didn't simply retake the Black
Temple or something, but I realize that that would've been highly impractical in terms
of size and layout.
What makes a good raid wouldn't really make a good order hall.
One issue I've had with a few of the other order halls is a relative lack of familiar
NPCs, or at least NPCs who would be familiar to someone who has only played World of Warcraft
and hasn't played the RTS games or read every lore novel.
In the case of the Fel Hammer, it would actually be pretty justified because there weren't
a whole lot of a named demon hunters already present in World of Warcraft prior to Legion,
let alone named demon hunters who are still alive or are presumed alive, but most of the
ones who weren't actually killed do show up here, which is a nice touch.
Except Feronas Sindweller.
For some reason, he's not here, but, regardless, bonus points for having at least a few familiar
faces here.
Overall, I don't really have any major problem with the Fel Hammer.
It's functional, and it looks pretty good, even if the appearance does blend in more
with the overall look of Legion than some other ordre halls.
It does suit demon hunters as a class very well, however it's not the most awe-inspiring,
jaw-dropping place on the map, and I've saved the top few spots for places that I
think stood out head and shoulders above the rest in terms of appearance.
Number Four.
Paladin.
Sanctum of Light.
This place is absolutely stunning.
I said before that either paladins or priests would get a traditional chapel, not both,
and that paladins were the ones who got the traditional chapel.
This is it.
The Sanctum of Light is a beautiful hall beneath Light's Hope Chapel in the Eastern Plaguelands.
What more is there to say?
It's gorgeous, and it perfectly encompasses the paladin as a class.
A holy warrior.
A- a knight in shining armor.
There is a huge amount of lore in most of the order halls, but you really notice it
here more than in some of the others.
Even if you're not a major lore buff you will almost certainly recognize at least some
of the named NPCs walking around and at least some of the names on the statues in the chapel
proper.
Tirion Fordring.
Lady Liadrin.
Alexandros Mograine.
Uther the Lightbringer.
Turalyon.
I wouldn't expect the average player to know all of the named characters here or everything
about every given one of them, but I would honestly be very surprised if someone who
mains a paladin was somehow completely unfamiliar with all of them as well as all of the lore
surrounding light's hope chapel itself.
While humans and blood elves are the most popular races for player paladins, by far,
the order hall does a pretty good job of encompassing the diversity of the class as a whole.
While there is no dwarf follower, there are dwarves among the statues in the chapel, and
there are plenty of dwarf NPCs walking around.
You also see tauren.
You also see draenei.
For a place with such very human architecture, it's not filled with wall to wall humans
or humans and blood elves, which is more than can be said for some of the other classes'
halls.
So this order hall ticks all of the boxes, right?
It looks amazing, and it really suits its class.
What more could you want?
Well...
Not quite all of the boxes.
You see, the reason that the Sanctum of Light does not take the top spot on the list is
that it can be time consuming to get in here, upgrade your artifact, change over your missions,
and get on your way.
For an order hall where you cannot mount, it's fairly long, with the map at one end
and the forge at the other, and the troop recruiters, one of them, in particular, are
pretty far away from the map.
Clearly, some function was sacrificed for aesthetic reasons, and he could've just
as easily stood directly across from the other troop recruiter, allowing paladins to get
back to what they were doing out in the world that much more quickly.
It does appear to be a deliberate design choice of aesthetics over function, rather than wasted
space or clumsy handling of the mechanics, so it gets fewer points taken off for it than
some of the others have, but it doesn't get off the hook entirely.
That said, who actually wants to leave this place?
It's beautiful.
Number Three.
Druid.
The Dreamgrove.
First, I want to say that I absolutely love the immersion of traveling through the Emerald
Dream to get to the Dreamgrove.
It is, by far, my favorite entrance to any order hall.
And this place is absolutely stunning.
If I were ranking the order halls based solely on the ones that I'd personally want to
visit the most if they were real, the Dreamgrove would definitely be the top of that list.
There are a lot of hidden nooks and crannies to explore here, including a whole barrow
den and several buildings, which is something that the other order halls don't really
have, and this is a massive upgrade from the relatively basic, if scenic, village of Nighthaven
in Moonglade, which, to be fair, Nighthaven would have made a decent order hall in its
own right if it wasn't also needed for a couple of holidays and the quest heading into
Mount Hyjal.
One of the issues several people had with The Dreamgrove was that, earlier in the expansion,
it was just too big.
It has an unusual, though not dysfunctional, layout, with the research and recruiters in
one area, the forge in another, and the map board in another.
It works.
It's just not the most common arrangement.
You can fly in the Dreamgrove, and even early in the expansion, you could use ground mounts.
Even then, it was huge.
Just to give you some idea of how big it is, I cut this video a lot for time, but it took
around twice as long to film my walkthrough of this place as the next largest order hall,
and before Broken Isles flying was released, that was more of an obstruction to coming
in, doing what you needed to do, and getting back to business than it is now.
In terms of the "wilderness encampment" aesthetic that you probably think of when
you think of where an order of druids would probably set itself up, they absolutely nailed
it.
And the Dreamgrove has, in my opinion, the nicest artifact forge of any order hall.
Look at this little tree.
Look at it.
That said, it's very much a night elf settlement, which...
I mean, it makes a bit of sense, since it is in Val'Sharah, which is very much a night
elf zone, and the Dreamgrove is, essentially, concentrated essence of Val'Sharah, however,
night elves are not the only druids in the game.
Shh... sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh...
The baby boomkins are learning.
OK, as I was saying, the Dreamgrove is really dominated by night elves, and that's what
keeps it off my top spot.
I'm sorry to those of you who adore them, and it's not saying that I don't, but
they're not the only druids in the game, even if they are the most popular race for
player druids.
If you look at the follower list, it's dominated by night elves.
There's a single troll, a single tauren, and no worgen.
Oh, but there is a faerie dragon.
Overall, the Dreamgrove is a beautiful order hall, probably the most beautiful of all of
them, but it's just a little too focused on night elves when it should be focused on
the whole of the class fantasy, putting it solidly in the top three, but not at number
one.
Number Two.
Monk.
Temple of Five Dawns on the Wandering Isle.
I was a little bit disappointed when I found out that monks were not going to be using
the Peak of Serenity as their class hall.
It was a functional order hall in its own right before order halls really properly existed,
and I was sad to see it go.
I was also a bit skeptical when they said that the monks would have their order hall
on the Wandering Isle.
It was not one of my favorite starting areas, but the reasons for that are a matter for
another list.
As for the concerns I had...
For one thing my high level monk is not a pandaren, so it doesn't really have that
"coming home" feel that it might for someone who mainly plays a pandaren monk.
My fears were assuaged when I saw that we would be working with Chen Stormstout, Taran
Zhu, and Lorewalker Cho, all of whom should be familiar NPCs for anyone who quested through
Mists of Pandaria.
Another reason for my skepticism was that monks aren't a very popular class.
I had my doubts that monks were actually going to get a fair treatment compared to more popular
classes when I heard that monks were getting their order hall in an existing location.
That said, I actually really like how they handled it, both in terms of the story and
the layout itself.
Basically, the Legion invaded Pandaria, and the Peak of Serenity took the brunt of an
attack.
The Wandering Isle happened to be traveling close by, and they could see that something
was wrong, and they saved you, so you wake up in the village.
It explains why the Peak of Serenity wasn't an option, why the Wandering Isle was chosen
instead of somewhere on Pandaria itself, and how we even got here, and it does that without
being needlessly complicated.
The Wandering Isle is a quaint, pretty area, prettier than most of mainland Pandaria.
It's kind of a condensed version of the Jade Forest and Valley of the Four Winds.
For those of you who haven't rolled a monk or don't have one at a high enough level
to come here, yes, you can visit the rest of the island.
Most of it, anyhow.
The Wood of Staves is closed off, but the gates to the village are open, however, the
actual order hall itself is limited to the Temple of Five Dawns and Mandori Village.
Because it's limited to the walled village area, the order hall itself is not too large.
In terms of layout, everything related to the artifact is up in the temple and the side
courtyard, and everything related to follower missions is down in the village.
The staircase between the two is rather long, but this keeps it from feeling cramped.
While other order halls were purpose-built, even the two in open-world Legion zones, this
one was adapted from an existing map, which makes it all the more impressive that it that
it doesn't have significant layout issues stemming from it being adapted and that it
still looks really good even though it's effectively two expansions and four years
older than the rest.
The other thing worth mentioning is that, of every class and race combination in the
game, monks and pandaren are the most disproportionately associated, with over half of pandaren being
monks and around forty percent of all monks being pandaren, even though most races can
be monks and pandaren have seven class options.
If there was ever a case for an order hall being completely dominated by a particular
race, it's this one.
But it's actually less dominated by pandaren than you might think.
Yes, the strong race-class association means that both the former class area at the Peak
of Serenity and the current order hall are dominated by pandaren architecture, however
only four of the nine possible class followers are pandaren, and three of those are major
existing lore characters.
Going back to the Peak of Serenity, about half of the masters you had to face in training
quests were pandaren and half weren't.
That tradition has continued here.
It both acknowledges that there is an extremely strong association between monks as a class
and pandaren as a race and gently nudges you with a reminder that they're not the only
monks.
And in my opinion, this is what puts it just above The Dreamgrove.
Even though it's a very pandaren place and life goes on in the villages and fields beyond,
the order hall itself feels like it belongs to all monks, not just pandaren monks.
Number One.
Shaman.
The Maelstrom
No, The Maelstrom isn't as pretty as Light's Hope, The Dreamgrove, or the Wandering Isle,
and it wouldn't suit shamans as a class if it was.
It's a perfect example of a zone that looks really good without really being pretty in
the conventional sense.
It's something else entirely.
It's raw and powerful and primal.
It hangs over an abyss at the edge of the world, or, rather, the center of it.
Even the music is dark, and growling, and booming, just like the constant storms.
This isn't a place of quiet meditation or study.
Quite the opposite.
And that's why it has such an impact.
This order hall does look bigger than its regularly used portion is, and it's very
linear.
There are a couple of quests that go to the far ends of it, but for the most part, when
you're going about your day-to-day business of upgrading your artifact and sending out
your follower missions, you're in a relatively small area in the middle, allowing you to
get in and out quickly without feeling cramped, but also allowing the rest of it to be used
as needed, unlike Trueshot Lodge or Dreadscar Rift, where there's just empty space.
About the only complaint I have is that one of the troop recruiters is a little farther
out than some, but you can use ground mounts here, and the location is justified for another
reason...
Much like how Dreadscar Rift has places for all of the different kinds of demons warlocks
can summon, The Maelstrom has areas dedicated to different elements and the different types
of elementals.
The one you'll probably notice the most is the fire area because it's very close
to the portal to and from Dalaran, and it's closest to the mission map and class hall
upgrades, but earth, water, and air have their place as well.
It also has a very interesting artifact forge.
Unlike the blooming tree in The Dreamgrove, though, this one is interesting not because
of what it does, but where it is.
You're hanging out over the whirlpool that drops into Deepholm.
There's lightning crashing and winds howling around you.
The salt spray from the sea below lashes up the rocks and onto your face.
Personally, I find this order hall the most immersive, and the forge is the perfect reason
why.
It just screams "shaman."
It may be but a slab of rock on a precipice, but that's the beauty of it.
It doesn't need to be fancy.
It doesn't need to be pretty.
And it's nothing if not primal.
The Maelstrom, the Heart of Azeroth, it's perfect.
To note some of the places where The Maelstrom succeeds where others failed or floundered,
I'm going to say that, yes, the follower list is dominated by an unplayable race, of
sorts.
Four of your followers are elementals, which is completely justified because the elements
are, obviously, the core of the shaman class fantasy, far more so than, say, faerie dragons
and druids.
I was also very happy to see that Alliance shamans were not totally excluded, even though
the class historically has strong connections to the Horde.
The Maelstrom is also not full of completely obscure or new NPCs.
If you quested through Cataclysm, you'll recognize Nobundo and Myrla, and of course
Thrall and Aggra.
I'm also going to note that this is the sort of thing I really wanted for the warriors
as well, a place that looks good and feels powerful, but isn't too pretty.
And that is why The Maelstrom, the Heart of Azeroth, in many ways the simplest, most basic
order hall, takes my top spot.
Thanks for watching.
Please remember to like and subscribe.
See you!
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