This may seem trivial, but back in 2006 this was quite an event for me. Reason being, I had a terrible time trying to find this zone and I wanted desperately to get in there so that I could learn my next rank of leatherworking. Many of you may recall that back in Vanilla you had to travel the world in search of the various profession trainers. Any of you remember when we had to actually seek out and tame specific pets in order to learn new ranks of hunter pet abilities..? Those were the days. While some may remember that as a time sink, I actually enjoyed that aspect of the game.
Anyhow, back when I was ready to learn my next rank of LW, I had to go seek out a shirtless Wildhammer dwarf who used to be stationed at Aerie Peak. He was the guy who would get me trained up, enabling me to make leet armor kits and such.
I had no idea where that was, and I still had yet to discover a lot of the map. I can’t recall exactly how I got pointed in the general direction – it may have been through guild chat – but I recall having a difficult time trying to locate a way in.
I’ll admit, I may be a bit navigationally challenged, but that zone was much more difficult to find back in those days. There was no tunnel leading through the side of the mountains in Arathi Highlands, and we didn’t have the luxury of flying mounts. Only way in was the obscured path behind Durnholde Keep that led into the Hinterlands from the Hillsbrad Foothills.
Difficult to locate places and quest objectives were a part of the game back then. There were no floating exclamation points or sparkly quest items, and I liked that. I enjoyed the a-ha moments.
I think this was also around the time I discovered Thottbot, which I believe is where I had gone to find out where I could locate the entrance to the path. Needless to say, once I did finally locate the entrance I was not only relieved to know my way in, but upon discovering Aerie Peak, the Hinterlands was immediately among my favorite zones in the game. The western portion anyway…I’m not super keen on the troll-infested eastern area. 😉
Were we to be able to set up homesteads anywhere in the game, living among the Wildhammer Dwarves would be among my top choices. I’ve just always liked this zone.