Have you ever been curious about exploration in World of Warcraft, but did not really know where to start, or how to do it? Have you ever found yourself flying around aimlessly trying find something to do because you've already done what the current content provides, or waiting for that 6pm raid that hasn't started yet? Kick the boredom, and start exploring today! World of Warcraft is full of places to explore and unearth, places that Blizzard has not intended us to see. From being a hardcore raider, to the most relaxed and chill player of World of Warcraft, exploration can be done by anyone! With this article, I will provide you with all the information about exploration, its purposes, and benefits. This will be done by: providing you with a brief history on World of Warcraft Exploration, going over some Highlights that has made exploration big in the World of Warcraft community, giving some examples of conventional and unconventional ways of exploration, as well as some of the exploration that has been done in today's World of Warcraft. Let's get started, shall we?

Exploration: The Early Years

A brief history on World of Warcraft, that starts from the alpha. Have you ever heard of an island called The Isle of Gilijim, or The Isle of Dr. Lapidis? Many World of Warcraft players scratch their heads when these names are mentioned. These are actual places that existed in the alpha version of World of Warcraft. How do you get there you might ask? Well, it isn't as simple nowadays. You will have to download the alpha client, as well as a server in order to visit those older places in the alpha. I will discuss this in a later chapter of the article. Then came along the beta, which is a lot different in ways than the betas we see today. For example, on the Mists of Pandaria beta, if you were to enter a place that was off limits because it was still being developed, you would have a spell cast on you that's called "No Man's Land." This spell would teleport you out of the area, so reaching it is near impossible. Another example of this spell being used was in Hyjal during the pre-Cataclysm period of World of Warcraft. Well, back in the beta for classic World of Warcraft, there were mobs called "Guardian of Blizzard" that would cast a spell called "Death Touch" whenever a player would try to pass them. We no longer see these "Guardian of Blizzard" creatures anymore in betas. The guardians were easily tricked by simply finding a mountain to climb over, allowing most of the game content that was going to be released to be seen by players. These mobs were replaced by the spell No-Man's Land as mentioned above in future alphas and betas. It is much more effective than having a mob one-shot players, and it is zone wide as well.

Highlights in Exploration History

Throughout the history of World of Warcraft, exploration has been a major part of a select portion of players. From the time World of Warcraft was in beta, to the beta of Mists of Pandaria, people have been documenting and finding new ways to explore unseen and extraordinary things. The first highlight that hit many explorers, including myself, was what some people think to be the testing area for Outlands, or "Old Outlands." Located in an uncharted part of Deadmines, is a small mass of Outland-like textures, floating trees, and upside-down Dalaran bubbles (the bubble that was around Dalaran in Classic WoW.) The zone is in fact "unknown," meaning when you /who yourself, you will be in an unknown area. Here is a link to a video that was posted back in June of 2006. I believe this is the first video that was ever posted of this exploration, and was one of my all-time favorites which made me fall in love with World of Warcraft exploration. The area still exists, but is very difficult to get to due to many of the fixes that were introduced in patch 5.0.4. Another major highlight in World of Warcraft history was when someone found a way into the Caverns of Time in Classic WoW. Yes, Caverns of Time did in fact exist back in Classic, but it looked very different from today's Caverns of Time. This link to a video shows the whole exploration, including how to get up there. For me as an explorer, this was absolutely breathtaking. There are many, many other explorations that are made in Classic WoW, but that would take pages to write up!

One of the more major bugs that allowed for easy exploration was introduced in patch 1.12.1. This bug was wall-jumping, and it revolutionized the way people explored World of Warcraft both in the past, and in the present. Wall-jumping, as the name suggests, is jumping up a wall and doing it with ease. Wall-jumping was patched in late Burning Crusade, but was still possible. This is the same time period where the No-Man's Land spell was added to the area of Hyjal. Hyjal had always been a trouble spot for Blizzard when it came to trying to prevent players from seeing this land mass. After numerous attempts at adding invisible walls, they decided to add the spell. Of course, we found ways around that as well. The new way of wall-jumping in Wrath, Cataclysm, and Pandaria requires you to have exceptional footing and knowledge of the wall you are climbing. You have to jump at the exact spot in order to stick to the wall. When patch 5.0.4 was released to live servers, something miraculous happened. Wall-jumping somehow got unfixed! That being said, it was the same as back in the Burning Crusade days, and made jumping walls in the newer areas easy. However, in patch 5.0.5 it was quickly fixed, after Blizzard figured out that they had somehow reversed the code for wall-jumping. There are also alternative practices to wall-jumping, that will be covered in the next chapter.

Exploration can also include things that are hints to a new expansion, or a new idea that will be introduced to World of Warcraft. An example of that would be this video here. It shows that there may have been a hint in the world map that is spinning in Ulduar. It turns out that this map, even though a bit distorted, represents the current map of Azeroth. Kinda neat when you find random things like this, and that is what exploration is all about!

Conventional Ways of Exploration

There are many conventional ways to exploration. Many players tend to stay away from exploration because they think it is bannable. Exploration is not bannable, per say, it just depends on what you use to explore with. I once read by a blue post (I can't find it though) that exploration is totally legal, as long as you don't use model edits, 3rd party programs, and/or exploits to get to them. That being said, there are some ways that you can explore safely without fear of getting banned. Believe it or not, Blizzard gives us all ways to explore, being intentional or not. If you notice that some of you classes have abilities that make your characters jump up in the air, teleport from one spot to another, blink a certain distance, etc; you have most of the exploration tools necessary to become an esteemed explorer. As mentioned above, wall-jumping is another practice that can be used to achieve those pesky walls. Abilities such as these can be used to scale walls with ease, blink though game objects, and so much more. If you need a more detailed guide to making the most out of your explorations, please visit this link, which is a compilation of exploration tools by one of our most esteemed explorers, WizardTrokair.

Unconventional Ways of Exploration

With conventional ways, there are always unconventional ways. Unconventional ways are more likely to be bannable, as they require some sort of model edit or third party program. Model editing is a huge part of World of Warcraft. Strictly against the ToS, if caught model editing you could face a ban. Although bannable, model editing is a great way to see places that are not accessible by normal means. Have you ever heard of places such as Emerald Dream, Aszhara Crater, GM Island, or The Abyssal Maw? Believe it or not, these places are actually stored in your World of Warcraft client files! If you have the knowledge of how model editing works, as well as knowing how to extract these, you can swap out zones and explore these areas! There are many other areas that are hidden in the World of Warcraft client, but not accessible to players by normal means. If you have older clients, such as the alpha client, you can rip the zones out of the client folder and convert them to be compatible with the current client we all play on. This requires extensive knowledge of model editing, however.

Hacking is another method that some explorers use. Hacking is mostly frowned upon in these parts of Ownedcore, but the possibilities are just as great as those with model editing. Lag tools are another third party tool that is used by many explorers. Whether you are on a Windows PC, or a Macintosh, lag tools are available to you. A great example of using lag tools would be the most recent fix of flying in unknown areas. Areas such as the Deadmines secret, the large area South of Ghostlands, and areas outside of Deepholm are unknown areas. In patch 5.0.4, Blizzard made it impossible to stay flying in these areas. This is where the lag tool comes in handy. Simply lagging yourself out when your on a mount will get you to the area you want to be.

Private servers are an option as well when it comes to exploring areas that are inaccessible in retail World of Warcraft. You can find a private server for pretty much every major expansion in World of Warcraft, whether it be patch 1.12.1 on Classic WoW, 2.4.3 on Burning Crusade, 3.3.5a on Wrath of the Lich King, or 4.0.6-4.3 on Cataclysm. Each expansion offers many areas to explore, plus you can see what areas have changed over the years, and what areas have been added. I particularly enjoy running a private server repack for my own exploration pleasures when off retail World of Warcraft. It lets me relive the days of past World of Warcraft, and lets me endure the nostalgia within.

Exploration in battlegrounds is always a heated subject as well. Myself as an explorer, I tend to explore for the fun of it, and not the benefit. If you choose to explore in battlegrounds, and use it for your team's benefit, just take caution and don't be surprised if you end up getting banned for it.

Exploration Today

The exploration sub-forum of Ownedcore is always active with new explorations. A new exploration is released almost every day, but not everything in World of Warcraft has been discovered yet. There is a ton of things we may not know that exists in World of Warcraft, and that's where you come in! A lot of the explorations today use a specific class, since a lot of the methods have been fixed. If you have any questions of about exploration, be sure to ask one of the explorers in this community. I am sure they would be more than happy to help you with your problem, maybe even show you a few tips and tricks to getting into that area that you have been dying to see!

Get Your Head in the Game, Explore Today!

I sincerely hope that you enjoyed this article and has motivated you to take up exploring. The purpose of this article is to show that exploration is not just a useless thing to do. Granted it doesn't benefit in anyway towards player status in the game, but it is the feeling you get when you finally conquer that mountain you have been trying to climb, and the reward waiting behind it. It gets addicting after a few explorations! With a little bit of surfing on Youtube for exploration videos, and practicing, you can be an exploration expert in no time!

Thank you for reading!

-Teryaki