Top 5 worst zones ever (come make your own list)

If we discount awful pathing in some zones, gfx chop (machine specific), serverside lag and invisible mobs:

Drafling tower:
The issue for me is a total lack of things to do in here. IIRC there are one or two quests inside the tower itself, a book or two to pick up and that's it. People only come here to complete the 'By Hook or by Crook' heritage quests. Does anyone actually grind out Bixie L&L?
Zone design and graphics are great. At appropriate levels this a challenging zone and deserves to be viewed as more than an area to grind through for two quest updates.

Lavastorm:
Lot's of mobs. Oodless of mobs. It's just that hordes of mobs does not necessarily = challenging or interesting. Once people have the teleporter, the central postions of the zone are largely unused. There's nothing to do there except kill mobs for no real reason. However, I quite like the zone layout and love the graphics.

Sol's Eye:
Content is the problem here again. I know it's used for Nagafen visits and two heritage quests, but there is not much to do in the zone that starts and finishes here. That's a shame because (again) I love the design and graphics.

Permafrost:
Another great looking, interestingly designed zone with very little group content (other than hordes of ^^^ to grind on if that's your thing). The main quest (can't remember name - giant statues initiate) is good - nice rewards for the level - but it's just one quest.

Identical instances and mob 'camps' in PoF/SS. While reusing content is acceptable for an adventure pack, to me it's completely inexcusable to charge for an expasnion that has repeated areas in it. The areas are instantly recongnisable and you know exactly what to expect next. Seriously, how difficult could it be to change the shape and drop in some different objects like tents / rock pools etc?

Ironically, most of my list are zones that I really like in terms of look and physical design. The main problem for me is the shallow content of these zones.

Think about the numbers of quests and general points / objects of interest in my 'worst zones list'. Now compare them to zones like Runnyeye, EL, Zek and RV.

Mirdo.

for me the top zones that need to be fixed are

DFC - this zone uses too much memory so it gets laggy fast. with maximum textures and a 2 group raid eq2 needs ~1.5gb in this zone on my computer and crashs fast. also pathing of mobs is bugged and they aggro through walls which leads to invisible orcs attacking you.

Qeynos Harbour - too laggy when you don't reduce graphic options, as it is one of the most important zones in qeynos for travelling you should really try to make it a bit less demanding

Clefts of Rujark - crashes every time when i'm in there and do not reduce textures

1. Down Below/Vermin Snye/Crypt of Betrayal: These zones are huge mazes. They all look the same, and have few areas of importance. Very boring layouts overall.
2. DFC of course for reasons stated above.
3. Lavastorm: Great looking zone but almost no content. Difficult to get around in.
4. Any zone that consists of nothing but caves, This includes the majority of splitpaw and bloodlines, the instanced solo zones, sanctorium, hidden cache etc...I realize this is an easy way to provide extra content due to the nature of a cave requiring little layout/planning but these zones are unbelievably boring and plain.
5. Nekulous Castle: Excellent lore and instanced group zone but riddled with bugs, mob pathing problems etc. Having to complete access quest every time you enter makes going back there at higher levels tedious.
Curaga
55 Templar
Unrest

My worst 5:
1) Nektulos Forest: I’ve really tried with this zone but it is sooo dull. This is due to the colours, lack of interesting content and worst of all the peculiar layout. The invisible boundaries that don’t correspond with the map and have no logic to them are very frustrating when you want to get from A to B.
2) DFC and Nek Castle. I’ve lumped these together as they both suffer from incredibly annoying bugs (not just the lag). I cannot help but think the fact you have to kill the sisters over and over is a bug, noone would do that by design surely. People getting stuck, connections dropping, crashes. The doorways that you cannot see through in DFC are also a nice feature. Oh, and Billy, what more needs to be said – I never did complete my guise of the deceiver – the reward just wasn’t worth the excruciating camps.
3) Lavastorm: such a good looking zone with so much potential, completely ruined by poorly thought out mob placement and a total lack of content. The tunnel at the start just to get in is appalling design – it immediately stops appropriately levelled small groups and soloers from getting into the meat of the zone.
4) Crypt of Betrayal: difficult to get to, very hard and with absolutely nothing worth the effort. The itemisation in here is very poor. I did enjoy the quest with the large minotaur at the end (think he was called Spike) – that was the only good bit and the reward was worthwhile from memory. More of that sort of content needed.
5) South Qeynos and Qeynos Harbor. What is going on with these zones – South Qeynos is a ghost town despite many of the best houses there as there are no other facilities. Change those houses to guild halls with similar facilities to the ones in EQ1 and watch it come alive. Qeynos Harbor is laggy as anything, mainly due to the population I guess. The market square with the clock tower is a big waste of space (was it put there for the player sellers that were eventually banished to their rooms to sell?) that needs to be filled with something to give the place more life.
I think the main problem with many zones is the layout of the mobs. For example, just why exactly is Antonica covered with little camps of gnolls? Wouldn’t the various clans band together in their own spots and send out scouting parties from there? Why are wolves only seen by themselves when they are pack animals? And why are there so many of them compared to the animals they eat? Why do you never see them actually chasing down a deer? Why do the highwaymen stroll around in broad daylight, wouldn’t they have hidden camps in the woods and be occasionally seen on the sides of the roads waiting for passers by. And why do the guards not patrol the roads and attack them? Would it be so hard to script it so that guards then thanked you for helping them against the highwaymen and offered you a reward to chase down the ones that escaped and bring back their heads. And wouldn’t this sort of event be much better than a far-seas scroll dropped at random by random monster_05 at some random point in the zone?
City dungeons are the same – why are all the main pathways through them overpopulated with slimey things, snakes and spiders. I’m sure the palace could afford for at least the main parts to be patrolled and cleared out, so the sewers could be maintained. Where are the people who look after the sewers? They could be be spoken to and they could warn you of the “spooky” area to the north where they broke into some tomb blah blah blah. All these places have got no life as a result – theres no logic to them – things are just dumped in little rooms to the side and the main parts of got no-agro low level stuff scurrying everywhere. Its all too chaotic.
As I’m typing this I can think of dozens upon dozens of things that could be placed in so many of the zones to make them interesting and with some story. If things were placed with purpose instead of at the whim of seemingly a random spawn generator then these places would become far more “alive” and hence immersive.
Message Edited by Anduri on 11-15-2005 04:14 AM

5. Zek, overall bad zone, not enough to do.
4.Antonica, It just feels so boring.
3. Sundered Splitpaw, Trial of the Harclave, boring to tears
2. Deathfyst Citidel, I've only been in once but I can see it's pretty [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn]ty.
1. NEKTROPOS CASTLE, all I can say for this one is [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn] WHOEVER MADE THIS ZONE SUCKS. I CTD so fecking much in here it is not funny. The worst part is i have to go back into both DFC and nektropos for ghoulbane and SSOY, luckily i bugged my quest for nektropos so I never have to kill sisters again, just go straight for everling and I just need to talk to syjin and kill fyst in DFC.

Ok worst zones
1. DFC lag and bugs (a tip dont stand under the elevator)
2. Lavastorm this is an overland zone that is more like a dungeon, and there is not enough to do there.
3. Everfrost, much like lava except I always leave a shard to some epic that jumps me.

I only have 3.

Zones I like:
Nek forrest, This ia na amazing zone that feels huge and has great quests I just wish more people played there.
Nek Castle, If it wernt for the bugs this would be one of the best zones.
Sinking Sands, Just "F"ing Amazing mob placement is just right plenty of solo and group content areas that connect in a logical manner best zone in the game.

1) DFC - I really enjoyed the idea of the zone, but after going through it a couple of times for different quests I really dreaded the zone. The zones starts out ok, but usually after about 20 minutes inside everythings starts lagging horribly. Content is an issue as well, if it weren't for the Heritage quests and the Prismatic quests there would be nothing of internest in there. Another thing is pretty bad is opening a door and seeing only empty blackness. Once you pass through your fine, but unless you know whats in there, your walking blindly into a room and vulnerable to agro. Over all I would like to have seen this zone with more of its own content, not just a place you have to go to complete a quest. The pathing can be chaotic, Lag (which could be from all the LOS issues in a large multi level space) and Visibility issues are the main reasons I hated going there. If that could be fix'd, i would say that the zone would be a good candidate for a higher level version, much like what was done with Nek Castle.

2) Clefts of Rujark - Again the Lag associated with the LOS issues leave the zone hard to navigate. Really after exploring it some the only purpose I could find for the zone was to access instance zones like Vault of Dust and Scornfeathers Roost. Other than that the zones doesn't serve an purpose. Even for those that wish to do XP groups there, you can quickly get tired of video lag, and realy there are better places to XP. If the lag issues could be resolved it would nice to see this zone made a bit larger, or have another zone attached to it, something like the Rujarkian Forttress or something. Maybe the Rujakians have a DFC like Keep built high in the clefts.

Other than those two zones I really can't think of any others that i would say are bad. There are those that I don't like, but the zones work and there is content in them.

Least fav zone has to be Stormhold. Too tight, small corridors, lots of pathing bugs. I've never been there and NOT had a mob get stuck in a wall.

Nektropos castle - also buggy, mobs also get stuck in the walls. I like the design of the zone but it's a big time sink to accomplish anything it seems.

Qeynos harbor: My frames per second drop to almost nothing in this zone. Please, please, PLEASE give this zone a once over and fix some of the issues with it. It's a major hub for travel and should be much more video-friendly.

Zek: Very linear. The dock area is bad also. Lots of video lag.



Message Edited by Latero on 11-15-2005 07:47 AM

First, some feedback to the feedback... I like Stormhold. Its a fun zone to run around in and learn... very reminiscent of Befallen in EQ1 (probably the goal). But I remember a barbarian guardian friend that hated it because he had to keep ducking in the doorways and stuff.
Let's see, I have not been to DFC, yet, so I cannot comment on that. Nor have I been to the Drafling Tower.
My five worst zones:
1) Rivervale - I hate this zone because of the many areas where some mobs will aggro and some won't. I've lost too many shards here.
2) Runnyeye - I love the zone. Truly. But it seems like most of the time, groups are hard to find here and when you do find a group here they are too chicken to move further in (because it gets worse further in, I hear). Although, I believe I read a recent patch message about changes to this zone to make it more balanced and I have not been back since those changes.
3) Lavastorm - a bit of let down. Harder to get in the back of the zone. I haven't been able to scout beyond the first open area of the zone.
4) Nektropos Castle - I love this zone... but with all of the massive emphasis in many HQ's in the lvl 30 range, you end up visiting this location several, several, several times. And it feels like its the only place to be when you're in that lvl area.
5) Temple of Cazic Thule - for reasons mentioned above. Because of its remoteness and typical low population, its very rarely used.

-Naissur Dagor, Lvl 46 Ranger
-Casr, Lvl 22 Coercer
-Jool Noret, Lvl 22 Dirge
-All on Neriak

I agree with the poster a few pages back who disliked any zone that has double doors because you can't open just one and pass through. However, I play a Gnome and he can't get through either, so it doesn't appear to be related to character size.
As for worst zones, any zone with good content (DFC, Cazic, Nek castle) that does not have a quick-access method. Stormhold is great because once you learn where it is you can take a Griffon tower to return, so setting up group crawls is easier.
It might be a good idea to allow adventurers who have visited one of these zones to quest for a gate spell (similar to the "Call To" line) that allows them to return directly without having to slog through the entire host zone first.
My personal pet peeve zone is Lockjaws Lair (?) in Sinking Sands becuase of the lockout timer. In general, lockout timers should be much shorter and used more sparingly.

I would like to see a Teleporter for Cazic Thule like there is for Sol Eye. That would make it much more practical to head out there for XP/Quest groups.
Right now you have to blow 15 minutes just to get there. Has anyone EVER walked back from CT? I almost always call out.

Don't want to stray too far off topic, but I don't like the idea of "teleporters" for all these zones that people feel are remote. If everything was instantly accessable it would trivialize the zones even more. Lavastorm maybe the example that people use when bringing this up, but Lavastorm to me should be seen as an exception. The zones is pretty rough and very difficut for the average 45-50 player to get around without a group and/or invis. So for content like Sol Eye, the teleporter was a good shortcut. But other zones like CT, Nek, and DFC, its not hard or hazzardous to get there.

i think that most of the feedback here points out that the probnlem is largely not in the zone design but in its population. It is my perception as well.
my own worst 5 is as follows
1, Orcish Wastes - i didnt get the point yet. almost everything heroic or epis and aggresive. I died there fw times and dont plan to get back to finish some quests before its greyed out for me
2, Nektulos Forrest - as much as i loved the atmosphere, found it too frustrating to play in there after LU13. It suffers from the same problems as most of the zones after the "ok, we oversimplified the overland zones so we will overdo it the other way now" update. The invisible walls in the zones are the only real design flaws i found really annoing so far (not being big fan of dungeons)
3, Bloodlines - nice design, nice new mobs but the access zone made it tough to duo at the suggested level and its boring as hell trying it at lvl 40 with all the greens you need to kill before you can move on to the nameds
4, lavastorm - i fell in love with this zone, the viduals are just incredible. Yet.. the gamepley there sucks. The shore with few lizzies is ok, the xp is not great but its place where at least there are easily accessible low T5 mobs. The pass is guarded by heroic and aggressive solo mobs, with invis, not a problem but once you are there, its again all heroic. I have nothing against group content but i would appreciate having an option to have fun even solo
5, The character creation screen - it may not belong here but its where the game starts so i count it in - my problem with this is how deceiving the look of characters is there. Once you appear on the boat, you look different, the color of your hair and skin is completely off. This should be fixed imho.

I am sorry if my solo-play interest extressed here is offending you, thats not my purpose, i just wanted to share my take on this issue. thanks for reading.

1) Lavastorm - that darn heroic goblin! Plus I think the zone could get a whole lot more attention from players if they added a bunch of solo content and some more quests. At the moment its a waste of a beautiful zone.
2) Edgewater Drains - I've never forgiven this place for being so unpopular that I couldn't get a group for my armour quests and had to give up.
3) Rivervale - Hmmm, probably not much actually wrong with it per se, it just brings back bad memories.
4) Zek - specifically the docks as I do love the rest of the zone apart from respawning at the lake! Welcome to Lagsville, population: you.
5) Nek Forest - I really do think Freeportians are cheated here. At the time I was in my 20s as a SK, I watched my best mate play his Guardian through the Thundering Steppes. I could not help but compare that with the horrific nightmare that was soloing in Nek Forest. There just was nowhere to go without being eaten. The lack of balance is unreal. How come we never hear folks saying "OMG that run through TS to the beach...!!"?
The situation didn't improve as I gained a few levels either, as it just meant I had to walk further to get eaten. To make matters worse, the place is just so uninspiring. Yes its dark. I wouldn't say it looks particularly creepy. And there are NO features other than N'Marrs Ascent and a couple of lakes. This places needs some kind of Thundermist Village / Crossroads style settlement thats reasonably easy for players to get to in their low-mid 20s.
Having said all that, I do love many of the zones in the game, and I think SOE have done really well with both Splitpaw and DoF.

rov- deathtrap
runneyeye- deathtrap
soleseks eye- deathtrap
permafrost- vox = deathtrap
nek forest- running to the docks = deathtrap if dont have invis

A common thread I think I'm seeing in these has to do with the difficulty of certain zones. I've got a few opinions here and none of these are meant to be a knock on anyone.
1) Dungeons should be much harder than overland zones in my opinion. Thats always been my view of exploring the dark dingy places of the world looking for adventure.
2) It seems like many people have issues with the higher level zones, RV, Perma, LS. I think this may be a byproduct of the expansion, the shift to higher levels of most players, and the types of players these zones were first tailored to. I will freely admit to being a bit of a power gamer, I hacked my way through most of these zones for the first time back in January, and loved every minute of them. They were challenging and exciting. That being said, many of the complaints people have made are very true with regard to difficult mob placement, etc. I just found it as a positive. I think the general playerbase has shifted though, such that the power gamers who were hitting this content for a long period of time, have now moved on, and most people using these zones, are the same people who TS, Nek, Antonica, and CL were tuned for back in the late spring. I think Perma and LS in particular were left with more of a heroic/group centric feel. Is this good or bad? I think its a matter of what people want.
3) I think some zones are meant to be a royal pain in the butt. I think there is a difference between a zone that is massively annoying, but well designed and difficult, versus one thats broken and just plain frustrating. Call this the technical versus zone design argument perhaps. Sometimes you have very well designed zones that have lots of technical issues (CT?) and other times you have poorly designed zones which technically function fine (Some would say RV) and sometimes you have a zone that has both issues (DFC?). Zone design I think really ends of being a matter of taste, I personally love the size and depth of places like RE, or Sol Eye. I remember the first time I was in a group and we hacked our way all the way down to the ancient forge. We had no idea what it was and felt so accompished having even gotten there. Two of my best memories of the game so far, are being in groups that fought down to the bottom of FG or RE the first time. After a few hours slogging through the dungeon, it feels good to see the distance you've gone. The one issue I could see is that places like RE or FG most people barely go into the zones, they just stay near the top and xp or do quests, nobody HAS to journey to the bottom. Sol Eye on the otherhand you need to get through all that to Naggy. At the same time though, the only quest you need Naggy for is prismatic, and I personally have no issue with anything dealing with this quest being a pain in the butt, its sort of the point.

Now all that being said these are just my views on things, I know many may disagree. I just think that from a design standpoint (NOT TECHNICAL ONE, fix all the lag/pathing bugs etc everywhere) its good to have some zones that are really annoying and/or very tough due to mob layout.

I've already given my 5, but I wanted to add another one to the list after playing in this zone for the first time last night - Tallon Hoarding Halls in Zek. This zone has some major pathing issues that aren't very fun for a necro. I got past the first two to three groups with no issues, but when I reached the group of three I ran into some problems. I killed the first one, but then I tried to cast on the second, it said I couldn't see target. I pulled my pet back, which moved the mob, and tried again with no luck. I did this about 7-8 times. The whole time, my pet couldn't hit them but they could hit my pet. I couldn't even heal my pet. I tried to directly target the mob, but could not hit it either. What was really funny is that one of the two that were left, decided to sit down the whole fight, but when I pulled my pet back, he would slide along the ground on his knees.

I left the zone fairly quickly since my pet was in the red and I knew I was next. Not sure if I will go back in there again.

Since people seem to be adding the favorite zones, I thought I'd throw them in to:
1. I'm really liking almost all of the instanced zones in DoF - Scornfeathers Roost, Hidden Cache, and Lockjaws Lair. We got two master chests in Scornfeathers within 5 minutes of each other!

2. Ruins of Varsoon. This zone is incredible! Tons of heroic mobs and killer xp! If this were an instanced zone it would be even better.

3. Runnyeye. Same as Ruins of Varsoon. If we could have our pick of any zone that Sony would make instanced, this would be my choice.

4. Obelisk of Lost Souls. I love nightbloods and I love killing them even more. If it weren't for the Dark Angel plat farmers on Kithicor in this zone all the time, I might actually go back there and try to get access so I can go further in. Again, another great candidate for an instanced zone just for this reason.

5. Living Tombs / Silent City - These zones are incredible. Really cool graphics and lots of heroic groups that just keep coming.

Worst Zones:

1 The Gates of Ahket Aken: This zone could use some serious work! Loot tables need to be looked at along with pathing near the zone in.

2 Silent City: As stated by a few others... eye camping is the worst!

3 Ancient's Table: This zone could use some work. The mobs (when we went in) were lvl 60+ with very little challenge. I am not sure if we completed the zone right or not, however i found it to be anticlimatic when a sand giant pops instead of a boss.

4 Qeynos Harbor: Overall this is a great zone, however the issue with lag near the docks has left me refusing to go here unless absolutely needed.

5 DFC: I don't lag often in this zone however my computer does crash every single time I drop into the room where you rescue the first greenhood. There are places where its glitchy and you cant see through the doors. Several people have the issue with this zone.

A few notoes:
Poet's Palace: I think the wait time on the doors is kind of like a little sick joke the dev's have played on us for giving us a zone to single group loot. I find this midly amusing and don't mind waiting.

Stormhold: The mob pathing has always been an issue however just pull back a little bit and get some positioning down and this zone turns out to be really fun.

Edgewater Drains: I really enjoyed this zone, made me feel like a real dungeon crawl.

Nektropos Castle The Return: This is #6 on my list only because of the lack of interest in farming a zone for loot that is not usuable for anyone. As for the crawl aspect of it, I had a great time in this zone.


Best Zones:

1 Drafling Tower: To be tiny and in a bee hive was just great!!

2 Nektropos Castle: Despite all its flaws I really enjoyed the dungeon crawl feel of this zone. When i was of appropriate level this place was challenging enough that if you did not stay on your toes you would wipe.

3 Ruins of Varsoon: This zone was amazing fun. Lots of nights spent crawling around the golems area.

4 Shimmering Citadel: While this zone can be a nightmare, I found the graphics absolutely beautiful. I was awestruck with the vibrant colors and plush landscape that the Djinn pride themselves on.

5 Maj Dul: This zone floored me. I could not believe that there was this floating city in the sky. I had to take a carpet to get here and there are people that want to kill me! Wow risk factor here is great. I love the faction work (wish it had more meaning though).

Overall there are plenty of places that could use work, however I am quite happy with the progress made in this game since release.

Saramina
60 Mystic
Nektulos

Wow.

You people want a deathzone of lag? You should try "The Prison of Admiral Grimgadget" by the docks in the Commonlands. I have actually been killed by GREY groups in this zone before, because I simply cannot move, and the groups are large, sometimes of about 10 orcs with healers or so. The lag is so horriffic, that I move 1 frame about every 45 seconds or so. I have a high-end machine, and I don't lag anywhere else (including Zek) like I lag here. You should all try this zone.
I petitioned, and explained the problem. I told them about the 300+ entities that load, and that the zone (being an instanced zone of less the size of a football field) simply shouldn't have that much going on. I was told that, and this is a direct quote, " there is no such thing as a bug that causes lag". He totally didn't even read my comments, as I had explained exactly where the problem was, and where he could go to see it for himself.

The other place that ticks me off is Nek forest. I HATE HATE HATE the path of owlbears and shrillers. I appreciate a challenge, but the pathing of the shrillers is really unpredictable, and most of the NPC's are hardcore group monsters. The placement of the revive spot here is as stupid as it gets....and more than once I've been killed by a ^^^ popping into existence during a fight.
The Serpent Sewers is impossible to explore as a soloist untill they all grey out, which is fine I guess, although a number of quests send you down there (especially the SK quest for class). Hated it there.

#5: QEYNOS HARBOUR (and most of the city zones in FP and Qeynos both).
QH gets the nod due to the frequent lag at the docks, but I loathe all the city zones. They all look attractive enough, I like how FP looks and how quaint Qeynos is, but access is a pain. SQ isn't so bad, but NFP ~ could it be any more convoluted to get thru?
Why aren't these places designed with convenience in mind? Where are the back alleys and shortcuts that exist in real towns and cities? Why isn't there a banker, a broker and a mender in every city zone ~ why is the bank so, so far away from the housing in QH (for example)?
There are several problems with the housing in the cities, which is why I'm not moving out of Willow Wood (and none of my other chars maintain houses). None of the housing in the city zones is convenient for all the essentials of city life: Banking, Mending, Crafting, Buying (and neither are they communal between characters on the same account ~ I think a lot of people have a dedicated seller and would like to own a big house with their main...)
...and while I'm on about docks, why do the boats only go one-way? From QH to TS and from EFP to Nek, but nothing ever comes back.
Why are there multiple sets of bells at every dock? Wouldn't it be more convenient to have one bell and a pop-up box with the destinations available. Also, why zone me thru TS when I'm going from Nek to Zek ~ isn't that just a waste of my computer's resources, your bandwidth and my game time?

#4: MAJ'DUL
Everyone in my group last night had to turn down their settings and reboot their PCs after we'd taken down one tower before moving onto the next. My FPS was crawling.

#3: NEKTULOS FOREST
It is a little dreary, as someone else pointed out, but worse (and this applies to a lot of the outdoor zones, Antonica & TS included) you can't go everywhere. There are huge areas of black "fog" still on my map and I *hate* that ~ I want to clear the entire map from corner to corner. I want to climb the highest peaks and look down upon zone as it spans away from me ~ in Nek I can't even run over (most) bits of the yellowy-brown outcropping terrain. That sucks. It is limiting and a *huge* step back from EQ1.

#2: ALL THE CRAFTING INSTANCES
Why are there doors between the areas?
This just drives me nuts, having to click on each set of doors to get to the merchant or running from station to station, and since the people who run the crafting societies seem to spend all their time rooted to one spot, I would have thought those doors would have come off their hinges by now with no-one bothered to repair them...
Speaking of which, why doesn't the Wholesale Merchant come to me while I'm at my workstation?
What lousy service they're providing. Put a wholesaler in every room within hailing distance of all the workstations in each area.

#1 with a bullet: DEATHFIST CITADEL
There are several zones which are laggy, many more with invisible, stuck-in-the-scenery mobs (which I think is the absolute worst thing in the entire game ~ I should *never* get the message "You can't see your target" when he's a) right in front of me, or b) hitting me, or both simultaneously ~ this also kinda applies to harvestable nodes that are visible, right next to my character, but "too far away to interact with") but DFC wins hands down for combining both qualities to such a massive degree.
I think all instanced zones should have a kill-it-once policy. The constant respawning of group after group after group of running orcs is tiresome, not just on the players but on their computers too. Even when we've passed thru the areas of running orcs ~ they're still respawning and running around and eating away at resources. If we could kill them and they stayed dead this would give a much more realistic feel to the invasion of a castle. Perhaps then there'll be some feeling of accomplishment when *everything* in the castle has been slain ~ did we own that castle? No, the mobs are still running around outside...