Cities in BFA

In Legion, we got, for the first time since Wrath, a neutral city hub for the continent. However, this was a revamped version of Dalaran, which we had seen in Wrath of the Lich King. Much as Stormwind and particularly Orgrimmar were revamped in Cataclysm, Dalaran was transformed, improving visual textures, adding environmental detail, and of course creating new structures like the big tower in the center of town where the courtyard once was.

One could argue that we also got a city in Suramar, though this was a mostly-hostile space for questing. It was a great achievement - we've never had that sort of urban environment in which to fight and quest before. The closest we had come prior to that was probably Zul'drak, which was certainly built up across the zone, but didn't have the urban density of Suramar.

I have yet to do much questing within the cities themselves, but in Battle for Azeroth, we have two urban locations. It seems that these are also a sort of mix between true safe hubs and genuine questing areas.

In Kul Tiras, the capital city is Boralus, a massive port city that seems on par in terms of size and density with Suramar city. Currently, pre-made characters start in the northeast, but there large spans of the city to be found south and west. Some of these areas currently have hostile mobs - presumably pirates and thugs - and so I suspect that we might get Tiragarde Sound quests that take us in there (all the zones are likely due for some serious redesign regarding quests - it's still early.)

Boralus has some very impressive features - there is a massive gate at the sea-wall that allows ships to come into the port, and it's clear that this is very much a naval city, with massive channels running through it all, cannons aimed at the ocean, and a resilient and sea-washed look to the whole thing. In the west is Proudmoore Keep, which is presumably where Katherine, Jaina's mom, lives. As of yet, you can't actually go inside the big castle, which is something I hope changes (I'm still a little sad we never got to go inside Karabor.) There's a fair amount of Tiragarde Sound outside the city as well, particularly to the south, but I suspect that when everything is implemented, we'll see a lot of content in this urban locale.

Zuldazar is the capital on Zandalar. At its center is the massive pyramid of Dazar'alor, where Rastakhan sits, as well as the Horde embassy. There are several other hill-top districts with their own buildings that seem to be areas for questing - for example, in early Zuldazar quests you go with the Prophet Zul to help deal with some rebellious Gurubashi. I have not explored as extensively, but there's a lot more verticality to Zuldazar and fewer conventional urban expanses here.

Hub cities are fun, but it's also reasonably clear that you don't need a ton of space to do what you need to do in them - the shrines in Mists were perhaps unimpressive, but they did the job. My sense is that in BFA, they want to give you those safe hubs while also making use of the urban environments for content beyond going to the bank and talking with profession trainers.