Why can't I swim from Darkshore to Felwood?
Andrew Patterson
Published Jul 21, 2026
I was leveling a Druid Paladin, and I wanted to see if I could swim to Felwood from Darkshore to peek in on my partner's raid team. I noticed them flying across the map. I then noticed two small bodies of water connect these two places, but I was unable in game to make this swim. It was like running into a swim-wall that prevented me from going further. I recently deactivated my account, but below is a screenshot of the map.
I'm sure there are practical reasons for this, but I'm curious if I'm the only one who has tried this or if someone knows the actual reasons for why this is not possible.
1 Answer
What Powerlord says.
Darkshore is coastal flatlands, maybe 20m above sea level. Felwood is very high in the mountains. The path between them is much more vertical than horizontal.
These waterways (and the Felwood cliffs generally) are actually a stepped series of cliffs. The intermediate levels are not accessible from the bottom except via a flying mount. If a character's ghost could not fly, they could not access their corpse - which is a lousy player experience.*
So, if you jump or fall off Felwood, and miss the pool of water at the bottom of the waterfall, you're probably going to have a bad 10 minutes.
Even if you have flight, remember, only druids have a flying form they can take while moving. Everyone else must stop to summon a flying mount (which means they can't while falling). Their only option is a slow-fall ability like a parachute cloak... and those are very tricky because Felwood's cliffs are so very tall. You get 10-30 seconds of slow fall, and that will run out far too soon. And they typically have a 30-600 second cooldown, so you must pop it right before you smash. Even then, you can drift off another cliff, because most slow-falls are NOT steerable.
The upshot is going off cliffs as tall as Felwood's sucks, so I can see the reason for the wall.
* Because after you spend 20 minutes failing to find a path, you must return to the spirit healer and take a penalty giving 10 minutes of resurrection sickness, during which time you are too weak to fight. Major annoyance.
