‘Sorry I can’t hear you over the roar of the Sunwell’: World of Warcraft players beg Blizzard to turn the volume down on the giant crackling beam in the sky

World of Warcraft: Midnight is the first time players have had a real reason to return to the elven city of Silvermoon since it was released in 2007. Many players, including me, find the expanded version to be a beautiful update to an iconic location in Azeroth.

We also all agree that Blizzard needs to either provide us with earplugs or a mute button for whatever is going on just north of it.

This expansion is all about dark versus light, or the Void versus the Light, and Blizzard isn’t letting you forget that. A beam of golden light shooting into a dark sky can be seen throughout the eastern continent, and it can be heard all over the surrounding areas.

Thematically it makes sense: the magical Sunwell is naturally opposed to the Void and is trying to use all of its energy to hold it back, and this clash is central to the main conflict. But it’s doing so in the loudest way possible. You can hear it simmer and crack throughout Silvermoon City, and it only gets worse as you cross the bridge toward it.

I don’t think the Sunwell is loud enough from r/wow

“The NPC’s stopped saying ‘Remember the Sunwell,’ because no one’s forgetting that jet-engine-well any time soon,” a Reddit user wrote on a post about the obnoxious noise.

“I was in Discord with some guildies the night of release and any time one of us had to go back there it was ‘SORRY I CAN’T HEAR YOU OVER THE ROAR OF THE SUNWELL.’ But legit why is this shit so fucking loud holy hell,” Reddit user MarekRules wrote.

Some players have already discovered that the Sunwell’s crackling energy exists as ambient sound, so you can simply turn that off in the audio settings to save yourself from it for now. But I’ve tested this option and it kills the vibes of Silvermoon too much for me to use it. I want to hear NPCs walking around and players laughing and cheering in the distance—otherwise everything feels kind of dead.

If I have to endure the sounds of the Sunwell for an entire year or more until the next expansion I might start supporting the Void. Blizzard just needs to tone down how far it reaches so that it only fills your speakers when you’re near it. Let us enjoy the city and actually hear the NPCs we’re trying to speak to. It’s painful enough to be yelled at by every guard for not being a paladin devoted to the Light, at least spare us from the Sunwell’s aural wrath.

About