It’s taken me years to come up with this list, years.
I am not sure if I am just getting old, and cranky in my years. ” When we were leveling, we had to walk uphill in the snow” or just my tolerance for annoying things is getting shorter, but I have 7 all time un-favorite sounds in-game – of note they become more annoying when you’re at the receiving end of them.
7. The Squeal of a Deranged Helboar in Hellfire & the Mobs in Razor Fen – Do I need to say more. Squuuuueeeel. Snort. Squeeeeeeeel Snort. Can you just imagine their little slimy noses smacking into you with each hit.
6. Drain Lfe – it’s a Bunsen burner burn ( remember those from highschool science) it sounds like your life is burning from inside you. You can’t swat it away, and it just keeps burning.. get it off me!
5. Earthbind Totem- Woooooo Wooooooo Wooooooo reminds me of the sound of massive wind turbines. This time the sounds doesn’t do much for warning you, because if your close enough to hear it, your close enough to be caught in it, and then your running through quicksand.
4. Mindspike. The Whoosh, then a slash sound like a knife cutting the air. ( matches the graphic) if you hear one, you know at least 2 more is coming, and then an instant mindblast, and BAM there goes 30-50% if your health depending on the crits. I hate the sound because it’s a forewarning of bad things to come, and the knife sound sends shivers up my spine.
3. Mana Burn: Whoosh – and the sound of a cocked of a gun. It’s different when your the person doing the mana burning, but that sound in Arena, and Bg’s and it’s not you is like Oh crap. I need to get out of LOS There is no debuff when your being mana burned, just that sound that lets you know your having your mana drained.
2. The Fte Fte sound that a hunter’s Kill command makes. Fte fte fte fte fte fte ( try it fast with your tongue hitting the back of your teeth) Fte is the only way I know how to copy it . ( possibly helped by the little gap I have between my front teeth. ) That sound enforces in the imagination the feeling of the pets claws tearing at your robes. Cutting in your skin.
And Finally….
1. The Stupid monkey yip, when it’s attacking something. It Squeeks, it yips, it’s teeth gnash at you, it’s monkey paws slapping at you. it’s like one of those yip yip dogs while it’s attacking you. This is especially annoying in arena, Some people have said that it’s most affective attack is it’s sound..
I know the solution to these annoying sounds is to turn the sound off. I already play with the sound down to around 11%, and it’s enough for me to get a general feel of placement in the game. When I wear my in-the-ear ear buds walking down the street, they are very affective at blocking out sound. It’s like being submersed underwater. I ‘feel’ the world differently because of the loss of one of my senses. ( it is also how people get hit by things on roads because they can’t hear them) .
I think that sound is still very important to my experience in the game, I feel more immersed and I’m not talking about the haunting trombone that plays as you ride in the Battle of Gilneas, or the little irish lilts in the pub. Sound ingame is information. I can tell when I am being mana burned by the sound, I can tell I am being mindspiked by the sound. They act as warnings, and I do not need to look at debuffs or raid frames to react.
But if you really have had enough of annoying sounds, there’s an add on for that!
There is an add on for a Worgen sniff remover, there is also a Annoying Wow sound remover on curse as well that mutes “906” annoying sounds ( I haven’t downloaded it – because I really don’t want to lose that many different sounds ) If only they made an add on that works to mute Sydney Train passengers.
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Pugnacious Priest's Warcraft Blog 
Sounds don’t usually bother me, but I hate the spider attack hisses in game.
The female belf laugh. /shudder
Arcane explosion. Hate that sound. Hate most of the arcane sounds actually.
Inner Focus active but unused. Same goes for Chakra, I believe they use the same sound. SUPER annoying.
Not annoying, but quite scary … the sound of a rogue entering stealth.
I totally agree, I depend on the in-game sounds to keep me aware of what’s going on around me. I can’t imagine playing without them.
I’m probably in the minority, but I *hate* the noise from Prayer of Mending. It’s so intrusive. When a PoM is bouncing around, it’s all anyone can hear.
And I know it’s not specifically an ingame sound, but I could do without “Run away, little girl, run away!”
Ugh.. I definately agree with you on the monkey pets! I recently ran a PUG with one and kept wanting to scream. Luckily, none of our raiding hunters use one.
As a Holy Priest, my top one has to be Chakra! I feel like a mage that can’t figure out how to get their portal to open. I have yet to figure out why we need a Chakra sound or graphic.
I love my Worgen, but she definately needs something for her allergies. I have no idea how she does anything with the constant sniffing.
And then we have that #%@ Singing Sunflower! We have raiders that keep the darn things out for an entire raid. I love flowers, but I want to yank them up by their roots and throw them into the lava!
Earthbind has a sound? The pig never annoyed me, I had one for years on my hunter but my current pet is quite annoying.
When a priest used to hold a charge of inner focus between pulls would have to be my top annoying sound.
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
For me none of the sounds mentioned here are annoying, but the following definitely are:
– active but unused inner focus
– when everybody makes like a train
– if you are a mage… your water elemental
– if you are a hunter… your gun shots
– if you are a hunter… your macroed aspects (especially hawk)
– wtf is wrong with rogues smoke bomb… i can hear it from like 500 yards away
Some of the more annoying sounds can be fixed if some files are changed (or by creating folders with empty sound files).
“The Squeal of a Deranged Helboar in Hellfire & the Mobs in Razor Fen”
Oh god yes, the horror. Or those dragon whelplings/whelps when they die D: I also hate the hunters who occasionally have crocolisks as pets, they sound like Darth Vader.
And as someone else said in the comments “And then we have that #%@ Singing Sunflower! We have raiders that keep the darn things out for an entire raid. I love flowers, but I want to yank them up by their roots and throw them into the lava!”
So true.
The sound of a soulwell. Once it’s summoned why must it make noise for its duration? This may be the same sound that an unused Inner Focus makes, I’d have to check.
And, as mentioned, train sets. I don’t have a single toons without a wrecker or some pet that can serve that purpose. As a raid leader, train sets can get you removed from the raid.
Huh, the only one on there that I’ve noticed is the monkey sounds. I thought for sure you’d mention gunshots (faaaar louder than they need to be), worgen sniffing (I know you referenced it at the bottom though), and worst of all, the sound of that bloody death knight deathcharger being summoned. I wince every time I hear that undead horse scream. Seriously, it’s not just annoying, it’s literally painful for me. The male Tauren train emote is kind of painful too, actually. Thank goodness for Lil’ XT’s tiny tympanic tantrums on train sets.
Worgen snarfing. I have one. I keep her in human form as much as possible. (I don’t change between pulls, though, that’s just as bad, if not more)
Unused inner focus. Just cast something already! You’re in Stormwind, you ~don’t~ need it. Grr…
Helboars. They rot.
Fel Reaver. If i am flying over it, and i so much as hear that “awOOOOOO!”… it’s dead. That’s it. That thing made me jump out of my skin so many times.
Train sets. It’s even worse on Horde side: sounds like a freak zoo.
Mechanical mounts. Mostly the the choppers/hogs. The other ones bother me if they are mine. I like Gnomes, and have a few, but i grind other reps as fast as i can to get a quieter mount. Usually a horse.
New one for me: water elemental for my mage. I tried out frost last week. i switched to fire. That burbling sound all the time just… gives me a slight headache, especially that it’s on the same side all the time. That’s unfortunate, because i would have enjoyed trying the spec out.
Headless Horseman. Why, oh WHY does it have to be heard zone-wide?
I hate the sound of a superfluous apostrophe striking my eyeballs.
Wow. Have you read the fairy tale “The Princess and the Pea” ?
I’m a little surprised nobody mentioned murlocs in the comments. I was under the impression that pretty much every hearing person hates the sound.
Hate the murlocs? Heck no, I love the sounds they make. Not so much the ganging up on me part.
FURBOLGS. Oh my god, furbolgs. They go Uhhh-uhhh-uhhh when they die. It’s like, musical. And then I hear it for the rest of the day in my head. Errr-rrrr-rrrr. I hate quests where I have to kill like twenty of them.
Most of those sounds are annoying, but in an appropriate way, I think. Pig squeals should be annoying. And I think the winner from your list is the monkey-yip. My main is a hunter, and when levelling a couple of goblins and having to fight the monkeys, I could not help from chuckling incessantly just imagining PvP with one of those monkeys. Could there be nothing more infuriating being killed with one of them attacking you and making that noise? Big thumbs up for scathingly annoying monkeys!
I couldn’t resist but imitate the sounds as I read along.
Best-fitting sound in the game would be the burping Shadowflame, no doubt.
*giggles like the maniac he is*