Best Era/Expansion of WoW?

[McNeil]

Wrath of the Lich King by far. I wish they would've implented Azjol-Nerub as either a very large raid or questing zone, soomething even Blizzard finds it a pity that they haven't. I would've liked more Arthas and Sylvanas/Jaina interactions, for the rest it was a great expansion. Still easily the best.

Good thing Cataclysm has so few votes. Funny thing is trough, that during the Cata launch, Cata was winning the same poll by a landslide. Now WotLK is :P

WotLK > TBC/Vanilla (equally as awesome, slightly prefer TBC) > MoP >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Cata

[Viscoe]

Wrath.

It was when I had the most fun raiding with my guild and my server wasn't mostly Alliance/dead on Horde. It also brought achievements, learn-able pets and mounts in a spellbook... I'm a collector, that stuff just really made my fun levels hit the ceiling. :P

Edit: how could I forget inscription! My favorite profession, fits my character's RP profile perfectly.

And Sholazar Basin and Grizzly Hills. And spirit beasts, and exotic pet tames! /rambleon

[Deleted]

Burning Crusade hands down.

[Deleted]

During WotLK itself, it was widely called "the worst expansion ever".
And now it's the best thing since sliced bread?

Pandaria for me. So much to do, see, experience, read, visit, explore, capture, farm and enjoy.

[Chrispotter]

Everyone is going to say the expansion where they were new to the game, had lots of friends playing, and had alot of time to play, is the best expansion.
However if anyone says MOP is the best they are probably casuals who still find dailies as content to do 5 months into the expansion...

[wynterlyn]

I find it quite amusing that everyone is pretty much calling WTLK "World of Casualcraft". I mean sure epics didn't feel "epic" any more or that a couple raids weren't as epic as it could be but could you really say the same thing about Mists?

The only reason anyone would actually say Mists is cause Mists has been a drastic improvement from Cataclysm. But really WTLK had the feeling like you could do anything and still progress your character. It didn't have LFR. Normals were easy enough where PUGS could be formed and people that didn't actually have a raiding spot still had a chance of progressing. Now its all about literally getting "Carried".

And that is where epic drops come in. You actually felt like you were making some kind of progress. The dungeons were simply amazing and have probably the best layout and design in the entire game. The story, quest zones, regions were simply amazing. Quests were actually well written and story driven and made sense. Wrathgate still remains one of my favourite quest chains. I make it a point to go back and complete it on all my characters that I level up.

Raids offered a challenge for those looking for that next level and were easy enough for casuals that wanted something less hardcore. Now you have 3 different difficulties and blizzard expects everyone to experience all 3 of them.

If people were actually complaining about free epics during WTLK, its even worse during Mists. I mean you get access to raid weapons and gear with no effort on your part. At least that wasn't the case during WTLK.

More importantly the dailies during WTLK were actually fun and rewarding compared to the crap we had during Cata and Mists.

There is just so much to show that WTLK was the best expansion and all those that actually say Mists is any better should probably re think twice cause Mists has only built what WTLK did so well.

I mean you just don't get any casual that Mists. Its basically nothing more than a grind in every aspect of the game. PVE, dungeons, dailies, PVP in 5.2. Name one thing that isn't all about "farming" more. Sure WTLK had the same thing but it was nothing like in Mists.

I've never been a fan of BC cause I could never get into the all alien thing going on. I feel more at home in Northrend than I do in any part of Azeroth. Guess it has something of a Viking, Nord or medieval them going on. WTLK encompasses everything that has to do with fantasy. I think a lot of Vanilla and TBC had a lot to do with Alien shit and Elementals and Old Gods. It seemed quite far-fetched and strayed from what was basically a Horde and Alliance conflict. WTLK brought that to the forefront and built on it. You actually felt the tension between the Horde and Alliance.

[BHD]

The only reason anyone would actually say Mists is cause Mists has been a drastic improvement from Cataclysm. But really WTLK had the feeling like you could do anything and still progress your character. It didn't have LFR. Normals were easy enough where PUGS could be formed and people that didn't actually have a raiding spot still had a chance of progressing. Now its all about literally getting "Carried".

One could say the same about going from TBC to Wrath. Normal raids being pugged was a good thing? So basically LFR but with the inconvience of finding enough players. Epic stuff.

And that is where epic drops come in. You actually felt like you were making some kind of progress. The dungeons were simply amazing and have probably the best layout and design in the entire game. The story, quest zones, regions were simply amazing. Quests were actually well written and story driven and made sense. Wrathgate still remains one of my favourite quest chains. I make it a point to go back and complete it on all my characters that I level up.

I still don't know what that gnomish place in Borean has to do with the rest of Northrend. They did learn from TBC and made LK more prominent throughout the questing, if they had that in TBC that would've been great. Wrathgate was indeed awesome, I was sad to find out that the Battle for Undercity isn't available anymore.

Raids offered a challenge for those looking for that next level and were easy enough for casuals that wanted something less hardcore. Now you have 3 different difficulties and blizzard expects everyone to experience all 3 of them.

Raids offered a challenge and were easy enough for casuals What makes you believe Blizzard expects everyone to go through LFR/Normal/HC now? I thought they implemented LFR so people who didn't experience normal/hc could do it some other way.

If people were actually complaining about free epics during WTLK, its even worse during Mists. I mean you get access to raid weapons and gear with no effort on your part. At least that wasn't the case during WTLK.

If raids were easy enough to be pugged in Wrath, you can hardly argue that that needed effort.

More importantly the dailies during WTLK were actually fun and rewarding compared to the crap we had during Cata and Mists.

We must have done different dailies because AT sucked. Sure it was fun the first 5 days or so, but doing them forever and ever to get all the mounts and pets made me want to bad, bad things. Vehicles are fun every now and then, but doing dailies with vehicle combat just wasn't fun at all. Sons of Hodir dailies wasn't anything special, the blue ladies dailies were a bit fun though, mostly because you got to play while looking as one of them.

There is just so much to show that WTLK was the best expansion and all those that actually say Mists is any better should probably re think twice cause Mists has only built what WTLK did so well.

And TBC did what vanilla did so well, and Wrath did what TBC did so well etc etc. If MoP took the things you thought were great from Wrath and refined that, wouldn't that make MoP better? D:

I mean you just don't get any casual that Mists. Its basically nothing more than a grind in every aspect of the game. PVE, dungeons, dailies, PVP in 5.2. Name one thing that isn't all about "farming" more. Sure WTLK had the same thing but it was nothing like in Mists.

Everything is a grind yet it's for casuals? Casual player don't have time to grind. The entire point of MMOs is to grind your way up.

I've never been a fan of BC cause I could never get into the all alien thing going on. I feel more at home in Northrend than I do in any part of Azeroth. Guess it has something of a Viking, Nord or medieval them going on. WTLK encompasses everything that has to do with fantasy. I think a lot of Vanilla and TBC had a lot to do with Alien shit and Elementals and Old Gods. It seemed quite far-fetched and strayed from what was basically a Horde and Alliance conflict. WTLK brought that to the forefront and built on it. You actually felt the tension between the Horde and Alliance.

Actually, I have never enjoyed the whole alien/space thing in other games, but I completely loved Outland. Even weirder is the fact that I've always loved northern/viking-themes (being a swede myself), and while certain parts of Northrend felt awesome, overall it felt mediocre to me. I personally think that they overdid the Viking stuff, right down to using names such as Freya. But it's the same in MoP, I was in awe when looking at the big bridge in Jade Forest, but after going through every zone I quickly got bored of everything looking so over-the-top asian.

[Deleted]

For me personally, tBC no doubt.
Some reasons for that:
It was than I started to play WoW more seriously.
Was the first expension I participated in raid.
It had alot of resemblance to War3.
Alot of the endbosses was mighty heroes from the war 3 campaign.
The game was really challanging (at least for me and my guild). I miss the times when CC was mandatory. There were much more cooperation required.
I loved spending a night wiping, it made downing the bosses feel like accomplishments. Not some choir you just do.

[Deleted]

Wrath for me. ICC lasting a long time (DS long) was horrible at the time, as was ToGC when it came out, but when it comes right down to it, Wrath ticks more boxes than most. Northrend is an amazing levelling zone, Dalaran is the best city, Ulduar and ICC both brilliant raids, with Halion and OS excellent stand alones. Naxx was fun for those who had never encountered it before. Also introduced, or improved upon, many features we wouldn't want to be without today.

Cata in itself was brilliant when it was first released. Completely overhauling the 1-58 levelling experience, as well as updating the world was a QoL upgrade sorely needed, as was flying. It suffered from not having a new city and no new continent to explore, but the zones were fun and absolutely stunning. The on release raids (Tot4W, BWD and BoT) were also well thought out and challenging. However, the promised end game content was never truly delivered, and this is what has soured memories so badly.

TBC I can't really speak for, as I didn't reach end game until rather late in the expansion. All I really remember was an inability to get into raiding guilds and never getting to go to HC dungeons due to there never being any tanks. This resulted in alot of sitting about bored in Shattrath, but fortunately, there wasn't too long for me until WotLK hit. I also really didn't like many of the zones.

MoP still somewhat has the 'shiny new game' feel to it. However Throne of Thunder is looking immensely promising and I am pleased at the rate and quality of content coming. I've enjoyed the addition of farming and pet battles and the Pandarian style of Archaelogy (hoping it will get expanded to all Archaeology). The amount and variety of dailies has been a pleasant change, even if they still end up grating eventually. If Blizzard can keep it up, I can see expansion going down as one of the best, if not the best of their history.