I was having a chat with my guild yesterday about the upcoming and previous expansions and it made me think about how much I enjoyed the "Wrath of the Lich King" in terms of the story and the involvement that LK had in the quests. I don't feel that we've had that with Cataclysm, Mists and we won't get it with Warlords of Draenor either.
Cata's big bad was obviously Deathwing and he wasn't in the story enough for me, sure he f**ked up the world and appeared a few times but taking him down didn't feel like a big deal like the LK did. Mists obviously was different in that it was as much about Horde/Alliance conflict with Garrosh only becoming the big bad towards the end. Now with Warlords of Draenor, it seems like more of an ensemble bad guy piece rather than working towards taking down one specific person.
I roll as a Death Knight so maybe I have a slightly different experience of WOTLK than some of you but the starting quests, where I was at first doing work for the Lich King, then working towards taking him down, felt insanely rewarding. It felt like quite a cohesive and meaningful storyline and when you buy into the story like that, it makes the "Kill 10 Kobold" style quests that much easier to stomach. When i finally downed the Lich King and that cutscene rolled, i felt like i should feel coming to the end of an expansion, rewarded.
I'd like to see in the future, an expansion that focuses on a "big bad" in that kind of detail again because I'll be honest, zero fudges are given about the home of the Pandas by me. Hell, if i could i'd toss the entire continent into the Maelstrom. I'm not overly excited about the Warlords of Draenor either in terms of what's been laid out story wise but i'll begrudgingly play it.
What do you guys think?