Mists of Pandaria is now the best expansion in the community

[Al Gorefiend]

I second this. They probably won't admit to it, but they either didn't play back then, were a noob or had no interest in guild raiding. If you played from the get go and were a hardcore raider/pvper, there's no way in hell you can say MoP is better than TBC. The only thing MoP did was create more solo content for the extreme introverts. TBC had better raiding, better heroics and a better story. Are people really implying Illidans story is less impressive than some pandas and their version of ying/yang?

Now I'm not implying MoP is bad, but when you stand it up next to Wotlk and TBC, it falls short. Now if we compare it to cataclysm/WoD, then we can say it's better.

I started in early TBC and by the time I reached endgame WotLK was a few months out. So my perception may be warped. But I did not like the zones, both races were meh to me, and the story? The story was a bloody mess man, you are left wondering why we were even fighting Illidan at all. Then the rest of the raids were pretty anti-climactic.

[Deleted]

No it's not.

[Littleraven]

I feel like people are mixing WC3 and Wrath up. Wrath had great story telling? Really? No Wrath took an already awesome story line and brought it into WoW so they could finish it. Don't get me wrong. I like Wrath quite a bit but the way they handled 90% of it was horrible. The whole first tier was a total clusterfuck. The Nexus war never felt like an actual conflict and having Naxx as the intro raid made no sense other than just doing it so people could see it. The questing while it had awesome moments (Wrathgate whats up!) was pretty bland. Arthas would show up for 2 seconds gloat about something then go away. None of the zones were stand outs at least IMO. They all had pockets of awesome but as whole zones they just were kinda meh.

Things didn't get interesting in the story department until Ulduar. That is when it hit its stride but then they totally fell off a cliff with Trial of the Crusader. Like....I get the idea of what they were going for but it was uninteresting. They had all this awesome old god and titan stuff going and then followed it with ToC. ICC was a great finish and that raid was full of awesome events but I just don't get where people can come off thinking that on a story telling level Wrath is so amazing. The THEME is amazing. The way they handled it was not.

Personally I still think MoP wins out in that department even over Legion but that is simply because I can see MoP as a full picture and Legion is still fresh. I feel like Legion is going to end up on top but until we get that final patch I will withhold full judgement. MoP just hit the ground running and didn't really stop until we hit the wall that was SoO.

[crakerjack]

I started in early TBC and by the time I reached endgame WotLK was a few months out. So my perception may be warped. But I did not like the zones, both races were meh to me, and the story? The story was a bloody mess man, you are left wondering why we were even fighting Illidan at all. Then the rest of the raids were pretty anti-climactic.

And I mention how solo content has improved over the years and is more immersive. Look at questing now compared to vanilla, there's more effects, there's more voice acting and the story guides you on rails like CoD. I bought Legion specifically for the questing and now I'm letting my sub run out since that's the only aspect I wanted to play.

Back in TBC days, the game focused on end game content such as Arena, Raiding and Heroics. You actually had to utilize your entire class and all of its abilities. Back then each class felt unique and you couldn't just stack classes like you can now. The classes have become so homogenized that you can get away with stacking classes.

The raids in TBC were the big selling point. I'm not sure why you feel they're anti-climactic, because I remember doing BT the first couple of weeks after it released and there was a chance to wipe on every trash pull. There was extensive CC orders and if the CC was broken prematurely, a wipe would occur. Defeating each boss knowing you were one less boss closer to Illidan was the real excitement. I remember that excitement of seeing Illidan at the top of the stairs and knowing eventually we were going to end him. That's just BT, there was kara and more. Everyone did Kara, how can you hate kara?

[Deleted]

Although I liked MoP's asian theme and still do and I love Monks in every game, I really can't stand the silly playful music in some areas, like in Shrine; and Hozens. Hozens are the worst thing that ever happened to the game.
Timeless Isle was amazing, Pandaria is a beautiful land you can't get enough of, but the silly inn music and the Hozens are so irritating.

This and PvP. PvP was chaos in MoP.

And frankly if your idea of 'fun skillful pvp' is 'cyclone cyclone sheep sheep sap' [...]

CC was literally out of control. If one thinks that spam-sheep in Legion is annoying, that individual couldn't stand one day playing arenas in MoP. Let alone the utility everyone had, casters were running and casting, rogues had +70% sprint+slow immunity with 100% uptime -you could never catch them, CC was infinite; so many spells, so many effects, it was a total mess.

I'm not saying MoP was bad. It has great scenery and amazing story, but it had some annoying elements, like the music in Shrine, the Klaxxi, the flashy colors in Dread Wastes, that were overshadowing everything else.

[Al Gorefiend]

And I mention how solo content has improved over the years and is more immersive. Look at questing now compared to vanilla, there's more effects, there's more voice acting and the story guides you on rails like CoD. I bought Legion specifically for the questing and now I'm letting my sub run out since that's the only aspect I wanted to play.

Back in TBC days, the game focused on end game content such as Arena, Raiding and Heroics. You actually had to utilize your entire class and all of its abilities. Back then each class felt unique and you couldn't just stack classes like you can now. The classes have become so homogenized that you can get away with stacking classes.

The raids in TBC were the big selling point. I'm not sure why you feel they're anti-climactic, because I remember doing BT the first couple of weeks after it released and there was a chance to wipe on every trash pull. There was extensive CC orders and if the CC was broken prematurely, a wipe would occur. Defeating each boss knowing you were one less boss closer to Illidan was the real excitement. I remember that excitement of seeing Illidan at the top of the stairs and knowing eventually we were going to end him. That's just BT, there was kara and more. Everyone did Kara, how can you hate kara?

I loved Kara! But the feeling of finally reaching the big bad? I felt that on the descent of madness after a 5 hour raid through Ulduar as the stairs warped into Yogg's chamber. I felt it walking the bridge over lava into Ragnaros' room. I even felt it now when you see Xavius slowly appear out of the fog and he just gets bigger... Bigger... Bigger..

It's an awesome feeling, and I won't deny it was more rewarding in TBC because it was harder. But I still get that epic feeling on the final boss.

I think raids should go back to a uniform difficulty with optional mythic encounters like Ra-Den and Sinestra. A difficulty slider doesn't feel epic to me.

[FelPlague]

More abilities doesn't make something great just like a million boss mechanics doesn't make a boss great, there is a saying......less is more......I like not having to read a novel just to know how to play my class or beat a boss, there could be 3 mechanics and have them be brutal as long as it was engaging and helped tell the story I would be happy.

Oh and my expac favs go WOTLK > TBC > Legion > MoP > WoD (Raids put this above Crapaclysm) > Crapaclysm.

so your saying, warlocks rotation of just shadowbolt, was a "good thing"

[Seefer]

so your saying, warlocks rotation of just shadowbolt, was a "good thing"

The raids were engaging I didn't give a shit, again less is more and I don't feel like reading a novel to play my class to it's fullest.

[FelPlague]

The raids were engaging I didn't give a shit, again less is more and I don't feel like reading a novel to play my class to it's fullest.

you still required a novel, youve allways required a novel, but the rotation was just shadowbolt, knowing about stat prioirity, and tlanet choices was a massive novel though

[Equivocate]

TBC > WOTLK > Legion > MoP > Cata > WoD


The overall theme of MoP just wasn't for me. Great expansion though gameplay wise.

[avoidconfusion]

Don't get me wrong , I liked MoP a lot, the artwork, soundtrack etc... but it isn't better than WOTLK imho.

[Deleted]

Didn't like MoP. For me it's cataclysm, the best one.

WoD was horrible, and I don't think legion is any better. Even more separation of PvP and PvE and we still have that pointless garrison, now in our order hall under a different name. What's the point of this garrison crap, I don't get it?

Cata > Classic > TBC > MoP > Wrath > Legion > WoD

[ReleaseDay]

I hated the theme of MOP, but i'll admit and say that it was the most fun period i've had in wow. It was not better than Wotlk in all aspects, but it was one of the better expansions.

[Stormspark]

BC, Wrath, and Legion (so far) are all better than MOP. Right now I would say WOTLK > Legion (for now, Legion could take the top spot if it's well supported) > BC > MOP > Cata >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Cleaning up cat puke >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> WOD

That's not saying MOP was BAD of course. The only bad part of MOP was patch 5.3, and how long patch 5.4 lasted. MOP was overall a decent expansion, there were just others that were better.

[bromanbro]

No, Wrath obviously deserves the title. MOP is no.2 though, followed by BC.

[iamthedevil]

MoP was and has been my favorite expansion. We'll see how legion works out but it's also awesome.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

The raids were engaging I didn't give a shit, again less is more and I don't feel like reading a novel to play my class to it's fullest.

You don't need to read a novel to play your class to it's fullest even now. You are exaggerating.

[draynay]

MoP is my least favorite expansion, it added a new class and race I have no interest in, I didn't appreciate the rep grinding to open up new reps to grind, and I do everything possible to avoid returning to Pandaria on future leveled characters.

I was unsubbed for half of it so its possible I missed the good stuff, but it started out bad, it ended bad, and I still hate having to go to that continent.

[DJ117]

No... tbc was the best.

[PizzaSHARK]

I've noticed an awfully lot of people now saying MoP was the best expansion. I've been saying that even before Legion had released. Its the truth, MoP beats Wrath in every aspect, story, raiding, pvp, etc. I -REALLY- miss that expansion and if I had the chance, i'd play it over again from September 25th, 2012 - October 13th 2014 all over again.


DISREGARD THE "IF"

I think Mists has the best overall plot structure, characters, scenery, etc. I think that Warlords has the best exploration mechanics, however. There are tons of rare spawns to kill that drop all sorts of little goodies (Legion took a step backwards with most of those rare spawns just handing you a bit of garrison resources and some gold, rather boring), more treasures to find and treasure maps to help you find them (although many are just some garrison resources and a bit of cash), and the only way to get flying is to complete multiple meta-achievements rather than just throwing gold at a trainer once you hit an appropriate level.

Legion refines many of these mechanics. Class halls are basically garrisons without "you're going to spend 80% of your playtime in here micromanaging shit", their level scaling mechanic makes questing a lot more interesting and free-form, etc.

But while parts of Warlords had interesting quest lines (Yrel's story was pretty good!), I struggle to give two shits about anything in Legion even if I think the overall quality of the product is higher (many voiced NPCs, the new "talking heads" thing, etc.) Mists was the high water mark for storytelling in WoW, I think. More importantly, it was solid storytelling without riding on Warcraft 3's coattails like Wrath of the Lich King did.