Mists of Pandaria was released 5 years ago

[Soulwind]

I was one of the defenders of Pandaria offering a blank canvas in terms of storytelling, and the potential undertones that such a visually colorful expansion could have. But no, it had pandas so it had to be a dumb filler and the death of WoW. Now Chronicles is out and the stories that were created in MoP have become the origins of Azeroth.

I remember getting virtually lost from 85 to 90 and not stepping out of Pandaria once. Immersed in the questlines and the breathtaking scenery.

Max level 5.0 was a bit rough, the reputations weren't well designed at all, and the raids, while mechanically good, were a bit boring.

But man did 5.2 and 5.3 exceed my expectations. Thunder Isle and the Timeless Isle were also great. The content drought was... well, to be expected.

ToT is, to this day, my favourite raid, and yes I played when Ulduar and ICC were released, they didn't resonate with me nearly as much.

[krille20]

It's a shame you dont enjoy things whilst they are current

[digichi]

It was the last actual proper oldskool WoW expansion. WoD/Legion are both 2 very different games then the older expansions.

Feels completely different aye.

The games lifespan/change feels like this to me: Vanilla/TBC/Early+mid wrath felt like the original span of what was introduced.
Late wrath/cata/MoP felt different but still reminiscent to what we were used to.
WoD/Legion feel completely different (iteration on old systems/visual upgrades and changes/game changing systems introduced).

[joeymagz]

Funny enough seeing people telling "best expansion..." or "I had so much fun during mop" while during MoP there were "omg wtf kung fu panda doesn't belong into wow" threads...

Actually it's allways like that (except maybe WoD)

I too had a blast in MoP and I wasn't complaining about pandas... 5.1 and 5.2 were probably my 2 most favourite patches

Pretty much this. I used to get trolled all the time in my guild at the time for saying "stupid" shit like, "I really like this xpac."

Meanwhile, that xpac had some awesome story and raids; even some awesome new features. First off, holy smokes the lore! This was one of the most lore-heavy expansions to date. Incredible story while leveling in Pandaria. Throne of Thunder was one of the best raids of all time, mechanically and lore-wise. Siege of Orgrimmar lasted way too long, but it really was an amazing raid. Then, the new systems I really liked were: scenarios, challenge mode dungeons, and flexible raids. I know, I know, "But, but, but, Flex raids were super casual!" Yes, they were - at the time.

I would argue that Blizzard had some amazing foresight with Flex raiding. They saw how the raiding landscape was changing, they saw that there were still hardcore raiders that just didn't fit into one of those guilds that were set at 10 or 25 raiders. Today, many guilds are having a rough time filling their Mythic guilds with more than 20 players to have a real bench. The reason is because of the new mentality that gamer's have - they all think they're too good to sit on a bench, and only come off the bench for a few fights. That leaves these guilds in a situation where if 3 people have real life to deal with, that guild can't raid that week. Or, they need to pug, and that shit is terrible in Mythic. Flex raiding is the current sphere of raiding, and I really do see it expanding to Mythic sooner than later. I mean, unless Blizzard likes only seeing 500-1000 guilds kill the final boss of a raid tier due to person constraints rather than difficulty constraints.

The one counter-argument I would make to MoP is that this really was the xpac that started the casual-centric gameplay. The whole kung-fu panda theme was really made to bring in brand new players, which meant that they needed to make a lot of changes: Leveling was made much faster, reputation gains were increased with the account-wide tokens you could buy at Revered, Skill Points were reduced to the new Talent Tree system, and Pet Battles aka WoW Pokemon.

[Gimlix]

Any expansion following cataclysm would seem good.

Would say the same about WoD then. Legion isn't to great either.

[druenos]

5.0-5.2 was still the best time ever.

This is the time I left the game for 18 months, I just couldn't be arsed with the dailies.

[Eleccybubb]

It's a shame you dont enjoy things whilst they are current

I enjoyed MoP thoroughly while it was current.

[Fayenoor]

I actually loved Mists of Pandaria - specially the whole Pandaren aspect of it. Throne of Thunder was a pretty solid raid. I didnt like the Garrosh aspect of it.

Also, shout out to priests who played Disc back then - spirit shell ftw.

[Gouca]

MoP was stunning. The first expansion I've truly enjoyed since tBC back in 2007. Quests were well designed, landscapes and maps beautiful beyond measure and raids challenging and fun. Laughed my ass off during its first trailer but withdrew my words the moment it launched.

[Jester Joe]

Funny enough seeing people telling "best expansion..." or "I had so much fun during mop" while during MoP there were "omg wtf kung fu panda doesn't belong into wow" threads...

Actually it's allways like that (except maybe WoD)

I too had a blast in MoP and I wasn't complaining about pandas... 5.1 and 5.2 were probably my 2 most favourite patches

You kinda just answered your own "humor" there though.

The people now who are praising it as the best or saying they had too much fun were having a blast during MoP and not complaining about Pandas.

The people who were complaining about MoP don't have to now, because it's gone already.


Either way, loved MoP myself. Still feels a bit sad to fly through Vale.

[McNeil]

I wonder if Blizzard actually saw this expansion as an accomplishment. The sales for the first week were A LOT lower then from Cata, WoD and Legion. And the subs were dropping faster than Cata, but somewhat stabilised during the 14 month of SoO. Even then it sounds like it did much better than WoD.

[Raetary]

only 5?

felt more than that.

[Nathreim]

Loved MoP. That expansion easily added more played time to my characters than any other expansion except perhaps vanilla but that was more because it took forever to level.

[Eleccybubb]

You kinda just answered your own "humor" there though.

The people now who are praising it as the best or saying they had too much fun were having a blast during MoP and not complaining about Pandas.

The people who were complaining about MoP don't have to now, because it's gone already.


Either way, loved MoP myself. Still feels a bit sad to fly through Vale.

I do hope they pull a Stormwind on it and Vale gets mended in the future. It was such a beautiful place.

[Deleted]

I do hope they pull a Stormwind on it and Vale gets mended in the future. It was such a beautiful place.

They could at least drop Theramore on it (no pun intended) so you can go "back in time" to see how it looked like

[Acelius]

Progressing through Throne of Thunder was amazing. Such a great raid.

[Deleted]

I loved MoP so much. The only flaws, in my opinion, were that the two westernmost zones were horribly underutilized, and that a lot of the gear looked like poop unless you went for the monk/zen fantasy.

Great use of world bosses, fantastic daily quests, incredibly immersive zones, a legendary quest chain that was at least somewhat pleasant with the regular meetups at the tavern in the mists, a terrific soundtrack, and most of all lots of attention to storytelling and world content.

It was also the last expansion where we weren't the Avengers.

[Deleted]

Fuck the Jade Temple might be the best look in instance

[Altrec]

It was a good expansion and the last one I played. When they started talking about WoD and all the nonsense they were going to pull and continue to pull I decided to end my WoW experience on a good note and unsubbed before the final patch prepping things for WoD.

[Deleted]

It was also the last expansion where we weren't the Avengers.

i'd say it was the one that started that trend, horde side atleast. At the start Garrosh claims we are his best veterans and later in one of the patches BE leader brings up killing the Lich Kingas a blanket statement for our character's achievements