Which Installment of WoW Provided the Best Story?

[dokilar]

i ultimately voted for BC. even though i thought the arthas storyline and ICC was better i thought as a whole BC was better. the zones i felt were much better told than in WOTLK. im sure im one of the few who actually enjoyed hellfire (and still did back when i leveled alts in Cata), nagrand was so fun and my favorite zone in the game was zangarmarsh. its hard to give it to BC but it was the most enjoyable period of WoW for me

[Immitis]

I can name about the same amount of stories WotLK has:

Introduction of the death knights in the Scarlet Enclave and their origin

The betrayal of the Lich King, with the Ebon Blade leaving the Scourge

The forming of a new faction, the Argent Crusade. With the return of Tirion Fordring

The vrykul and their origins

The blue dragonflight and their origins

The continuation of the Scourge storyline

Arthas

Yogg Saron

The Kalu'ak

The Nerubians

The introduction of the Oracles and Frenzyhearth, and their hostality

Ulduar and its titanic watchers

The Taunka

Major characters like Bolvar, Saurfang, Tirion, Darion, Jaina, Sylvanas and Muradin get some lore progression


There's just as much, but the thing is whether you like the stories from either WotLK or MoP more. And thats just personal opinion.

lets be honest here O-O the majority of those things you listed either got dropped pretty much right after launch or werent very important at all. not saying wrath didnt have lots of good moments but you didnt really pick them O-O

[Feio]

Wrath. The whole going back to Northrend to finally kick Arthas' ass was great. Just the nostalgic flashbacks I had from WC3 were awesome.

Also: Storm Peaks and Ulduar.

[Immitis]

i ultimately voted for BC. even though i thought the arthas storyline and ICC was better i thought as a whole BC was better. the zones i felt were much better told than in WOTLK. im sure im one of the few who actually enjoyed hellfire (and still did back when i leveled alts in Cata), nagrand was so fun and my favorite zone in the game was zangarmarsh. its hard to give it to BC but it was the most enjoyable period of WoW for me

thats not what this is asking >_< its asking which story was the best. nagrand had almost no story on the alliance side. the horde side was okay but also severely lacking. it was pretty much "derpa der ogres takems beads" the only good part was the demon hunter quest. hellfire was alright but fell off at the end. zangarmarsh.... oh zangarmarsh is one of the dumbest storylines in the game. although the visuals were nice and it is one of my favorite zones the storyline is just awful.

"ummm nerger is terken are waters" why are the naga taking the swamp water? "herp derp for teh lulz" THIS WAS NEVER EXPLAINED @_@ AT ALL. NOT EVEN HINTED AT! they didnt need it to survive because they could survive fine in the water where it was they didnt need to put it in a giant hole and they werent moving it anywhere so what the hell were they doing?

shadowmoon was just awful as well. the place where illidan lives and he only shows up twice once to tell some orcs their idiots and once to babble at you thru a crystal. sure the nether dragons and gul'dan stuff was cool but where was the explanations? why did illidan go insane? why did he become a villain for no reason? why did he attack shattrath? NOTHING. also what was teron even doing? just hangin wit teh fel orcs?

netherstorm was okay as long as you ignore all the blood elves and only focus on the ethereal. why did kael'thas betray illidan? why did he side with the legion? he s a blood elf the race that you know WAS PIVOTAL IN STOPPING THE LEGION AND CREATED THE GUARDIANS OF TIRISFALL @_@ the group that specifically hunted down the burning legion. also why would he go into silvermoon and just start killing his people? seriously? hes just gonna rush in there start killing dudes and steal a naaru? also WHY DID HE NEED A NAARU @_@

bladesedge was fine horde side was actually a pretty good zone with rexxar but alliance side just had nothing it was just "well... we got some cenarion circle dudes and like some baby dragons and stuff..."

burning crusade is the epitome of failed potential

[Shiny212]

The burning crusade by far. TBC built on the original warcraft storylines from TFT that were actually good, and wrapped them all up in an epic finish. WOTLK felt a bit disjointed from the actual character of Arthas and I didn't really feel that the story was a continuation rather than a new, worse one. Cataclysm had no measurable story due to its complete lack of character development and generally being uninteresting. MoP is an affront to nature and spews filth over all known warcraft lore. Its stories are all cliched, bad, filled with poor, vulgar comedy and is in no way keeping with the rest of the franchise.

[Khaza-R]

"ummm nerger is terken are waters" why are the naga taking the swamp water? "herp derp for teh lulz" THIS WAS NEVER EXPLAINED @_@ AT ALL. NOT EVEN HINTED AT! they didnt need it to survive because they could survive fine in the water where it was they didnt need to put it in a giant hole and they werent moving it anywhere so what the hell were they doing?

I mean, this is just kind of common sense no? Most of Outland is a barren wasteland, most of all of its water supply is in Zangarmarsh. Its not a mental leap to see why someone would want to control that resource.

[det]

Arthas is such an iconic character - so I go with WotLK.

[Venziir]

thats not what this is asking >_< its asking which story was the best. nagrand had almost no story on the alliance side. the horde side was okay but also severely lacking. it was pretty much "derpa der ogres takems beads" the only good part was the demon hunter quest. hellfire was alright but fell off at the end. zangarmarsh.... oh zangarmarsh is one of the dumbest storylines in the game. although the visuals were nice and it is one of my favorite zones the storyline is just awful.

"ummm nerger is terken are waters" why are the naga taking the swamp water? "herp derp for teh lulz" THIS WAS NEVER EXPLAINED @_@ AT ALL. NOT EVEN HINTED AT! they didnt need it to survive because they could survive fine in the water where it was they didnt need to put it in a giant hole and they werent moving it anywhere so what the hell were they doing?

shadowmoon was just awful as well. the place where illidan lives and he only shows up twice once to tell some orcs their idiots and once to babble at you thru a crystal. sure the nether dragons and gul'dan stuff was cool but where was the explanations? why did illidan go insane? why did he become a villain for no reason? why did he attack shattrath? NOTHING. also what was teron even doing? just hangin wit teh fel orcs?

netherstorm was okay as long as you ignore all the blood elves and only focus on the ethereal. why did kael'thas betray illidan? why did he side with the legion? he s a blood elf the race that you know WAS PIVOTAL IN STOPPING THE LEGION AND CREATED THE GUARDIANS OF TIRISFALL @_@ the group that specifically hunted down the burning legion. also why would he go into silvermoon and just start killing his people? seriously? hes just gonna rush in there start killing dudes and steal a naaru? also WHY DID HE NEED A NAARU @_@

bladesedge was fine horde side was actually a pretty good zone with rexxar but alliance side just had nothing it was just "well... we got some cenarion circle dudes and like some baby dragons and stuff..."

burning crusade is the epitome of failed potential

Easy there, while I agree that TBC was a mess, a lot of the stuff you shout about here, was explained in the actual game. Like the Naga in Zangarmarsh, they wanted to control all the water, simply because that Outland lacked fresh water - and water equals life and power.

And the Blood Elves were not pivotal in stopping the Legion, nor did they solely create the Guardians of Tirisfal. Kael'thas betrayed Illidan, because he knew that Illidan wouldn't help him in the end, he craved power and magic to a point where only the Legion could provide it.

And Illidan went completely insane after the Icecrown incident, loosing yet again just made him completely snap. He was so afraid of Kil'jaeden that he started mass producing soldiers while hiding in Shadowmoon, so that if KJ ever appeared, he could at least attempt to launch a defense.

As for the nether dragon stuff, well they were being enslaved by Illidan's forces, so helping them seemed natural, as did dismantling the Dragonmaw from within. And the Gul'dan stuff was to gain knowledge of the Cipher of Damnation, a very powerful spell which could shatter planets.

[Stannis]

Mists of Pandaria has the best storytelling hands down. Only part of the WOTLK storyline I liked is Yogg Saron's one.

[Immitis]

I mean, this is just kind of common sense no? Most of Outland is a barren wasteland, most of all of its water supply is in Zangarmarsh. Its not a mental leap to see why someone would want to control that resource.

except they didnt do anything with it. they didnt ship it out, they didnt turn it into anything. not to mention they are allied with the race of super powerful mages that can... you know... POOF WATER OUT OF THIN AIR @_@

---------- Post added 2013-02-17 at 01:39 PM ----------

Easy there, while I agree that TBC was a mess, a lot of the stuff you shout about here, was explained in the actual game. Like the Naga in Zangarmarsh, they wanted to control all the water, simply because that Outland lacked fresh water - and water equals life and power.

And the Blood Elves were not pivotal in stopping the Legion, nor did they solely create the Guardians of Tirisfal. Kael'thas betrayed Illidan, because he knew that Illidan wouldn't help him in the end, he craved power and magic to a point where only the Legion could provide it.

And Illidan went completely insane after the Icecrown incident, loosing yet again just made him completely snap. He was so afraid of Kil'jaeden that he started mass producing soldiers while hiding in Shadowmoon, so that if KJ ever appeared, he could at least attempt to launch a defense.

none of that is ever explained in game. at all. its fan speculation

[Venziir]

except they didnt do anything with it. they didnt ship it out, they didnt turn it into anything. not to mention they are allied with the race of super powerful mages that can... you know... POOF WATER OUT OF THIN AIR @_@

Well we did manage to stop them before they really got away with it.

[det]

/snip
burning crusade is the epitome of failed potential

It does feel that way and SWP tacked on. That said, I apparently was also too dumb to realize why I was supposed to raid MC in Classic. Ppl had to literally point my nose at the fact that things bigger than 5 man existed (then again, I didn't even get much into 5 mans, despite being in a guild and all. All that wasn't exactly hassle free and I think that one afternoon where I spend literally hours in LBRS and UBRS eventually put me off a bit. Looking back there was great stuff, at the time it was lost on me.

[Immitis]

Well we did manage to stop them before they really got away with it.

they had enough time to shove a giant sea monster through the hole and summon a bunch of water elementals from azeroth.

[fooliuscaesar13]

Wrath is my favorite storyline so far; MoP is a very close second.

[beefchorizo]

Mists > Wrath > BC = CATA > Vanilla

to me, all had pretty good story lines. all of them certainly have flaws. some more than others. still overall great stories.

to each their own.

[Venziir]

they had enough time to shove a giant sea monster through the hole and summon a bunch of water elementals from azeroth.

Eh, snake people be crazy.

[Stannis]

Maybe its just because I was around for the whole WC series, right from the start. Maybe newer players have a different perspective as they dont connect wow with the previous warcraft games so much.

Actually older players are the ones that usually enjoy MoP more than WOTLK/Arthas fanboys. I've been playing since WCI, destroying Blackrock Spire with my Water elementals, knights and priests. And MoP has both strong ties with existing lore and great potential for the future.

[Seegtease]

Lich King, no contest. It's like the whole game has been building up to that point since Warcraft 3. It feels like it's downhill from there, story-wise. It's like we hit the climax and now we're at falling action. Burning Crusade was just a distraction from what really mattered - killing Arthas.

[sykke]

I'd say that MoP has the best story with Wrath coming as a close second.

[Khaza-R]

except they didnt do anything with it. they didnt ship it out, they didnt turn it into anything. not to mention they are allied with the race of super powerful mages that can... you know... POOF WATER OUT OF THIN AIR @_@

Their goal was to control it so others could not. Hence why they pumped it from the surface into the reservoir they could easily defend it. One of the first goal of any military force is to capture and maintain control over resources so their enemies cannot.

And no, you're confusing mechanics with lore. They can't simply make massive amounts of water appear from nothing.