The WoW expansion appreciation thread.

[Master Guns]

There is so much negativity on forums and everywhere else about certain time periods of WoW. Everyone loves xpac A for this reason and that, and everyone hates xpac B for this reason and that.

I find its so stupid. I started playing WoW in June, 2005, and here I am 8 years later still playing and still enjoying it. And I have every single expansion.

Every expansion offers a new experience and they have left me with amazing memories. I have favorites, but I hate none of them! Im not that ignorant to blatantly call a collective bad when only minor parts were irritating. I appreciate all expansions for what they are.

Its like the Elder Scrolls. So many people rage when something changes from game to game. So much ass hurtness over trivial nonsense. "I hate Skyrim because its not Morrowind! "I hate Oblivion because its not Daggerfall!" Hurr. So ridiculous. I appreciate each game in the series for what it is alone. Skyrim is not Oblivion. Oblivion is not Morrowind. The same can be said for WoW expansions.

So this is a thread to say a few GOOD and POSITIVE things about each era of WoW, so we can remember that we had fun in every expansion, and whoever says otherwise is a damned liar. For me:

Vanilla: so much can be said. The "exploration" meter was off the charts. It was so new and so big. Just had a blast being a noob.

BC: Great zones, great quests, memorable raids. I had so much fun in TBC. The lore and stories were so fun.

Wotlk: such fun zones to quest in. Raids were amazing. Ulduar. Ulduar. Ulduar. So great. Icc was a blast, chilling at Krasus landing in Dalaran never got old.

Cata: Cata had fun raids. Bwd and firelands were superbly done. Great fun in the newly revamped old world zones too.

Mist: although my least favorite, i have had fun. Been kept busier than any other xpac, and having little things to do to occupy your time is great. ToT and SoO were great raids. Really loved the mounts in Mist. So many mounts.

[Ostrich]

Something I really loved about Vanilla was the vast and mysterious feeling the world had. There were so many strange little hidden places and places you couldn't normally get to, it was so much fun exploring the world and just stumbling across some random pointless town or ruins

TBC was when I was first able to experience max level content, since I was only in my early 50s when TBC came out. I have a lot of great memories doing my first raids and high level dungeons and all the other end game things I never got to do in Vanilla.

WotLK got me interested in playing a shaman for the first time, I think it was because of how cool I thought their tier armor looked. I ended up really loving the class and ever since late WotLK my main has been an ele/resto shaman and I also have an enh alt

Cata has some of my favorite zones ever- Uldum, Mount Hyjal, and Twilight Highlands (yeah, the phasing is overboard, but I just love the look and feel of the zone and the Twilight's Hammer Cultists and Old Gods are some of my favorite enemies) Not a big fan of questing in Vashj'ir but I can appreciate it's beauty

I stopped playing a couple months into MoP due to starting college and not wanting to be distracted, so I haven't played very much of it, but I like how much easier it is to level alts. I had a few alts who I kind of abandoned because leveling them was tedious, but in MoP I was able to dust them off and get them to 90 or high 80's before I stopped playing

I don't hate any of the expansions, but I'm not really as fond of Cata and MoP as I am of TBC and WotLK. But I think that's because in Cata and MoP I didn't have all the extra time I had during Vanilla, TBC, and WotLK and couldn't really progress much, not because I think they were terrible

[Master Guns]

I'll wholly agree with that. My lack of love *no hate, mind you* for Cata and mist came from like yourself, lack of time. I was a kid in TBC, I had loads of free time. I played all day.

[leggomydairy]

Didn't play Vanilla or TBC, or most of Wrath, but what I saw of Wrath wasn't awful. I liked the largeness of the world as a newbie. I loved the Cataclysm revamp and the introduction (finally) of the goblin race and Gilneas. As far as end game went, I never played end game Cata (senior year of high school) other than some BG running (that was fun) and LFR DS (unlike most people, DS made me drool). Mists is the best; the Pandaren and Monks are my favorite and my new main is a wonderful night elf monk now. I love the lore of Pandaria and how well put together the whole expansion is. Can't wait to see Warlords!

[Nurabashi]

Although I agree people do get way too crazy on expansions, it's unfair to examine it against the Elder Scrolls series, and here's why.

Whichever Elder Scrolls game you liked, you can go and play it, go back to that, play it, enjoy it.

However, in the case of WoW, it's very unlikely that you will stick to TBC content, or just stay at WotLK content, etc. Sure, you can make a guild, freeze at 70/80/85. But you will still be affected by the things the other expansions bring, unlike the Elder Scrolls series.

So back on topic, I've enjoyed every expansion, and I'm very much looking forward to Warlords of Draenor.