Final Thoughs on WoTLK as we transition towards the Cataclysm...

[chaddd]

I hate how lazy it made players and how it was the worst time to bring in new players (GL in Cata).

[Squeekly]

I loved having the oppertunity to lvl my warrior off nothing but pvp from 10-60, good thing I got that done before they lowered the exp received.. lol I got 10k honorable kills before lvl 40 (and one of my guildies got 1k on his 65 dk a minut before and the guild was like "wow thats allot!"... bam my achievement.. HOLY CRAP!!!)

[_Fire_]

I'm going to miss pulling 20k+ DPS by spamming Arcane Blast

[Drakhar]

I just realized what I'm going to miss in a random "oh shit!" moment...

Holiday achievements that require you to be in Dalaran or use something on a certain class/race of the opposite faction! No more camping the opposite side of Dalaran! WTB Dwarf Rogue!

[riflemancho]

I will miss many things, but mostly my first steps on northrend, beatiful howling fjord & icecrown citadel..and maybe ulduar And ofcourse when Tirion shatteed frostmourne. That was epic.. /Respect Highlord Tirion Fordring

[Tonystark]

It was nice to see that my burn out when reaching LK ( 5% buff at the time) and finally deciding that healing was not fun in ICC. Was truely something that the designers did intentionally.

since healers weren’t really running out of mana, we had to find other ways to make those raid encounters that were designed to be challenging actually challenging. That often came down to very high tank or raid damage. So now not only did healers not have much of a choice about which spell to use, but they also had to use that spell every global cooldown or risk someone dying. This made healing stressful without the reward of having made good decisions. If you healed the wrong target, hesitated for a moment, or had a laggy connection, then someone was going to die.

[Brittany]

Final Thoughts?

WoW had me spending too much time on the game
TBC had me obsessed with the game
Wotlk cured my addiction. It was much more a casual game, which in fairness is probably what it should be.

[eternalwhitemoon]

Ulduar>all. That's my final thought of WOTLK.

Also, Kologarn did have legs. I wasn't paying attention one time and ran towards him just as he was doing his arm-smash. Apparently there is a gap where his torso is supposed to be that is not there when he does that. I fell directly through it and to my death. >.>

PS he has this weird short-shorts thing going on. I recommend not falling to your death to look at them. It's kind of scarring.

[Negrido]

It stinks!

[KresnikHellfire]

- Lots of additions to make the game easier for casuals, which was fine - but did absolutely nothing for me (was running heroics and raids in TBC anyway)
- I've enjoyed the PvP a lot more in this expansion, even as a disc priest, I think it benefitted from the faster pace - I've ragedddd at being globalled by wizards on many occassions but I still enjoyed it.
- Raids were sloppy with the exception of Ulduar.

Generally, not a disaster but could have been a lot better too.

[NOLNemesis]

Finally the return of variety. Wrath of the Lich King can be summed up with two words: Scourge and snow. From level 68-80, that is all we saw. Sure we had the odd diversion like Ulduar, but it wasn't enough to get those two themes out of our heads for long. It was all far to tedious and boring for far too many stretches.

Bring on Deathwing!

Good short summarization of wotlk. Not much variety as in there was too much damn snow and scourge. In other words one theme of the expansion really made it dull after a while sure it fit with the lore obviously its Northrend and the scourge are up there but yea it sucked. I think instead of blizzard using TOC as a filler raid which they did; they should have made Gun'Drak a nice big raid with undead trolls etc which would have been amazing and to me would have saved wotlk from being a complete failure. Cata will have more variety obviously as it takes place back on Kalimdor and EK, 2 big continents with plenty of different themed raids. I just really wish blizzard would have made Gun'Drak or the spider kingdom the tier9 raid.

Oh the easy mode for casuals because everyone is paying to play their game crap ruined the game for other people as well. Hardmodes was really only giving Hardcore raiders a small piece of the pie back.

[Knough]

GORLOCS of Sholozar! <3

if its still there (the mysterious egg), once a week, every week, i will visit you...

[Eramas]

I quit a year ago, and I'm going to back tomorrow and start from the beginning. I never saw ICC, but I really enjoyed WotLK. Ulduar was amazing and with Black Temple and Karazhan it's the best raid ever. Zones were really cool, along with music. I can't say, that I'll miss it really much, but definitely it wasn't a bad expansion.

[alton250doa]

Honestly, I enjoyed Wrath. Got my first toon to 80 during Wrath. Started playing during BC, but never really got to Outlands until shortly before Wrath came out, so it was "Skip Outlands content above 68 and head to NR". I'm looking forward to Cata because although the old world will have been changed forever, it will be more like vanilla in that you get to experience the "main" World of Warcraft, not the expansions (didn't really experience much of the old world while leveling during BC / Wrath... was in too much of a hurry to get that first toon to 80). Time to go back and do it again... for the first time... some more. Or whatever.

[Feralan]

First post, longtime lurker, casual/roleplaying player and very occasional raider since vanilla.

Overall, I think TBC was the superior expansion. On the plus side, Wrath had some gorgeous zones (I am a big fan of the "northern" look), some fun moments and quests, and I very much liked that raiding became more "accessible" although part of me will always miss attunement quests because they create more of a "connection" with a place than just having it sit there, open for all comers. I also really enjoyed Naxxramas despite not being fond of the Scourge theme. Heigan in particular will always remain a favourite.

But on the downside we have:

* Ridiculously easy heroics that do not deserve the name (barring the ICC ones with non-epixxed-out people). The only fights that were interesting got nerfed into the ground early on.
* ... which caused a decline in teamwork and an increase of rudeness and the infuriating "gogogogogo rush rush rush ffs pull already noob" mindset ...
* ... and removed the only truly accessible challenge for those people who don't have the inclination and/or time to raid, but still desire non-mindless gameplay. TBC heroics remained fun to the end for my folks and me (well, until the pre-Wrath patch), Wrath heroics lost their luster after the first few times tops.

* Overuse of vehicle mechanics. I get it Blizzard, you had a fancy new idea and wanted to show it off. But it got old pretty fast for me because it was everywhere, or at least that was what it felt like.

* The Lich King is not Arthas! I seriously disliked how they just removed Ner'zhul from the equation as if he'd never been there. I can't say I am remotely a fan of his, but I am certainly not a fan of the whiny, egotistical, slanted-as-destined-to-fall-from-the-very-first-moment Prince Arthas. And the claim that he was holding the Scourge back? Please. That was just inane.
* ... and the attempt to establish him as a constant presence and threat, while laudable and preferable to never laying eyes on a boss before actually killing him, was a total failure IMO. It made him look more like a joke that got old fast.

* I did not care for either the Scourge theme or the Titan theme, which (as usual with Blizzard) didn't really mesh with what little we knew of the Titans before. Plus, I can't stand all the steampunk. Yes, that element has been in WarCraft since WC2, but it was so damn in-our-face this time.

* Death knights. One "zomg evilcool lol! but no! we're just misunderstood tormented heroes and you NEED us" class which most culltures/races/people would logically gut on the spot rather than kiss up to (warlock) was too much already, thank you.

* Too many whacky new mounts, especially the assorted dragons, drakes and proto-whatevers. Aren't dragons supposed to be rare, proud and powerful? Now everyone and their grandma carries half a dozen around in their pocket for no real lore-based reason. The Netherwing from TBC were handled and implemented much better.

* An absence of really fun quest chains. Bridenbrad was okay. Befriending the Sons of Hodir and reconciling them with Thorim was okay, the grind aside. But there was nothing which felt remotely as epic as Cipher of Damnation from TBC, or the druids' swift flight form questline or the Aldor-version of the Socrethar battle.

* Dalaran. 'Nuff said. A cramped cotton-candy land where you can't fly and that serves as a perfect example of the arrogance of uncontrolled magic use, which leads me to --

* The fall of Malygos. Why kill him when he's right? Why was there not even the whisper of a thought of redeeming him? I wish they had made a Kirin Tor/Blue Flight divide in Wrath, giving us the choice with whom to side, with hostilities barely held in check by the threat of the Scourge and with the Red Flight trying to mediate.


And finally, something that looks set to continue in Cataclyslm, and is growing into a real pet peeve:

The constant, incessant wanking of the same writers' pet Mary Sue NPCs at the exclusion of and to the detriment of everyone else, including both player characters and other NPCs. I don't want to see Varian Wrynn's constipated punk brat mug ever again, not Garrosh the testosterone-poisoned wannabe-master-race warmonger, nor Sylvanas who should be long dead (for good this time) as a threat to all life, nor this mockery of Jaina who had a spine once before she was turned into a vapid, weepy wet blanket.

Okay. I get that humans and Forsaken had more of a personal bone to pick with the Scourge and "Arthas" than all the others (doesn't explain the orcs, though). But enough is enough. They don't have to be everywhere, and they certainly shouldn't be the only ones DOING stuff. What about Tyrande? Shandris? Cairne (poor bastard RIP)? The troll chap whose name I can never remember? Velen? Instead of overusing the same characters, and adding new superfluous ones from the manga, they really need to give some screentime to older, existing characters -- and some love to the races other than human, orc, and to a lesser degree Forsaken.