TBC >>>>>>>>> Wotlk >>> Cata >>>>>>>>>>> MoP
MoP was disarter from the start to the end. They took all the worst things from Cata and multiplied em by 10. Hoping the big sub loss will make Blizz changer their mind and do a proper next expansion.
TBC >>>>>>>>> Wotlk >>> Cata >>>>>>>>>>> MoP
MoP was disarter from the start to the end. They took all the worst things from Cata and multiplied em by 10. Hoping the big sub loss will make Blizz changer their mind and do a proper next expansion.
I LOVE the murloc sound. In Vanilla I predicted an underwater zone with a capital of Murlocia. OK so Murlocia did not happen but we got an underwater zone! :P
My priest friend in Vanilla HATED the fact he had to go to uldaman for enchants. but hey such was the game!
Still the discs are a major sour point for me. We didn't even get a little nod towards them.
Classic > TBC >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>dog shit >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> wotlk >> cata >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> garbage disposal >>>mop
WotLK > TBC/MoP (kinda tied) > vanilla >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Cata
TBC had much better dungeons, raiding and PvP. While MoP had better storytelling, questing and features. Not sure which I like more.
WotLK has easily everything better
One thing I like: LFR for alts (although I think LFR and Flex should be combined, there's no need for 4 difficulties)
What I don't like: The lore was snoreworthy compared to Wrath and Cata. Even BC had meh lore (is KT -really- dead now?)
I'd put it better than Crapaclysm but not as good as WOTLK or BC
History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people - Martin Luther King, Jr.
Strictly speaking, the main weapon enchants (except Windsong and Colossus) were gated behind Golden Lotus rep. Which was a pain in the proverbial arse, as i'm somewhat certain none of the other professions required Exalted with a given faction in order to get the better recipes.
tbc > wrath > mop > cata
Personally, I like MoP so being 3rd on the list doesn't mean it is shitty by any means. My biggest gripe with Mists is the destruction of 5 mans. Scenarios are fine I suppose, I am not so lopsided on a view as of yet. To me it feels like there just isn't even a point to 5 man dungeons anymore. I remember the days of forming groups and having to travel 'vast' distances on your ground mount to get to the dungeon. Eventually it just all became too easy, you can fly to the dungeon, now you have a tool that zones you in automatically, and now of course, made it so easy that they are pointless. Then replaced with something even easier.
I know very well the difficultly of the game will not go back to vanilla or tbc roots, but it felt right and purposeful to me.
How can you say that Wrath had everything better when you just said TBc had better PvE and PvP, the core of the game?
AoE spam dungeons were not good. Nor was the introduction of the dungeon finder since Blizzard can't stand it's ground and make challenging content, even if it requires group cooperation.
Also oculus. And the Wrath BGs were awful. And most of the wrath raids were crap, even on higher difficulty, with Ulduar being too short of a patch.
So what did wrath have better? A pug model maybe, but that is in the eye of the beholder. Same complaints from serious raiders for 10 and 25 lockouts as running flex, LOoking For Brainwaves, and their normal progression raid because they need the assurance of conquest of other BiS trinket/tier bonus.
Mop > Wotlk > Cata = Tbc > Vanilla.
And MoP isn't quite over yet. There is apparently going to be 5.5, though it's probably nothing too big. Maybe something as fun as the zombie invasion thingie?
My "favorite" expansion is Burning Crusade, but I recognize that this has more to do with nostalgia, the newness of the game to me, the excitement of the first expansion, and the people I played with then, than it has to do with the quality of the game at the time. If I'm ranking strictly by quality, I would have to go MoP > Wrath > BC > Cata.
As of 5.4, MoP has struck the right balance with almost everything. Flex raids are the real capstone that makes this expansion the definitive best. Sure, Flex raids are just reviving a raid format lost since Wrath 10-mans, but Flex is even better... For one thing, I always preferred larger raids to 10 mans, and Flex mode provides that opportunity to have 15, 20, even 25 person raids.
So, MoP has the winning formula. Funny enough, a lot of that has to do with rediscovering things that worked in the past that got forgotten or abandoned over time. Hopefully they don't screw things up again.
I generally don't pick nits, and it isn't a big deal. but you're wrong about how MoP was a year ago. It is very alt friendly now, but it wasn't then. Wrist enchants, leg enchants, and epic gear from Rep were all gated behind grinding. To compete for server firsts encouraged (if not required) grinding all the original reputations to get the best gear/performance possible for MSV and HoF. Blizzard has admitted they made a mistake with too much gating.
WotLK > MoP > BC >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Cata
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Wrath had, in the very end (If you dont count the Shadowmourne DBWers rampaging through the arena) well balanced classes, which is something BC didn't even come close to. The rep was better in my opinion, although they could've limited the tabards a bit but it was a nice incentive for running dungeons. The end tier was still accessible yet difficult (No more than 10% of the guilds listed on wowprogress got to down Lich King HC and Sindragosa 25 HC)
I do love Burning Crusade (from a ret PoV) but it still had sooo many flaws
MoP > TBC > Vanilla >= WotLK > Cata
But, the above is a mega generalization. There are a tons of aspects to an MMOG / RPG that the various expansions have got right/wrong over the years, to varying degrees. I won't list them all here, but some of them include:
Leveling: Vanilla > All. Although that might've been more to do with how 'green' I was to the genre back then, and less to do with the objective quality of the experience (if such a thing event exists).
Raiding: MoP > All. The heroic encounters are wtfawesomebbqsos. The normal mode is finally at the right place for those that are not yet heroic raiders (i.e. challenging and NOT faceroll like Cata or Wrath). Flex and LFR are just the icing on the cake, because they offer so much Flexibility (pardon the pun). The amount of content is fantastic: 5.0, 5.2, 5.4
Dungeons: TBC > Vanilla = Cata (start) > all. Wrt 5-mans, nothing yet compares to the original heroic instances in TBC - Shatt / Arca / SV / SL. The Vanilla ones were cool as well, especially combined with the Tier 0.5 quest lines. The start of Cata comes close to the TBC experience but somehow still fell a bit short, and was completely gutted a short while after release. WotLK and MoP dungeons are o.k.
Non-Instance Content: MoP >> TBC > all, but most expansion had 'some' non-raid stuff that was cool. Overall though: Dailies, 5.1, 5.3, IoT, Timeless Isle, Pet-Battles, etc all made MoP a non-stop awesome expansion for non-raiding. Stuff like the treasure room just blew me away. That said, special mentions go to: Silithus (Vanilla) - IoQD (TBC), original dailies Skettis, Ogri'la, Netherwing (TBC) - Wrathgate (WotLK), Crusader's Colliseum (WotLK) - Molten Front (Cata)
Other stuff that would be important to compare is: Alts, Professions, PvP. I'm sure there is still more I haven't remembered atm.
Last edited by Trifande; 2013-10-08 at 02:27 PM.
WotLK>>>TBC>Classic>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Cataclysm>>MoP
You missed my point. YOU don't need those reps to have the enchants. You can buy them. Somebody who worked hard on the reps can make a profit from those who choose not o do them. This wasn't an option in Cata and Wrath, where shoulder enchants were behind rep. Get the rep or you have no access to enchants. I agree the hating part was irritating, raising a rep you don't care about for one you do, but the overall rep grind was not terrible.
Advantage to grinding rep yea. Those coins and some VP gear. But in other expansions only way to get stuff was via rep, and you MUST have enchants.
As always, this is _IMO_ as in how much fun I had in base/expansion:
TBC > Vanilla / MoP > WOTLK > Cata
I'm one of those crazies who actually liked the chain potting and gathering of materials and things like down ranking spells. Even so, I feel that out of the recent expansions MoP has been the best in terms of pure raw fun.
I liked WOTLK's setting (nordic) and storyline more though, the whole oriental thing doesn't really do it for me.
Really loving how MoP is either loved or hated.
My only complaint is the lack of 5 mans. Blizzard needs more people so they can churn those out on top of what they're already giving us each patch (scenarios, Timeless Isle type place, raids, LFR... maybe a new BG every now and then). To be fair though -- I don't even do 5 mans anymore unless one of my friends just dinged 90 and they need a quick gear up so they can do LFR. With the new Timeless Isle gearing up situation no one's asked me to do that... so I basically don't even run heroics anymore, just challenge modes.
MoP was the final nail in the coffin of WoW for me honestly. The game is nothing like it used to be. They've added things to the point it no longer feels like WoW to me, and that makes me sad. There's no challenge left to be had, no skill required, and the gear and spell inflation is just way too out of hand. Add in the extreme level of homogenization and this game might as well have four classes.
The game feels too fake at this point. Take me back to TBC, heck maybe even WotLK days and I'd be happy.