Your favourite expansion, story-wise

[HoodKazekage]

No one can really judge BFA lore as it is ongoing , who knows at the end it might be awesome looking back. Everyone hated MoP when it came out now look.

[Rexosaurus]

MoP was probably the one that I felt came closest to telling a fulfilling narrative.

That said, the way that they have treated the story has always made me feel like it's just an unfortunate afterthought. I'm just about the opposite of a literary snob, but WoW's story is far too sparse, disjointed, and at times contradictory, for me to consider it a "good" story overall.

[Dundebuns]

These are what each expansion felt like to me

Vanilla: No real cohesive story line, it was just muddling about in a lore rich world that was set up by the RTS series. It introduced some interesting elements (such as Naxx, Deathwings kids, the elemental planes) but it didn't really further the story much. If anything it built some ground work for future expansions.

TBC: I really feel like this expansion was just fanservice. It followed the fan favourite Illidan and took us to a world we knew existed but had never explored properly. It touched on some interesting things though, like what had happened to Kaels elves and what the Orcs of Draenor had been up to since the Dark Portal had closed.

WotLK: To me this was the first expansion that really drew a narrative from the existing world and pushed the storyline forwards. There was excellent world building as you leveled, as you hindered the machinations of the Lich King. I have to say though that this is probably where the storyline begins to falter, as you suddenly become a hero of the Horde/Alliance instead of just another grunt; the story becomes about you now, and not the Warcraft universe.

Cata: It had some interesting ideas, but for me it ultimately fell flat. It's like Deathwing was burning a hole in their pocket and they just had to use him up. Doesn't help that Dragonsoul was a poor dungeon with very little in the way of new art.

MoP: I personally did not like the Asian aesthetic of MoP, but the storyline was good. We got to se emore about the old gods and specifically why you could never really 'kill' them. I didn't play this expansion much, so my opinions on it are rather scant.

WoD: I actually liked the gameplay experience of WoD. You had a solid leveling experience and I do love me some Draenei architecture. The expansion had multiple failings as well, being a 'timey whimey' plot and not using Shattrath to its full potential. It felt like a fan service cash in, where they brought back multiple popular characters from WC1-3 and burnt them up with a lot of goodwill.

Legion: I rate this expansion on the same level as WotLK. It pushed forward the main universe narrative and had fan service as well (Illidan again). Great leveling, great gameplay systems, great dungeons and great raids.

BfA: Yeah... the story is not good. Like, at all. It's drwing from previously used tropes and just feels lazy at every twist and turn. There is some good narrative building (Blood trolls, Drustvar, the encroaching deserts etc) but the overall narrative is forced, contrived and just... well... bad.

[Azerate]

I don't really care about the story in general, but I suppose the Lich King is the part I enjoy the most, so the answer would be Wrath

[Kieldon]

MoP is the winner for me. While I wasn't excited at all for the expansion, it quickly became one of my favorites.

[Varodoc]

Perhaps an unpopular opinion, but I will say Cataclysm. I loved every antagonist in that expansion. Deathwing and Ragnaros were not complex villains at all, but they were still efficient antagonists, much better than Garrosh or Sylvanas in my opinion. Deathwing in my opinion felt like a real threat, since he actually shattered the world, he literally turned entire regions into broken wastelands with his mere presence. I also loved the eerie feeling of N'Zoth pulling the strings from behind the scenes, sending Deathwing to destroy Wyrmrest and ordering Azshara to capture Neptulon and gain control over the seas in his name. I also think that faction war was much better than the current one. Back when Garrosh wasn't batshit insane and Varian was morally grey.

I think Cataclysm gets a lot of hate for the whole Green Jesus storyline, but at least he was built up throughout the expansion as a hero for the world, unlike Kerrigan 2.0 which is how Sylvanas' story arc will end.

[Wild]

The whole story about the Lich King was the most immersive I have played.

[BB8]

I liked the high magic setting in Legion, even though the end game was a bit sci fi.

[Tomana]

WOTLK as far as I'm concerned. MOP story was absolutely ruined by the "HORDES R BAD!!!111" retardation.

[Soon-TM]

For me, the best stories, characterization and world building are to be found in either WotLK or MoP. I'm inclined to go for the latter, since most of WotLK relied heavily on the WC3 and Vanilla story, while MoP built a neat overall story almost from scratch.

That's why the entire Ork Hitler arc was so, sooooo disappointing. MoP really deserved a better closing.

As for the worst stories, there is a technical draw between BC, WoD and BfA. The latter might still redeem itself, who knows, but... I'm not holding my breath.

[A Chozo]

MoP > Legion > WotLK > Cataclysm >BfA > Classic > WoD > tBC

[Eurhetemec]

But reflecting on it, I think they could've handled the Lich King better.

I think that's true, but I don't think he was handled badly, myself. At the time I felt it worked. He was a menacing figure. It's just he's got Darth Vadered over time. He was a scary dude when you were a kid, but after decades of merchandise and "Noooooooooo!" and so on, he'd become a cheesy punchline until Rogue One and Rebels.

[Lochton]

I have this weird list lately.

Wrath/MoP/Legion -> TBC -> WoD -> Classic -> Cata

For Wrath and MoP, we felt more inclusive without taking too much space, we weren't the major league but we weren't the little ants either. For Legion, it was more because Blizzard showed us how grandure it could be, Suramar City was breathtaking.

[Rozz]

Mists of Pandaria with Wrath close after. I really got into lore again during Mists, while I like WotLK's ending better.

[Alopex Major]

To me it was MoP. I really enjoyed the side stories of the Mogu and the Klaxxi, as well as the overall story with the sha. MoP also felt like it had little hidden secrets all over, WoD carried that over somewhat which I did like.

Actually on hindsight, Cata had a lot of good nelf lore and I really enjoyed the Firelands raid and dailies. Just still salty about how a story about druids/Fandral got turned into Thrall Story Hour.

[Constraint]

Surprising, MoP was my least favourite story outside of WoD/BFA. It was told well, it just held no interest to me because it was so distant and seemingly irrelevant to Azeroth itself. I just couldn't get attached to any of the races at all other than Pandaren. Mogo, snooze. Jinyu, snooze. Hozen, Klaxxi, yawn. But that's just an opinion.

I liked the story of WotLK the most for the exact same reason - it was actually relevant to me. I didn't like the way the story was told at times though. The Lich King randomly showing up shouting "Next time, hero!" over and over again was kinda immersion-breaking. And the Tournament held right in the middle of his stronghold with no real danger to us at all didn't really make sense. But other than that, I absolutely adored the levelling story and the lore in general in WotLK.

[orgonutil]

WOD for sure... joking

Wrath had the best villain, legion was nice but too rushed, Mop had fresh things

[Zarc]

Really suprised that so many voted MoP, I place MoP pretty far down in terms of story. WotLK is clearly the best in that regard, in my opinion. The story in Legion was great too.

Though in a way TBC and Vanilla was the best. The post-TBC expansions stand out for being more focused in terms of their story. TBC to some extent, but especially vanilla was a lot more... what word to use... let's say decentralized in terms of its story focus, a lot of stuff going on, not that much of a clear red line or specific story, but rather a diverse set of stories in different parts of the world. In many ways that is a lot nicer than the more focused story lines in later expansions.

[seleri]

MoP > Cata = Legion > BfA > WoD > WotLK > Classic > BC

Wrath would probably be bottom if it wasn't for Ulduar/Storm Peaks. Arthas is one of my least favorite parts of Warcraft's lore.

[czarek]

Haha MoP so high xD I would to bring that pool back in time when ppl complain about MoP and pandarens xD

For me Wotlk was best aftert that i could point on BC, Classic and Legion (the order is random)