Best WoW expansion of THIS decade? (2010-2019)

[kaminaris]

The only argument for hating MoP that I ever see is that it was a theme they didn't like, whether it's the asian cultural themes or the playable bipedal pandas. But the expansion had soooo much to do and all the specs were fun. The raiding was great, timeless isle was also fun and overall optional. The pvp scene was strong and people actually did it unlike now (of course every expac had some imbalance in one way or another, always will be). The zones were cool and felt meaningful. It was before the pruning began and many specs had fun spells. I will always miss warlock tanking heroic dungeons.

TL;DR MoP was an overall solid expansion and even added a new class AND new race along with new spells for every other class (you know, instead of adding nothing and taking AWAY abilities). Summing up the expansion as shitty because you don't like asian culture is disappointing. Especially the many that didnt even give it a real chance because of lolpandas.

No, not really, as someone who started in MoP so I technically should be biased, I have no rose-tinted glasses and know exactly what was wrong with MoP
Everyone had everything
Tanks were best dpses
Classes were extremely imbalanced in both pvp and pve, like disci priests on bubble healing, warlocks affli destroying everyone in AOE scenarios.
Long content draught, nothing to do for a very long time.

I loved the theme, didn't mind pandas, didn't mind asian culture at all.
But specs? Weren't fun at all.

It was solid expansion but BfA is better. I never had so much fun in wow like in Mechagon, found my perfect spec (demo lock) which i consider absolute masterpiece and everything else is literal shit compared to it, and most issues of legion fixed.

Legion could have been good but AP and Legiondaries killed it.

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I don't understand why Legion and BFA have such different results. They have basically the same features.

Me neither, I guess it's the rose-tinted glasses + bad memory + hating current expansion.

[UndedoKoleda]

I don't understand why Legion and BFA have such different results. They have basically the same features.

Well, apart from the innovation factor- "Legion did it first", BFA had the chance to take everything good from Legion and add more good features, but instead it added some very questionable ones.

For instance- War Fronts and Island Expeditions are widely considered as failures.

The very promising War Mode was a disaster(at least for one of the factions) at the start of the expansion.

At the time "never ending" AP grind, some issues with the Azerite gear and "BiS" traits, at the beginning. The Artifact Weapons had much cooler all-around feeling about them, as well.

Still having followers missions in the game(for some people that alone is a bad thing), and even them being tied to progression in the War Campaign(which is a shell of the Legion Class Hall campaigns).

Disjoints in the Story of the game, because of 2 different leveling experiences for the factions, which led one of them having to learn about major lore events of the other from outside sources, and vice-versa.

We STILL don't know(there is no official explanation from Blizzard) how exactly does the gearing and stats work regarding the PvP aspect of the game.

Having to do a Honor Points grind all over again after Legion, with THE SAME REWARDS, but this time account-wide and stretched out.

And probably some more that I can't even remember right now.

[kaminaris]

Well, apart from the innovation factor- "Legion did it first", BFA had the chance to take everything good from Legion and add more good features, but instead it added some very questionable ones.

For instance- War Fronts and Island Expeditions are widely considered as failures.

By who? There is no such thing as "widely considered", just some extremely small minority forum screechers.
I consider islands as some alternative when I'm bored. I do like nuke strategy. I do like rabbit charm strat. Overall big plus.
NOBODY is forcing you to do any of them. They are completely optional.

The very promising War Mode was a disaster(at least for one of the factions) at the start of the expansion.

For fucks sake, war mode is absolute best expansion feature. You are thinking of sharding, learn the difference.

At the time "never ending" AP grind, some issues with the Azerite gear and "BiS" traits, at the beginning. The Artifact Weapons had much cooler all-around feeling about them, as well.

AP grind is exactly 10 times less tedious than in legion, because legion artifact was overpowered. So you basically don't need to farm AP at all. I haven't done emissaries for a year now as mythic raider. Also don't forget that in legion you had to farm AP separately for each spec.

Still having followers missions in the game(for some people that alone is a bad thing), and even them being tied to progression in the War Campaign(which is a shell of the Legion Class Hall campaigns).

Can be pretty much ignored. In WoD and Legion it broke economy.

Disjoints in the Story of the game, because of 2 different leveling experiences for the factions, which led one of them having to learn about major lore events of the other from outside sources, and vice-versa.

Yeah story isn't a masterpiece but I can't remember when we had solid story - and no, legion was garbage as well story wise.

We STILL don't know(there is no official explanation from Blizzard) how exactly does the gearing and stats work regarding the PvP aspect of the game.

And probably some more that I can't even remember right now.

Well in legion your gear didn't matter at all.

[UndedoKoleda]

First of all, you regarded one of the expansions with the most features in the history of this game as having

Long content draught, nothing to do for a very long time.

which I assure you, the majority of the player base does not share this view. We had Challenge Modes with kickass looking sets for every class, we had Proving Grounds, we had Brawlers Guild, we had Pet Battles, we had Scenarios(similar to Island Expeditions), we had Isle of Thunder, we had the dinosaur island(whatever it name was) and there are probably things that I'm missing. And all this is just the innovative things we got. So yeah, you saying that there was "nothing to do for a very long time" speaks volumes here.

Second, there is such thing as "widely considered" and it's pretty obvious in this case. Have you seen any threads/topics/post praising War Fronts(which was announced as one of the main features of the expansion, instead we got only 2, which became chores after the first run-through) and Island Expeditions(which had to be run into oblivion by anyone who wanted min/max and farm AP for the lack of other unlimited sources)?

Third, if you think that War Mode was the "absolute best expansion feature" then you haven't paid attention to what problems were there with it at the start of the expansion. One of the factions had no other choice but to turn it OFF, or it made leveling literally(and I mean literally) a nightmare and near impossible. So, one of the sides had a constant 10% buff to rewards and the other one was screwed out of it. When they gave the other faction a reason to fight against the odds, and they started camping everyone and everything(even Flight Masters) there was another outcry, this time from the dominating faction. So, yeah, the way they implemented War Mode at the beginning was a massive failure.

Next, yes, AP farm was worse in Legion, I regarded that in my previous post, and still they could have handled it much better at the start of the expansion. Same with the Azerite Gear.

About the Followers Missions- it absolutely can't be ignored, if you want to finish your War Campaign, because there are quests with missions tied to it.

Storywise, I myself enjoyed Legion much more with the Class Hall campaigns and Suramar was a masterpiece, in my opinion. In BFA we had some hits and misses- we had Drustvar on one hand, which was one of the better ones, then we had Stormsong which was very disjointed. Not to talk about the War Campaign which was all over the place. And I won't even mention the adventures of "morally gray" Sylvanas and her 32D Chess.

[VinceVega]

Mop.

Ironically the one i played the most was BfA XD

[Sinyc]

For me it's MoP, even though I resubbed about 1/3rd the way through MoP after quitting Cata due to content drought.

Cata up until the terrible end game drought would be #2 for me. I stopped playing towards the end of WoD because WoD got so boring, so I never played Legion (outside of a free 7 day trial from a Web Ticket asking for it) or BfA.

[skumnasty]

I overwhelmingly prefer MoP's style of loot even with the minor bonuses war/titanforging gave then, because it wasn't out of control... you could upgrade your gear with points to max out at the end of the grind with the gear you'd keep for that patch. You had choice in what to upgrade, not rerunning the same bosses week after week for a gamble at getting a lucky proc.

I agree with the upgradable gear, I thought that was a nice way to progress with a little bit of choice. But eventually you'd hit a wall there as well, and the only upgrades would come from war/titanforging, just like retail. Where I don't agree is here:

If I got a piece in a raid that didn't have the stats I wanted, I'd just give it to someone else, but if it procs a measily +5 and is still useless, now everyone is disappointed

Why is everyone disappointed? They didn't get a freebee piece of gear? People get disappointed too easily, that is my entire point. Just because there is a system in place that lets people sometimes hand down unneeded gear, doesn't mean you need to be disappointed if you don't get a hand-me-down. Just because there is a system in place that gives you a chance at a lucky random proc, doesn't mean you need to be disappointed every time you don't get it. It's like going gambling, winning $200 on the night but then being sad that you didn't hit the jackpot for $100k. (I don't gamble so forgive the poor analogy but the point still stands). Or seeing a millionaire win a big pot, you get nothing, and you get all salty that he doesn't throw some of the money your way. IMO titanforging more illuminates a problem with the culture and community in the game, not the mechanic itself.

[LordVargK]

Everyone had everything

Where does this mentality even come from? It's flatout wrong. If everybody had everything then there would be no need for tanks or heals, as everyone could do every role. Which obviously was not the case. Was every spec suitable for AoE and Single target? Mostly yes, some more than others (and that's a good thing, else you promote class stacking). But they played extremely different, not like in Legion/Bfa where nearly all classes are builder/spender. To remind you: Mana as DPS was still a thing in MoP. Not as much as before, but it was something to consider. As for utility (which is probably meant by "everyone has everything"): You seem to think it is better now (or you are a classic elitist, then just ignore I'm tallking to you), but what utility got lost since MoP? Can't really think of much outside of Warlocks on move casting.

Also "Everyone has Everything" is better than "Everyone (but rogues) has nothing."

Tanks were best dpses

Also not true outside of ToT as BM monk, but they did too much DPS.

Classes were extremely imbalanced in both pvp and pve, like disci priests on bubble healing, warlocks affli destroying everyone in AOE scenarios.
Long content draught, nothing to do for a very long time.

Warlocks were a tad too strong, yeah and Disci was OP as well. But you confuse balance with fun. Most of the classes were fun and had many playstyles to explore. Which changed: less possible playstyles => more balance. But less fun. Look at Legion: Legendaries gave tons of possible playstyles and Legion is Number 2 on the List. BfA took those away, achieved more balance and classes that make classic rotations look appealing...

I loved the theme, didn't mind pandas, didn't mind asian culture at all.
But specs? Weren't fun at all.

You like being a nonconformist, don't you?

It was solid expansion but BfA is better. I never had so much fun in wow like in Mechagon, found my perfect spec (demo lock) which i consider absolute masterpiece and everything else is literal shit compared to it, and most issues of legion fixed.

Demolock is pretty cool, but way from perfect. But thats personal taste. But how on earth can u pick mechagon over the timeless isle?

I mean, everyone has the right to an opinion, but I will never understand the ones, that perfer gated content and classes on rails over freedom and choice...

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I agree with the upgradable gear, I thought that was a nice way to progress with a little bit of choice. But eventually you'd hit a wall there as well, and the only upgrades would come from war/titanforging, just like retail. Where I don't agree is here:



Why is everyone disappointed? They didn't get a freebee piece of gear? People get disappointed too easily, that is my entire point. Just because there is a system in place that lets people sometimes hand down unneeded gear, doesn't mean you need to be disappointed if you don't get a hand-me-down. Just because there is a system in place that gives you a chance at a lucky random proc, doesn't mean you need to be disappointed every time you don't get it. It's like going gambling, winning $200 on the night but then being sad that you didn't hit the jackpot for $100k. (I don't gamble so forgive the poor analogy but the point still stands). Or seeing a millionaire win a big pot, you get nothing, and you get all salty that he doesn't throw some of the money your way. IMO titanforging more illuminates a problem with the culture and community in the game, not the mechanic itself.

I think you don't understand the problem. Person A gets an unwanted item of itemlevel 400. He has an item of level 400 equipped. Person A can trade the item to Person B. Both are happy, one got gear, one helped a friend. Now the item procs a+5: Because Person A has only an item with level 400, he can't trade the item to Person B. But he still doesn't want to use it, so it gets sold/DEd. Person A is not happy because he lost his bad luck protection for a shard/50g, and Person B is not happy because he doesn't get loot.
In this case the proc was the opposite of beneficial and here is the system to blame.

[skumnasty]

I think you don't understand the problem. Person A gets an unwanted item of itemlevel 400. He has an item of level 400 equipped. Person A can trade the item to Person B. Both are happy, one got gear, one helped a friend. Now the item procs a+5: Because Person A has only an item with level 400, he can't trade the item to Person B. But he still doesn't want to use it, so it gets sold/DEd. Person A is not happy because he lost his bad luck protection for a shard/50g, and Person B is not happy because he doesn't get loot.
In this case the proc was the opposite of beneficial and here is the system to blame.

Person A got a piece that they didn't need, and Person B didn't get a piece that they needed. Happens all the time in loot-based games. Keep that +5 forged piece of gear in your inventory so if another one drops you can trade it.

Your example is a small corner-case of why titanforging can be bad, and could be attributed more to the design of the personal loot system rather than titanforging itself.

[Magicon]

1. MoP
2. Legion
3. Cata
4. WoD
5. BfA (I wish BFA was good tho, I don't hate on it)

[LordVargK]

Person A got a piece that they didn't need, and Person B didn't get a piece that they needed. Happens all the time in loot-based games. Keep that +5 forged piece of gear in your inventory so if another one drops you can trade it.

Your example is a small corner-case of why titanforging can be bad, and could be attributed more to the design of the personal loot system rather than titanforging itself.

But it didn't happen before in WoW. Since 13 years you were able to trade gear you didn't need. And keeping an item in the bag just to be able to trade loot can't really be a solution.

Yes, thats more a personal loot problem. My problem with titanforging is that sockets are random. I would be fine with fixed sockets and titanforging (probably with an upgrade option for all other gear), but random sockets are just dumb. And it makes jewelcrafting pretty useless. But then again, most professions are useless, so JC is just in line...

[Flower Milk]

I wanted to vote Legion because the systems in it were actually really good, but I really hated Pathfinder and time gated rep grinds in it, so it prevented me from voting for it. I voted for MoP instead because while it wasn't amazing, it didn't have anything super egregiously awful in it that I really hated like Pathfinder or time gated rep grinds and it was most like the WoW I've known and loved for over a decade.

Also my favorite expansion in general will always be Wrath by far, hands down.

[Pakheth]

I don't understand why Legion and BFA have such different results. They have basically the same features.

To me it's because BfA just feels like a very watered down Legion.

-no Suramar equivalent
-no tier sets
-mounts look rather meh
-I find the story to be really uninteresting
-music is rather meh
-the necklace cannot compete with tons of artifacts in terms of design and sense of progression
-no mage tower equivalent
-they made WQs even more boring and repetitive
-class design for the classes I play feels even worse than Legion which is a feat in its own
-they split up the leveling zones effectively only giving you 3 zones to level in
-they kept Titanforging and the azerite system sucks/sucked

Due to these problems I prefer Legion over BfA.

[Varodoc]

For me it was a hard choice between MoP and Legion. They are very close to be honest, chosing the best one between them wasn't easy.

[Syrah-the-Old-One]

Cata>WoD>MoP>BfA>Legion


I'm not even sorry.

[Relapses]

WoD > Cata > MoP > BfA > A lobotomy > Legion

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Cata>WoD>MoP>BfA>Legion


I'm not even sorry.

Well, shit.

[Eazy]

Legion
WoD
Cataclysm
BFA = MoP

[Soon-TM]

Mists > Legion > Cataclysm > BfA > WoD

This is my take as well. While I didn't get to play MoP in retail, I have dabbled in a certain *censored* MoP server and let me tell you, !@#& is REALLY fun. Mage and spriest (my two favourite specs, besides hpal) are leagues above anything from Legion/BfA.

The only bad part was the second half of the story, which inaugurated the Warchief's musical show so endearing to Blizzard. But even that part made far more sense back then than Sylvie's incredibly lame and contrived story in BfA.

[Gratlim]

MoP > Legion > WoD > Cata > BFA

[tyranade]

Cataclysm, loved the early parts before the big nerf.