Rank the WoW cinematics!

[McNeil]

1. WotLK
2. Vanilla WoW
3. WoD
4. TBC
5. Cata
6. Legion
7. BFA
8. MoP
9. Dragonflight
10. Shadowlands

I found the Dragonflight one to be pretty boring despite its visuals, but at least it wasn't as offensively bad as the SL one. WotLK being #1 is a given.

[Tecuani]

Cataclysm - easily the most hype cinematic for a villain, Deathwing’s voice is terrifying and epic, and witnessing how his actions are causing such massive wide scale damage will always be epic beyond words. Seeing the destruction that happens just as he flies by also is just intimidating.
Legion - I love the Legion, and this was a pretty epic way to reintroduce them. At the time, Sylvanas wasn’t quite as in your face as she got later, so seeing her wasn’t bad yet. Witnessing him and Sylvanas fight side by side was great, him rising from the waters and tearing Shalamayne in two is great. I also like the small touch of Sylvanas turning her head to look at him as he shouts “For Azeroth” which I prefer massively to For the Alliance/Horde.
Mists of Pandaria - Easily the most comedic of the cinematic trailers. Witnessing the mystery the Orc and Human had as the explored the misty island was neat, the duel between them being interrupted as fun. When the Pandaren showed up and dueled the pair evenly, eventually disarming the Orc with the Human giving one of his weapons to the Orc was just hilarious. Bonus points to the post cinematic cinematic where the pair were drinking together. “So… It was a Bear?” “In a HAT!”.
Burning Crusade - Tied with Vanilla, it has some great scenes, first time we see Trolls (my favorite race) although briefly, and of course the iconic “You are not Prepared!” Line.
Vanilla - Tied with Burning Crusade, It greatly shows much of the feel of classic WoW, and is a nostalgia trip for me, though I wish they had showed all 4 races of each faction.
Battle for Azeroth - I do not particularly care for the Alliance vs Horde story, so seeing the return of that conflict in the trailer was very… mediocre at best… a reception for me. Even during it, I didn’t particularly believe Sylvanas’ “for the Horde” being something accurate to her personality (though saying it to energize the Horde I could see). I will admit, hearing a return of the Call to Arms tune at the end was good, and is why I put it here. Also seeing Trolls (my favorite race) play a part with “Zappy Boi” was neat.
Warlords of Draenor -
Dragonflight - This one is on par with WotLK, honestly, for much of the similar reasons. There isn’t a huge amount done or shown. I do appreciate the quality of animations on the stone guys face, though I don’t quite see how Alexstrasza got there so fast to save him.
Wrath of the Lich King - I feel like this one is overly hyped, personally. It doesn’t feel like much is done during it, except him raising Sindragosa, not as epic to me as plenty of the above, or doesn’t show as much.
Shadowlands - By now, Sylvanas appearing in the cinematic has grown tiresome, on top of that it just doesn’t feel right that she’d beat the Lich King. I did like how he caused a winter storm and struck from it.

[Orby]

Its a shame Old Solider wasnt the cinematic for BfA that would easily take #1 for me


Otherwise its a toss up between Vanilla, WotLk or WoD.

[scrappybristol]

1. Wrath - "My son... the day you were born the very forests of Lordaeron whispered the name... Arthas." Nuff said.

2. WoD - Badass from start to finish, looked better than the Warcraft movie, set up the Iron Horde perfectly. WoD may have fallen not long after launch but the cinematic was dope af. "Times change."

3. Classic - From the dwarf hunter to the undead warlock, the music, the characters, everything is just so... classic.

4. BFA - This was probably the best in terms of cinematography. Not everyone likes the Horde vs Alliance stories but the sheer badassness of Sylvanas rallying the Horde to Anduin's wonderful mass rez and that iconic final shot of orc vs human. Beautiful, man.

5. Cata - Big angry dragon with menacing dialogue breaks the world.

6. Legion - Horde/Alliance team up with everyone's favorite king and (at the time) undead queen leading the way. Varian is the GOAT.

7. MoP - Following Deathwing certainly wasn't gonna be easy but MoP's cinematic did a well enough job. Great way to introduce monks and pandarens while showing that the Horde vs Alliance are still at the forefront.

8. Dragonflight - Not a lot of conflict, just a stone bro trying to fulfill his duty after 10,000 years of sleep and finding all his fellow stone bros smashed or eroded then turns to HTTYD. Kinda wish they included the new race for that extra umph.

9. Burning Crusade - Ok so Illidan is a badass. This is known. However besides him, it just cuts to the new races and some new abilities, kinda cuts too fast to tell what's what unless you watch it multiple times. Still "You are not prepared" is iconic as "Frostmourne Hungers"

10. Shadowlands - by this point I think most of us were sick of Sylvanas then to have not only hold her ground against Bolvar but pull out some op powers out of her ass and making the Lich King look like the Lich Chump was a bad call. Breaking the Helm of Domination was a neat twist but overall the cinematic just pissed off me

[dope_danny]

for different reasons i think mists, wrath and wod were the best and shadowlands, tbc and dragonflight at the worst. The good ones give an impression of the tone and thesis statement of the idea and the bad ones just feel like an advertisement.

[Teriz]

They're all good. I would say my least favorites were TBC and Shadowlands.

Shadowlands was by far the worst. Watching Sylvanas go God-mode on Bolvar was a pretty eye-rolling affair.

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10. Shadowlands - by this point I think most of us were sick of Sylvanas then to have not only hold her ground against Bolvar but pull out some op powers out of her ass and making the Lich King look like the Lich Chump was a bad call. Breaking the Helm of Domination was a neat twist but overall the cinematic just pissed off me

I feel the same way.

[Amnaught]

I'm better at complaining.

Shadowlands cinematic was ridiculously dumb, bottom tier definitely. Sad that it could have been so easily fixed, simply by having Bolvar get the upper hand and *then* have some shadowy bs show up and help her, revealing that she's getting some cool help from a bigger bad.

Battle for Azeroth was my favorite, really encapsulated what I think of when I think Warcraft. But then the actual expansion revealed that Sylvanas was the enemy, and her "For The Horde!" was just a lie. So it's sour now. Ugh.

They made me watch sports to see the reveal of the Catsclysm cinematic. But that one was awesome, probably my #1, up next to Wrath.

[Dark-Zarupia]

1: Wotlk, Started to play WoW during Wotlk so it will always be the cinematic that introduced me to WoW and ofc Arthas was a freaking badass

2: MoP, I liked the message it told of 'why do we fight' and ye the cinematic was a lot of fun to watch

3: Cata, The hype Deathwing brought(for me back then) made this cinematic very appealing to me, it was the first time i was witnessing an expansion announcement

4: Vanilla, this cinematic does a good job by introducing us to the world of Azeroth

5: legion, Seeing Varian was cool

6 :Bfa, Seeing a full battle between the Alliance and Horde was cool

7: WoD, The music was good

8: TBC, a little forgettable imo, but the blood elf looked nice

9: Shadowlands, Sylvanas being a c'nt

10: Dragonflight, To boring

[Skildar]

WotLK and WoD have great cinematics that give me goosebumps.

Shadowlands, Cataclysm and Dragonflight have very enjoyable cinematics that get me excited for the game.

The vanilla cinematic gives a very nice portrayal of a few core races.

The rest of them didn't do a great job. The visual quality is still stunning and impressive but they are lacking a key element to make them great.

[loras]

I absolutely adore classic and tbc (they reallyhave that sense of exposition before an adventure), but the most memorable must be a close tie between WotLK and cataclysm. Other honorable mentions go to WoD, which had a cinematic good enough to get me to return.

Pandaria and BfA share the last spot for me, Legion and SL were somewhat meh too but SL has the eye candy and Legion has the sense of foreboding (and awesome followup scenario and cinematic).

Dragonflight has a unique position, lacking anything to hypeme up, but being a tiny movie unto itself with all the emotion that brings with it, but also with a lot of pointless fluff in the form of empty monologue and random dragons flying around.

[Trumpcat]

For me:
BfA > Wrath > Vanilla > Cataclysm > WoD > Legion > TBC > DF > SL > MoP

I rank based on how excited it made me feel.

BfA: ultra hyped, amazing scenes, great lines, awesome looking characters, music, effects, everything.

Wrath: it's the Lich King

Vanilla: it was amazing that the fantasy world I've loved as a kid is becoming a world you can be these awesome things in, and my favorite unit the Human Mage spamming fireballs.

Cata: what could top Wrath? A legendary dragon breaking the world! Great voice acting and music.

WoD: iconic historic moment revisited, and the Dark Portal under construction! Superb twist with Garrosh!

Legion: epic opening and that smirk and nod from Sylvanas, who was still a cool character at the time. Very sentimental with Varian's compass.

TBC: the Blizzard cinematics were a rare occasion and it was great, although just like a continuation of the first. Was never a great fan of Illidan so didn't care much, just cool cinematic.

DF: great quality, but what does this have to do with anything? Oh, Alexstrasza saved the Stone Bro, nice he deserves it. Just a basic emotion of seeing his epic efforts, didn't feel Warcraft in it at all.

SL: ever-smug Sylvanas, didn't receive a single hit, effortlessly made Bolvar her bitch with her magic chains. Great twist with the helmet split and the shattering of the sky. But mostly negative feeling from seeing a fan favorite character being mocked so.

MoP: I honestly thought it's a joke. Couldn't believe after the breathtaking epicness of the Wrath and Cata cinematics we are getting kung fu pandas. I went to double check that this is indeed the new expansion. I never bought nor played it.

[Feitori]

1. Mists Of Pandaria
2. Battle for Azeroth
3. Wrath of the Lich King
4. Legion
5. Dragonflight
6. Cataclysm
7. Warlords of Draenor
8. Vanilla
9. The Burning Crusade
10. Shadowlands

[Aedruid]

Favorite - Classic... which won by a razor's edge over Cata
Least Favorite - Dragonflight... combat in the cinematics really gets me pumped up, this just had a dude climb a tower... The dragons were awesome though.

[Danenglish]

Well, I assumed that it was "which is the worst cinematic," so I picked Dragonflight, then found out I was supposed to pick my favourite (a tie between WotLK and WoD for me)

Here's my entire list:
1) WotLK if I have to pick, closely followed by
2) WoD
3) Classic
4) TBC
5) Cataclysm
6) Shadowlands
7) Legion
8) BfA
9) Mists
10) Dragonflight

TLDR; Read at least the first post in the future, before replying/voting in a poll xD

[Winoralu]

1; Vanilla, always gives me chills seeing that dwarf and tauren.
2; Wotlk, simple but so beautiful
3; WoD, not a orc fan, but damn this was badass with a great throwback!
4; BfA, Seeing my favorite place in action and back to basic with red vs blue, yes please
5; Cata, Deathwing itself was awesome and the voice gives me chills, overall bit lacking
6; Shadowlands, so much hope for this one, failed on so many levels..
7; TBC, only good thing was seeing a badass draenei
8; Legion, rather boring tbh
9; Dragonflight, it's a good looking cinematic, it just doesn't do anything for me
10; MoP, the style they used for the orc and human ruined it for me

[Xilurm]

Ever since WoD and Legion I've felt that the cinematic trailers have taken a different direction. There's the cinematics that tease the world, or the theme of the expansion, and there's the cinematics that feel more episodic, like they are a snippet from a series of events and you're kinda supposed to know whats happening in order to understand them. So I'll rank them in two brackets.

Theme and Exploration

1. Wrath
2. Vanilla
3. TBC
4. Dragonflight
5. Cataclysm
6. MoP

Episodic

1. WoD
2. BFA
3. Shadowlands
4. Legion

Dragonflight for me really fits the theme of the cinematics before WoD. I'm really glad they went this route because those cinematics are my favourite.

[Seasz]

Shadowlands because it was glorious seeing the Incelthas widowers crying.

[Kyphael]

Warlords of Draenor is still the best. Times Change is the most epic theme WoW has ever had.

WoD > Wrath > Cataclysm > Legion > BfA > Vanilla > Shadowlands > MoP > TBC > DF.

Good grief, Dragonflight was the worst by far right off the bat, that's undisputed.

[DeltrusDisc]

I let my subconscious do the choosing for me.

Which one garnered the most shivers down my back, factoring in the effects of nostalgia.

The ones that got shivers:
Vanilla, TBC, WotLK, MoP, Legion, BFA.

Ones I am surprised got no shivers:
Cata and WoD.

Ones I am not surprised, well, you can do the math but:
SL and DF.

So which of those got more shivers and they were maybe genuine, not nostalgia influenced?

MoP.

MoP out of all of those cinematics was the one I looked forward to the least. When I saw the announcement trailer, I was sorely disappointed. I now regret not playing the entire expansion. What I can safely say is though, I have enjoyed the MoP trailer for quite a while now. It's just lovely. It's got a bit of humor, some serious, and some beautiful scenes and music. The question it posits to the audience is a good one for a philosophy class. What are you fighting for vs what is WORTH fighting for is an important distinction.

Happy to vote MoP, it feels much less cliche to me, not that I have an issue with people choosing the absolute unit that is WotLK.

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1; Vanilla, always gives me chills seeing that dwarf and tauren.
2; Wotlk, simple but so beautiful
3; WoD, not a orc fan, but damn this was badass with a great throwback!
4; BfA, Seeing my favorite place in action and back to basic with red vs blue, yes please
5; Cata, Deathwing itself was awesome and the voice gives me chills, overall bit lacking
6; Shadowlands, so much hope for this one, failed on so many levels..
7; TBC, only good thing was seeing a badass draenei
8; Legion, rather boring tbh
9; Dragonflight, it's a good looking cinematic, it just doesn't do anything for me
10; MoP, the style they used for the orc and human ruined it for me

I used to feel this way and still find it a little goofy but honestly now I see it and just get a chuckle. Clearly more budget was put into the actual expansion itself and holy shit Blizz delivered. Sigh.

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For me:
BfA > Wrath > Vanilla > Cataclysm > WoD > Legion > TBC > DF > SL > MoP

I rank based on how excited it made me feel.

MoP: I honestly thought it's a joke. Couldn't believe after the breathtaking epicness of the Wrath and Cata cinematics we are getting kung fu pandas. I went to double check that this is indeed the new expansion. I never bought nor played it.

I genuinely must encourage you to go give the MoP storyline a try. I totally agreed with you and even made some YouTube videos blasting MoP back in the day. I was in the Kung Fu group. It was the first expansion I didn't buy on release - in fact I didn't buy it until a solid year+ after release.

It has to be my biggest regret about my WoW career now.

[pkusa]

Crazy how quality the WoD cinematic is considering how it is still the worst expansion of all time.