Best Expansion THEME

[Deleted]

Absolutely voting for Wrath of the Lich King.

[CrossNgen]

Wrath of the Lich King will always come first with it's consistent theme of death, despair, and the feeling you're in the frozen north. MoP comes in second, while I'm not a fan of asian themes, I have to compliment it's consistency and variety while keeping it grounded (maybe it is too grounded, in my opinion). Cata comes in behind mostly because I felt that the elemental theme they were trying to achieve was really awesome, but ofcourse it ended up being all over the place and it never felt consistent outside of two zones.

[Deleted]

This is probably nostalgia speaking, but I loved BC, the feeling of unknown. Everything was so new and alien and I just found it really cool! Especially the Blood Elf starting zone!

[Wildmoon]

WotLK got the best theme but Blizzard did such a shitty job at its lore. MoP is miles better than WotLK in both story itself and storytelling despite having to go with much weaker theme. WotLK was such a waste of potential like Cata was.

[Valerean]

Wrath. From the arrival at Vengeance Landing / Valgarde, pushing north into the Grizzly Hills, braving the wastes of Dragonblight and the unearthly foliage of Sholazar, unlocking the secrets of Ulduar and the mysteries of the Storm Peaks, right up to the final assault on the Frozen Throne.

[Mihalik]

WotLK got the best theme but Blizzard did such a shitty job at its lore. MoP is miles better than WotLK in both story itself and storytelling despite having to go with much weaker theme. WotLK was such a waste of potential like Cata was.

Out of curiosity... Why do you think so?

For example I really liked the main plot, and how all the subplots lead up to their own conclusion, but where still linked into the main plot. Even if they weren't part of it, they still interacted with it.

Like the conflict between the Nerubians and the Scourge. The Nerubians connection with the Faceless and their link with the Old Gods. And how the Scourge was also in the same time fighting the agents of the Old Gods but also depended on Yogg Saron for their technology and resources.

It nicely wrapped up all the origin stories of the Azerothian races, (even that of the Dragons) and explained the very origin of Azeroth and its connection with the Old Gods.

The plot with the Vrykul was awesome too. Even Malygos had feels, a guardian driven mad by the horrors inflicted by others on the world decides to do the unthinkable to end the suffering. His own brothers, sisters and children being forced to put an end to him.

Not to mention the long epic quest chains hooking you up with all the Keepers, so when Ulduar came about, you had a personal connection with many of the Raid bosses. From Flame Leviathan to Razorscale all the way up to Mimiron. Probably the only raid boss in there with whom you had no connection too was General Vezaxx.

Same in ICC by the time you got there you knew many of the bosses, knew their stories or heard about the horrors they committed or knew who their creator was.

Even in ToC, (which was a piss poor raid) all the fights had their stories or meaning.

Literally there is nothing like that now. Yeah Thunderking and bla bla, but 95% you are just facing off faceless meaningless hurdles that give you better purples you need to face the next meaningless hurdle.

P.S And how could I forget to mention the betrayal by the Forsaken at the Wrathgate.

[Deleted]

I voted WOTLK.

As a theme, I loved the scourge. That said, I think WOTLKS execution failed in many aspect, it didn't live up to my expectations on many fronts.

TBC probably executed itself better as a theme imo, WOTLK felt like it was good when the premise was amazing.

Like the conflict between the Nerubians and the Scourge. The Nerubians connection with the Faceless and their link with the Old Gods. And how the Scourge was also in the same time fighting the agents of the Old Gods but also depended on Yogg Saron for their technology and resources.

Things like that could have been great, but were barely touched upon - our interactions with the nerubians were atrocious after the nerubian zone / raid was scrapped - we had a handful of quests where they buddy up with your faction and then we kill their major plot point (anubarak) in a crummy 5man that's probably the shortest ever created.

Likewise, at least from what I remember, the scourges interaction with Yogg-saron was barely touched upon - we had scourge using saronite and whispering his name with contempt, but it wasn't touched upon much more.

A lot of WOTLK felt like great ideas that were rushed due to lack of time, including a heap of scrapped raids, or a lack of creativity (woo, Icecrown is now Mordor copy pasted) and a lackluster "there must always be a lich king" ending.

Not to mention the long epic quest chains hooking you up with all the Keepers, so when Ulduar came about, you had a personal connection with many of the Raid bosses. From Flame Leviathan to Razorscale all the way up to Mimiron. Probably the only raid boss in there with whom you had no connection too was General Vezaxx.

Same in ICC by the time you got there you knew many of the bosses, knew their stories or heard about the horrors they committed or knew who their creator was.

Even in ToC, (which was a piss poor raid) all the fights had their stories or meaning.

Literally there is nothing like that now. Yeah Thunderking and bla bla, but 95% you are just facing off faceless meaningless hurdles that give you better purples you need to face the next meaningless hurdle.

Wah?

I remember Thorim and Razorscale being involved in the questline, Hodir being mentioned but never met - Freya, XT, Flame Leviathan, Kologarn, Ignis, Vezax, Mimiron and the council I don't remember having any interaction, let alone personal connection with.

TOC was similar but worse, there was story in that they were captured things for the tourney, but we sure as hell didn't know any of them bar Anub'arak.

ICC I'm baffled as to how we'd heard about the bosses, let alone knew them or their stories. Saurfang, Blood princes and possibly Queen, Sindragosa. All of the others I have zero memory of meeting before entering the raid and killing them.

80% of raid bosses are just faceless hurdles, why you're holding that specifically against MOP raids is beyond me, it's always been that way and probably always will be.

[Benomatic]

Wrath hands down! I have gone ott collecting everything arthas now! even tracking a mint unused wotlk collectors edition off ebay as well as various arthas figures and merchandise

[RicardoZ]

No question, it's Wrath.

[Wildmoon]

Out of curiosity... Why do you think so?

For example I really liked the main plot, and how all the subplots lead up to their own conclusion, but where still linked into the main plot. Even if they weren't part of it, they still interacted with it.

Like the conflict between the Nerubians and the Scourge. The Nerubians connection with the Faceless and their link with the Old Gods. And how the Scourge was also in the same time fighting the agents of the Old Gods but also depended on Yogg Saron for their technology and resources.

It nicely wrapped up all the origin stories of the Azerothian races, (even that of the Dragons) and explained the very origin of Azeroth and its connection with the Old Gods.

The plot with the Vrykul was awesome too. Even Malygos had feels, a guardian driven mad by the horrors inflicted by others on the world decides to do the unthinkable to end the suffering. His own brothers, sisters and children being forced to put an end to him.

Not to mention the long epic quest chains hooking you up with all the Keepers, so when Ulduar came about, you had a personal connection with many of the Raid bosses. From Flame Leviathan to Razorscale all the way up to Mimiron. Probably the only raid boss in there with whom you had no connection too was General Vezaxx.

Same in ICC by the time you got there you knew many of the bosses, knew their stories or heard about the horrors they committed or knew who their creator was.

Even in ToC, (which was a piss poor raid) all the fights had their stories or meaning.

Literally there is nothing like that now. Yeah Thunderking and bla bla, but 95% you are just facing off faceless meaningless hurdles that give you better purples you need to face the next meaningless hurdle.

P.S And how could I forget to mention the betrayal by the Forsaken at the Wrathgate.

The war between Horde and AA has been built up far better than WotLK. The nerubian didn't even get what they deserves story wise. Kel'thuzad who was one of the most important character in WC3 got ruined. He had next to no lore and was just there as a raid boss. Anub'arak was treated in the same way but worse. Not to mention a lot of Lich King threatening to kill us then leave. It ended the xpac with super lame "There must always be Lich King". There were also a lot of characters who were part of Scourge's lore in WC3 that didn't get developed that much. WotLK also didn't have patches that are designed to tell stories like MoP has.

[enchanted]

Anytime somebody makes a thread along the lines of "What expansion had the best X," WotLK will always win. It's a fact.

I remember during the end of Wrath when people started saying: "Wrath Sucks!" "It's the worst expansion ever!" "Cata will sure change the game".

OT; Wrath for sure. I just loved the snowy theme and the whole story in general. And my 2nd would be BC then Cata (although its 3rd due to not having that full destruction theme I mean sure some areas got ruined and things like that but the endgame places relate less to the theme like uldum and vashjir) and last MoP since I honestly hate the asian theme.

[Haytham]

Wrath of the Lich King by far.

[Deleted]

I remember during the end of Wrath when people started saying: "Wrath Sucks!" "It's the worst expansion ever!" "Cata will sure change the game".

Everyone favorite expansion is two expansions ago.

Back in WOTLK / Cata is was the cool thing to complain about wrath babies. Next expansion people will be saying Cata was good.

[Berri]

Wrath was by favourite theme to date. Snow, nordic legends, the Lich King (and lets not forget Ulduar!).

I think Cata was also pretty good, but it got old pretty fast.

[K i s u]

I'd have to toss that to wrath.

[Benomatic]

WotLK got the best theme but Blizzard did such a shitty job at its lore. MoP is miles better than WotLK in both story itself and storytelling despite having to go with much weaker theme. WotLK was such a waste of potential like Cata was.

How on earth can you say that? Seriously? How can you? Wotlk is by far the most compelling and well written story to date! The story had drive and purpose! It's been the most convincing and most indepth and involving experience so far!

[Deleted]

MoP failed visually because it was so literal and dense in it's translation to an Asian theme. I'm sure it's been said a lot, but it'd be like if the next expansion was USA 'themed' and all the food were fast foods and all the raids were based around base ball stadiums. .

I'd say MOP succeeded visually since it had a cohesive theme.

I detested the jarringly out of place sections of WOTLK and blizzard have said that the transition from zone to zone in Cata was problematic.

Limiting your colour pallet is pretty important a lot of the time, the same could be said for themes in things like expansions.

[Deleted]

Wrath for sure

[melodramocracy]

BC for me. Definitely the most imaginative expansion.

[RicardoZ]

Wrath hands down! I have gone ott collecting everything arthas now! even tracking a mint unused wotlk collectors edition off ebay as well as various arthas figures and merchandise

I still drink out of my Wrath of the Lich King AM/PM official commemorative cup all the time. I have the Illidan, Deathwing, and Kil'Jaedan ones too, but the Arthas one is the only one I actually use (I have another one that I don't actually drink out of that's just for my collection though )