Top 3 & Worst 3 features of each expansion - 10 year anniversary soon

[Deleted]

What are your favorite features of all the expansions that you actively played? Which feature did you like the least?
I know there are a bunch of threads similar to this one, but I want to read your thoughts on the whole journey that WoW has been, at this point in time - the end of Mists of Pandaria with WoW's 10 year anniversary just around the corner.


Classic/Vanilla:
+ The release of WoW
+ PvP Titles being the only available titles. This gave a real feeling of war between the factions; everyone was by default addressed by their military title.
+ All the fansites were filled with lore, there was Allimania (german), I remember inwow.de, all the work that Stevinho has done. It was really involving, you would stay awake at night just to read more, play more, experience it more.
- Pidgeonholing classes into certain specs. I had to go from feral to resto or hybrid (0/30/21) for raiding.
- The way PvP rewards worked. 24/7 or gtfo
- ...


Burning Crusade:
+ Hard 5-man heroics
+ Nagrand. I just love the zone, can't even put my finger on what exactly it is that I like best about it.
+ The way feral worked. I know it will never come back, and it should never come back for the good of the game, but it was fun!
- Introduction of flying mounts.
- That's all I can think of right now. For serious raiders I could see the cascade of attunements being a problem, but I wasn't very much into pve at that point.
- nothing :>


WotLK:
+ Ulduar! All of it! The way hard modes were implemented. The artwork. The encounters. The guild I was in :>
+ Chainheal spam being the skill-cap for shaman xD Boy, that was beautiful!
+
- Shadowmourne + PvP... why...
-
-
I just realize how little I remember about WotLK. All I remember are my best raiding times after vanilla.


Cataclysm:
+ The idea of rated BGs
+ The rework of the old zones. Desolace is beautiful! So sad we rush through those amazing zones only to take ages to level through the dull 60+ zones.
+ ... well... *scratches head*
- The implementation of rated BGs and what they turned into. It's like all of the cheating scum of WoW gets sucked into rBG. Or it's just more obvious here how rotten some players are. Dunno. I'm still waiting for Blizzard's Iron Fist on this one. Actually I'm not, I've given up :/
- The whole leveling experience. With the zones scattered across the globe, damage to mob HP ratio being really off (played ele, if that matters) and boring zones there's just no redeeming qualities this time around. Worst expansion to level through by fucking miles.
- I took a break until MoP rather early. The negative list on this expansion could be expanded by multiple pages tbh.


MoP:
+ Challenge Modes!!! So much fun! So 5-man 'heroics' can finally be sacrificed to the keyboard turner gods, now that there is fun and hard 5-man content. Win-win for casuals and hardcore players. Plus it's easy to do in small steps, for people with limited game time. 10/10, would fanboy again.
+ Legendary Questline. Unless you were BFF with the raidleaders or a backstabbing P.O.S. chances are the legendaries so far were a non-factor for you (/me) - only there to ruin pvp. I love the MoP approach to legendaries!!
+ Setting. I love the artwork. I love the concept of the Four Celestials. I love the concept of Sha. Plus it can lead to hilarious irony in LFR. When you are fighting the Sha of Pride, and in the chat some keyboard heroes are fueling the fires of hatred xD
- The pvp gear gap is absurd at the moment. I just came back to the game and at this point I will not even bother trying to catch up. I turned towards pve for now, getting some CMs done, just now finished the legendary questline.
- nada
- nothing



Let me hear your thoughts!

[Pabzi]

No mention of Legendary Daggers in PVP during Cataclysm? (Didn't pvp in Cata, but i would assume they would be as bad as Shadowmourne + PVP)

[Val the Moofia Boss]

You can't really list vanilla's features as good or bad, as vanilla is what you compare every feature since then added in an expansion to.

BC:
+ Heroics
+ New continent
+ Continued theme of Vanilla
- Flying
- the grind
- bad writing (except for 2.4)

Wrath:
+ Massive, stuffed world
+ Excellent writing
+ Most memorable moments
- Too easy
- Mounted combat wasn't expanded upon; consigned exclusively to a single dungeon
- Lagaran wasn't optimized

Cata:
+ Truly epic story, revitalization of the Horde vs Alliance war
+ The raids (Including Dragon Soul)
+ 1-60 revamp
- 1-60 revamp could've been done better
- No new continent; zones scattered around everywhere
- Difficultly wasn't tuned correctly

Mists:
+ Continuation of the war story; expert writing
+ Vastly improved art style and graphical jump
+ Definitive fight mechanics and fun raids
- Pandas
- Pandas and their stupid ass heavenly animals
- Pandas and their crummy pacifistic agendas

[Shardik]

I'll second the Feral of BC, I loved being a hybrid. I off tanked some bosses, DPS'd others, through a few heals, gave people mana, and battle rezzed. I felt incredibly unique and important to the team. No room for that kind of play in WoW these days though, nor do I blame them for moving away from the model with lolret specs.

[Deleted]

BC:
+ Best and most polished progression system
+ Sensible division of 2 leveling continents and 1 high-level continent
+ Flying mounts

- Absolutely atrocious story
- Flying mounts only in Outland (with good reason, but still)
- Not much endgame content besides raids and dailies

Wrath:
+ Story was handled well. It was no masterpiece by any stretch, but it treated the lore best out of any expansion.
+ Wintergrasp was the shit!!
+ The atmosphere and look of Northrend was awesome!

- The progression system, that invalidated entire tiers after only a few months, was stupid (and remains stupid).
- Death knights were horribly overpowered, which threw off PvP.
- Heroics were just too goddamn easy and gave too good rewards (The 3.3 ones were decent, though).

Cata:
+ Old world revamp was awesome and much needed.
+ Flying in Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms!
+ Touched upon a lot of interesting lore subjects.

- Had a bad habit of mistreating said interesting lore subjects.
- 5-mans got nerfed because of Wrath babies, and because LFG made groups too disorganized.
- Quests everywhere became way WAY too linear - the sense of exploration was sucked right out of the game.

MoP:
+ New lore that is finally intriguing and doesn't mess too much with established lore.
+ More than ever to do at max level besides dailies, dungeons and raids.
+ Transmogging becomes widespread and many old raids are easily soloable for cool-looking gear (kind of an end-of-cata thing, but I didn't play at that time)

- Pandas are completely out of place, and fail to make a solidly positive impression.
- A veritable drought of 5-man content compared to previous expansions.
- The story felt forced and unnatural.

[Daffan]

MOP

+quick valor scens
+challenge modes

- Skipping raids and complaining about no content, srsly most ppl never did t14/t15 - if they never did it's new for them but they will never go because SoO is just better loot wise.
- alt unfriendly, not by raiding but by other stuff
- legendary cloak quest sucked

[leggomydairy]

wrath
+ LFG
+ Grizzly Hills
+ Storylines
- Borean Tundra
- the community and the term "wrath baby"
- Arthas was always threatening us but not doing anything

Cata
+ 1-60 revamp
+ transmog
+ LFR
- Storylines fell flat
- nothing to do
- the new Org layout

Mists
+ Pandaren and monks <333
+ lots of things to do
+ legendary quest line (lore in general tbh tho)
- community about all three things above
- PvP being all stuns
- large ass gear gaps