WoW art style peaked with Wrath of the Lich King, or is it just nostalgia?

[Jastall]

I disagree. In terms of world design, Pandaria and the launch BFA zones look better, hell even Draenor really has its moments in Shadowmoon Valley, Nagrand, and Talador. I'm a particular fan of everything Zandalar, especially Dazar'alor itself, and Suramar is IMO the most beautiful WoW has ever looked, both the zone and especially the city.

Sure, Storm Peaks, Howling Fjord, Grizzly Hills and Icecrown Citadel look awesome. But Borean Tundra, Dragonblight, Zul'drak and Schozolar Basin are nothing to write home about.

[Kaleredar]

I actually agree with this. The Northrend we got isn't even remotely what I was expecting based off WC3 and I found it pretty disappointing. More than half the continent doesn't even have snow!

We got a barren snow zone, and it was called Dragonblight. It wasn’t very interesting.

Thankfully they innovated on “northern” zones and gave us a dynamic series of zones that weren’t just eight landscapes of barren snow.

[Dald]

You're high. WoW's art style is the only thing that has constantly gotten better and better.

[Delmorii]

Not sure I'm understanding the question right, but art-wise I feel like Blizz figured out their style in WoD. Northrend was good, don't get me wrong, but it was still following heavily with the style established in Vanilla, and that style is probably most... encapsulated in Cata. MoP was the bridge between the two styles, as it definitely still had old elements mixed with new ones, but WoD threw out all the old and presented a new, more polished style. And they've just been building on it ever since.

[Nnyco]

You may not like it but this is how peak art looks like.

[darklogrus]

I like the art style for the most part, I think most of the armor sets each expansion blow though.

[Jamie081]

I think MoP was the beginning of WoW's art style being high quality. They vastly improved upon Cataclysm's messy art style (more polygons but still reused many old assets from vanilla). The style was then greatly improved upon in WoD and imo they peaked in Legion.

Suramar has such a ridiculously high level of detail that even Boralus and Atal'Dazar haven't come close to. The high number of beautiful assets is insane. The cityscapes in BFA are gorgeous but Suramar also has the grand size combined with the finer and smaller details. You can get lost in the streets. Boralus and Atal'Dazar, although gorgeous, are very small. It's easy to pack them with detail when they're tiny. Let's also not forget the gorgeous skyboxes in all 3 Argus zones, and Antorus itself (they've even reused the Azeroth globe sky art in Ny'alotha). Maybe if they had more time to work on BFA like they did with Legion after dropping WoD half way through, then the BFA cities would've been even bigger and grander.

People keep saying that BFA set a new standard but imo the expansion seems to replicate the same level of quality that came with Legion. That is of course still a very high standard. I don't think it's a bad thing to say that the art quality has plateaud because they've reached a golden age in quality. They've pushed the engine to its limits and they continue to impress us.

They didn't even get 3D trenchcoats to work for the leather dungeon armour sets in BFA. Instead we just have 2D textures slapped on with a 3D collar... and people really said the armour sets this expansion are high quality lol. I think people are just in denial and would say that the armour set art is high quality to appear objective about the fact that Blizzard stopped doing class sets.

[Kokolums]

We got a barren snow zone, and it was called Dragonblight. It wasn’t very interesting.

Thankfully they innovated on “northern” zones and gave us a dynamic series of zones that weren’t just eight landscapes of barren snow.

I think that's the wrong approach. They should've gone all-in on snow landscapes for that xpac. Instead they went for variety because they are afraid of us getting bored, but what actually happens is EVERY xpac has variety, so NONE of it feels special. If all you eat is potpourri soup, potpourri soup is terrible. No-one is amazed by the snow covered mountains in Drustvar because EVERY xpac has the obligatory snow covered mountain. Its a yawn now.

[Selastan]

strongly disagree MoP+ art is infinitely better than Cata and earlier art. The only thing that I would argue for is music, BfA's is pretty meh, but Legion's was still fine, so we'll see.

Totally agree. I find that while style might be subjective, no one can argue that the actual skill and talent of the art team has only evolved. As for music, it has always been hit or miss. Blizzard NAILS atmospheric music, but when they want big sweeping battlefield scores they fall flat. Legion and BfA had mostly the latter, so it has been downhill lately. Just keep the music soft, little less brass and more strings, and keep it sparse.

[derpkitteh]

yes, it did.

cataclysm wasn't too bad, it still had some of the old feel. but mists is the start of the move towards the new.

the problem is that people always let blizz run away with stupid things being in the game "wow was always cartoony" "wow always had references", every time it was brought up that it was getting to be too much, a bunch of fucking idiots come along and say this, and now we're here. wow doesn't take itself seriously in anything anymore.

there's a different between a joke quest here and there vs. half your game being jokes. there's a different between cartoony styles and what those styles are trying to convey thematically. compare these two styles, which would you say is more mature and capable to telling a proper story?





because wow was the former, and it's moving closer to the later these days.

[LordVargK]

I think it's Weapon and Armor design peaked but almost everything else got progressively better. I don't like the new Weapon design cata introduced, every Weapon looks like it's made out of stone instead of metal. Older weapons are shiny, sharp and slim, like real swords or axes, newer ones don't look sharp at all, they have no light reflections whatsoever and they are blunt, look worn and more like clubs than sharp weapons.
I'm not a fan of newer Armor designs either, most of the newer designs look VERY similar to each other. But then again I don't expect unlimited different designs and newer Armor has much more details than old ones.
The best thing about WotLK's design was (outdoor) Icecrown citadel. It was just... massive, impressive, intimidating. Almost a shame that you could fly over the walls and avoid all the danger. WoW has never had a more fitting and iconic location for a boss than icc.

My favorite raids come from TBC. I did not even play TBC but I'm still impressed with the amount of details the major raids from this expansion had. Like you felt like you were in a castle in Karazhan, BT felt like a real Palace that people lived in. There were sleeping quarters, dining halls, recreation rooms. In TBC we murdered concubines, servants, cooks, soldiers... We went to "real" places. From WotLK onwards Raids were only places were bosses stand. Not live, just stand. And trash mobs are just.. there. They mostly serve no real purpose in the raids, except being trash mobs.

But everything else got better. Mount design, pet design. And zone design. Zones are just much more detailed than ever. Some even feel cramped. Sure, not every zone meets my personal taste, but I admit that newer zones are objectively better designed than older ones. Dungeons are kinda hit or miss. Some feel very "real", some are just some random mobs thrown together. But in general the newer ones are much more interesting art-wise than older ones.

In general art-style is a matter of taste. WotLK was a very nordic inspired expansion and many (including me) like that. But it would be unfair to call WotLK the pinnacle of art design, just because you like the theme the most. Newer expansions have objectively better made zones. Lore wise, NPC wise and everything else. You really can't claim WotLK had the best world building, with the "realest" inhabitants and such, when the valley of the four winds is in the game. This zone is all about it's inhabitants, their lives, the dangers they face, their meaning of the word "home". WotLK had nothing of that.